essay-1 THE HISTORY OF THE ORCHESTRAL f TRUMPET of THE nineteeNTH CENTURY

By Dr. Richard Birkemeier

CHAPTER 1.  LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (1760-1799)

Improvements in Trumpet Design

            The importance of trumpets in orchestras in Europe was at a low ebb at the end of the eighteenth century.  Johann Altenburg commented on the state of trumpet playing in his treatise Trumpeter’s and Kettledrummer’s Art in 1796, stating that “Clarin” trumpet playing was almost completely lost and those players who still practiced the art were largely ignored by the composers of their day.[1] 

            Though orchestral demands on the trumpet were in decline, the instrument itself was beginning a renaissance in design.  Trumpet design changes of the late eighteenth century produced such marvels as the inventions trumpet, the stopped trumpet, the keyed trumpet, the slide trumpet, and primitive precursors of the valved trumpet.  These new designs were useful and often ingenious attempts at increasing the versatility, and therefore the desirability of the classical period trumpet.

            The standard orchestral trumpet of the late eighteenth century was the natural military trumpet, most frequently pitched in E-flat or F.[2]  This instrument was of course, restricted to playing in only one or two keys at a time.  Attempting to correct this limited tessitura, players and makers began exploring ways to improve the design of the instrument to make it less dependent on one harmonic series.

            Improvements in French horn design and playing technique led to many similar developments in the late eighteenth century trumpet.  In Dresden in 1753, the hornist Anton Joseph Hampel, invented a quick way of changing crooks on the instrument.  Rather than inserting the circular tubing of the crook into the mouthpiece receiver as was commonly done, Hampel built a new sliding mechanism into the body of the instrument.  Specially-constructed slides were inserted into this mechanism, which not only changed the overall pitch of the instrument, but also allowed the player to make subtle adjustments in tuning.  Hampel called this instrument the Inventionshorner.[3] 

            Francois Georges Auguste Dauvernè (1800-1874), the first trumpeter in the Paris opera and later, professor of trumpet at the Conservatory, wrote in his famous Methode pour la Trompette (1857), that this design was adapted to the trumpet in Germany and introduced in France by the Braun brothers around 1770.[4]  Altenburg called this development an “Italian trumpet,” noting that it was constructed with “more frequent coils,” making it easier to hold,[5] but most sources labeled this instrument an inventions-trumpet after Hampel’s example. (See Figure 1)

            At about this time, it was also determined that the pitch of a horn could be changed by inserting the hand in the bell.  This discovery, called “stopping,” was quickly applied to the trumpet,[6] though Smithers believes hand stopping was employed by trumpeters at a much earlier date.[7]  Few writers had much positive to say about the quality of the stopped tone, but this technique seems to have become popular with trumpeters for playing notes not included in the harmonic series and continued to be employed well into the nineteenth century.  Stop technique was in such wide use at the end of the eighteenth century that both French and German instrument makers built trumpets in a curved configuration to make the bell easier to reach for hand stopping.  This instrument was called the trompette demi-lune, presumably due to its roughly half-moon shape,[8] and one such instrument may be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. (See Figure 2)

            The search for a more versatile trumpet led a few clever players to drill a hole in the bore of the trumpet.  Uncovering the hole allowed the performer to play notes outside of the harmonic series.  Altenburg described a trumpet owned by Schwanitz, a court trumpeter in Weimar, that exhibited such a hole covered by a sliding tube made of leather.[9]  Mahillion mentions that Kolbel, a Bohemian musician in the Imperial Orchestra of Russia, added a similar key to his trumpet in 1760.[10] 

            Anton Weidinger, the famous Viennese court trumpeter and friend of Haydn, is credited with inventing the first truly successful, so-called keyed trumpet around 1790.  (See Figure 3) Weidinger drilled five holes in an E-flat natural trumpet and covered them with spring-loaded keys. [11]  Weidinger’s instrument demonstrated conclusively that keyed brass instruments could be built successfully and became the prototype for the numerous designs that were to follow.

