1.1 Creating Music from Lip Vibration: Labrosones Through the Ages
9
By the beginning of the Common Era, different designs of brass instrument had
emerged in Celtic regions of northern Europe; Fig. 1.7b illustrates modern copies of
the Tintignac carnyx and the Loughnashade horn. Long conical trumpets are found
in Asian regions and are illustrated in Mayan paintings. Labrosones in common use
in the Roman Empire included the long straight tuba and the curved cornu, depicted
on the mosaic in Fig. 1.7c. Some of these instruments are discussed in more detail
in Sect. 9.1.
1.1.3 Labrosones in Renaissance and Baroque Music
By the end of the fifteenth century, the trumpets used for courtly ceremonials and
military signalling had developed the folded shape shown in Fig. 1.8a. The bends on
these instruments have little effect on their musical behaviour (see Sect. 4.7.7). The
acoustically significant length of a brass instrument is its sounding length, defined
as the axial length measured from the entrance plane, following the mid-bore line
round bends in the tubing, and terminating in the plane of the bell end.
Until the invention of the valve in the early nineteenth century, a trumpet with a
fixed sounding length was capable of playing only a set of approximately harmonic
natural notes (see Sect. 1.2.2). Natural trumpet ensembles nevertheless developed a
sophisticated repertoire using instruments of the same sounding length. A modern
natural trumpet ensemble specialising in this repertoire is illustrated in Fig. 1.8a,
while Fig. 1.8b shows an example of music written for such a group. Some members
of the ensemble traditionally specialised in playing the lower natural notes (marked
Basso and Vulgano on the score), while others mastered the art of clarino playing
which opened up the possibility of playing diatonic melodies in the high register.
Virtuoso sonatas and obbligato solo parts were also written for expert clarino
players.
Fixed length natural trumpets were incapable of playing chromatically or even
diatonically in lower registers. To meet this need, a trumpet with a sliding mouthpipe
was developed, probably in the early fifteenth century. Although slide trumpet
players were not part of the regular trumpet ensemble, they found an important
role in the ‘alta capella’, a three-piece dance band consisting of two shawms and a
slide trumpet.
By the mid-fifteenth century, the slide trumpet had evolved into an instrument
with a U-shaped forward-facing slide. From its inception this instrument was
known in Italian as the ‘trombone’ . Fifteenth-century French sources use the term
‘sacqueboute’, which is possibly a combination of the words ‘sacquer’ (to pull) and
‘bouter’ (to push) (Carter 2012, 2019). The contemporary English term ‘sackbut’,
evidently a variant of the French word, is now used as a generic description of
pre-eighteenth-century trombones. The sackbut in the style of the sixteenth century
shown in the centre of Fig. 1.9 has very little difference in its basic design and
functioning from the trombone played by Glenn Miller.
9
By the beginning of the Common Era, different designs of brass instrument had
emerged in Celtic regions of northern Europe; Fig. 1.7b illustrates modern copies of
the Tintignac carnyx and the Loughnashade horn. Long conical trumpets are found
in Asian regions and are illustrated in Mayan paintings. Labrosones in common use
in the Roman Empire included the long straight tuba and the curved cornu, depicted
on the mosaic in Fig. 1.7c. Some of these instruments are discussed in more detail
in Sect. 9.1.
1.1.3 Labrosones in Renaissance and Baroque Music
By the end of the fifteenth century, the trumpets used for courtly ceremonials and
military signalling had developed the folded shape shown in Fig. 1.8a. The bends on
these instruments have little effect on their musical behaviour (see Sect. 4.7.7). The
acoustically significant length of a brass instrument is its sounding length, defined
as the axial length measured from the entrance plane, following the mid-bore line
round bends in the tubing, and terminating in the plane of the bell end.
Until the invention of the valve in the early nineteenth century, a trumpet with a
fixed sounding length was capable of playing only a set of approximately harmonic
natural notes (see Sect. 1.2.2). Natural trumpet ensembles nevertheless developed a
sophisticated repertoire using instruments of the same sounding length. A modern
natural trumpet ensemble specialising in this repertoire is illustrated in Fig. 1.8a,
while Fig. 1.8b shows an example of music written for such a group. Some members
of the ensemble traditionally specialised in playing the lower natural notes (marked
Basso and Vulgano on the score), while others mastered the art of clarino playing
which opened up the possibility of playing diatonic melodies in the high register.
Virtuoso sonatas and obbligato solo parts were also written for expert clarino
players.
Fixed length natural trumpets were incapable of playing chromatically or even
diatonically in lower registers. To meet this need, a trumpet with a sliding mouthpipe
was developed, probably in the early fifteenth century. Although slide trumpet
players were not part of the regular trumpet ensemble, they found an important
role in the ‘alta capella’, a three-piece dance band consisting of two shawms and a
slide trumpet.
By the mid-fifteenth century, the slide trumpet had evolved into an instrument
with a U-shaped forward-facing slide. From its inception this instrument was
known in Italian as the ‘trombone’ . Fifteenth-century French sources use the term
‘sacqueboute’, which is possibly a combination of the words ‘sacquer’ (to pull) and
‘bouter’ (to push) (Carter 2012, 2019). The contemporary English term ‘sackbut’,
evidently a variant of the French word, is now used as a generic description of
pre-eighteenth-century trombones. The sackbut in the style of the sixteenth century
shown in the centre of Fig. 1.9 has very little difference in its basic design and
functioning from the trombone played by Glenn Miller.