THE ROMANTIC TRUMPET - Historic Brass Society

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Symphonies, also with first and second trumpeters sustaining in unison in the Missa
Solemnis, composed in 1811-13, 1822-24, and 1819-23, respectively), and Schubert once
even required his first and second trumpeters to play octave O's (AP-0"): Fourth Symphony,
written before 27 April 1816, first movement, measures 116-117 and 124-125). 31 Beethoven
in particular demanded physical strength from his first trumpeters in writing many long
sustained passages in the register around g", the twelfth partial. He wrote for the trumpet
in its highest crooking, F, in his Overture to Goethe's Egmont, Op. 84 (1809-10), and in
his Eighth Symphony, Op. 93 (1812). Schubert, in his First Symphony (1813), wrote high
c"' into the 1st D trumpet part countless times, a practice which he thenceforth abandoned;
we leave it to our readers' imagination as to why he gave up the notes above g", given the
acoustical design of the instruments then in use. The highest crooking to be found with
Schubert, E, occurs in his "Unfinished" Symphony (1822); here the composer did not
require his first trumpeter to venture above e". 32
Shapes. Trumpets were built during this period in a variety of shapes, five in all, some
of them more and others less conducive to hand-stopping." We find long trumpets (in the
traditional form with only one double folding of the tubing), shorter ones (with two double
folds), invention trumpets (with an additional tuning slide), curved half-moon trumpets,
and even coiled ones.
a. Long trumpet. The technique of hand-stopping was probably not used, or infrequently
so, on the long trumpet. Small wonder, since it is hard to reach the bell with one's
hand. Nevertheless, we cannot rule this out completely, since the French trompette
d'harmonie mentioned above seems to have been built in this shape. Merri Franquin (1848-
1934), trumpet professor at the Paris Conservatory from 1894 to 1925 and an eye-witness,
reminisces that the natural trumpet remained in use at the Paris Opera even until 1891, well
into the valve era. According to him, the players had a box under their music stands,
containing both a natural trumpet and a valved trumpet, together with crooks fitting both;
the choice of instrument depended on whether the passage in question was chromatic or
used natural notes only. 34 Such a double case, now lacking its valved trumpet but still
containing its long trompette d'harmonie built ca. 1865 by Gautrot & Marquet of Paris, is
in the author's collection. It is in G, has six crooks (F, E, El, D, C, and B 6 ), and possesses
a tuning slide at the bend of tubing leading to the bell section. 35
b. Short trumpet (Ger. Kurztrompete). It is likely that these instruments, built in
standard trumpet shape but with one extra folding of the tubing, were designed to be played
with the hand in the bell. This type of instrument goes back to a matched set of four
instruments in F made for a church in Schweidnitz (Silesia, now Poland). Two of them were
made by Johann Leonhard Ehe III (Nuremberg, ca. 1735) 36 and two by Heinrich Nicolaus
John (Breslau, 1735). 37
Numerous short trumpets made in the early 19th century in the triangular area
represented by Vienna, Budapest, and Prague and designed to be played with crooks are
found in museums and private collections today. 38 Their first fold of tubing is shorter than
the main one and results in a short mouthpipe. Most surviving keyed trumpets also have this