            Another attempt at increasing the notes available to the natural trumpet involved the application of a movable slide.  Though similar systems were used extensively during the Renaissance, slides were not really popular on trumpets again until the eighteenth century.  Sibyl Marcuse identified specimens of late eighteenth century slide trumpets located in the Kings Library in France.  These instruments are pitched in G with crooks for F, E, E-flat, D, C, and low B-flat and date from around 1790.[12]  Though slide trumpets were found all over Europe, their use seems to have been rather limited until late in the eighteenth century when John Hyde popularized them in England.[13] (See figure 4)

            The most significant development in late eighteenth century trumpet design was the invention of a valve system by Charles Clagget in England in 1788.  Clagget built a so-called “chromatic trumpet” by joining two natural trumpets pitched a half step apart.  The two instruments shared one mouthpiece and a valve in the lead pipe that allowed the player to switch instantly from one trumpet, and its set of harmonics, to the other.[14]  This instrument was not a great success but the valve became the most important innovation in trumpet design and ultimately led to the modern trumpet as we know it today.

The Orchestral Use of Trumpets

            Developments in trumpet technology during the late eighteenth century were important to the nineteenth century trumpet but had little effect on the composers of the classical period.  Haydn and Mozart wrote exclusively for the natural trumpet and never exceeded the notes of the overtone series.  Haydn’s orchestra at Esterhazy from 1760-85 only occasionally employed the two trumpets that became standard in the mature classical orchestra, as exemplified by his so-called “London Symphonies.”[15] 

Despite his father’s wonderful trumpet concerto, composed in the Baroque high “clarin” register,  Wolfgang Mozart’s feelings toward the trumpets of his day may be revealed in the following entry in the diary of Aurelius Augustinus, the Prior of Sternberg, Brno, dated December 30th, 1767: “In the evening, persuaded by his Excellency the Governor, I attended a musical concert in the city known as the ‘Taverna,’ at which a Salzburg boy of eleven years and his sister of fifteen years, accompanied on various instruments by inhabitants of Brun, excited everyone’s admiration; but (young Mozart) could not endure the trumpets, because they were incapable of playing completely in tune with one another.”[16] 

            Both Haydn and Mozart wrote trumpet parts which rarely exceeded the tenth partial, were in octaves whenever possible, and were traditionally orchestrated with the tympani.  The limited number of notes available on the trumpet restricted composers to using the trumpet in, at most, two keys without changing crooks, and crook changes were never required of the trumpeters during any symphony of this time.  Trumpet parts from this period are still quite challenging to play because of the intonation pitfalls posed by the almost constant unison, fifth, and octave intervals.  If trumpeters were as consistently inept as the two Mozart heard, there is little doubt that composers were not yet ready to exploit the newest innovations in trumpet design.

CHAPTER 2.  EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY (1800-1839) 

Innovations in Trumpet Design

            Despite the addition of keys, slides, and valves, the natural trumpet most commonly found in the military still dominated early nineteenth century European orchestras.  The inventions-trumpet was the first trumpet that was specifically designed for orchestral use,[17] and Hogarth (1838) reported that these instruments only completely replaced the military trumpets around 1830.[18] 

            Contemporary writers such as Dauvernè in France, Hogarth in England, Albrechtsberger in Austria, and Bagans and Reissiger in Germany all describe long E-flat and F pitched inventions-trumpets as being those most commonly employed in the orchestra.  These instruments were frequently crooked down to the keys of E, D, C and B-flat, but F, E-flat, and D are reported to be the most common keys used.  The overwhelming preference for the inventions-trumpet was not however, able to stifle the development of the chromatic trumpet.

            The early nineteenth century was a period of great innovation and experimentation as performers and military band instrument makers attempted to expand the capabilities of the natural trumpet.  One of the most successful of the early inventions was the keyed trumpet.  The important German music periodical of the era, Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, mentions the invention of the keyed trumpet by Anton Weidinger in 1802, announcing that the new instrument could play a two-octave scale in half steps with a notable evenness of tone from note to note.[19]  Of course, all trumpeters today are aware that Weidinger actually built the instrument years earlier and Haydn composed his famous concerto for it.  Johann Georg Albrechtsberger stated in his Methods of Harmony…, first published in 1790, that: “Since the (original) composition of this treatise, many instruments have received considerable improvements.  Such, for example, is the trumpet, which by the addition of several keys, is become capable of playing in various scales and of performing a multitude of passages which it could not undertake previously.  This new facility acquired by that instrument has given birth to a new kind of music wherein it fills up the higher parts, whilst the horn and trombone fill up the grave and middle parts.”[20]

