6:30am my alarm goes off and I start my day. I throw on whatever clothes I can find and I grab my case packing 4 incredibly unique instruments. Instruments with a history I can only attempt to comprehend. I play the trumpet, an instrument that dates back as early as 1500BC, with the first metal trumpets being found at King Tut’s tomb in ancient Egypt along with similar instruments scattered through Asia (1). Inspiration for the instrument stemmed from the use of conch shells, the trumpet recreated the original sound of blowing wind through the shell. What we now use for music, was once used as a tool in militaries and religious purposes. Through its evolution, the trumpet was first made of bronze, and through time we now have trumpets made up of brass with coatings of silver and gold.
The earliest of valves for the trumpet wouldn’t come around until 1814, with the first form of valve invented by Heinrich Stolzel (2). Until this time, trumpets were as simple as one elongated tube, wrapped around itself until the desired length/tuning was achieved. The newly made keyed trumpets would make its debut in Haydn and Hummel’s trumpet concerti, and would serve a big role in Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique with his use of the cornet. The newly developed cornet featured a new piston valve system developed by Francois Perinet in 1839 (3). With the development of the cornet and modern trumpet, the presence of the trumpet dramatically increased. More solo works came to life and music for brass become much more complex and prominent, achieving new pitches and gaining access to quarter tonal musical abilities. Fast forwarding to present time, my horns are made from a yellow brass foundation and are plated with silver and/or gold. Two of them were built here in the United States, one from Elkhart Indiana, and the other from Anaheim, California. I’ve had some customization with my trumpets, and some of the parts come from Japan.The US has a rich history of modern piston trumpet making, with famous techniques and formulas originating in the 1920s. Below I’ve included a link with a video showing the creation of a modern trumpet. Although most trumpets are factory made, there is still a significant hand-crafted element to every instrument, so every trumpet is different from another, even if they came from the same designs.
The other two trumpets in my case originated from Spain, a manufacturer that has a history for creating beautiful “small horns”. These small horns are higher pitched than the standard trumpets we typically see, and their origins come from the smaller cornets used in early British Brass Bands. These trumpets are typically used for early music, and for recreating sounds of the past. One is gold plated and the other silver. These materials serve to create different timbres in sound, the silver being more brilliant and the gold having a richer quality. These finishes on trumpets weren’t seen until the early 20th century.
Aside from the physical trumpet itself, the mouthpiece is an essential partner. There is almost more science to creating a mouthpiece than the trumpet. There are infinite possibilities when pairing a mouthpiece to a trumpet, because there are an infinite number of trumpet players all with different facial structures. John Storck’s “Understanding the Mouthpiece” describes the various shapes a mouthpiece can have, and has worked with world class trumpeters to create mouthpieces that can best suite every player (5). I play on a mouthpiece that was influenced by former New York Philharmonic Principal Trumpeter William Vacchiano.
Each time I go to practice, I’m playing the result of thousands of years of musical and mechanical evolution, each piece is the culmination of ideas of inventors across history, and it’s incredible that I can enjoy the fruits of their labor and utilize these tools to create beuatiful art.
Sources:
- “A short history on the trumpet”, Tony Guerrero. http://www.wwbw.com/the-music-room/a-brief-history-of-the-trumpet
- “The evelution of Brass Instruments and Orchestral Brass Writing From the Late Classical Period to the End of the Romantic Period”, Ken Jimenez. December 19, 2011. http://www.d.umn.edu/~rperraul/MU5204-EnsembleLit/KJimenez.pdf.pdf
- “The History of the Cornet, from pre-history to the present”, Greg Monks. http://www.blackdiamondbrass.com/tpthist/trpthist.htm
- “Bach Trumpet Tour”, Feb 24, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9XYQHBBp9I
- “Understanding the Mouthpiece”, John Storck, 1989.
I really enjoyed your blogpost! This was a cool assignment because it allowed us to think more about our instrument in ways that I think, at least for me, we sometimes forget about. The history of the trumpet is pretty incredible, considering how much it has changed over the years. I also enjoyed watching the video of the process in which the trumpet is made. It was really cool to see how detailed the process is and how important each part of the process is, from the way they shape the bells to the “drawing of the rods”. I also thought it was really cool how the trumpet was inspired by the conch shell and how it is really interesting to see the differences of the two objects. It is definitely impressive to hear the sound of the trumpet and the range of volume and pitches that is achieved on the instrument. I was also intrigued by the making of the mouth piece and how you said that it takes more attention than the making of the trumpet itself. I guess as someone who doesn’t know too much about the brass family of instruments, it is fascinating that the mouthpiece is chosen upon the musician’s facial structure. I guess it was easy for me to just assume that you all shape (is that even the right word..?) your embouchures against the mouthpiece, and that all the mouthpieces were the same. But maybe, the mouthpiece and trumpet are the same as the stringed instrument and the bow. That’s pretty cool. Thanks for sharing the history and background of the trumpet!