Slide Trumpet Research Articles

The history of the origin and development of the trumpet: the organological aspect

The history of the origin and development of the trumpet: the organological aspect

Fanfares and Finesse: A Performer’s Guide to Trumpet History and Literature by Elisa Koehler (review)

Fanfares and Finesse: A Performer's Guide Trumpet History and Literature. By Elisa Koehler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014. [xviii, 240 p. ISBN 9780253011794 (hardcover), $48; ISBN 9780253011794 (e-book), $39.99.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, discography, index. Fully grasping the rich and diverse history of the trumpet can be a bit overwhelming since it an instrument that (more so than most stringed instruments) continually evolved for centuries before finally settling on what we now know as the modern trumpet. Elisa Koehler, an active trumpeter and professor of music at Goucher College, has masterfully succeeded in creating a book whose purpose is consolidate information about the trumpet family--some of it for the first time--into an accessible format and render it easy find (p. xiv). Furthermore, rather than presenting this as a simple history of the instrument, Koehler instead brings historical scholarship and performance pedagogy together to introduce techniques and issues related playing period (p. 1), which makes this volume useful the active trumpeter, not just the scholar. The volume divided into two main categories following a general introductory chapter. Chapters 2 through 11 deal with various predecessors and variations on the trumpet along with some performance issues such as pitch and transposition. This first section has a plethora of pictures that are helpful better understand many of the physical differences between these related instruments as well as proper playing positions. The latter portion of the book, chapters 12 through 21, focuses on the repertoire and performance practice issues. While each category of the book proceeds in a roughly chronological manner, I agree with Koehler's advice that the reader should feel free skip around and read the chapters out of order (p. xv) after reading the first introductory chapter. Following that, each chapter generally self-referential and on a fairly specific topic thereby standing alone. Whether one decides read from cover cover or only certain chapters, the author's passion and expertise consistently apparent throughout the entire work. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 address the natural trumpet, modern baroque trumpet with vent holes, cornetto, and slide trumpet. Each chapter, with the exception of the fifth, treats its subject similarly. First, a factual and historical overview of each instrument prodded. Next, these chapters present practical information about how a modern trumpet player can begin approach playing these historical instruments and what benefits modern playing a trumpeter might experience as a result. Despite this general formula, each chapter does not slavishly provide the same information for each new topic. For example, tips about starting play the natural trumpet are covered, but the cornetto chapter focuses more on selecting an instrument and finger technique. The fifth chapter differs from the others in that it does not provide performance tips: instead it focuses on explaining technical aspects of the Renaissance, baroque, and English slide trumpets. The next five chapters focus on instruments that generally include valves. Chapter 6 focuses on the evolution from natural instruments through hand-stopping and then finally the valve. Various types of bugles and flugelhorns are quickly discussed in the next chapter before a more detailed examination of the cornet in chapter 8. The real treasure of this section occurs in chapter 9, Changing of the Guard: Trumpets in Transition. In addition providing basic factual information about the development and introduction of the modern trumpet, Koehler also highlights several historic moments, such as virtuoso solo competitions pitting the trumpet against the cornet or keyed bugle, which spurred the adoption of the trumpet as the de facto choice for this instrumental voice. …

Fanfares and finesse: a performer's guide to trumpet history and literature

List of Illustrations Author's Note Acknowledgements 1. Fanfares and Finesse: An Introduction 2. The Natural Trumpet 3. The Modern Baroque Trumpet with Vent Holes 4. The Cornetto 5. The Slide Trumpet 6. The Quest for Chromaticism: Hand-Stopping, Keys, and Valves 7. Bugles, Flugels, and Horns 8. The Cornet 9. Changing of the Guard: Trumpets in Transition 10. Smaller Trumpets 11. Pitch, Temperament, and Transposition 12. Early Repertoire and Performance Practice 13. Baroque Repertoire 14. Classical Repertoire 15. Signals, Calls, and Fanfares 16. Strike up the Band 17. The Modern Orchestral Trumpet 18. Jazz and the Trumpet 19. Solo Repertoire after 1900 20. Brass Chamber Music 21. Trumpeting in the Twenty-First Century Appendix A: List of Names and Dates Appendix B: Significant Events in Trumpets History Appendix C: Selected Recordings: An Annotated List Appendix D: Museums with Instrument Collections Appendix E: Period Instrument Resources Notes Bibliography Index

The Last Trumpet: A History of the English Slide Trumpet

The nineteenth-century English slide trumpet was the last trumpet with the traditional sound of the old classic trumpet. The instrument was essentially a natural trumpet to which had been added a movable slide with a return mechanism. It was England's standard orchestral trumpet, despite the dominance of natural and, ultimately, valved instruments elsewhere, and it remained in use by leading English players until the last years of the century. The slide trumpet's dominating role in nineteenth-century English orchestral playing has been well documented, but until now, the use of the instrument in solo and ensemble music has been given only superficial consideration. Art Brownlow's study is a new and thorough assessment of the slide trumpet. It is the first comprehensive examination of the orchestral, ensemble and solo literature written for this instrument. Other topics include the precursors of the nineteenth-century instrument, its initial development and subsequent modifications, its technique, and the slide trumpet's slow decline. Appendices include checklists of English trumpeters and slide trumpetmakers.