Karl Bagans, an important court trumpeter in Prussia in the early nineteenth century, observed that keyed trumpets were not often found in orchestras, [21] but Dauvernè indicated that composers in Germany and Italy did employ them on occasion. Keyed trumpets in the lower pitches of E-flat, E, and F were few in number judging from published accounts and extant museum specimens. Keys were applied to higher-pitched military band instruments, such as bugles in high B-flat and E-flat, with greater success. Dauvernè offers 1810 as the earliest date of keyed bugle manufacture in England and 1815 in France. Keyed bugles were used by military bands, including those of the infantry and the cavalry, and completely dominated the brass bands of Europe and the United States before the invention of valves. [22] (See Figure 5)

            Resistance to the orchestral use of keyed trumpets and bugles grew during the third decade of the nineteenth century.  In an article in Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in 1837, C. G. Reissiger attempted to convince conductors to reject these instruments in their orchestras and return to the natural trumpet.  His criticism was based on a perceived inferior tone quality of the newer instruments.[23]  Albrechtsberger also commented on the poor tone quality of the keyed trumpet, stating that the instrument “…No longer possesses the clear and powerful tone…” associated with the natural trumpet.[24]  Dauvernè described the tone as “nasal” in sound and also rejected its use in the orchestra.  By 1840 keyed trumpets had all but disappeared from orchestras in France and Germany, though they continued to be popular in Italy through the middle of the century.[25]

            Another successful innovation in trumpet performance technique frequently employed in military bands and some orchestras during the early nineteenth century was the use of hand-stopping.  Bagans mentioned its use in Germany and stated that when properly employed, the stopped trumpet could be played in eight different keys without changing crooks.[26]  Stopped trumpets were usually pitched in F or G and, like the inventions-trumpets, were often crooked down to E, E-flat, D and C.

            Stopped technique was employed much more frequently during the early nineteenth century than has been previously thought.  Cynthia Hoover documents its use by two famous European trumpeters, John Thompson Norton (see figure 6) of England and Allessandro Gambati of Italy, for a famous trumpet contest held at Niblo’s Pleasure Garden in New York City in 1834.[27]  Dauvernè related that stopped trumpets were used in French opera orchestras as late as 1826, but were eventually replaced by the straight trumpet, which possessed a more agreeable sound.[28]   Bagans included a chart of hand positions for the stopped trumpet in his article of 1829.[29]

            The most successful innovation in trumpet design before the invention of valves was the perfection of the slide trumpet.  Slide trumpets were usually F and G natural trumpets, altered by the addition of a one- or one-and-a-half-step movable slide and usually equipped with a return spring.  (See Figures 4 and 6)  Slide trumpets were in general use in both England and France by 1800 and are reported to have been able to play in eight keys rather than the two keys most common to the natural trumpet. The slide trumpet, crooked down to C, could play effectively in the keys of G, F, B-flat, E, C minor, E minor, G minor, and A minor.[30]  English and French trumpeters quickly adopted the slide trumpet because it sounded like the natural trumpet but was considerably more versatile.  The English trumpeter John Harper, considered by many to have been the finest trumpeter in Europe during the early and middle nineteenth century, established his reputation on this instrument.  The slide trumpet became so popular in English orchestras that its almost exclusive use continued without interruption through mid-century.

The slide trumpet was also highly regarded in France during this period. The French felt that the natural trumpet was clearly superior in sound to the chromatic trumpets, but the gaps in its range caused problems in the newest music. Dauvernè sought to overcome this defect by improving the English design of the slide trumpet. He added an additional half step to the length of the slide and placed it at the front of the trumpet, similar to the configuration of the trombone. (See Figure 8) The longer slide afforded the French slide trumpet a complete chromatic scale from low D to high c’’’, whereas the English trumpet was incapable of playing a complete chromatic scale in any octave.  (See Figure 7)  Dauvernè strongly recommended the use of the slide trumpet for music requiring notes not playable on the natural trumpet and had very little positive to add concerning the available alternatives.[31]

The Invention of Valves

The most successful innovation in trumpet design during the nineteenth century was the application of valves.  The impetus for expanding the effective playing range of the chromatic trumpet into the middle and lower registers seems to have come primarily from the military bands.  The use of keys and stopped techniques were important breakthroughs in design, but instrument builders quickly realized that a fully chromatic trumpet that was easy to keep in adjustment and able to stand up to the rigors of outdoor playing would be very much in demand, and serious experiments in valve design began very early in the nineteenth century.

