Cornett

Last updated
Cornett
Three cornetts.jpg
Three different cornetts: mute cornett, curved cornett and tenor cornett.
Brass instrument
Classification Brass instrument Horn
Hornbostel–Sachs classification 423.212
(Lip-reed aerophone with tone holes or keys and irregular/moderately conical bore)
DevelopedSince antiquity; from instruments made from animal bone or horn with finger holes, such as the coradoiz [1]
Playing range
Cornett
The sounding range of the treble cornett [2]
Related instruments
Musicians
Builders

The cornett (Italian : cornetto, German : Zink) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. [9] Although smaller and larger sizes were made in both straight and curved forms, surviving cornetts are mostly curved, built in the treble size from 51 to 63 cm (20 to 25 in) in length, usually described as in G. The note sounded with all finger-holes covered is A3, which can be lowered a further whole tone to G by slackening the embouchure. The name cornett comes from the Italian cornetto, meaning "small horn".

Contents

It was used in performances by professional musicians for both state and liturgical music, especially accompanying choral music. It also featured in popular music in alta capella or loud wind ensembles. [10] British organologist Anthony Baines wrote that the cornett "was praised in the very terms that were to be bestowed upon the oboe [...]: it could be sounded as loud as a trumpet and as soft as a recorder, and its tone approached that of the human voice more nearly than that of any other instrument." [11] It was popular in Germany, where trumpet-playing was restricted to professional trumpet guild members. [12] As well, the mute cornett variant was a quiet instrument, playing "gentle, soft and sweet." [13]

The cornett is not to be confused with the modern cornet, a valved brass instrument with a separate origin and development. [12] The English spelling cornet, which had applied to the cornett since about 1400, was in around 1836 transferred to the cornet à pistons, the predecessor of the modern cornet. [14] [15] Subsequently, cornett became the modern English spelling of the older instrument. [16]

Construction

Cornetts in Syntagma Musicum, 1619. Left to right: alto straight cornet with mouthpiece (lowest note g), alto mute cornett (front and back), tenor mute cornett (lowest note g, key on 7th hole for f), treble straight cornett with mouthpiece (lowest note a), cornettino (lowest note e), treble cornett (lowest note a), tenor cornett (lowest note c). Zink-Musik.png
Cornetts in Syntagma Musicum , 1619. Left to right: alto straight cornet with mouthpiece (lowest note g), alto mute cornett (front and back), tenor mute cornett (lowest note g, key on 7th hole for f), treble straight cornett with mouthpiece (lowest note a), cornettino (lowest note e), treble cornett (lowest note a), tenor cornett (lowest note c).

Pipes as short as the cornett are only able to play two or three notes of the harmonic series when sounded as an end-blown lip-reed instrument. The common treble or curved cornett then, can play A3 and the next octave A4; a trumpeter might be able to reach the next E5. [17] Other short trumpets had this issue, including King Tut's Trumpet, capable of only playing two notes without a modern mouthpiece. [18]

The instrument has features of both the trumpet and a woodwind instrument. Like the trumpet, the cornett has a small cup-shaped mouthpiece, where the instrument is sounded with the player's lips. [19] Like many woodwind instruments, it has fingered tone holes (and rarely, keys) to determine the pitch by shortening the vibrating air column, although pitch can also be adjusted by varying the tension of the player's embochure. [19]

The cornett has six finger holes and, like the recorder, a single thumb hole on the opposite side. Together these allow the instrument to play a diatonic scale. A small number of cornetts were built with seven holes, and French instruments often lacked a thumbhole. By using "cross fingering" and by varying the embouchure tension, the instrument can play a chromatic scale. A player in 1738 who mastered the cross-fingering and lip tension was documented to have reached 27 notes and half notes. [17] In comparison, Praetorius gave cornetts credit for achieving 15 notes, before players used techniques to expand the range. [12]

The cornett has a conical bore, narrow at the mouthpiece and widening towards the bell. [17] The ordinary curved treble cornett is made by splitting a length of wood, usually walnut, boxwood or other tonewoods like plum, cherry or pear. The bore is carved out and the two halves then glued back together, and the outside planed to an octagonal cross section. [17] The whole is then further bound tightly in thin black leather or parchment. [20] A small number of surviving instruments were made from one straight piece, bored on a lathe, and then bent into a curve with steam. [21] The finger holes and thumb hole are then bored in the instrument, and are slightly undercut. [11]