The Last Trumpet: A History of the English Slide Trumpet

The Last Trumpet: A History of the English Slide Trumpet

The last trumpet: a history of the English slide trumpet

The last trumpet: a history of the English slide trumpet

Keyed Bugle Method Books:Documents of Transition in 19th Century Brass Instrument Performance Practice and Asthetics

The 19th century provided changing audiences, increased amateur involvement in bands, new instrument design and the availability of economical printing, all of which contributed to a wealth of instructional material. The publishing activity of this era represents a real knowledge explosion when compared with the sparse dissemination of earlier trumpet methods.' This article is a brief appraisal of the impact of the methods for the English slide trumpet, the keyed bugle and the cornopean and the kinds of changes that they brought to soprano brass performance in the 19th century. I wasable to locate47 keyed bugle method books ranging from 1810 to 1861for my 1987 publication, The Keyed Bugler's ~orn~anion.~ I am grateful to A1 Rice, who recently added a dozen more titles to my list as a result of a similar study of Italian and German sources. It is likely that thereare more. A full inventory of this typeof instruction material remains for future researchers. As a group, the books show a merger of two performance traditions. Some of the earlier books were written by trumpeters, who were doubling on the prototype instruments and show the influence of natural trumpet playing traditions and techniques that date from the Baroqueera. Other authors, who described new instruments like the keyed bugle and cornopean, show new radical leanings toward a fluid, legato style more in keeping with the harmonic and melodic adventures of the Romantic era and more idiomatic for the new instruments. This second generation devoted its attention to the keyed bugle with little mention of the natural instrument or its repertoire. The current evidence strongly suggests that it was this generation of writers (and their students) that made a break with the older trumpet traditions and paved the way for the cornopean and the comet literature that dominated the rest of the 19th century. 1.There are only a handful of documents before 1800 that address the pedagogical aspects of the trumpeter's art. Scott Sorensen's article Printed Trumpet Instruction to 1835 in the September, 1987, issue of the International Trumpet GuiM Journal provides us with a catalog of these early works. Insbuctions for the natural instruments were also published in the 19th century due to the instrument's continued ceremonial and military use as well as its employment in the older orchestral and operatic repertoire.

Slide trumpet madness: fact or fiction?

The existence of the slide trumpet as the 15th-century precursor of the trombone has long been accepted by historians of brass instruments, the shawm band and basse dance. Peter Downey’s article The Renaissance slide trumpet: Fact or fiction?’ (EM, Feb 1984, p.26) questions the theoretical basis for believing there was such an instrument in the Renaissance, claiming that the notion is supported by no documentary evidence, written or iconographic. Downey has gone so far as to compare the belief in the Renaissance slide trumpet to the ‘Bach trumpet madness’ of the 1950s, when many musicologists were convinced, as a matter of faith, that playing of Baroque clarino trumpet music had depended upon a secret and now lost art.

The trombone, the slide trumpet and the ensemble tradition of the early Renaissance

The trombone, the slide trumpet and the ensemble tradition of the early Renaissance Keith Polk Keith Polk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Early Music, Volume XVII, Issue 3, August 1989, Pages 389–397, https://doi.org/10.1093/earlyj/XVII.3.389 Published: 01 August 1989

A Wider Role for the Flat Trumpet

'Flat trumpet is revived after 250 years', The Times announced last October;1 but that headline, the photograph and three column inches of text beneath it told far from the whole story. Readers of The Galpin Society Journal may wish to know more, those especially who can remember back to the very first issue. There, quoting the description and measurements found in James Talbot's manuscript (Oxford, Christ Church Library Music MS 1187), Anthony Baines revealed that 'it was not unlike the common nineteenth-century English Slide Trumpet whose invention is attributed to Hyde, in 1804' - and solved at a stroke what had hitherto been a 'complete mystery'.2 Now the Bate Collection includes a 'Flat trumpet in D ... after Talbot c. 1690', built by Philip Bate himself in 1971 - item 717;3 and all reputable modern textbooks on trumpet history and brass instruments in general have their flat trumpet entries. Yet until playable reconstructions were placed in professional hands for a thorough trial - as happened only last year - a just assessment of their behaviour under performance conditions and hence their usefulness or otherwise was out of the question.

The Renaissance slide trumpet: Fact or fiction?

Journal Article The Renaissance slide trumpet: Fact or fiction? Peter Downey Peter Downey Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Early Music, Volume 12, Issue 1, February 1984, Pages 26–33, https://doi.org/10.1093/earlyj/12.1.26 Published: 01 February 1984