            The first valved trumpet of the nineteenth century was reportedly built by Anton and Ignaz Kerner in Vienna in 1806, apparently independent of the earlier invention by Clagget in England.   The instrument had two valves and was pitched in high A-flat.[32]  But both of these inventions disappeared quickly.

The earliest published account for a new valve design for brass instruments appeared in Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in 1817.  The article by Friedrich Schneider, described a new valve mechanism by Heinrich Stölzel which was applied to a horn.[33]  The author was so impressed with the resulting sound of the horn that he suggested each orchestra have a pair of such instruments.  He also mentioned that trumpets and trombones should be so equipped.[34]  The above-mentioned Heinrich Stölzel, a hornist from Pless in Upper Silecia, and Friedrich Blühmel, often referred to as a Berliner, were granted a patent for this valve design in 1818.  Stölzel later attempted to improve the valve by changing the shape of the piston into a rough cube and enclosing it in a metal box.  This experiment, called the box valve, was found on a few instruments by W. Schuster of Karlsruhe.  One such specimen is located in the Musikinstrumentenmuseum in Berlin, a B-flat trumpet built in 1825.[35] 

            A different valve mechanism was developed in Leipzig c. 1820 by Friedrich Sattler.[36]  In an article in Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in 1821,  E. F. F. Chladni described a two-valved trumpet by Sattler which featured his new valves.  The article includes a picture of the two-valve Sattler trumpet.  Chladni related that the tone and loudness of this trumpet was “…entirely natural.”[37]  It turns out that Sattler didn’t act alone as the “inventor” of this important new valve design, Edward Tarr has recently discovered that Josef Kail (1795-1871), a horn player and later, professor of trumpet at the Prague Conservatory, contributed important contributions in 1823.[38] Sattler and Kail called this valve a doppelrohrventil, or double-tube-piston valve. The design featured two sliding tubes for each valve rather than a true piston as employed by Stölzel and Blühmel. Though the Sattler instrument described by Chladni only had two valves, Dr. Herbert Heyde states that Sattler and Kail adopted a three-valve configuration later,[39] around 1830. (See Figure 9)

            During the third decade of the nineteenth century, Heinrich Stölzel, while working with the Berlin instrument makers Griessling and Schlott, abandoned the box valve and returned his attention to his original piston design.  George Kastner reported in his Manuel general de musique militaire that in 1826, Gasparo Spontini, the former director of the Paris opera and chief kapellmeister to the King of Prussia in Berlin, sent a number of two- and three-valved brass instruments, including some trumpets, to Paris. (See Figures 8 & 10) These instruments included some with Stölzel-designed valves.[40] Dauvernè and his Uncle David Buhl were the first French trumpeters to test these Prussian valved trumpets and found their tone and mechanical design to be unsatisfactory. French instrument makers made improvements in the valves which satisfied Dauvernè, and he played one of the new valved trumpets for the first time in the orchestra for Chlard’s McBeth at the Royal Academy of Music in 1827.[41] The valve was, from that point, called the “Stölzel valve” in honor of its co-inventor and was immediately applied to the military posthorn, also know as the petit cornet.[42] German instrument makers however, disregarded Stölzel’s valves and adapted Sattler’s double-piston valve and a new type of valve invented by Stölzel’s old colleague, Friedrich Blühmel.

