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History of the trumpet

History of the trumpet

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The history of the trumpet examines the development, evolution, and cultural significance of the trumpet as a musical instrument from ancient civilizations to contemporary times, focusing on its construction, playing techniques, and roles in various musical genres and social contexts.
lightbulbAbout this topic
The history of the trumpet examines the development, evolution, and cultural significance of the trumpet as a musical instrument from ancient civilizations to contemporary times, focusing on its construction, playing techniques, and roles in various musical genres and social contexts.

Key research themes

1. How did technological advancements and cultural factors shape the evolution of the trumpet's sound and design from antiquity through the nineteenth century?

This theme investigates the interplay between technological innovations such as the development of valves and improvements in instrument materials, and cultural or social influences like performance expectations, aesthetics, and national preferences, all of which contributed to changes in the trumpet’s timbre, range, and performance roles from early times through the long nineteenth century.

Technology and TimbreFeatures of the Changing Instrumental Soundscape of the Long Nineteenth Century (1789–1914)
by Bradley Strauchen-Scherer

2021, The Oxford Handbook of Timbre

Key finding: This work provides a comprehensive analysis showing how technological innovations during the Second Industrial Revolution—particularly valves and refined key systems—enabled trumpets and other brass instruments to achieve... Read more
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The Evolution of Trumpet before the Common Era
by Nanthakorn Ponglertwut

2021, journal of fine and applied arts chulalongkorn university

Key finding: This study traces the trumpet’s origins from natural materials used in ancient Eastern civilizations through gradual morphological and functional developments, noting that early trumpets primarily served as communication and... Read more
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Musical Instruments of the Bronze and Iron-Age Mediterranean: The Legacies from North European Culture
by Pippa Holmes

2025, Musical Instruments of the Bronze and Iron-Age Mediterranean: The Legacies

Key finding: This paper examines cross-cultural exchanges influencing brass instrument evolution, including the trumpet, by comparing Northern European and Mediterranean manufacturing traditions. It introduces the methodological insight... Read more
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2. What roles and symbolic meanings did trumpets hold in ancient and early historical religious, military, and social contexts?

This theme explores the function of trumpets beyond their acoustic and musical properties, focusing on their roles in ritual, military communication, symbolic representation of authority, and religious ceremonies from antiquity through the Tannaitic period, highlighting how trumpets were embedded within spiritual and social frameworks as instruments of divine presence, social cohesion, and warfare.

The Trumpet from the Bible to the End of the Tannaitic Period: An Archaeo-Musicological Study Regarding Its Function, Shape, Sounds and Symbolic Meaning
by Moshe Piamenta

2021, Ph.D. Thesis

Key finding: Through an integrated analysis of textual sources including the Dead Sea Scrolls and Tannaitic literature and archaeological findings, this study reconstructs the diverse roles of trumpets in religious and military settings,... Read more
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The War-Trumpet and the Sound of Domination in Ancient Greek Thought
by Sarah Nooter

2019, Greek and Roman Musical Studies

Key finding: This paper argues that in archaic and classical Greek literature, the war-trumpet (salpinx) was conceptualized as an instrument intrinsically linked to divine power and invincibility, with its sound symbolizing male... Read more
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The Use of Trumpet on Board ships of The Dutch East India Company
by Ralph Henssen

2018

Key finding: This article sheds light on the historical maritime role of trumpeters aboard VOC ships in the 17th and 18th centuries, explaining that trumpeters were integral to signaling and communication onboard. It categorizes types of... Read more
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3. What can linguistic, archaeological, and organological evidence reveal about the origins and early musical use of wind instruments including the trumpet?

This theme addresses the investigation into the evolutionary origins of wind instruments such as the trumpet through interdisciplinary evidence—from prehistoric bone flutes and ancient symbolic depictions to ethnomusicological parallels—tracing how vocalization, rhythm, and early instrument construction developed and contributed to the role of wind instruments in early human cultures.

