History of Brass Instruments

History of Trumpet

• Roman era: trumpet-like instruments were only able to produce few tones for signaling, announcing, commanding, and ceremonial purposes.

• 14th and 15th centuries: Natural trumpets were created and these trumpets can only produce pitches in the harmonic series.

• 16th century: increasing use of the trumpet in a variety of more musical situations in addition to court ceremony and military communication.

History of Trumpet

• 17th and 18th centuries: trumpets were becoming part of an orchestra. They were included in works by Monteverdi, Pietro Cavalli, Giovanni Legrenzi, Henry Purcell, Alessandro Scarlatti.

• 19th century: The valved trumpet was developed in 1820s and was introduced to the orchestra by Gioacchino Rossini, who used the instrument to wonderful effect in William Tell in 1829.

Other Features of Trumpet

• Pitch: B flat, C, D and E flat

• Notable Players: Giovanni Pellgrino Brandi, Valentine Snow, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsali, Adolph herseth Christopher Martin, etc

History of Horn• French horn was an invention based on early hunting horns.

• 16th century: Horns were used as musical instruments during operas.

• 17th and 18th centuries: modifications were done to the bell end (larger and flared bells) of the horn and the French horn was born.

• 19th century: valves instead of crooks were used. In addition, the double horn was created by Fritz Krupse of Erfurt to solve the problem of horn players hitting the wrong note in the high harmonics, where they lie close together.

Post Horn

Other Features of Horn

• Pitch: B flat, C, D and E flat

• Notable Players: Giovanni Pellgrino Brandi, Valentine Snow, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsali, Adolph herseth Christopher Martin, etc

History of Trombone

• 15th and 16th centuries:

– The first trombones were a development of the large S-shaped trumpets that were being built by flemish makers for the Burgundian court.

– The instrument’s name was the trompette-saicqueboute (Push-pull trumpet) also known as Sackbuts.

– These early trombones were used as an accompaniment to a single voice especially in Venetian Churches

History of Trombone

• 17th century: trombones were being built in three sizes, alto in F, tenor in B flat and bass in E flat.

• 18th century: Beethoven, the first classical composers who scored for trombones regularly, used trombone for the first time in his fifth symphony in 1808.

Sackbut

Other Features of Trombone

• Pitch: B flat

• Notable Players: Glenn Miller, Christain Lindberg, Joseph Alessi, Jay Friedman,

History of Tuba

• The tuba proper was first patented by Prussian bandmaster Wilhelm Wieprecht and German instrument-builder Johann Gottfried Moritz in 1835. This instrument was soon adopted by British brass bands.

• Low-Sounding Instruments before tuba was made include the Serpent and Ophicleide

Serpent

Ophicleide

Other Features of Tuba

• Pitch: B flat, C, E flat and F

• Notable Players: William Bell, Tommy Johnson, Philip Catelinet, John Fletcher, Roger Bobo, Arnold Jacobs, Eugene Pokorny