Ear trumpet

“ A spirit speaking in the faintest whisper through the trumpet is enabled to have its voice heard plainly by those present in the circle, where otherwise nothing would be heard. Often the spirit force is so strong that it will pick up the trumpet and carry it around the circle, tapping the various members thereof, and whispering through it into the ear of some particular members. Weak spirits, therefore, who are unable to make themselves heard in the ordinary way, often employ the trumpet with effect in seances. ”

“ The vibrations of the strings are communicated by the pivoted lever over which they pass to the corrugated aluminium disc, and by this to the air lying in the trumpet-tube. This tube points straight away from the player, and directs the air waves to the audience in front. The tone of the new violin is declared by connoisseurs to be remarkably full, mellow, and resonant. The notes have a richness and power which satisfies the ear, and is generally only to be found in the handiwork of the classical constructors of the ordinary form of violin. ”

“ Whoever keeps an open ear
For tattlers will be sure to hear
The trumpet of contention; ”

“ At once the trumpets, ivory horns, kettle drums, bells large and small, and all kinds of music, both iron and copper, including all the kitchen utensils of the Monbuttoos, honoured us with a hubbub even more discordant than the former one.
Occasionally the orchestra ceased, to allow of a solo being performed. A musician stepped to the front, and produced from a huge trumpet sounds intended to represent the sough of the wind, the songs of birds, the rumbling of a storm, or the roaring of lions. Amongst this primitive race, what is called imitative music is always highly esteemed. ”

“ But the trumpet was evidently an old cavalry trumpet, and the threads of its parti-colored sling, though fretted and dusty, still hung together. Around the side-drum, beneath its cracked brown varnish, I could hardly trace a royal coat-of-arms and a legend running, "Per Mare Per Terram"—the motto of the marines. Its parchment, though black and scented with woodsmoke, was limp and mildewed; and I began to tighten up the straps—under which the drumsticks had been loosely thrust—with the idle purpose of seeing if some music might be got out of the old drum yet. ”

“ The forte of the orchestra receives the bulk of its puissance from the brass instruments, which, nevertheless, can give voice to an extensive gamut of sentiments and feelings. There is nothing more cheery and jocund than the flourishes of the horns, but also nothing more mild and soothing than the songs which sometimes they sing. There is nothing more solemn and religious than the harmony of the trombones, while "the trumpet's loud clangor" is the very voice of a war-like spirit. ”

“ The trumpet is made of wood, and its sound is described by travellers as very deep but rather pleasant. The sound is easily produced, and its continuance does not require much exertion; but a peculiar vibration of the lips is necessary which requires practice. Another trumpet, the turé, is common with many Indian tribes on the Amazon who use it chiefly in war. It is made of a long and thick bamboo, and there is a split reed in the mouthpiece. It therefore partakes rather of the character of an oboe or clarinet. ”

“ TRUMPET (Fr. trompette, clairon; Ger. Trompete, Klarino, Trummet; Ital. tromba, trombetta, clarino) , in music, a brass wind instrument with cup-shaped mouthpiece and a very characteristic tone. It consists of a brass or silver tube with a narrow cylindrical bore except for the bell joint, forming from 1⁄3 to 1⁄4 of the whole length, which is conical and terminates in a bell of moderate diameter. The tube of the trumpet is doubled round upon itself to form a long irregular rectangle with rounded corners. ”

“ They are really members of one family, as the name trombone—big trumpet—implies, and blend well together. The trumpet is an instrument of court and state functions, and, as the soprano instrument, comes first. It is what is known as an eight foot instrument in pitch, and gives the different harmonics from the third to the twelfth, and even to the sixteenth. It is made of brass, mixed metal, or silver, and is about five feet seven inches in real length, when intended for the key of F without a slide ”