The socket for the mouthpiece at the narrow end is sometimes reinforced with a brass collar, and sometimes ornamental silver or brass ferrules are added to reinforce each end of the instrument, especially in Austrian- or German-made cornetts. [22] The separate cup mouthpiece is usually made of horn, ivory, or bone, with a thin rim and thread-wrapped shank, which is used to tune the instrument. Because it usually lacks a (seventh) little finger hole, its lowest note is A3 below middle C, though G3 is readily obtained by adjusting the embouchure. [11]

Mute cornetts were usually made of boxwood. The top of the instrument is narrow; the bore is about 4 millimetres (0.16 in) wide at the top of the instrument, with a cone-shaped mouthpiece carved into the top 13 millimetres (0.51 in) across and 9 millimetres (0.35 in) deep. [11]

Mouthpieces of cornetts.jpg
Cornett mouthpieces.jpg
Cornett mouthpieces (left); mouthpiece size compared to a 1 cent coin (right, top); mute cornetts have the mouthpiece carved into the body (right, bottom)

Cornett family

Cornetts were built in two styles, curved and straight. [12]

Most cornetts are shaped with gradual curve, greater than 90°, a single curve like a comma, or an S-curve. The instrument has a conical bore, and the outside shaped to have an octagonal cross-section. Curved cornets were traditionally black, the wood covered in thin black leather. [12] [23] The cornett was, like many Renaissance and Baroque instruments, made in a family of sizes. Four extant sizes are the soprano ( cornettino ), the treble or curved cornett, the alto, the tenor or lizard and the rare bass cornett, which was supplanted by the serpent in the 17th century.

Cornett
The lowest note of each type of cornett [17]

Descant

The cornettino is the descant, or sometimes "soprano" member of the cornett family. [12] In Syntagma Musicum, it was presented as being about 45 centimetres (18 in) long and had a range from E4 to E6 in the 16th and 17th centuries. [24] In the 18th century that changed to D4 to D6. [25]

Treble

The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica defined this instrument using its French name dessus (lit. 'top'), and gave its fingered range as A3 to A5, the lowest being one note higher than that of the alto. [12] [17] To play notes below A3, players can slacken their embouchure. [12] Sibyl Marcuse did not name the normal cornett, but gave the treble's range. [12] David Jarratt-Knock counted surviving instruments in museums to arrive at the treble cornett being the most commonly found cornett. [26]

Alto

From the 1619 the scaled drawings in Syntagma Musicum, the instrument was about 2 feet (0.61 m) long. It was built to start playing a tone lower than the treble and has a fingered range from G3 to G5. [19] [17] With good technique the lowest note is F3. The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica called this the haute-contre or alto cornet. [17] Baines said that the use of this variant for an alto part was "widely speculated." [19]

Tenor

The tenor cornet (Italian: cornone, French: basse de cornetà bouquin, German: Basszink) was the tenor instrument in the cornett family. [12] About 3.5 feet (1.1 m) long from the Syntagma Musicum drawing, it was "proportionally wider" (bottom compared to top) than the treble and alto were, and that changed the tenor's sound quality to be more bugle-like. [11]

Although the French and German names imply it was bass instrument, it is placed as a tenor instrument by organologists Sibyl Marcuse and Anthony Baines, who both point out that two examples of a "real bass" instrument exist. [12] [27]

The cornone was pitched about a fifth below the alto cornett, with a playing range of C3 to D5. [28] Even though tenor and bass instruments were created for the family, these came later in the instrument's development, perhaps as long as 50 years after the instrument became mainstream. [11] The instrument was paired with other instruments to play the lower ranges, especially trombones. [11]

Bass

There are very few surviving examples of instruments larger than the tenor cornett. One is called hautecontre de cornet à bouquin. [12] The other should be called contrebass de cornet à bouquin according to Marcuse and Baines, and there are only two examples of it, one in the Paris Conservatoire museum and the other in Hamburg. [12] [27] [29] These were tuned "a pitch or so below the type instrument" [12] or an octave below the cornettino. [30] The Paris instrument is described as having "an octagonal exterior and 4 extension keys." [12] [31] The Hamburg example has 2 extension keys. [12]

Straight cornett

Corneta recta.jpg
Straight cornett, 20th century
Corneta muda.jpg
Mute cornett
20th century 7-hole cornetts (plus thumbhole)