            In 1828, Blühmel sought to patent a new valve mechanism which, instead of using a piston that went up and down, employed a “piston” that rotated back and forth.  Blühmel called his invention a Drehbuchsenventile or conical turning-canister valve.[43]  Blühmel’s “rotary valve” was improved and applied to trumpets in Vienna, Budapest, and Prague by 1829.[44]

            The perfection of most of the aforementioned valve designs occurred during the fourth decade of the century.  In 1830, Leopold Uhlmann of Vienna altered Sattler and Kail’s double-piston valve design with the addition of an improved spring-loaded slide return mechanism and this valve mechanism became known as the “Vienna valve.”[45]   And this design has changed little as is seen in the horns used in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra which still use Vienna valves to this day.

Various designs of rotary valves were studied by Joseph Riedl in Vienna and an improved form of the rotary valve was patented by him in 1832.[46] Tarr states that the rotary valve was also improved by Josef Kail, the afore-mentioned first professor of valved trumpet at the Prague Conservatory and Riedl and Kail patented their improvements in 1835.[47] (See Figure 11) It is also of interest that Kail’s tutor for the valved F trumpet and flugelhorn is the first known pedagogical text for these instruments.[48]

            In 1833, the famous Prussian military band leader, Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872), collaborated with the Berlin brass maker Moritz in the invention of a Stölzel piston valve with the “improved tone” of the rotary valve.  The Stukerbuchsenventile or pin capsule valve was the result.  This valve, more commonly referred to as the Berlinerpumpenventil or “Berlin piston” valve, was patented in 1835 and became very popular with military band instrument makers,[49] especially Adolph Sax of Paris.  Tarr adds that Heinrich Stölzel himself, developed a version of this valve, independent of Wieprecht.[50] (See Figure 12)

            The final improvements of the piston valve were completed in France in 1839 by the famous Paris instrument maker Étienne F. Périnet.  Périnet modified the flow pattern of the Stölzel valve by eliminating the air channel that passed through the bottom of the valve and this improved design is the one still in use on all piston-valved instruments to this day.

            It should be noted that during the 1830s, a third valve became commonly employed on all brass instruments.  Prior to the addition of the third valve, the first valve frequently lowered the pitch a half step and the second lowered it a whole step.  The new third valve usually lowered the pitch a step and a half.  The modern configuration, which reversed the early positioning of the first and second valves, resulted from the necessity of placing the short half-step valve slide between the two longer valve slides.  Fétis mentioned that the third valve was added to brass instruments to complete the chromatic scale and improve intonation. “The G-sharp or A-flat is wanting in the two octaves of this (instrument’s) scale.  These notes cannot be obtained without a third valve.”[51]  More information on early valve configurations is available in Joe Utley and Sabine Klaus’s excellent article in The Historic Brass Society Journal: “The “Catholic” Fingering—First Valve Semitone: Reversed Valve Order in Brass Instruments and Related Valve Constructions.” [52]

Cornet a Piston

            Stölzel valved brass instruments were built in France and England with great success early in the nineteenth century and the most successful of them was the cornet-a-piston.  This instrument was first created when Labbaye and Halary applied the valve to the French military instrument called the petit cornet or post horn.  The petit cornet was a valveless, bugle-like instrument, conical in bore and usually pitched in high B-flat. It represented the soprano brass instrument in the French military band.  The new cornet-a-piston was, therefore, also largely conical in bore and higher pitched than the natural trumpet.  It was usually built in high B-flat or A and could be crooked into lower pitches.  The French cornet-a-piston was copied in England by the London makers Pask, Pace, Key, and Grayson.  They called their Stölzel valved cornets “cornopeans,” and the characteristic circular design of the instrument was copied by makers on the continent. (See Figure 13)

            It is not surprising that cornet-a-pistons and cornopeans were often confused with trumpets.  Valved instrument design changed so rapidly during this time that valved trumpets and valved cornets were often only distinguishable by pitch and the size and shape of the mouthpiece.  Trumpets were usually pitched in the traditional lower keys of F or E-flat and cornets in high B-flat or A.  Cornet mouthpieces had deeper cups and smaller shanks, while trumpet mouthpieces had shallower cups and larger shanks. (See figure 14)

            There is however, evidence that trumpets (i.e. instruments that were designed to use the larger shanked trumpet mouthpiece) were also being built in high B-flat pitch as early as the third decade of the nineteenth century.  Wieprecht is reported to have replaced the stopped trumpets in his Prussian cavalry bands with valve trumpets in high B-flat as early as 1829.   And Utley and Klaus have identified museum specimens of high B-flat valved trumpets from Munich that date as early as 1828.[53]  Finally, Reissiger was using the term octavtrompetino to refer to high-pitched “trumpets” in his article of 1837.[54]          

