Hi everyone,

I'm not a brass player - violin and piano and just had a question.

I have a cornet from my sister-in-law to keep for my sons to try and play.
How do I tell what type it is Eb etc?

Also is it very hard to play? I wouldn't mind trying it myself !

Thanks in advance.

Fiona

Is there a difference between a cornet and a cornett?

I've no idea.

QUOTE (cecilia @ Oct 17 2004, 12:37 PM)

Is there a difference between a cornet and a cornett?

Nowadays, the term cornett means an instrument that looks a bit like a recorder, except that it is tapered like an oboe and most of them are curved for convenience of fingering their rather widely spaced holes. It is sounded with the lips like a brass instrument. The main version is usually distinguished by the name "cornetto" and is built in A. This has a separate small mouthpiece that fits in the small end like a modern brass instrument. It was the main melodic instrument in wind ensembles with trombones during the 16th and early 17th centuries. I have a slightly larger instrument (in G) called a mute cornett; this is straight and the mouthpiece is carved into the body of the instrument.

From c. 1470 to c.1820* the names "cornett", "cornet" and "zink" all referred to one of these instruments. Nowadays the spelling "cornet" is reserved to the bugle with valves, first seen in Paris c. 1828, which is the main melodic instrument in brass bands.

*There is a part for a cornett in Gluck's "Orfeo", 1762 or 1776.

Oh, I see! Thanks Kenm!

Yeah thanks for that. I had no idea !

So is Cornet the correct name then or trumpet or what ?

Sorry for the ignorance !

Fiona

QUOTE (Fiona @ Oct 17 2004, 10:56 AM)

How do I tell what type it is Eb etc?

Hi,

I don't really know anything about this but I thought I'd answer anyway! If you can get a note out of it you could try using a fingering chart (There's one here I don't know if it's any good) and comparing the note on a piano with the note it produces (I'm assuming although I may be completely wrong that the notes given on the chart will not be concert pitch but what the player would read; and of course that the fingering is the same for different types). Not really a concrete answer but maybe worth a go.

Thanks AP. I will have a go at that.

I first need to get a sound out of it !

Fiona

as far as i can make out from my brass band buddies, the Eb cornet is smaller and therefore higher in pitch to the standard Bb cornet. the Eb is a fifth higher, so when a Bb cornet plays a written C, a Bb comes out, whereas a Eb cornet a written C will sound a Eb.

QUOTE (Fiona @ Oct 17 2004, 05:46 PM)

So is Cornet the correct name then or trumpet or what ?

Trumpet, cornet and flugel horn are instruments that are sufficiently similar that an experienced player can move easily from one to another. They all exist in lengths that give the same Bb overtone series, and of these versions the trumpet has the longest parallel tubing and a shallow flare. Cornet has a slightly longer flare to a slightly wider bell, and flugel horn has a long tapered section and the largest bell. Trumpet has the most penetrating timbre and flugel horn the mellowest. Cornet and trumpet come in other lengths also. The only other cornet in common use is the Eb soprano, AFAIK. Trumpets come in lots of lengths, including bass in Bb (rather like a valve trombone), the old F trumpet, longer than the Bb (Chaikovsky often wrote for that), C trumpet that is probably more common in the US than the UK, and piccolo trumpets in D, Eb and F. Before trumpets got valves they were often made in the key of D, but twice the length of the piccolo trumpet (see Bach orchestral suites, B minor mass etc.) and cavalry regiments have (had?) natural trumpets in Eb, slightly shorter than the natural D. Parts for cornet or trumpet in A are played on the Bb instruments, by transposing, by adding an extension to the mouthpipe, or by means of an additional semitone valve.