18 News - Historic Brass Society

played out of tune! One quote in the French Encyclopédie is very clear
about that, it says “the intonation of the f and the a is by nature out
of tune in the major scale on trumpets and horns and that their good
intonation depends only of the artistry of the player 6 .
The mouthpiece
the player and instrument is the most critical.
The extant mouthpieces from the 16th to the 19th centuries show a
clear evolution from large to small. This observation is supported by
iconographical evidence. The tendency can be accounted by the transition
from signal to musical instrument and furthermore by the addition
of slides and valves. If one asks why the cups of historical trumpet
mouthpieces are larger than present day mouthpieces (19 to 21 mm
as opposed to 16 to 17 mm), one is persuaded to conclude that this is
no accident of mindless tradition. These mouthpieces were created in
order to enable the player to get notes that were otherwise impossible.
Only later, when hand stopping and valves arrive, did mouthpieces get
smaller. Since valves and slides facilitate the technical mastery of the
to the task in hand.
Since the natural trumpet is roughly double length of the modern valve
trumpet, it would appear logical the proportions of the mouthpiece
this subject here but the use of proportions in musical instrument construction
has been amply demonstrated and documented elsewhere 7 .
comparison to their modern counterparts. In Prague there are a set of
six hallmarked silver mouthpieces belonging to the six Leichnamschneider
silver trumpets. The exterior form of the mouthpieces is almost
identical, the rims however have been tailored to meet the needs of
individual players, each rim and each cup is quite different, the cups
have been subsequently mercury gilded, the gold is still intact, thus
we can be sure that this is how they were designed to be.
The historical mouthpieces that exist now exhibit a variety of cup
forms. These cups are much larger than present day mouthpieces. The
shape that seems to work the best is, in fact the simplest, namely half
round. Joseph Fröhlich, harking back to a bye-gone age, emphasizes
8 .
The transition from the cup to the throat is almost always sharp. Modern
players are unaccustomed to the slight hiss that results but it is a
component of the sound. An instrument maker capable of turning the
is obviously going to be capable of turning the desired interior shape,
is. The hiss itself is reduced a lot when the player centers the note ac-
the throat and the simple round bowl shape create a resistance against
which the player plays, leading to a heightened sense of control.
The throat, is again larger than contemporary mouthpieces (approximately
4.5 to 5.5 mm as opposed to 3.5 to 3.8 mm). The function of
the backbore is to amplify the sound created in the cup and to facilitate
good intonation throughout the instrument. It is the only conicity in
the instrument until the bell, unlike the modern trumpet which has a
conical leadpipe. Since the instrument is much longer than a modern
trumpet, it follows that the baroque mouthpiece and backbore are
proportionally longer.
After studying a few original mouthpieces and many paintings from
the 16 and 17th centuries, we recently re-developed a different type
bore of these earlier instruments are considerably larger than their 18th
century counterparts. These were balanced by large cast mouthpiece
cups, incorporating a sudden and short conical section of less than 10
millimeters, which in turn butted onto a tube the same diameter as the
is a powerful sound in the low register and a silvery falsetto character
to the sound in the high clarino register, the initial results are very
promising and our experiments here are continuing enthusiastically
All these parameters: the rim, the cup, the throat, the backbore…
all being larger than their modern counterparts, contribute towards
creating a certain nobility of sound. A baroque trumpet played with a
modern mouthpiece cannot come close to this sound quality, it probably
would be shriller however!
Viewed as an integral part of the overall acoustic system, the player
is simultaneously, the generator, the vibrator and the resonator of the
sound.
The generator, by this we mean the strong muscles of the mid-section
which go to creating air pressure. This pressure has to be balanced in
all registers to facilitate good sound production, stable intonation and
face (the embouchure), the internal space of the mouth cavity and the
muscles of the tongue. The critical balance between upper and lower
lips is as important here as on the modern trumpet notwithstanding
the use of a larger mouthpiece.
The resonator in this system, is the human body itself. Although it not
much discussed by brass teachers at present and few exercises have
been developed to further its use, I have found that it is the key to
security and the quality of sound and intonation. In order to experience
this phenomenon, one has to play the natural trumpet imitating the
way a singer uses the voice. Those who are aware of this phenomenon
on the modern valve trumpet or vented baroque trumpet just happen
natural (hole-less) trumpet, you will not be in a position to play dif-
As a teacher (I began to teach the valve trumpet and cornet at the age
on the principals above.
I have been teaching this instrument at Lyon 9 for 14 years. In the
colleagues, students and the establishment itself allowed me a free
hand. Initially, improvement was slow, some experiments proved
unfruitful. My performance skills and teaching techniques developed
simultaneously. As a consequence, it takes less time now for students
to learn the basics!
It is essential for those wanting to learn to play the baroque trumpet
without vent holes to have a good embouchure (masque in French or
Ansatz in German) and to have no breathing problems.
What sort of exercises are the best to practice?
HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER - WINTER 2005 | 19