Brass

Traditionally, brass (or brasswind) instruments are made of brass, but this category is not restricted by material. Rather, brass instruments are aerophones in which the sound is produced by air set into motion by the vibration of the player's lips. For this reason, they are also known as labrosones, or lip-reed instruments. The player blows air into the tube while vibrating the lips, which function as a reed. The player can blow directly into a mouth-hole or through a mouthpiece device. Brass instruments can be further categorized as natural, valved, keyed, or slide instruments. The National Music Museum’s collection is particularly strong in European and American traditions, made between the 17th and 21st centuries, including but not limited to familiar orchestral and band instruments, like trumpets, bugles, horns, trombones, and tubas, as well as their historic predecessors, like saxhorns, serpents, and ophicleides.