How Music, and Instruments, Began: A Brief Overview of the Origin and Entire Development of Music, from its Earliest Stages
by Jeremy Montagu

2017

Key finding: This comprehensive review synthesizes archaeological, anatomical, and ethnomusicological data to illuminate the origins of musical sound production and instrument use, emphasizing that vocalization (singing) and rhythmic... Read more
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Air and sound: Indigenous wind instruments made of bone in the Southeast United States
by Anna M . Semon

2024, Southeastern Archaeology

Key finding: This study maps and analyzes the archaeological distribution of bone wind instruments in the American Southeast, finding sparse evidence for bone trumpets and flutes compared to neighboring regions. It argues that... Read more
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Pictographic History of the Natural Trumpet
by Aindrias Hirt

2013

Key finding: By compiling pictographic and empirical data from diverse pastoral cultures, this paper argues that shepherds’ trumpets—long, natural conical wooden instruments—represent the foundational prototype of the trumpet family. It... Read more
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    • All papers in History of the trumpet

    The Songs of Fionn mac Cumhaill: An Historical and Musicological Analysis of Indo-European Musical Poetics in Ireland, Scotland and Nova Scotia
    by Aindrias Hirt
    This is my PhD dissertation. The third chapter might be interesting since it shows that the natural scale was the primary scale used in European antiquity (the so-called Folk Music Scale). It combined with the early diatonic scale... more
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    The European Folk Music Scale: A New Theory
    by Aindrias Hirt