The common treble cornett was also made as a straight cornett (German: gerader Zink, gelber Zink, Italian: cornetto diritto or cornetto bianco) [27] and usually light-colored, as the yellow boxwood was not covered in leather. [12] [27] It has conical bore and body that does not curve. [32] The specific instrument differs from the mute cornett by having a removable mouthpiece. [12] Surviving instruments in museums are mainly treble with a range of A3 to A5. [32] [27] [26] A few survive as tenor instruments, range C3 to D5. [26]

Mute cornett

A mute cornett (French: cornet muet, German: stiller Zink, Italian: cornetto muto) is a straight cornett with a narrower bore and integrated mouthpiece carved into the end of the instrument's body. [13] The instrument tapers in thickness, until at the top it is about 1.3 centimetres (0.51 in) wide. [13] The instruments were mainly treble cornetts, [26] tuned to the same range as the curved treble cornett, G3 to A5. [27] The others found in museums are soprano cornetts, also tuned like curved instruments to E4 to E6. [27] [26]

This instrument's name tells something of its tonal nature. Its "gentle, soft and sweet" sound is different than the other cornetts because of its mouthpiece, and can be used in a consort of viols or recorders. [13] [27] The mouthpiece is similar to that in a French horn; instead of being a cup like the other cornetts, it is a cone, about 9 millimetres (0.35 in) deep. [13] Inside it transitions from cone to instrumental bore smoothly, without "sharpness." [13] On the outside, there isn't an obvious lip carved.

Praetorius drew a tenor mute cornett, with a seventh hole covered and labeled that a lower note could be reached by covering the base. In that range, the six holes with thumb hole could have delivered A3 to F5. The extra plate would make it G3 to F5, with the base covered F3 to F5.

History

Origins

16th and 17th century cornetts at the Cite de la Musique, Philharmonie de Paris. From the left, back row: *cornettino, 17th century *alto or treble cornet, 17th century *cornone, tenor cornett or bass de cornet a bouquin, 17th century *contrebass de cornet a bouquin (bass cornett), 16th century Front row: *tenor cornet, 17th century. Cornets a bouquin1.jpg
16th and 17th century cornetts at the Cité de la Musique, Philharmonie de Paris. From the left, back row:
*cornettino, 17th century
*alto or treble cornet, 17th century
*cornone, tenor cornett or bass de cornet à bouquin, 17th century
*contrebass de cornet à bouquin (bass cornett), 16th century Front row:
*tenor cornet, 17th century.

Aurignacian pipes, fashioned with four finger holes 26,000–40,000 years ago from the slender bones of bird wings or mammoth ivory, have long been considered flutes. Recovered from Vogelherdhöhle and other caves in the Swabian Jura in Germany, they are among the oldest musical instruments yet discovered. British music archaeologist Graeme Lawson found that a replica of a complete specimen played as a flute has an indistinct whispery sound, but produces the first five notes of the diatonic series in a clear, strident tone when played as an end-blown lip reed instrument. He contends that this method of playing is supported by microscopic wear patterns, the absence of a fipple or blowhole, and the well-rounded end aperture. [34]

In modern history, the cornett has been considered by musical historians to be a development of the medieval horn, such as a cow's horn. [12] Francis Galpin believed the horns preceding the cornett to be goat horns. [25]

Plain horns in the shape of animal horns have been found in medieval European art as far back as the Utrecht Psalter in the 9th century. However, horns with fingerholes also began appearing in manuscript miniatures in the 10th century. [12] By the 12th century, these were being carved with a six sided or 8 sided exterior. [12] [25] In the 11th century, some of the fingerhole horns began to be made longer and thinner, beginning to take on the appearance of the cornett. [35]

Horn, fingerhole horn, cornett
Utrechts-Psalter PSALM-149-PSALM-150 trumpet.jpg
Utrecht Psalter, 9th century, France. Horns showing signs of assembly (bands around outside) into the shape of cows horns.
Bockhorn - SMV - X22 01.tif
A bockhorn, fingerhole horn
Cornett or fingerhole horn, Winchcombe Psalter (MS Ff.1.23).jpg
Galpin identified this as a cornett. [25] 11th century Winchcombe Psalter (MS Ff.1.23)
Harley Psalter folio 24v instruments.jpg
1000-1050 England. From the left a fingerhole horn/trumpet, harp, fingerhole horn/trumpet, lute. Harley Psalter; art copied or inspired from earlier Utrecht Psalter. Galpin cited this manuscript as evidence of cornett in England in the 11th century [25]

