It is a hybrid
between this high pitch trumpet and the bugle, but compared with the
latter it has a much smaller bell. By the use of valves and pistons,
with which it was the first to be endowed, the cornet can easily
execute passages of consecutive notes that in the natural trumpet can
only be got an octave higher. It is a facile instrument, and double
tonguing, which is also possible with the horn and trumpet, is one of
its popular means for display. It has a harmonic compass from middle C
to C above the treble clef, and can go higher, but with difficulty. A
few lower notes, however, are easily taken with the valves.
We now come to the trombones, grand, sonorous tubes, which, existing
in three or four sizes since the sixteenth century, are among the most
potent additions on occasion to the full orchestra. Their treble can
be regarded as the English slide trumpet, but it is not exactly so.
There appears to have been as late as Bach a soprano trombone, and it
is figured by Virdung, A.D. 1511, as no larger than the field trumpet.
The trumpet is not on so large a caliber, and in the seventeenth
century had its own family of two clarinos and three tubas. The old
English name of the trombone is sackbut.
Pages:
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61