The trumpet is one of the most rapidly changing instruments ever created. The musical purposes of the trumpet are forever changing, as are their mechanical characteristics. It’s use covers practically every genre imaginable. Every style of music from Baroque, to avangarde contemporary music require trumpet. This wasn’t always the case.There was a time when the trumpet was nearly incapable of playing chromatically, and most effectively served as background accompaniment in an orchestra. Although this may seem less rewarding than studying the trumpet as modern performers know it now, it is vital to learning how to continually cultivate a group of musicians eager to contribute to their shared development.
As an instrument the trumpet is still in its infancy. Players and manufacturers are constantly evaluating how to produce more advanced instruments. In combination with this constant desire to examine our future, we should make an effort to learn from our past. Since the invention of the keyed trumpet in the late 1700’s trumpet players have been trying to make new instruments to solve the problems of our current equipment. It is true that the technological improvements we’ve made should be taken advantage of, and celebrated. However, our past faults stay with us, regardless of how much better our equipment is today, than it was 300 years ago.
Because of this, many trumpet players have become quite complacent when thinking about solving their fundamental problems. Many of us decide to buy the newest mouthpiece, or instrument in order to distract from the deep rooted habits we foster. The important thing to know is that these distractions didn’t exist at the time of the keyed, and natural trumpets. The instruments were less developed, and because of this, there were less options. This forced professional musicians to have a higher stand for the pitfalls of the instrument they were playing. Those wanting to have a career playing the keyed trumpet had to pay a great amount of attention to intonation- otherwise it would quite frankly be horrendous. Because of its lack of valves or keys, natural trumpet players had to develop the ability to accurately audiate the music they were expected to play.
In addition to this, studying these two instruments would allow a trumpet player to develop a more accurate survey of what the pieces we study on modern trumpet are really supposed to sound like. These 3 skills are crucial to being a successful performer. If modern musicians were able to look towards the past as a means to fundamentally progress, they would see staggering growth because of the obstacles of these period instruments present. As a trumpet player who recently began to seriously study the natural trumpet, I can say with a high degree of certainty that studying period instruments exposes our flaws in a way that forces us to improve with a great deal of success.
As is true with any type of practice- knowing what to improve is just as important as taking the first step towards progress. Considering how different the keyed, natural, and modern trumpets are, it is very vital to put the other instruments into a context that allows us to understand what we want to get out of practicing each instrument. Historical study of each instrument allows us to see their flaws, strengths, and the opportunities we are given to improve.
Natural Trumpet
The Natural trumpet is one of the modern horn’s most important precursors. In its most authentic form it has no “holes” or “vents”. Because of this, it can’t play chromatically unless it is in an extremely high part of the harmonic series. The baroque, or natural trumpet as we know it can be dated back all the way to the 14th century. Instruments similar to this can be dated back even further. One interesting fact about the natural trumpet is that even when the keyed trumpet was developed, the natural trumpet outlasted it. One of the main reasons for this is because of the keyed trumpet’s faulty design. The keyed trumpet was notorious for having significant problems with intonation, and consequently, playing in an ensemble. Although the baroque trumpet was limited in its range, its design was much less complicated. Because of this, the baroque trumpet was typically more intune, and had a better sound. Where the keyed trumpet lost resonance because of its holes, the natural trumpet had an abundance of overtones due to its length. Because many composers had yet to write any significant trumpet parts before the invention of the piston and rotary trumpets, the ability to play chromatically was not worth the trade offs with intonation and sound. After the keyed trumpet lost favor to the natural trumpet, it virtually disappeared until i’s recreation in 1970. This is interesting considering that trumpets from the baroque era have been consistently played across parts of the US, and Europe pretty intensely since its creation. To hear the natural trumpet in its most accurate setting it should be compared to modern instruments.
- Here is a recording of British virtuoso of both modern, and period trumpets, Alison Balsom describing the mechanical, and musical differences of the two.