The French coradoiz, rendered now as cor à doigts, meant "fingerhole horn", was seen in the 13th to 15th centuries. [12] [35]

The earliest cowhorn instruments were played with one hand covering four or fewer fingerholes and the other stopping the bell to create additional tones, much like on a French horn. [36] In Northern Europe, these horns, referred to in Scandinavian languages as bukkehorns, were made from natural animal horns. [37]

The name cornet was printed in English in the Morte d'Arthure , completed by Sir Thomas Mallory about 1470. [12] [38]

The cornett in its current form was developed by about 1500, as an improvement over earlier designs of fingerhole horns. [12] [39]

That was the path that led to the curved cornetts; another way led to the straight cornetts. In central Europe, cornetts were made from wood turned on a lathe; the fusion of these two instrument-building traditions as the cornett advanced in melodic capability explains the coexistence of the straight and curved cornetts, with the form of the latter most likely being a skeuomorphic trait derived from animal horns. [40]

Ends and beginnings

The cornett was at the height of its popularity between 1550 and 1650. [12] The instrument had declined by the 18th century. [11] When the instrument was needed in the 19th century, it had gone extinct. [11] Efforts to re-create it were not immediately successful and other instruments have been used in an attempt to replace it in classical music. [11] These include the soprano saxophone, trumpet and oboe. [11] Since the 19th century, the instrument is being made again and materials used for the body have widened to include resins. [41] Recorded music of the instrument can be found.

Prominent cornettists today include Roland Wilson (ensemble Musica Fiata), Jean Tubéry (La Fenice), Arno Paduch (Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble), and Bruce Dickey (Concerto Palatino).

Music for the cornett

Tobias Stimmer woodcut of a woman with an alto cornett, c. 1570-1577 Cornett, by Tobias Stimmer 2.jpg
Tobias Stimmer woodcut of a woman with an alto cornett, c. 1570–1577

Virtuoso performance

The cornett, among other aerophones, were commonly used for virtuosic musical performances, equivalent to performances by a lead singer or violinist. [19] A relatively large amount of solo music for the cornett (and/or violin) survives.

Musicians from 'Procession in honour of Our Lady of Sablon in Brussels.' Early 17th-century Flemish alta cappella. From left to right: bass dulcian, alto shawm, treble cornett, soprano shawm, alto shawm, tenor sackbut. Musicians from 'Procession in honour of Our Lady of Sablon in Brussels'.jpg
Musicians from 'Procession in honour of Our Lady of Sablon in Brussels.' Early 17th-century Flemish alta cappella. From left to right: bass dulcian, alto shawm, treble cornett, soprano shawm, alto shawm, tenor sackbut.

Giovanni Bassano was a virtuoso early player of the cornett, and Giovanni Gabrieli wrote much of his polychoral, with Bassano playing it. [42] Heinrich Schütz also used the instrument extensively, especially in his earlier work; he had studied in Venice with Gabrieli and was likely acquainted with Bassano's playing. [43]

The use of the instrument had declined by 1700, although the instrument was still common in Europe until the late 18th century. Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and their German contemporaries used both the cornett and cornettino in cantatas to play in unison with the soprano voices of the choir. Occasionally, these composers allocated a solo part to the cornetto (see Bach's cantata O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV 118 ). Alessandro Scarlatti used the cornetto or pairs of cornetts in a number of his operas. Johann Joseph Fux used a pair of mute cornetts in a Requiem.

It was scored for by Gluck, in his opera Orfeo ed Euridice (he suggested the soprano trombone as an alternative) and features in the TV theme music Testament by Nigel Hess, released in 1983.

The cornett was chosen to play colla parte (in which instrumentalists play the same notes as the vocal part) in works by Bach. These include Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4 (paired with trombones) [44] and Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende, BWV 28 (paired with trombones). [45]

Music books allowed non-professional musicians to learn instruments and play together. Such books included music theory, how to read sheet music, and instructions for how to reach notes on instruments. Professional musicians performed in public spaces and as part of official pomp before the country's residents. Images of heaven reflected a musicality that showed heavenly orchestras performing before God, and instruments were brought into churches.

Public performances where the cornett might be played included the alta capella and the Collegium Musicum.

