From the long mouthpieces that the slide trumpet was known for, developed the idea of creating a separate mouthpiece for natural trumpets. The basic design for the mouthpiece during the 16th century and the 17th century was a cupped shape that had a sharp edge and a flat rim. There were different mouthpiece designs that were being used at this time depending on what the purpose behind the instrument was. For example, higher registered had shallower cups for mouth pieces and lower registered instruments had deeper cups for their mouth pieces.

By the time the first half of the 17th century rolled around, it was much more common for trumpet players to play as high as the 20th partial, and many were even capable of ascending beyond this point to the 24th partial or even higher as needed. What this did, is gave composers a diatonic scale, allowing them to use an entire octave and a half in the process, and this was more than enough to allow them to use the trumpet as if it were a melodic instrument for the first time.

The mid eighteenth century seemed to serve as a golden age for the development and playing of the trumpet. The trumpet had only been capable of playing its fundamental key and the keys closest to it up until this point. Consequently, players were needing to consistently switch from one trumpet to another in order to get the range of sound that they were looking for. Designs for a trumpet with keys began to appear near the end of the 18th century, allowing one hand free to hold the instrument while the others played between four and six keys.

The biggest revolution in the making of trumpets did not actually come until the 1820s, as this is when the valves were added to the trumpet. The development of valve mechanisms between 1810 and 1820 had opened up a great possibility for creating genuinely chromatic brass instruments that would be capable of maintaining their control over tone color without losing the integrity of the range. In the 1820s, the first valve trumpets were beginning to appear, and it did not take long before composers were picking them up and trying to work them into their compositions.

Initially, the valve trumpet found itself being pitched in F. The length of this particular instrument meant that any works requiring the use of agility were going to be incredibly demanding in terms of technicality. Alongside the trumpet, another instrument was being developed, known as the cornet. The cornet was pitched a little bit higher, at B, and it was much more capable of coping with trickier types of music. Even so, the first B-flat trumpets did not begin to appear until the 1850s, and they were not actually accepted as being standard until the 1870s.

Photo Credits: Ed Yourdon

Originally posted 2009-09-01 03:25:07. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Acoustic Musical Instruments, Instrument History, trumpet

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16th century, 17th century, 1820s, 18th century, brass instruments, composers, diatonic scale, fundamental key, integrity, mechanisms, melodic instrument, mid eighteenth century, mouth pieces, mouthpiece, mouthpieces, rim, sharp edge, slide trumpet, tone color, trumpet players