    The European Folk Music Scale: A New Theory-2014-08-06

    Abstract: Research into the origin of the Western European Folk Music Scale has been inconsistent, varied, and mostly unsatisfying. This scale has many characteristics that seem inexplicable to researchers; some of these distinguishing... more
    Figure 1: Various Shapes of the Trombita Here is an example of a few shepherds’ trumpets (below). These trumpets are all shaped from tree branches or the trunks of saplings (often resulting in a shape similar to the large Swiss alphorn with a thick, upturned “bell”; this large, curved bell often results from a branch or trunk curving up sharply from the bank of a steep hill). I have found that trunks of trees do not produce a marked flare near the bell area, while branches do. This strongly influences the volume and intonation of the resulting pitches. Here is an example of four trombitas, Figure 1, below:
    The internet has many deleterious characteristics, but one positive one is that it has the ability to link formerly separated communities through the display of visual and audio examples of remote and marginalized societies. The necessity of shepherds to play wooden trumpets to collect their flocks, send an alarm, and to communicate to other communities that are geographically separated still exists in many Eastern European communities. Photographs similar to the one displayed above in Figure 2 are everywhere. Y ou just have to look for them. For example, a recent interview of a trombita maker and player (the episode “Predchodcovia telefonov? Trombity”: http://tv.sme.sk/v/23365/predchodcovia- telefonov-trombity.html, on the show “Nehafite ’ud m6j”). Here is an example of a photograph from that interview (Figure 3):
    Figure 3: Trombita Players. Photograph: Martin Kleibl
    Figure 4: Author Debarking a Tree with a Drawknife The tree chosen was cut into two lengths. The upper half will be made into the 7’ trumpet, the lower half into the 8’ trumpet. Here is an image of the two sections with the bark removed by a drawknife ():
    Here is an image of the instruments prior to splitting (Figure 6): large knife and/or an axe). I then sanded the outside and applied a few coats of tung oil to protect the wood before splitting it. I may rip-saw the instruments, but have not decided whether to follow traditional techniques here or not. The wood did not dry as slowly and for as long a period as it should have; therefore, it has begun to check (another reason for the tung oil). This is a serious problem since the sympathetic harmonic motion of the wood around the split will create noise (the split wood will buzz). As this is just a trial, experimental run, I will simply fill any checking with wood glue or wood filler.
    They were ripped (lengthwise cutting) instead of split since a router will be used to remove material along the length of the instruments. This is not a traditional method. I simply do not have the time at present to experiment by gouging out the inside by hand (using hand gouges). I will do this in the future and note the change in the intonation of the harmonic series.
    I also noticed a problem with checking. The wood was not seasoned for a long time, and the wood checked (see Figure 8, below):
    Here is another image of this problem (Figure 10):
    Figure 9: Twisted Wood After Being Ripped After the wood was ripped using a bandsaw (to minimize the kerf), the internal tensions of the wood caused the wood to twist/warp. This can be seen in the figure below (Figure 9). The wood is actually touching and is quite tightly pressed together. The space was caused by the twisting of the wood after it was ripped.
    Figure 11: Digitally Re-Touched Image of the Billingsgate Trumpet; 14 Century. British Museum, London There is a strong connection between wooden shepherds’ trumpets and metal natural trumpets of the 14- 18" centuries. This has not been explored in musical research to my knowledge, but the connections are rather clear. The osier rings shown in the above figures of wooden shepherds’ trumpets seem to match not only thousands of images in iconography from the Middle Ages, but also of extant instruments. Fo1 example, consider components shown on a 5’ (1.61 m.) 14" century metal trumpet found at Billingsgate, London during an excavation in 1984. The Billingsgate trumpet is shown below in Figure 11:
    Figure 13: Natural Scale: Notes Available vs. Frequency (Cycles per Second) So, if available notes are plotted against those notes’ frequencies, the following results (see Figure 13. below):
    Figure 14: The Natural Scale as it is Often Presented Here is the natural scale written in diatonic music notation for a natural instrument approximately 8’ (2.4 m.) long. This is familiar to diatonically-trained musicians as a D natural trumpet as used by Bach, Telleman, Torelli, Fasch, Zelenka, etc. in the “Choral Key” but with a C crook added.” See Figure 14, below:
    I believe that this confusion occurred because of the rise of cities/civilization and the diminution of pastoral society. If you were to imagine a pictogram of the presence of the two scales and theit importance over the centuries, you might see something as displayed in Figure 16, below: Most folk music research has been done to the far right of the time-line displayed above, when the natural scale was scarce and of little concern to trained art musicians. In large cities, natural trumpets began to be superseded by slide, keyed, and valved trumpets by the late 18” century. This was hastened by the decline of the courts and the subsequent dearth of paid positions for natural trumpet players and
    Because of the way it is presented, it looks as though the transcriber placed the notes on the staff as i sounded on a piano with A,=440 Hz. The B4; with the preceding hash mark would tend to suggest tha that pitch is the 11” partial. So the first step is to try to transpose the music down as low as possible whil keeping the notes within those delineated in Figure 15. Since the lower end of the Natural Sale become increasingly gapped compared to the diatonic scale, it becomes more difficult to fit the natural scale o: the musical staff at lower pitches. Therefore, since lower pitches are easier to play, the basic procedure i to lower the melody until just before the trumpeter cannot play the notes. In the case with the abov figure, that transposition is down a perfect fourth. Because of the way it is presented, it looks as though the transcriber placed the notes on the staff as if mark before the B4;, indicates that the sounded pitch is approximately a % tone below the annotated note.
