Thread on how Hibike! Euphonium characters are reflected in their respective instruments

As Hibike! Euphonium left such a good impression on me, l went on to find a bit more about the orchestra and the instruments and I noticed some symbolism along the way.
Enjoy the read!

I couldn't start with any other than the Euphonum itself! The first thing that I got to notice with Euphonium is how hard it actually was to find any information (that goes beyond the Wikipedia) about it and similar could be said for the two main Eupho players.

Both Kumiko and Asuka were really mysterious, if you look a little bit closer. One was really ecstatic and the other was kinda serene, but behind those facades were unspoken problems, waiting to be reached by the sound of someone similar, who can well and truly understand.

That might be a reason why Asuka called Kumiko instead of anyone else, when the problem got out of Asuka's own hands. The information that I COULD find about the Eupho actually did very well in reflecting our Eupho players.

Euphonium has a bassy tone, but isn't the bass itself. It can make some really bright sounds, but it isn't trumpet. Eupho is in the middle of it all. The instrument which can play various segments and more importantly, the one who can get in combination with almost anyone.

It can harmonize, play rhythm beneath others, play a melody on top of the others and that is the very characteristic that both Kumiko and Asuka have. They have their own clique of friends, but are good with everyone and it can be said that everyone loves them (especially Asuka).

Onto the next one, we have the Trumpet. It was really easy to see why Reina was the one who got hold of this instrument. It's the one that sounds the brightest, the sharpest, the special instrument, which can hardly be mistaken for any other, the SOLO instrument.

This fits perfectly well with the character that Kousaka Reina is, someone truly special, quick tempered, more aggressive and the one who cannot be mistaken for anyone else, the one who was leading Kumiko along the way, like the trumpet that leads the ensemble to the gold.

Next stop, we have the Contrabass and the Tuba. They could be grouped as one in this case, as they resemble the backbone of the ensemble, just as Midori and Hazuki are for Kumiko's little gang. Hazuki even said it at once, the Tuba is the one who gives the back wind to others!

While it is true that Kumiko is basically the heart of that group, it is fairly obvious that the ones who always make the initiative when doing random stuff are always those two, Midori and Hazuki!

Moving on, we have Oboe and Flute, who even got their own movie, which goes in hand with how complex they actually are. It is agreed between the woodwind players that the Oboe is one of the hardest woodwind instruments to play and that is perfectly portrayed in Yoroizuka Mizore.

She was so hard to figure out that only person who could actually reach that closed heart of hers and was none other than Nozomi. Nozomi plays the flute, which is like the most versatile woodwind instrument of them all (like the Euphonium of the woodwind section).

Nozomi always found it so easy to immerse into a random clique of people (a rather "versatile" person), which was almost the polar oposite of Mizore. But in the end, it was her who could unlock the potential that the complex oboe was hiding deep inside!

Speaking of contrast and opposite stuff, I will finish the thread with some bit about our Trombone player, Shuuichi. Trombone has a lower tone in comparison to Euphonium, but they are quite similar in role. Because they are not the lowest, but not the highest either (tonally),..

they are used to fill the gap between those ends of the spectrum, to enrich the sound. They could be thought of as the male and the female variants of the same instrument (Eupho and Trombone, respectively). But, trombone is more used as a rhythm section of the ensemble, while...

Euphonium tends to play the counter rhythm, which sits just fine with how the Kumiko/Shuuichi dynamic works.

And that would be it :) When Hazuki mentioned how Tuba resembles the back wind of the ensemble, I got this idea, and it turned out pretty well, if I may say :)