A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tusch

TUSCH, probably a form of Touche, that is, Toccata, and that again related to Tuck, Tucket. The German term for a flourish or ensemble-piece for trumpets, on state or convivial occasions. Weber has left one of 4 bars long for 20 trumpets, given in Jähns's Verzeichniss, 47 a. [See Fanfare.]

In Germany the term is also used for a thing unknown in this country, namely, for the sort of impromptu, spontaneous, acclamations of the wind instruments in the orchestra after some very great or successful performance. After the audience and the players have gone on for some time with ordinary applause, cries of 'Tusch, Tusch,' are gradually heard through the hall, and then the Trumpets, Horns, and Trombones begin a wild kind of greeting as if they could not help it, and were doing it independent of the players. To an Englishman on a special occasion, such as the Beethovenfest or Schumannfest at Bonn in 1870 and 1873, it is a very new and interesting experience.

[ G. ]