“ This is obvious, but we cannot say how far the bravery of the tune puts strength into tired legs, and this would be incitement,—and how far it is the unappeasable rhythm that forces the men to keep going, and this may perhaps be called regulation. There are occasions when the trumpet comes as a signal to troops waiting to make some sublime effort, and where the fierce imperious sound has a lift and a sting which perhaps no pre-concerted signal of a weaker type could give. ”

“ The bending back of the trumpet upon itself, now a well-known feature in the appearance of the instrument, was an invention of a Frenchman towards the end of the fifteenth century. The trumpet is one of the oldest wind instruments used in concert with others. As far back as 1607 a piece for five trumpets, in the Orfeo of Monteverde, was played at the Court of Mantua. It became an instrument much cultivated, and Handel's and Bach's parts for it are of extreme difficulty. The notes of the trumpet are the natural harmonics produced by varying pressure of the lips in the mouthpiece. ”

“ Furthermore, the Egyptians had, as far as is known to us, 14 two kinds of trumpets; three kinds of tambourines, or little hand drums; three kinds of drums, chiefly barrel-shaped; and various kinds of gongs, bells, cymbals, and castanets. The trumpet appears to have been usually of brass. A peculiar wind-instrument, somewhat the shape of a champagne bottle and perhaps made of pottery or wood, also occurs in the representations transmitted to us. ”

“ The trumpet is a brass instrument, the tube of which is one-half the length of that of the French horn in the same key, and it therefore sounds an octave higher than the horn. The modern orchestral trumpet is provided with the usual three valves, which give it a complete chromatic scale within its compass of about two and one-half octaves. ”

“ Nay, it is worthy of remark that the instruments capable of the greatest artistic development are just those which possess least this power over the nerves: the whole violin and harpsichord tribe, the human voice when sound and natural—saying least themselves, are capable of saying most for others; whereas the trumpet, the accordion, the harp, the zither, are condemned by their very expressiveness to a hopeless inferiority; they produce an effect spontaneously by their mere tone; the artist can produce on them but that effect, and can scarcely heighten even it. ”

“ But, that the trumpet might not give an uncertain sound, they are directed, if only the princes and elders were to meet, to blow but one of the trumpets; less should serve to call them together, who ought to be examples of forwardness in any thing that is good: but, if the body of the people were to be called together, both the trumpets must be sounded, that they might be heard at the greater distance. ”

“ The last trumpet, when it awakes the dead, will have no soft and silvery sound for the silken sons and daughters of luxury, but send out the same earth-rending peal, and startle all from their long deep slumber. ”

“ The quality of tone varies greatly in the different instruments and registers. The alto trombone has neither power nor richness of tone, but sounds hard and has a timbre between that of a trumpet and a French horn. The tenor and bass have a full rich quality suitable for heroic, majestic music, but the tone depends greatly on the performer's method of playing; the modern tendency to produce a harsh, noisy blare is greatly to be deplored.
Besides the slide trombone, which is most largely used, there are the valve trombones, and the double-slide trombones. ”

“ And even if the singer should find it difficult to hit them off, never mind, the public will not be a whit the wiser. But one of the principal rules to be observed is this, that no rest of any kind, no pause, must be allowed the wind-instruments; the trumpet, the trombone, the drum, and the octave-flute most be kept incessantly at work, so as to deprive the hearer of every means of following the singer, who, to say the truth, has not in general much to do with the piece, and is only an object of subordinate interest in the opera. ”

“ The open string is ordinarily tuned to CC: and when sounded with the bow, it yields a powerful note, of harsh and nasal character, something like an ft. wooden organ reed-pipe. Played by stopping in the ordinary way, the marine trumpet produces tones far less melodious than the bray of an ass. ”

“ They are desperately engaged with each other; while their martial spirit is raised to the highest pitch by the sharp and reverberating blasts of the trumpet. The trumpeters blow their instruments with all their might. ”

“ But it is much easier to get good cornet-players than good trumpeters, so the cornet is quite common. The pealing, militant character of the trumpet is always associated in the mind with that of the army bugle, which it closely resembles. The trumpets are usually employed in chords written for the brass, or in the big mass effects of the orchestra. They are seldom called upon to intone a melody except in passages in which the brass plays alone, or when a very brilliant and forcible orchestration is used. ”

