I believe the first E-flat alto horn I ever saw was as a freshman in high school in 1975, at the University of Kansas band day. The sound is a bit bright but very tolerable. On it in the photo is a Dennis Wick 5 and actually this instrument plays better than you would think it should with this mouthpiece. On the negative side, your forward vision is somewhat blocked and it was built to use an alto/tenor horn mouthpiece sized between that of a trumpet and a trombone mouthpiece with a bigger inner diameter than a standard horn mouthpiece. The weight is close to the body and the hand positions required are pretty comfortable. I can easily imagine holding this horn for hours and hours with no real problems at all, being built on the same pattern as an American, bell front baritone or euphonium. Another big plus is the ergonomics of this instrument. This particular one being in F is a good thing on it you can read F horn music with ease (I believe it was shipped out with an E-flat slide also). Back in the day (roughly the 1940s to the 70s) most of these were made in E-flat and it was one of the more popular substitutes for the horn in marching band. I was recently able to borrow this example of one produced fairly late in the game, by Olds. The Altonium as a middle brass instrument had/has several advantages. Depending on your age and background the Altonium could be seen as odd, rare, cool, cute, or as an old friend from back in the day.
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