Liturgical performance

Musicians gallery from the funeral of Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (sharpened image).jpg
1611 Musicians in the gallery of a cathedral, from the funeral of Charles III, Duke of Lorraine.
Encomium Musices 1590.jpg
Cornets and sackbuts used in liturgical setting, with choir.
Carlos II de Espana recibe la sagrada forma (detalle), por Claudio Coello018.jpg
Scene in a Spanish church, detail of Charles II adores the Holy Eucharist

Like the serpent, another fingerhole horn that was paired with it, the cornett was used to reinforce the human voice, accompanying choral music. The cornett was deemed to be similar to the voice of a boy soprano, a part found in English liturgical music which the cornett accompanied. [19] Not only English, for Mersenne speaks of the cornett being "heard with the choir voices in the cathedrals or chapels." [19]

Historically, two cornetts were frequently used in consort with three sackbuts, often to double a church choir, into the 18th century. [19] This was particularly popular in Venetian churches such as the Basilica San Marco, where extensive instrumental accompaniment was encouraged, particularly in use with antiphonal choirs.

Playing the cornett

The cornetto, played by Ben Skala Hra-na-cink-evangkostel-v-Miroslavi2011.jpg
The cornetto, played by Ben Skála

The cornett's pitches are controlled using a combination of the player's lips and fingerholes. The lips change pitch through different tensions. The fingerholes alter the length of the sound column.

Cornetts are made with a mouthpiece, similar to that on brass instruments, but very small. Unlike the brass mouthpieces, players don't press the instrument to the center of their mouths, as on a trumpet. [27] Rather the technique to produce sound is to hold the instrument to the side of the mouth, where the player's lips are thinner. [27] Players stretch their lips to tighten them, with help from cheek muscles. [46]

Jurgalic Joze, Groblje 26 "pastir" (67 let), nekdaj crednik, trobi na kravji rog 1952 (2).jpg
Slovak shepherd playing a cow's horn, the horn pressed to the side of his mouth.
Rozhechniki obrez.jpg
Russian rozhok horns, with fingerholes and played from the side of the mouth.

The technique is not unique to cornets, but has also been used for the traditional animal-horn horns, such as the shofur [47] and Slovak shepherd's horn, as well as for folk horns such as the Russian rozhok.

Girolamo dalla Casa wrote about how the coronet should sound when played, and in doing so revealed other ways it could sound as well. He felt that the instrument was meant to imitate the human voice, saying, "The cornetto is the most excellent of the wind instruments since it imitates the human voice better than the other instruments." He warned that improperly played, it would sound "horn-like or muted." [48]

To play it properly, he said that player's must focus on the tone (with lips not spread apart and loose, or too tight and shrill). He felt tonguing was important to the sound, with energy but not too aggressive. Finally he felt that divisions or diminutions should be used, but sparingly and well. He said that cornettists should focus on making their playing sound like the human voice. [48]

Learning to play

Books with cornett instruction included Grund-richtiger Unterricht der Musicalischen Kunst (Fundamentally correct instruction in the musical arts) by Daniel Speer, 1697 [19] and Museum Musicum Theoretico-Practicum (Museum of theoretical-practical music) by Joseph Friedrich Bernhard Caspar Majer, 1732. [49] Books written for other instruments were also applicable to the cornett. Among these were Ganassi dal Fontego (Opera intitulata Fontegara, 1535) and Bismantova (Compendio musicale, 1677). [19] These books covered the recorder, but the instructions on "tonguing" with "force and speed" has application to the cornett, [19] which was pictured on the Fontegara title page illustration.

Besides tonguing, books taught students to improvise. Students learning cornet music were encouraged to play in the "diminuative", looking at sheet music and adapting it by creating runs of fast notes to replace long slow notes in written works. [19]

The book (Il Vero Modo Di Diminuir, 1584) by cornett virtoso Girolamo Dalla Casa focused on tone, tonguing and divisions to make the cornett sound like the human voice. [50] [48]

The cornett and authentic performance

As a result of the recent historically informed performance movement the cornett has been rediscovered, and modern works for the instrument have been written. [51]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brass instrument</span> Class of musical instruments

A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term labrosone, from Latin elements meaning "lip" and "sound", is also used for the group, since instruments employing this "lip reed" method of sound production can be made from other materials like wood or animal horn, particularly early or traditional instruments such as the cornett, alphorn or shofar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornet</span> Brass instrument

