History of the Trumpet

More than any other musical instrument, the trumpet has gone through centuries of evolution in what it is made of, its design, its tonal range and its uses. The first trumpet, several thousand years B.C., is believed to have been a tree branch without a mouthpiece or bell flare, used solely as a megaphone, sounded at religious and magical rites. Related trumpets are the Australian didjeridu and the African transverse trumpet, the latter made from an antelope horn or elephant tusk. The trumpets of the Israelites, made of hammered silver, were used exclusively by priests, as in the famous tumbling of the Walls of Jericho in the book of Exodus. The oldest surviving mention of a trumpet is in the Epic of Gilgamesh, from about 2000 B.C.

The oldest existing trumpets, both silver, from 1353 B.C., were discovered in the tomb of King Tutankhamen in Egypt. They were each 23 inches long, played against the narrow end of the tube, without a mouthpiece. However, they could only produce two notes, both harsh-sounding. Indeed, until the Fall of Rome in 476 A.D., the trumpet had only military and religious functions because they produced only loud, harsh sounds.

The trumpet used at the time of the Crusades, in 1100, was the busine, a long, usually cylindrical metal instrument. It was named after the buccina, a large, coiled Roman horn, and was capable of a greater musical range than shorter trumpets. Just before 1400, the making of brass instruments was revolutionized by the discover

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umpet, which was made of brass or silver. Surviving instruments were made by three generations: Johann Wilhelm Haas (16491723), Wolf Wilhelm Haas (16811760), and Ernst Johann Conrad Haas (172392). The most famous English trumpet maker was William Bull, who was active from 1676 to 1707. Like the Haases, Bull made his instruments of "bastard brass", i.e., brass mixed with other metals, especially lead. Another trumpet, known as the flatt trumpet, was introduced around 1685. This was a slide trumpet called "flat" because it could be played in major and minor or flat keys. Even during this prolific period of trumpet making, a distinction was made between the music of the court trumpeters' corps and art music: The trumpet was used in art music symbolically: it could be called the instrument of heavenly and earthly power. It sounded on high festival days of the church in works such as Magnificats, Masses and Te Deums, as well as on ceremonial events of a secular nature for processions, tournaments, coronations and the like. As more and more works were composed for and using the natural trumpet, the instrument's use spread throughout Europe so that it became for the first time a fixture in the art music repertoire. Composers

Category: Arts - H