Cornet-a-pistons designed to look like trumpets were also common in the later nineteenth century as more cornet players were working in orchestras.  The English term was “trumpetina,” coined by Walter Morrow and others to describe just such a deception.[55] The confusion between trumpets and cornets may have been heightened by deliberate attempts by certain makers to build trumpets in the shape of cornets.  An instrument in the Streitwieser Collection is one example. (See Figure 15) This specimen was built by Charles Pace of London in the configuration of a cornopean and was originally described to Franz Streitwieser as such. Careful examination however revealed it to be an F trumpet rather than a cornet-a-piston. The low pitch of the trumpet and the size of the mouthpiece receiver were ultimately the determining factors in its corrected identification. Why Pace elected to build the trumpet in a cornopean shape is open to speculation, but the confusion of identification is easy to understand. Another high-pitched trumpet shaped like a cornet is found in the instrument collection of the Americus Brass Band in Long Beach, CA. This American-built high B-flat trumpet, manufactured by M. Slater in New York City and thought to be a Civil War era cornet, has a lead pipe that will only take a trumpet mouthpiece. One can only conclude that it is in fact, a “trumpetina.” (See figure 16)

Orchestral Use of Trumpets

For all of the improvements in trumpet design during the early nineteenth century, resistance to the stopped, keyed, and valved trumpets in orchestras seems to have been strong. The recurring criticism involved the tone quality of these new instruments. It was the opinion of C. G. Reissiger that the new keyed and valved instruments simply did not sound as good as their valveless predecessors, and he strongly advised conductors and composers to ignore this new trend. Reissiger facetiously predicted that, because many musicians recognized no differences between the valved and natural trumpets, one day “octave trumpets would replace the softer high woodwinds in the loud music.”[56] Orchestral composers, in fact, made little use of the expanded range of the chromatic trumpet until 1827. All of Beethoven’s and Schubert’s trumpet parts employ only the notes of the harmonic series. Neither composer wrote higher than the twelfth partial, and Beethoven avoided that harmonic if the instrument was crooked higher than D. The only exception to this rule is in the Pastoral Symphony fourth movement. (See figure 17)

            French opera composers were among the earliest to exploit the valved trumpet and cornet-a-piston.[57]  The French Grand Opera of the early nineteenth century was characterized by spectacle and excitement and the new valved instruments were an important addition to the orchestra.  One of the first orchestral parts for valved trumpet was written in Paris in 1827 by Hippolyte Chelard for his opera McBeth, and Dauvernè played the part.[58]  Alfred Guichon reported in his article, “La Trompette,” in Chronique Musicale that during the tenure of Maestro Cherubini the valved trumpet became commonly employed in the Paris opera.[59]  Two other leading composers of grand opera, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Fromental Halévy, wrote for the cornet-a-piston.  Meyerbeer’s La Prophete and Les Hugenots and Halévy’s La Juive all highlight parts for the new instrument.

            F. G. A. Dauvernè was appointed the first professor of trumpet (natural trumpet) at the Paris Conservatory in 1833 and became one of the most influential trumpeters of the first half of the nineteenth century in France.  Dauvernè was also one of the first orchestral trumpeters to employ the valved trumpet in the orchestra, however he never developed a taste for the valved instrument and later wrote in opposition to its use.  In his Methode… (1857) he stated his preference for the natural trumpet whenever possible and the slide trumpet when necessary to reach notes not available on the natural instrument.[60]  The fact that Dauvernè alone presided over the conservatory class for two decades insured that the valved trumpet would not gain acceptance in France for orchestral work for many years.  Symphonic composers in France were therefore, left with the natural trumpet and the cornet-a-piston with which to work.

