Where there's muck there's

Music Brass Day at the BBC Proms, including this afternoon's marathon Prom 20 (already), three and a half hours of trumpets, tubas, cornets and oh karnays. Played as part of a selection of Uzbek music, the karnay is (according to the Proms website) "a long ceremonial brass trumpet" [image] which is treated as something sacred:

"For instance, before touching it for the very first time, a player should dress in new clothes, symbolic of starting a new journey or developing a new relationship. The instrument should be cleaned every day to maintain a shiny appearance. The karnay should never be stepped over, or put under a table, or bed, but instead kept upright, and it should be held carefully, as if it were a baby. The mouthpiece shouldn’t be placed on the ground. And when it’s played, the bell of the karnay should point east, to Mecca, from whence Judgement Day is supposed to be announced. By pointing the bell to the sky, it’s symbolic of communicating one-to-one with God, and then with people."

I'm not sure how it was being played in the hall but the sound of various instruments shifted from headphone to headphone creating one of the most three dimensional sounds I've heard at any prom. To these ears it sounded something like a trumpet except with a different range. Oh and heavenly.