The cornet is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B♭. There is also a soprano cornet in E♭ and cornets in A and C. All are unrelated to the Renaissance and early Baroque cornett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embouchure</span> Players mouth setup for a wind instrument

Embouchure or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche, 'mouth'. Proper embouchure allows instrumentalists to play their instrument at its full range with a full, clear tone and without strain or damage to their muscles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sackbut</span> Early form of trombone from the Renaissance and Baroque periods

A sackbut is an early form of the trombone used during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of the tube to change pitch, but is distinct from later trombones by its smaller, more cylindrically-proportioned bore, and its less-flared bell. Unlike the earlier slide trumpet from which it evolved, the sackbut possesses a U-shaped slide with two parallel sliding tubes, rather than just one.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trombone</span> Brass instrument played with a slide

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. Nearly all trombones use a telescoping slide mechanism to alter the pitch instead of the valves used by other brass instruments. The valve trombone is an exception, using three valves similar to those on a trumpet, and the superbone has valves and a slide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trumpet</span> Brass instrument

The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B♭ or C trumpet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transposing instrument</span> Musical instrument for which notated pitch differs from sounding pitch

A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which music notation is not written at concert pitch. For example, playing a written middle C on a transposing instrument produces a pitch other than middle C; that sounding pitch identifies the interval of transposition when describing the instrument. Playing a written C on clarinet or soprano saxophone produces a concert B♭, so these are referred to as B♭ instruments. Providing transposed music for these instruments is a convention of musical notation. The instruments do not transpose the music; rather, their music is written at a transposed pitch. Where chords are indicated for improvisation they are also written in the appropriate transposed form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bugle</span> Brass musical instrument

The bugle is a simple signaling brass instrument with a wide conical bore. It normally has no valves or other pitch-altering devices, and is thus limited to its natural harmonic notes, and pitch is controlled entirely by varying the air and embouchure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenor saxophone</span> Type of saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭ (while the alto is pitched in the key of E♭), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural trumpet</span> Early form of trumpet preceding the invention of keys or valves

A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single-reed instrument</span> Class of woodwind instruments

A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. The very earliest single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The earliest types of single-reed instruments used idioglottal reeds, where the vibrating reed is a tongue cut and shaped on the tube of cane. Much later, single-reed instruments started using heteroglottal reeds, where a reed is cut and separated from the tube of cane and attached to a mouthpiece of some sort. By contrast, in a double reed instrument, there is no mouthpiece; the two parts of the reed vibrate against one another. Reeds are traditionally made of cane and produce sound when air is blown across or through them. The type of instruments that use a single reed are clarinets and saxophone. The timbre of a single and double reed instrument is related to the harmonic series caused by the shape of the corpus. E.g. the clarinet is only including the odd harmonics due to air column modes canceling out the even harmonics. This may be compared to the timbre of a square wave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenor cornett</span>

The tenor cornett or lizard was a common musical instrument in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This instrument was normally built in C and the pedal (lowest) note of the majority of tenor cornetts was the C below middle C. A number of surviving instruments feature a key to secure the lowest note. The instrument has a useful range of approximately two and a half octaves, however, an experienced player with a strong embouchure may be able to push the instrument higher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornettino</span> Descant instrument of the cornetto family

The cornettino is the small descant instrument of the cornett family of lip-reed wind instruments, a fourth or fifth higher than the larger, more common treble cornett. Cornettini were built in two sizes, usually described as in D or C, although the note sounded with all finger-holes covered is E or D, respectively, which can be lowered a further whole tone to D or C by slackening the embouchure. The name cornettino in Italian means a small cornetto, which in turn means "small horn".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarion (instrument)</span> Trumpet used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Clarion is a name for a high-pitched trumpet used in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is also a name for a 4' organ reed stop that produces a high-pitched or clarion-like sound on a pipe organ in the clarion trumpet's range of notes.