“ The trumpets sold in the shops, as a rule, make a very loud noise indeed—in fact, a little of it goes a very long way with most people. The increased sound is probably due to [Pg 40] the body of the trumpet being composed of brass, which, vibrating in unison with the ferrotype plate, increases the sound. Wood will therefore not give so loud a sound, and if you can construct the case of metal you should certainly do so. The vibrations of the plate, and therefore the sound, may also be increased by using a horseshoe magnet, the two poles attracting the plate more strongly. ”

“ It is the music which accelerates or moderates the movement, which heightens with [Pg 31] an accent more acute the discourse of the actor, or which, surging up behind him, brings to his ears clamor and rumor. There are guitars, bits of wood that are beaten like tympans, that are clashed like castanets; a sort of monochord violin which, like a fountain in a solitary court, by the thread of its plaintive melody, carries the development of the elegy; and finally, in the heroic movements, the trumpet. ”

“ Instruments of percussion of indefinite sonorousness or, in other words, pulsatile instruments which have not a sound of a fixed pitch, as the drum, rattle, castanets, etc., are most universal. Wind instruments of the flute kind—​including pipes, whistles, flutes, Pandean pipes, etc.—​are also to be found almost everywhere.
Much the same is the case with wind instruments of the trumpet kind. These are often made of the horns, bones, and tusks of animals; frequently of vegetable substances and of metal. ”

“ The sounds produced by instruments are chiefly musical. Kratzeustein and Kempelen have, however, by making experiments on the effects of pipes of different forms, succeeded in constructing such as will imitate very accurately the different vowel sounds produced by the human voice. The speaking trumpet is an instrument intended for transmitting sound to considerable distances in a particular direction. ”

“ The musicians lead in the scene; the three foreground trumpeters, conspicuous on the carpeted dais, seem to be trumpeting for their lives. The golden, cavernous trumpet-mouth pointing directly at us has a strangely inspiring effect, seeming to invade us with sound breaking on the heavy roll of the meditative drummer. The music connects itself with the background and helps to widen the horizon. There is not one of these pictures which is not enlarged by the suggestion, at least, of some wide background of nature. ”

“ But it really was something—something which came nearer and nearer, so that there was no mistaking it. It was the sound of a trumpet, one of the great silver trumpets so admired in Nomansland. Not pleasant music, but very bold, grand, and inspiring. ”

“ At the time of Charlemagne, and still more in the days of the Crusades, the intercourse that took place between the men of the West and the African and Asiatic races introduced among the former the use of musical instruments of a harsh and piercing tone. Then it was that the Saracen-horns, made of{202} copper, replaced the wooden or horn trumpets. At the same period sackbuts, or sambutes (Fig. 167) , made their appearance in Italy: in those of the ninth century, we find the principle of the modern trombone. About the same epoch the Germans introduced great improvements into the trumpet ”

“ The chief motive of the first movement is heard in the basses. A trombone sounds a fanfare, which is answered by the trumpet; the first fundamental 249 theme is heard, and an allegro moto follows, derived from the preceding fanfare, and leads to an orientally colored intermezzo. “There are curious episodes in which all the strings repeat the same chord over and over again in rapid succession—very like the responses of a congregation in church—as an accompaniment to the ‘Scheherazade’ motive, now in the clarinet, now in the bassoon.” ”

“ Trumpet, trum′pet, n. the most ancient of wind instruments, formed of a long, narrow, straight tube, bent twice on itself, the last fifteen inches tapering into a bell, and sounded by means of a cupped mouthpiece—much used in military signalling: in organs, a powerful reed-stop having a trumpet-like sound: a cry resembling a trumpet-sound: (fig.) one who praises.—v.t. to publish by trumpet: to proclaim: to sound the praises of.—v.i. to sound a trumpet.—ns. ”