Trumpet (musical instrument)

“ Then came the worker in metal, copying the product of nature, yet not venturing much beyond it.
The old monarchies of Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt, with their tablets and monuments and paintings, afford no evidence of a stage of musical advance from the early horn; and we have but to contrast the wide range of our trumpet with the few notes producible on a cow’s horn, to recognise how, in the absence of higher aim inciting to achievement which we call art, the dormant possibilities of a marvellous instrument should have been unevoked: empires passed away, and the trumpet remained a horn. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There are three principal kinds of trumpets: (1) the natural trumpet, mainly used in cavalry regiments, in which the length of the tube and pitch are varied by means of crooks; (2) the slide and double-slide trumpets, in which a chromatic compass is obtained, as in the trombone, by double tubes sliding upon one another without loss of air; (3) the valve trumpet, similar in its working to all other valve instruments. The first and second of these alone give the true trumpet timbre; the tone of the valve trumpet approximates to that of the cornet, nevertheless, it is now almost universally used. ”

“ A curious phenomenon has been observed [1] in connexion with the harmonic series of the trumpet, when the instrument is played by means of a special clarino mouthpiece (a shallow one enabling the performer to reach the higher harmonics) , in which the passage at the bottom of the cup inaugurated by the sharp angle (known as the grain in French) is prolonged in cylindrical instead of conical bore for a distance of about 10 cm. (4 in.) right into the main tube. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A funnel, or short, fiaring pipe, used as a guide or conductor, as for yarn in a knitting machine.
Ear trumpet. See under Ear. — Sea trumpet (Bot.) , a great seaweed (Ecklonia buccinalis) of the Southern Ocean. It has a long, hollow stem, enlarging upwards, which may be made into a kind of trumpet, and is used for many purposes. — Speaking trumpet, an instrument for conveying articulate sounds with increased force. — Trumpet animalcule (Zoöl.) , any infusorian belonging to Stentor and allied genera, in which the body is trumpet-shaped. ”

“ Old stringed instruments have generally died hard: and very primitive ones have maintained their place side by side with the improved ones founded upon them. Thus the Marine Trumpet, which is the oldest bowed instrument, and represents the earliest development of the Monochord, long continued in use concurrently with instruments of a more advanced kind, and is not yet quite obsolete. [See Tromba Marina.] A Guitar-shaped Violin, which is directly descended from the Fidel of the Troubadours, has been made and used in all ages. ”

“ 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 ”

“ When the arc to be guarded is larger than that effectively covered by two trumpets, the mushroom-head trumpet is a satisfactory instrument for the purpose. (3) A siren rotated by a separate motor yields better results than when self-driven. (4) No advantage commensurate with the additional power required is obtained by the use of air at a higher pressure than 25 ℔ per sq. ”

“ He was one of the earliest and most indefatigable champions of the valve horns and trumpets made by Sax of Paris, and also, by a less happy inspiration, made propaganda for the cornet à pistons, which is in comparison with its noble cousin, the trumpet, a most vulgar instrument. He was a daring, but not always a cautious, innovator, frequently seeming to set a higher value upon novelty than upon inherent worth. ”

“ In 1526 he had a band of players, says Edmundstoune Duncan in his Story of Minstrelsy, “composed of fifteen trumpets, three lutes, three rebecks, one harp, two viols, ten sackbuts, a fife, and four drumslades”; a few years later a trumpet, a lute, three minstrels, and a player of the virginals were added. (A rebeck is an early form of violin; a sackbut is a reed instrument with a sliding piece such as we have today in the trombone; the drumslade is an old word for drum.) ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Musical instruments were divided by the ancients into three kinds: [1100] those which were played by means of the breath,—the pipe, the trumpet, and the flute; those whose harmony resided in their strings, as the lyre and the cithara; and those which produced sound by beating or clashing against each other, as cymbals and the drum. The best trumpets, supposed to have been an invention of the Tyrrhenians, [1101] were obtained from Italy, though on many occasions great sea-shells were substituted for those larger instruments. ”

“ The inventor wound it up on the left hip; another touch on the left shoulder, and forth came from the trumpet, in succession, all the French cavalry-calls, the French cavalry march, a march by Dussek, and one of Pleyel's allegros; again accompanied by the orchestra. In the Journal des Modes, whence this account is derived, it is declared that the tones produced by Maelzel's automaton were even fuller and richer than those got out of a trumpet by human lungs and lips; because a man's breath imparts to the inside of the instrument a moisture which deteriorates the quality of the tone. ”

“ The natural method, however, is to let a trumpet, which is a good soprano voice, sing the air, while the other trumpet and three of the horns take the middle voices, the fourth horn and first and second trombones the lower middle voices, the third trombone and tuba the bass. ”

“ If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people: Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.” The trumpet has sounded in your ears, long and loud; the clear, thrilling, evangelical trumpet. The herald of God has done his duty ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”