Falset is the latitude for a brasswind player's pitch-control of a harmonic by adjusting lip or air pressure. While only just sufficient in middle and high registers to allow for intonation adjustment, this latitude becomes very wide in the low register in the flattening direction. Without this ability for adjustment, the conventional system of three valves would be problematic owing to the sharpness of certain valve combinations. Previously also falset referred to falsetto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mute cornett</span>

The mute cornett was an important variant of the treble cornett and it was used in compositions by European composers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A significant number of mute cornetts have survived and are preserved in various European museums. Modern makers of cornetts produce mute cornetts and the numbers of recordings of music featuring this instrument has increased in recent years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wind instrument</span> Class of musical instruments with air resonator

A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of some wind instruments, sound is produced by blowing through a reed; others require buzzing into a metal mouthpiece, while yet others require the player to blow into a hole at an edge, which splits the air column and creates the sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horn (instrument)</span> Brass instrument

A horn is any of a family of musical instruments made of a tube, usually made of metal and often curved in various ways, with one narrow end into which the musician blows, and a wide end from which sound emerges. In horns, unlike some other brass instruments such as the trumpet, the bore gradually increases in width through most of its length—that is to say, it is conical rather than cylindrical. In jazz and popular-music contexts, the word may be used loosely to refer to any wind instrument, and a section of brass or woodwind instruments, or a mixture of the two, is called a horn section in these contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music technology (mechanical)</span>

Mechanical music technology is the use of any device, mechanism, machine or tool by a musician or composer to make or perform music; to compose, notate, play back or record songs or pieces; or to analyze or edit music. The earliest known applications of technology to music was prehistoric peoples' use of a tool to hand-drill holes in bones to make simple flutes. Ancient Egyptians developed stringed instruments, such as harps, lyres and lutes, which required making thin strings and some type of peg system for adjusting the pitch of the strings. Ancient Egyptians also used wind instruments such as double clarinets and percussion instruments such as cymbals. In Ancient Greece, instruments included the double-reed aulos and the lyre. Numerous instruments are referred to in the Bible, including the horn, pipe, lyre, harp, and bagpipe. During Biblical times, the cornet, flute, horn, organ, pipe, and trumpet were also used. During the Middle Ages, hand-written music notation was developed to write down the notes of religious Plainchant melodies; this notation enabled the Catholic church to disseminate the same chant melodies across its entire empire.

