12
1 The Musician’s Experience of Brass Instruments
1.1.4 The Nineteenth-Century Labrosone Revolution
In 1814 the Prussian musician Heinrich Stölzel applied for patent protection for a
design of piston valve which allowed the player of a brass instrument to change the
sounding length of the instrument almost instantaneously by inserting or removing
a section of tubing. Before this time orchestral trumpet and french horn players
usually carried sets of crooks of different lengths to perform this function, but
these crooks took at least several seconds to change. By depressing a piston which
increased the sounding length by around 6%, the player could flatten any of the
natural notes of the instrument by a semitone. A set of three valves, adding different
tube lengths which could be used in combination, allowed a trumpet or horn to play
a chromatic scale from an augmented fourth below the second natural note upwards.
Within a few decades, several improved valve designs had been patented,
including the Périnet piston valve used in most modern trumpets, cornets and
flugelhorns and the Riedl rotary valve now standard on french horns. New types
of labrosone, such as the saxhorns and the bass tuba, exploited the ability of valved
instruments to play chromatically in their lower registers. The simplifications in
playing technique afforded by valved brass instruments encouraged the development
of amateur brass bands, and the popularity of the brass band movement in turn
provided a mass market for brass instrument manufacturers.
A modern brass quintet, such as the group shown in Fig. 1.10, usually includes
two trumpets, a french horn, a trombone and a tuba. The roots of all of these
instruments can be traced back to the early labrosones described in Sects. 1.1.1
and 1.1.2, but the current form of each instrument has been influenced and moulded
by musical and technological developments over the years. The addition of valves
in the nineteenth century has perhaps been the most dramatic change: even the
slide trombone now frequently has a thumb-operated rotary valve which lowers the
basic pitch of the instrument by a fourth. In the twentieth century, the average bore
Fig. 1.10 Brass quintet
1 The Musician’s Experience of Brass Instruments
1.1.4 The Nineteenth-Century Labrosone Revolution
In 1814 the Prussian musician Heinrich Stölzel applied for patent protection for a
design of piston valve which allowed the player of a brass instrument to change the
sounding length of the instrument almost instantaneously by inserting or removing
a section of tubing. Before this time orchestral trumpet and french horn players
usually carried sets of crooks of different lengths to perform this function, but
these crooks took at least several seconds to change. By depressing a piston which
increased the sounding length by around 6%, the player could flatten any of the
natural notes of the instrument by a semitone. A set of three valves, adding different
tube lengths which could be used in combination, allowed a trumpet or horn to play
a chromatic scale from an augmented fourth below the second natural note upwards.
Within a few decades, several improved valve designs had been patented,
including the Périnet piston valve used in most modern trumpets, cornets and
flugelhorns and the Riedl rotary valve now standard on french horns. New types
of labrosone, such as the saxhorns and the bass tuba, exploited the ability of valved
instruments to play chromatically in their lower registers. The simplifications in
playing technique afforded by valved brass instruments encouraged the development
of amateur brass bands, and the popularity of the brass band movement in turn
provided a mass market for brass instrument manufacturers.
A modern brass quintet, such as the group shown in Fig. 1.10, usually includes
two trumpets, a french horn, a trombone and a tuba. The roots of all of these
instruments can be traced back to the early labrosones described in Sects. 1.1.1
and 1.1.2, but the current form of each instrument has been influenced and moulded
by musical and technological developments over the years. The addition of valves
in the nineteenth century has perhaps been the most dramatic change: even the
slide trombone now frequently has a thumb-operated rotary valve which lowers the
basic pitch of the instrument by a fourth. In the twentieth century, the average bore
Fig. 1.10 Brass quintet