- Listen to the beginning then skip to 2:30 to her a modern c trumpet, then 5:57 to hear the piccolo trumpet.
To hear more of the Natural trumpet check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgYFEu04ZkA
Keyed Trumpet
The Keyed trumpet was invented by the Austrian trumpet virtuoso Anton Weidinger in the late 1700’s. Similarly to a clarinet, this instrument has keys that the player would close, or open up in order to change the pitch. Because of this, the keyed trumpet was less resonant than an instrument like the modern trumpet, or the baroque trumpet because of the amount of sound and overtones that were lost in the process of playing chromatically, and letting air escape the instrument. Due to its less piercing qualities, this trumpet was known to sound much closer to an oboe, or lighter woodwind instrument than what we would currently imagine any type of trumpet to sound like. Despite its numerous technical flaws, this instrument still proved to be invaluable because of its ability to push musical boundaries for trumpet players. The first notable performance with the Keyed trumpet took place when Haydn’s trumpet concerto was premiered using a keyed trumpet. The 1796 composition alternates between typically fanfares that one could expect from a trumpet, and scales, or other lyrical lines that were previously impossible before the instrument’s creation. Although this instrument is historically important, it was never widely accepted outside of Austria. The only pieces written for the keyed trumpet were written by Autrian composers. (The most notable of these works being the Haydn, and Hummel concertos)
Modern Trumpet
As you could guess by its name, the modern trumpet is the most recent type of trumpet. The modern trumpet comes in a very wide variety of keys, and types. The full family of modern trumpets includes ones with piston valves, rotary valves, and includes trumpets in the keys of Eb, Bb, C, D, G, A, E, as well as cornets and flugelhorns. The first valve systems weren’t made until after more than several decades after the invention of the keyed trumpet. The most common valve system for trumpet players in the United States are known as piston valves. Piston valves were patented by the French trumpet player Francios Perinet in 1839. In addition to Perinet’s work, the Austrian instrument maker Joseph Riedl was created for designing the first rotary valve brass system in 1832. In a lot of ways adding valves to trumpets served to keep the strengths of each instrument, without the typical obstacles. Because of the addition of rotary, and piston valves, trumpets had the range of keys trumpets, with better intionation than keyes trumpets, and could keep some of the resonance that trumpets from the baroque period have.
To hear a comparison between the keyed trumpet, and the modern trumpet click on this link! It contains the 1st movement of the Haydn Concerto on both keyed trumpet, and a modern piston trumpet.
The Future of the trumpet
There are an unlimited amount of possibilities for the trumpet’s future. Within the last 65 years the number of prolific trumpet soloists, and pieces have both grown exponentially. Many of our instrument’s greatest players are actively pushing the boundaries of the trumpet as a solo instrument. Although the goals these artists are the same (to challenge what people think the trumpet is capable of) they seek out this goal in very different ways.
For example, the Swedish trumpet player Hakan Hardenberger has commissioned dozens of new concerti for trumpet that are slowly becoming standards in our repertoire. This is related to the Russian trumpet player Sergei Nakariakov. Sergei released his first solo album as a teenager, and ever since has been pushing the trumpet’s capabilities by playing transcriptions of other instrument’s solo repertoire. His album No Limit doesn’t have a single composition intended for trumpet. It does, however, include The Rococo Variations by Tchakivsky, Rhapsody in Blue arranged for solo trumpet, as well as a few other pieces that are nothing short of amazing. One last Icon of the trumpet world worth mentioning is Pacho Flores. Mr. Flores is a Venezulain trumpet player who in the last decade has become one of the world’s best brass players. Past this, what’s most interesting about him is his contribution to the trumpet community through the type of trumpet he has had designed. He is the first trumpet player to play a four valved trumpet. This instrument solves two of the biggest issues with the modern trumpet. The first of these being that it expands the range of the instrument by about a tritone. In addition to this, the extra valve allows for alternate fingerings that can improve intonation in some problem areas of the instrument. Through their dedication to music, I believe that these three soloists are framing the trumpet in a way that begs the world to reconsider its possibilities.