            The first composer to write for the cornet-a-piston in a symphonic composition was of course, Hector Berlioz.  Berlioz dramatically increased the importance of the cornet-trumpet section in the orchestra by improving both the quantity and quality of music they were assigned. Berlioz settled on the combination of two valved cornets with two natural trumpets in his orchestration and this is first evident in Symphonie Fantastique, op. 16.  And Berlioz’s treatment of the cornets and trumpets influenced French and Russian composers for many years.   The versatility of the valved cornet permitted Berlioz to write extended melodies for the instrument for the first time and the high pitch of the instrument allowed him to exploit the upper register as well. Berlioz’s melodic style as associated with the cornet is perhaps best seen in the “Ball” and “March to the Scaffold” movements from the Symphonie Fantastique and the idée fixe solos in Harold en Italie. (See Figure 18) In the Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz limited the range of the natural trumpets to written e" except for two high g"s in the IV movement. By employing four soprano brass instruments instead of two, Berlioz was able to construct complete chords at important cadential points: the natural trumpets playing octave tonics and the valved cornets filling in the third and fifth of the chord. (See Figure 18) Berlioz employed the same combination of cornets and natural trumpets in Harold en Italie. In Harold, the cornet parts tend to be extremely florid and melodic and the trumpets relegated to more of an accompanying role. The upper range of the natural trumpets was again limited to written e".

            Hector Berlioz was ahead of his time in using valved instruments in symphonic compositions.  Felix Mendelssohn’s early symphonic works, Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 21 (1826), the Hebrides Overture, op. 26 (1830), and the Italian Symphony (1833) were all written for pairs of natural trumpets and never exceed the scope of that instrument.  Mendelssohn limited the range of his trumpets to e", except for a few g"s in the Hebrides Overture.

            In summary, it may be noted that the evolution of the trumpet branched in two directions during the early nineteenth century.  The mainstream evolutionary path retained the low pitch of the baroque and classical period trumpets.  The new offshoot chose the higher pitch of the French military band cornet.  Both branches experimented with keys and valves but, at least in France and England, players of the trumpet showed considerably less enthusiasm for these new innovations than those who played the cornet.

            Trumpet performers and most composers felt that the noble and heroic sound characteristic of the trumpet was compromised by the addition of keys and valves and especially by the shortening of the tube.  Band musicians and the public at large, however, seemed less concerned about the traditional sound ideal and more interested in a flexible, versatile soprano brass instrument which could play popular melodies and the cornet-a-piston quickly became one of the most popular instruments in Paris and London during the 1830s.

            This split in the evolution of the trumpet was one of the most important developments in the history of the instrument, for it signaled the beginning of the end for the “real trumpet.”  The characteristic sound created by the long cylindrical tube was permanently compromised by the cornet.  The popularity of the cornet in Europe and the United States guaranteed that the trumpet would eventually be replaced by high-pitch soprano brasses, and it wasn’t many more years before this trend began to establish itself in as well.

[1] Johann E. Altenburg, Trumpeter’s and Kettledrummer’s Art, translated by Edward H. Tarr, (Nashville:  The Brass Press, 1975), p. 53.

[2] Victor C. Mahillion, “The Trumpet—Its History—Its Theory—Its Construction,” Dominant, Vol. XVI, No. 7-9, (1908), p. 19.

[3] Hans Zorn, Die Trompete in der deutschen Orchestermusik von 1750 bis ms. 20 Jahrhundert, Ph.D. Musicology, (Innsbruck, 1974), p. 56.

[4] F. G. A. Dauvernè, Methode pour La Trompette, (Paris:  Chez G. Brandus, Dufour et Cie, 1857), p. XXI.

[5] Altenburg, op.cit., p. 12.

[6] Karl Bagans, “Freie Aufsätze,” Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, No. 43 (Berlin:  1829), p. 337.

[7] Don C. Smithers, The Music and History of the Baroque Trumpet Before 1720, (Syracuse Univ. Press, 1973), p. 31.

[8] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. 1.

[9] Altenburg, op. cit., p. 1.

[10] Mahillion, op. cit., p. 15.

[11] Bagans, op. cit., p. 337.

[12] Sibyl Marcuse, “The Instruments of the King Library at Versailles, Galpin Society Journal, Vol. XIV, (1961), p. 36.

[13] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. XXII.

[14] Francis Galpin, Old English Instruments of Music, (Chicago: A.C. McClung, 1911), (remove spaces) p. 213.

