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TBrass ClinicMaurice Faulkner, Contributing Editor

Cornets Please! ! !

Why a "dyed-in-the-wool" per-former of that noble brass instru-ment, the trumpet, should be mak-ing this impassioned plea forgreater use of the cornet, at thislate date, should, perhaps givemusic educators and parentscause for reconsidering the "cornetvs. trumpet" controversy. I wasprompted to write this article inan effort to aid students of thecup-shaped soprano of the brassfamily —be it cornet or trumpet —in building better foundationsfor performance. I feel stronglythat many of the embouchureproblems encountered in students'playing habits were formed ratherearly in their playing careers,and that a more thoughtful choiceof the first instrument might havebeen highly beneficial in manycases. It will be advantageousfor band directors, particularlythose teachers who concern them-selves with motivating and start-ing beginning players at the ele-mentary school level, to reexamine

Mario F. Onegliatheir thinking about whetherthe proper instrument for young-sters is the cornet or trumpet.The recommendations of thesepeople have a great deal to do withwhich instrument is rented or pur-chased by parents.

History

The modern trumpet and cornethave little in common with theearlier brass instruments. Theyboth differ as to length and" boreproportions. Really, the only thingthey have in common with eachother and their predecessors isthat they are both played by vibra-ting the lip (reed) across a cup-shaped mouthpiece. The cornetto,cornett, or zink of the renaissanceand early baroque periods wasa wooden instrument with fingerholes drilled in its body. Thisinstrument bears no relationshipto the cornet of modern timesother than that the lips were vibra-ted across a mouthpiece carvedof bone, wood, or ivory. That

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important element of brass playingthe harmonic series, was not usedto any degree; and since the acous-tical relationship of the holes andthe wind column were comparableto present woodwind instrumentsthe tone quality of the cornetto wasflute-like, and its volume soft.

The ancient trumpets , on theother hand, utilized the harmonicseries, particularly the upperpartials. This is evident from anexamination of renaissance andbaroque music. The melodies fortrumpet are in a lofty tessiturawhere the overtone series becomesdiatonic and chromatic.

With the invention of the pistonvalve in the early 19th century,several changes came about inthe brass instruments and theiruses in the orchestra. Perhapsit was because of the artistic aes-thetic of the classic period whichdemanded restraint, that the upperregister of the trumpet fell largelyinto disuse. The length of the in-strument was shortened, and itsuse in the orchestra changed aa good deal. No longer a virtuososolo instrument, it was used main-ly by classic composers for sup-porting the string group, empha-sizing cadences, and occasional-ly for a martial effect. An exam-ple of this latter type of usage maybe heard in Beethoven's LeonoraOverture No. 3. The valve gave thetrumpet greater flexibility by per-mitting it to play in many differ-ent keys without the insertion ofadditional tube lengths, calledcrooks. This became important forthe composer as chromaticism inorchestral music increased.

At about this same time in theearly 19th century, an instrumentknown as the cornocopeanemerged. The invention of thisvalved brass instrument with abasically conical bore has beenattributed to the Belgian inventorCharles Sax, father of AdolphSax, the inventor of the saxophone.The cornocopean, a relative of theFrench horn because of its conicalbore, soon found favor in thepublic ear for the mellow, lyrical

Mario F. Oneglia holds a B. M. degreefrom the Manhattan School of Music,a M.A., Professional Diploma, andD. Ed. degrees from Columbia Uni-versity. He has taught public schoolmusic in New York, and is currentlyon the faculty at Montclair State Col-lege in New Jersey.

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qualities of its tone. This instru-ment, the cornocopean, of a two-thirds conical bore and one-thirdcylindrical bore should be con-sidered as the ancestor of thepresent-day cornet. The trumpetand the cornet differ as to tonalqualities because the bore propor-tions of the trumpet are reversed;it is two-thirds cylindrical andone-third conical. Because of this,perhaps, various musicologistsand writers of treatises on or-chestration have described thetone of the trumpet as heroic, mar-tial, strident, and harsh. In addi-tion to these stated differences asto tone and orchestral role, thecornet and trumpet differed in anobvious detail—the cornet wasrolled up into a more compactform than the trumpet.

Napoleon to Louis

With the popularity of the mili-tary band of Napoleon Bonaparte,the cornet became the favored so-prano brass instrument. It retainedthis position up until the 20thcentury, with such virtuosi asArban, Herbert L. Clarke, andJames Burke exploiting its ex-pressive qualities. How then didthe tide shift away from the cornetto the trumpet in recent years?It is my opinion that the greatercommunication brought about byour mass media played a largepart in this. Radio, recordings,and television have all played rolesin shaping concepts and desires.

