The Sound of Trumpets

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Music reviews of The Sound of Trumpets

Music Review: Brilliant Trumpet Music--Short but Sweet!
Rating: 5 Stars

Description of The Sound of Trumpets

Baroque trumpets were natural instruments -- valveless metal tubes approximately eight feet long, either straight or coiled into a loop, with cylindrical bores and flared bells. They were capable of producing only one note, the fundamental, although overtones could be obtained by changing lip tension at the mouthpiece. To achieve a complete diatonic scale, trumpeters were forced to play in the top, or clarino, register, sometimes up as high as the eighteenth overtone. Bores were made narrower to facilitate technique, and as a result the natural trumpet, unlike the modern valve trumpet, had a soft, flute-like tone. Composition for these instruments presented grave difficulties, since they could not move harmonically very far from their fundamental pitch. Intonation was often insecure, and melodic limitations loomed in all but the upper register. As musical styles began to change in the mid-18th century, clarino playing became passé and began to decline. In the aftermath of the French Revolution many of Europe's smaller courts and consequently private trumpet corps, were swept away and inventors began experimenting to find a more practical instrument. And finally with the 1813 development of the valve trumpet, the once highly-prized clarino techniques were lost.

From the classical era until recent years much of the music written for the natural trumpet was considered unplayable. However, the brilliant trumpet virtuosi of our time have developed the techniques and stylistic command to allow this music once again to dazzle and delight the listener.

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