Concert pitch question (confused ex-tuba player)

[Kenneth Wolcott]

HI All;

  I have a couple downloaded examples of brass quartet arrangements
(theme excerpts mostly) forn 8notes.com, hosted by UK composer David
Bruce, where each part is apparently NOT in concert pitch, but the
parts are together, as they would be in a conductor's score.  The
music, engraved as written, sounds AWFUL.  I suspect that I need to
run transpose on each part to convert them to concert pitch, but I
don't know for sure if that's the case and if so, exactly how to do
that.  I have attached one example pdf to illustrate my question.

  I know, as an ex-tuba player (and a very low-level amatuer tuba
player), that tuba and trombone (bassoon?) don't require transposition
as they are already in concert pitch (I never played a tuba in the key
of C, F or Eb).  However most of the other wind instruments of an
orchestra are not in concert pitch.  So when there is a trumpet in Bb,
it certainly is not the same as a tuba in Bb, correct?  What about
Horn in F?  What happens when the overall pitch of the piece in
question is not C Major?

  I've taken some church hymns, written for SATB (obviously) and
converted them directly to a brass quartet (Soprano toTrumpet, Alto to
French Horn, tenor to Trombone, and Bass to Tuba) and it doesn't sound
bad, using the exact key the Hymn was written in.

  Could someone clue me in on the basics here (I've read the Lilypond
manuals on this topic, but I think I need a more rudimentary
explanation).

Thanks,
Ken Wolcott

Dvorak_Slavonic_Dance_No8_Op_46_for_Brass_Quartet.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document