[15] Adam Carse, The Orchestra of the XVIII Century, (New York: Broude Brothers, 1969), p. 139.

[16] Otto Deutsch, Mozart:  A Documentary Biography, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965), p. 77.

[17] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. XXI.

[18] G. Hogarth, “Musical Instruments:  Trumpet, Trombone, Serpent, and Ophicleide,” Music World, Vol. IV, (1838), p. 130.

[19] “Nachrichten,” Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Vol. V No. 9, (1802), p. 158.

[20] John George Albrechtsberger, Methods of Harmony, translated from German by The Chevalier von Seyfried in 1837, translated from the French by Arnold Merrick, Vol. I, (London:  R. Cocks & Co.), p. 292.

[21] Bagans, op. cit., p. 337.

[22] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. XXII.

[23] C. G. Reissiger, “Über Ventilhorner und Klappentrompeten,” Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Vol. XXXVII, (1837), p. 608.

[24] Albrechtsberger, op. cit., p. 291.

[25] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. XXII.

[26] Bagans, op. cit., p. 24.

[27] Cynthia Hoover, “A Trumpet Battle at Nimblo’s Pleasure Garden,” Musical Quarterly, Vol. LV, July, (1969), p. 389.

[28] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. 1.

[29] Bagans, op. cit., p. 337.

[30] Hogarth, op. cit., p, 131.

[31] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. 152.

[32] Zorn, op. cit., p. 63.

[33] Friedrich Schneider, “Wichtige Verbesserung des Waldhorns,” Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Vol. XIX, No. 9, (1817), p. 814.

[34] Ibid, p. 816.

[35] Dieter Krickenberg, Kalalog der Blechblasinstrumenten, (Berlin:  1976), p. 154.

[36] Edward H. Tarr, “The Romantic Trumpet,” Part One, The Historic Brass Society Journal, Volume 5, (1993), p. 232.

[37] E.F.F. Chladni, “Nachrichten von Einigen…,” Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Vol. XXIII, (1821), pp 397-398.

[38] Tarr, op. cit.

[39] Dr. Herbert Heyde, “Zur Fruhgeschichte der Ventile und Ventilinstruments in Deutschland (1814-1833):  The Rotary Valve,” Brass Bulletin, No. 25, (1979), p. 41.

[40] George Kastner, Manuel general de musique, militaire, (Paris:  1848).

[41] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. XXV.

[42] Ibid, p. XXII.

[43] Anthony Baines, Brass Instruments (London:  Farber & Farber, 1974), p. 211.

[44] Theodore Rode, “Wiederholter Wunsch zur Grundung…,” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Vol. LXXVII (1882), p. 267.

[45] Ibid, p. 267.

[46] Philip Bate, The Trumpet and the Trombone (New York:  W. W. Norton, 1966), p. 162.

[47] Tarr, op. cit. p. 233.

[48] Edward H. Tarr, “The Romantic Trumpet,” Part Two, The Historic Brass Society Journal, Volume 6, (1994), p. 111.

[49] Baines, op. cit. p. 211.

[50] Tarr, “The Romantic Trumpet,” Part One, op. cit. p. 231.

[51] F. J. Fétis, A Manuel for Composers, translated by Wellington Guernsey (London:  Duncan Davison & Co., c. 1835), p. 19.

[52] Joe R. Utley and Sabine K. Klaus, “The “Catholic” Fingering—First Valve Semitone: Reversed Valve Order in Brass Instruments and Related Valve Constructions,” Historic Brass Society Journal, Volume 15, (2003), p. 73

[53] Utley and Klaus, op. cit., p. 80

[54] Reissiger, op. cit., p. 609.

[55] Walter Morrow, “The Trumpet as an Orchestral Instrument,” The Proceedings of the Musical Association, Vol. XXI, (1894-5), p. 139.

[56] Reissiger, op. cit., p. 605.

[57] H. LaVoix, Histoire de L’Instrumentation (Paris: Libraire de Firmin-Didot, 1878),  p. 140.

[58] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. XXII.

[59] Alfred Guichon, “La Trompette,” Chronique Musicale, Vol. X.  (1875), p. 49.

[60] Dauvernè, op. cit., p. i.