Within a 50 year span the keyed trumpet, and piston trumpet were both invented. Considering how big of a change those two inventions were to their predecessors, and how long ago they happened- it’s fair to say that there is much more to come in the future. I believe that Pacho, Hakan, and Sergei’s goals will all compliment each other. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pacho’s trumpet became the standard instrument within 30 years. If this change was to be made, then Sergei, and Hakan’s goals could be more intensely realised. This would through more successfully adapting old music, as well as giving current composers a wider palate to work with.
This is one of the reasons I love the trumpet. There is so much room to grow upon an already engaging instrument. All of the possibilities are out there, we just have to find them. Across my generation of trumpet players, there is a common theme of excitement, and optimism about our instrument’s future. I am no exception to this rule, and am eager to contribute to its development in any way possible.
Works Cited
Boyle, Jimmy. “A Comparison of Performances of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto Mvmt 3.” Medium, Medium, 26 Apr. 2018,
medium.com/@jimmyboyle/a-comparison-of-performances-of-the-haydn-trumpet-concerto-mvmt-3-218a760b0f3e.
Gingery, Adam. “The Haydn Trumpet Concerto.” Musika Lessons Blog, 1 June 2016, www.musikalessons.com/blog/2016/03/haydn-trumpet-concerto/.
PeoplePill. “Anton Weidinger: Austrian Trumpeter (1766-1852) – Biography and Life.” PeoplePill, peoplepill.com/people/anton-weidinger-1/
Utnes, Ole J. “The Keyed Trumpet.” The Keyed Trumpet, ojtrumpet.net/articles/keyed_trumpet/.
Dahlqvist, Reine. “Keyed Trumpet.” Oxford Music Online, 20 Jan. 2001, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.14950.
Dahlqvist, Reine. “Weidinger, Anton.” Oxford Music Online, 20 Jan. 2001, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.30023.
“The Evolution of the Trumpet.” The Evolution of Trumpet, www.trumpetland.com/p/evolution.
Hopfner, Rudolf. “Uhlmann.” Oxford Music Online, 20 Jan. 2001, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40424.
I learned a lot from your bolg post about different kind of trumpet and I am so impressed by the rapid changing of trumpet and how trumpet makes beautiful music only through few keys and the player’s lip. I really enjoy watching your first video in the bolg post, it illustrates the different appearance and sound clearly. And I think your idea aout the future of trumpet is very thoughtful and I think it might work for all other kind of instrument. Innovations of sound and instrument is very important, we should both keep the nature of a original musical instrument and be more creative on musical styles and techniques.
Awesome Article, It was an intersting take that the trumpets “shortcomings” or “pitfalls” will actually make you a better musician if you embrace period instruments and take them on. I really like the way you clearly laid out the evolution of trumpet and gave some nice videos of people demonstrating these instruments. This article was very informative and very well written!
I really liked how you added the end section of what the future of trumpets might entail. I thought all the information about how the trumpet came to be and the differently developments were very easily understandable and well put. I personally had no idea that there such a thing as a keyed trumpet and was very delighted to watch the video with Markus Wuersch playing a keyed trumpet.
Hi Aric! It was interesting to read through this because, as a horn player, my instrument has also gone through similar stages of evolution as the trumpet. Orchestral music in general wouldn’t be the same if the trumpet didn’t evolve the way it did. Even though composers and compositional styles are also evolving, they would have extreme limitations if your instrument didn’t progress further than the Natural Trumpet. I don’t know if the beginning of Mahler 5 would be the same.
Good job!
