DID YOU KNOW!??? ...

The trumpet hasn't always had three valves and a normal key of Bb - I want to talk about the instrument that the trumpet used to be, until the invention of the valve in about 1815.

All of the most beautiful music written for the trumpet by J.S. Bach, Telemann and Handel was written for a long piece of tube with a bell - no holes, no keys, no slides and no valves! These instruments were long - without any bends 7-8 feet of tubing but bent twice so they could be carried. The music was written within the natural harmonic series that any length of tube can produce - so if I put a mouthpiece into a hosepipe with a cooking funnel on the end I can play this music, or Trumpet Voluntary.

So where do these notes come from if there aren't any buttons to press? They are called harmonics - natural things that obey the laws of physics. As a trumpet player changes the speed of air blown, the shape in their mouth (from "aaaah" low down to "eeeee" up high) and slightly tighten their lips, the note goes up. From the bottom of the instrument there are big jumps between harmonics (good for fanfares!!! and you can play them LOUD) but are you play higher, the notes get closer and closer together until the natural trumpet can play tunes. When it plays these higher notes, in this high register, it sounds more like a woodwind instrument.

This low, strong register was used for directing troops in battle, the higher register in celebration or for use in church - in fact even now the modern trumpet is still played in military bands. So whether it is Beethoven's 9th 'Ode to Joy' or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, it was written for the NATURAL TRUMPET - often you will here these played on a very short, small trumpet with 4 valves (the PICCOLO) which sounds quite different.

Nick Wright (2009)