In the 1930's, the famed jazzcornetist, Louis Armstrong aban-doned his cornet for the longer

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trumpet. Just why he did this hasnot been ascertained, since hestarted in music as a boy playingthe cornet in a brass band. Mr.Armstrong's change of instrumentswas soon emulated by most popu-lar cornet players, and by 1940,the cornet had all but become ob-solete. The exceptions were theschool band and the few remain-ing professional concert bandswhich still tended to use cornetseither because they were owned bythe school or were preferred bythe conductor for their particulartonal qualities.

Complete Trumpet Domination

In most concert band music,parts are scored for five sopranobrass instruments. The three cor-net parts are assigned the dom-inant melodic passages and aresupported by the two trumpetparts. The trumpet is also respon-sible for flourishes and calls be-cause its tonal qualities are wellsuited for this function. Sincewe have had almost two generationsof band directors following theshift from the cornet to the trumpetin the thirties, I would like to

suggest that because of the indis-criminate mixing of either thetrumpet or the cornet to play so-prano parts in some bands, thewhole tonal compass of the con-cert band has changed —and,perhaps, not for the better! Thetrumpet has been in the publiceye and ear for so many years thatstudents, parents, band directorsand music educators in general,sometimes forget the values ofthe cornet. Such fine players asHarry James, Al Hirt, Doc Sever-insen, Dizzy Gillespie, and Arman-do Ghitalla of the Boston Sym-phony inadvertently have further-ed the movement away from thecornet by the artistry of their per-formances. It might be of interestto know that most of these solo-ists started as cornet players!Begin on the Cornet

As a college instructor of trum-pet, I have seen embouchure de-fects which I believe could havebeen avoided if the student hadbeen started on cornet insteadof trumpet.

First, let's review some funda-mentals which apply to both thetrumpet and cornet.

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1. Hold with the left hand, withfingers gripping the valve casingsvery lightly.

2. The instrument should behorizontal with the floor, allow-ing the jaw, and consequently theteeth and lips, to be in a balancedrelationship. The jaw, while notin a jutting or overbite position,needs to be in its forward posi-tion. The teeth should be aligned,with the lower teeth separatedfrom the upper teeth by one-quar-ter to one-half inch. The lips shouldbe touching slightly, without ex-cess muscle pressure, so that airpassing between them will sendthem into vibration.

The relationship of the jaw,teeth, lips, and breath is verycrucial. When incorrect habitshave been a part of the beginningstudent's playing, it has beenshown that it is extremely difficultto overcome them.

The trend seems to be for ele-mentary school children to beginthe study of band and orchestrainstruments in fourth or fifthgrades, and sometimes earlier.The purely physical aspects ofholding the instrument at thisage can present difficulties. Theweight of the trumpet causes agreat many embouchure problemsto the nine or ten year old stu-dent. It is simply too heavy tobe supported horizontally, butmore important, it is too longand consequently difficult to bal-ance, even for a short four measurephrase. In spite of the exhorta-tions of the music teacher, to"hold your horn up," the child,who is not able to do so, simplyproceeds to a playing posture

which, though proper for the play,ing of the clarinet, is completelywrong for performing acceptablyon the trumpet or cornet. In ad-dition to this, the grip of boththe left and right hands becomescramped and tends to pull theinstrument into the lips in aneffort to support the trumpet.This leads to poor playing habitswherein reliance is mistakenlyplaced upon adding arm pressuretoward the lips for playing dif-ferent registers. Lip bruises, cuts,and in some cases, scars may bea result of this "strong arm" styleof playing. The right hand tendsalso to be used as a supportingvehicle, and never develops thenecessary relaxed poise whichwill insure technical facility.

When a youngster is startedwith a cornet instead of a trum-pet, the hands tend to be closerto the body because of the morecompact shape of the cornet. Thus,the arms themselves assist in sup-port of the instrument. Thereis less strain on the wrists, arms,hands, fingers, and lips. The in-structor will still need to correctpostural habits, but now it willbe easier for the student to com-ply. This is turn will allow himto develop a sound, balancedembouchure in a shorter time span.

Band directors will also be glad-dened by these young cornetistsfeeding into the high school con-cert bands, since once the dark,mellow, lyric quality of the cornetis heard in the cornet section, andits lyricism exploited throughoutits register and tonal compass,few conductors will wish to returnto the indiscriminate mixing ofcornet and trumpet tone in thecolor spectrum of the band. Thisis why I say,"Cornets...Please!!!"*

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