Hi Aric! I enjoyed reading your blog post. I thought the first video was very helpful in explain the difference the three instruments she presented and supported your point. I also liked how you emphasized the ongoing development that is occurring. As a non-brass player, I think explaining some of the terminology such as piston and valve would have helped, or perhaps a picture or graph could have helped to better differentiate. I was also wondering about the cause for these changes. Of course people always seek for improvement, but perhaps a certain social or musical movement spurred to development of this technology. Just a thought, but great job!
Hey Aric, I really thought your blog was informative and enjoyable to read! I came into this blog without much knowledge about the history of the trumpet and it was cool to see you map out the evolution of the trumpet over the years. The videos you posted comparing the different types of trumpets helped illustrate the difference in the sound and shape between each trumpet. I also really liked how you talk about the future of the trumpet and how it has so much potential to grow still since this thought can be applied to all different instruments. I think it’s important to continue discovering new sounds, techniques, and other possibilities of one’s instrument since this can open opportunities to new styles, practices, etc.
Being a close colleague of yours has demonstrated many of the key points in this post to me before, but it never ceases to baffle me how young the Trumpet- and many brass instruments for that matter- actually is in the history of the western traditional canon. It’s hard to imagine what the history of our instruments will be in, say, 250 years from now; what features will change or be added? I particularly liked that you made it clear that the instrument changed because the music did- instruments are tools to achieve something greater than toots out of a pipe. I’m curious to see what other predictions you might have as to how the trumpet will change (aside from some of the ways you’ve already demonstrated for us, as far as valve placement and whatnot).
Hi Aric! It was very interesting to read your blogpost because I had almost zero knowledge on history of brass instruments. It made me think how difficult it would have been for performers to play the natural trumpet because of the high level of control you need to have, and just the physical length of the instrument as well. Because I play a string instrument, where I know exactly where to put my finger on the fingerboard to play the note I want to play, paying attention to the lips and pressure and everything to create certain notes sounds extremely difficult… Anyways, I also found your comment on the development of trumpet still being possible very interesting! It is fascinating how there are still rooms for instruments to be adapted and improved.
Hey Aric amazing project here. as a vocalist I rarely need to think about harmonics, but reading about the evolution of the trumpet and how many iterations it has gone through just for the ease and capability of producing more notes and being able to perform completely chromatic works is a struggle i have never once thought about. Have you thought about have the equal temperament system is actually out of tune and perhaps the future of a just intone trumpet or perhaps multiple trumpets that are all mean tone for different keys or even a trumpet capable of micro tonality much like the trumpets used in spectralist peieces that are intentionally only cabale of pure overtones
Hey Aric, I really enjoyed your article! I was aware of what the history of trumpet was, but this is very well put and easy to understand. Also, the videos were very helpful in understanding the natural trumpet and keyed trumpet. I never really thought of how the trumpet will change in the future, but looking back of how it developed, I realized it’s just a matter of time for the trumpet to develop more. I think it would’ve been cool if you added development and types of mutes to this article, and how that also expanded the possibilities and gave more color.
Great blog post! I was really interested in reading the clear descriptions of the differences between the types of trumpets, as I was always vaguely aware they existed but never knew the specifics. I’d be curious to know more specifically what type of intonation problems still plague the modern trumpet, and how the four-valved trumpet improves them. Also I’d love to hear more about what types of extended technique are commonly used with the trumpet, and how future developments might happen to make them not considered “extended” any more. Overall it was a very in-depth post that was very understandable.
Hi Aric! Great post. It was very informative. I was a bit embarrassed reading it because I had no idea how revolutionary the history of the trumpet was. I took special note about the different sounds and timbres of each iteration of the instrument. I particularly was drawn to the Baroque trumpet. Its whole timbre, interestingly enough, sounded more cold to me. Like the sound was intentionally pinched. Today’s trumpets, to me, sound more wide and warm. While they still reach a similar height and range, the focus of the sound seems more full and broad. I think this might be the affect of the length of the Baroque trumpet vs the smaller, more intimate frame of the modern trumpet we’ve come to know and love today.