We have had the chance to play on the Yamaha Maestro YAH-602SUK (Silver Plate) and the Besson Sovereign BE950 – thanks to our friends at Normans Musical Instruments.Įach category can score up to a maximum of 25 points to give an overall score out of 100. Today though, manufacturers and composers have finally realised the potential of the instrument, whilst there is a whole plethora of outstanding performers who can stand with pride against the star performers on other more readily accessible solo instruments.ĤBR therefore took the opportunity to have a look at the two current best selling tenor horns on the market and cast a eye over them to find out which one we felt was the best. Prior to this, the tenor horn had been one of the ‘forgotten' instruments of the banding world – seen as a rather effeminate, lightweight voice, of use only as a ‘filler' between the shrill brilliance of the cornets and the mellow depth of the euphonium section. Its technical development has certainly not been on a par with say the euphonium or even baritone, whilst it is only in the past twenty years or so that composers have awoken to the real potential of the instrument as a true solo voice.

Distin had cornered the market in Britain in those early years, and by the time the Mossley Temperance Band had won the British Open with a brand new set of saxhorns in 1853, the trend had become the norm, and the alto or tenor horn had secured its place as a peculiarly British brass band instrument.įrom that time on however it has suffered in comparison to the other traditional principal instruments. That it became an integral part of the emerging brass band stems from the manufacture of saxhorns by the Belgian, Adolphe Sax, and his association in particular with the British instrument making Distin family, after they had met in Paris in 1844.

Of all the instruments in the brass band, the tenor horn is perhaps the one that has undergone the least amount of change since it first arrived on our shores around 150 years ago. Visit the Normans Musical Instruments website.4BR looks at the two leading tenor horns on the market - the Besson Sovereign and the Yamaha Maestro to see which one comes out on top.ĤBR looks at the two market leading tenor horns and gives them a thorough going over to see which one we think really cuts the mustard.īoth instruments were lent to us by Normans Musical Instruments, where both can be purchased.

Besson serial numbers besson 2 20