References

  1. ↑ Marcuse 1975, p. 124, "Coradoiz".
  2. ↑ Herbert, Myers & Wallace 2019, p. 490, Appendix 2: The Ranges of Labrosones.
  3. ↑ Simian, Ricardo. "Ordering a cornetto". 3D Music Instruments. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  4. ↑ Heller, Fritz. "Gerade Zinken". Instrumentenbauer Fritz Heller (in German). Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  5. ↑ Hathaway, Daniel (21 June 2010). "A Conversation with cornetto virtuoso Bruce Dickey". Cleveland Classical. Retrieved 11 October 2024. Well, there are about four good makers, the best of which is a fellow in Montreal, Matt Jennejohn.
  6. ↑ "Christopher Monk Instruments". Jeremy West. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  7. ↑ Tomaszewicz, Grzegorz (2024). "Price List". GT Instruments. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  8. ↑ van der Veen, Siem (2024). "Zink Cornetto". Zink Cornetto (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  9. ↑ "Zink". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
  10. ↑ Brown, Howard; Polk, Keith (2001). "Alta (i)" . Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.00676. ISBN   978-1-56159-263-0 . Retrieved 29 October 2024. alta musique (Fr.) or 'loud music' as opposed to basse musique, 'soft music'
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Baines, Anthony (1957). Woodwind Instruments and Their History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. pp. 259–60. ISBN   9780486268859.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Marcuse 1975, p. 128–129, "Cornett".
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Marcuse 1975, p. 354, "Mute cornett".
  14. ↑ "cornet à piston" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  15. ↑ "cornet" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  16. ↑ Marcuse 1975, p. 128, "Cornett"; "Its correct Engl. name, 'cornet' [...] having been bestowed on a modern brass instrument, the word is nowadays customarily written 'cornett.'".
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mahillon, Victor-Charles; Schlesinger, Kathleen (1911). "Cornet"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 7 (11th ed.). pp. 170–173.
  18. ↑ Jeremy Montagu (1978). "One of Tut'ankhamūn's Trumpets". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 64. Sage Publications, Ltd.: 133–134. doi:10.2307/3856451. JSTOR   3856451. a ceremonial instrument capable of producing only one or two notes. The lowest note is poor in quality and carrying power ... the Egyptian military trumpet signal code was a rhythmic one on a single pitch
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Baines, Anthony; Dickey, Bruce (2001). "Cornett" . Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06516. ISBN   978-1-56159-263-0 . Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  20. ↑ Klaus 2013, p. 76.
  21. ↑ Klaus 2013, p. 78.
  22. ↑ Klaus 2013, p. 79.
  23. ↑ Marcuse 1975, p. 137, "Curved cornett".
  24. ↑ Marcuse 1975, p. xi, 129, "Cornettino".
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 Galpin, Francis W. (1911). OLD ENGLISH INSTRUMENTS Of MUSIC. Chicago: A. C. McCLURG & CO . pp. 188–198.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jarratt-Knock 2014, p. 33.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Baines, Anthony (1984). "Cornett". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . New York: MacMillan Press. pp. 497–503. ISBN   978-0-333-37878-6.
    Note: page 503 shows a photo of the bottom cornett, and says it is a tenor cornett.
  28. ↑ Marcuse 1975, p. 130, Cornone.
  29. ↑ "Cornet à bouquin basse". Musée de la Musique (in French). Philharmonie de Paris. 1873 [Built c. 16th century]. Accession number: E.577. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  30. ↑ Viet-Linh NGUYEN; Pierre-Damien Houville, eds. (13 March 2010). "The cornetto, "a nerd thing"?". Muse Baroque.
  31. ↑ "CORNET À BOUQUIN BASSE". Philharmonie de Paris Collections du Musée. Wood covered in leather. 4 iron and copper keys. Mouthpiece in ivory... Total length 983mm
  32. 1 2 Marcuse 1975, p. 494–495, "Straight cornett".
  33. ↑ "CORNET À BOUQUIN TÉNOR EN FORME DE SERPENT". Cité de la Musique, Philharmonie de Paris. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  34. ↑ Lawson, Graeme (2024). Sound Tracks: Uncovering our Musical Past. London: The Bodley Head. p. 317-321. ISBN   978-1-847-92687-6.
  35. 1 2 Ross W. Duffin, ed. (2000). A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music. Indiana University Press. p. 395. ISBN   0253215331.
  36. ↑ Jarratt-Knock 2014, p. 4.
  37. ↑ Klaus 2013, p. 53-54.
  38. ↑ Davidson, Roberta (2004). "Prison and Knightly Identity in Sir Thomas Malory's "Morte Darthur"". Arthuriana. 14 (2): 54–63. doi:10.1353/art.2004.0066. JSTOR   27870603. S2CID   161386973.
  39. ↑ Pittaway, Ian (14 July 2015). "The gemshorn: a (necessarily) short history". Early Music Muse. These animal horns drilled with finger holes...eventually leading to the creation of the leather-covered wooden cornett in c. 1500
  40. ↑ Jarratt-Knock 2014, p. 62.
  41. ↑ ""G2" Resin Cornett". Christopher Monk Instruments. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  42. ↑ Selfridge-Field, Eleanor (1994). Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi. New York: Dover Publications. p. 15. ISBN   0-486-28151-5.
  43. ↑ Arnold, Denis (2001). "Giovanni Bassano". In Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Vol. 2 (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers. p. 254. ISBN   978-1-56159-239-5.‎
  44. ↑ Dürr, Alfred (2006). The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text. Translated by Richard D. P. Jones. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-929776-4.
  45. ↑ Klaus Hofmann (2007), Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende /Praise God! Now the Year Draws to a Close, BWV 28 (pp. 6–7), Bach Cantatas Website
  46. ↑ Buchner, Alexander (1980). Colour Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments. Translated by Simon Pellar. London: Hamlyn. p. 101. ISBN   0-600-36421-6.
  47. ↑ "Shofar guide". ajudaica.com/. Many experts use the side of their mouth to blow the Shofar, in order to get the right sound.
  48. 1 2 3 Girolamo dalla Casa detto da U dene (1584). "Il Vero Modo Di Diminuir" (PDF). Historic Brass Society Journal. Translated by Jesse Rosenberg: 112.
  49. ↑ Maier, Joseph F. (1732). Museum Musicum Theoretico-Practicum. München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Schwäbisch Hall. Applicatio zum Zinken
  50. ↑ Dickey, Bruce. 1982. "The Decline of the Cornett: Most Excellent of Wind Instruments". Musick 4, no. 1 (September):23–32. p. 26.
  51. ↑ Kite-Powell, Jeffery (2012). "6: Cornett and Sackbut". In Carter, Stewart; Kite-Powell, Jeffery (eds.). A performer's guide to seventeenth-century music (2nd ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 100–118. ISBN   978-0253357069.

Bibliography

Extant cornetts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Modern performance

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.