    Figure 20: “Det gjallar og det laet“ Transposed to See the Natural Scale
    Figure 21: “Det gjallar og det laet“ 11" Partial Adjustment
    Figure 22: “Det gjallar og det laet* 7" and 11" Partial Adjustment A trained musician would also declare that the above tune is hexatonic since it lacks B4,. Since there is no doubt that the instrument that played this tune was a natural instrument and natural instruments do not possess octave-equivalency and cannot play the diatonic scale, labelling this tune as hexatonic would be an error. A trained musician would also declare that the above tune is hexatonic since it lacks B44. Since there is nc Therefore, one can expect the overwhelming majority of trained musicians to transcribe Figure 21 when write an Fos,
    Figure 23: “Mo nighean donn bhdidheach” from The Celtic Lyre c. 1885
    The next step is to remove the accidentals by transposing the key into C major (actually, the key is no important; you just have to remove the accidentals while keeping the tune’s melody unchanged-this i: important if the tune is displayed as heptatonic mixolydian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, etc.-the ending pitcl might be G, D, etc. with no accidentals; this is fine). Changing the key to C major takes approximately 3( seconds and is the fastest way of removing the accidentals from the key signature. This step is importan because it removes a great deal of initial confusion. Figure 15 displays a certain series of notes. If you cannot place the tune into a form that matches Figure 15, it will be difficult to see the natural scale, if i exists. It is also important to move accidentals in the corpus of the tune to the key signature befor transposing. Often transcribers will leave accidentals on the staff so that the tune will have a final note which is in synchronous with the key signature. Transcribers will also add accidentals to the key signature even though those notes do not appear in the tune; for example, transcribers may add F¢# to the key signature although F# does not appear in the tune. They do this often when the tune ends on G; this force: the tune to appear to be ionian/major instead of mixolydian. This was a common practice.
    in the example before us, once the tune is transposed to C major, the following results (Figure 25): Voila. There is the natural scale. The third note, circled in blue, is not in the natural scale, but is a passing note; it is the only note in the entire tune that is not in the harmonic series. Transcribers often write a note in between two stressed notes that is in the diatonic scale, but not in the natural scale when transcribing tunes. They subconsciously hear it, yet the performers never knew that such a note was in existence. The singers were merely sliding a bit to the next pitch and did not realize that a listener possessed knowledge of another note in between the two stressed pitches. The onus is on the transcriber to understand how the
    The tune sits slightly high in the natural scale (it possibly originated an octave lower: the G3- Cy, interval is very distinctive of natural instruments), so the F;/F# (you can use the half-sharp symbol F#; here if you wish) 11" partial sounds very odd when heard. Transcribers, when hearing this pitch, heard the odd nature of it (with respect to the diatonic tuning system and made notes conceming this’). If the tune ended on Cy or Cs, then transcribers annotated the 11" partial as F4; since F# was not in the key of C major. Occasionally, they annotated it as F# if it ended in Cs, and then stated that the tune was mixolydian. Significantly, transcribers annotated it as F# if the final pitch was G, or Gs. In such a case, it would be very flat compared to equal temperament’s F#s or certainly Pythagorean tuning’s F#s.
    Figure 26: “Mo nighean donn bhdidheach” Notation for a Natural Instrument
    Figure 29: “Fear a’ bhata” from The Celtic Lyre c. 1885
    Notice the range of the tune is very similar to “Mo nighean donn bhoidheach,” ranging from G, to Gs.
    Placing this in A Minor (again, the keys/modes are not important, only modulating the tune so that the accidentals disappear while keeping the melody intact) results in the following (see Figure 31, below):
    Figure 31: “Fear a’ bhata” in A Minor (No Sharps or Flats in the Tune or the Key Signature)
    If the two stressed notes and two passing notes that fall outside the natural scale are adjusted to fall within the scale, the following results (Figure 33):
    For those accustomed to the equally tempered diatonic scale, this tune is somewhat difficult to listen to as the root/final of the song is on the very pitch which is so much out-of-tune with respect to the diatonic scale. If played on a piano, it would be immediately recognised.
    Figure 35: “Eilean an Fhraoich” from The Celtic Lyre c. 1885 in Sibelius®
    Information of this tune and copious quantities of material can now be found at a site called “Hirtenmusik Notice that the pitches are not at deviance with the natural scale. However, German transcribers oftet
    Figure 37: Original “Am fleasgach donn”
    I should note that I changed the rhythm. This has no bearing on this exercise; it simply did not fit the stresses as it is normally sung. The tune above is in F major. I transposed it up to C major with the following result (Figure 39): As before, the first step is to place the tune into a computer application program (see Figure 38, below):
    Figure 39: “Am fleasgach donn” Adjusted to C Major
    There is the natural scale again. It does not quite look like it, but it’s present. This is difficult to see because, firstly, transcribers often become confused when they hear pitches on unstressed beats (sung on unstressed syllables) and don’t know exactly where to place them. So the transcriber will put most of the So I then transposed the music down by an octave and see if the natural scale fits. This has been done in Figure 41, below:
    Figure 42: “Am fleasgach donn” Natural Scale stressed Beats Highlighted
    Figure 43: “Am fleasgach donn” Natural Stressed Notes in Red, Diatonic in Blue Secondly, I had the benefit of hearing this song sung in the Gaelic community. I knew that the note of the 12" measure was incorrect (F,). Additionally, the F, pitches beginning measures 19 and 21 are normally sung as E, and Gy, respectively. One might speculate that the original musical editor was deliberately trying to give the song a bit more diatonic complexity, but that cannot be proven. However, the pitches are clearly wrong in the original version of The Celtic Lyre. If I write the song as it is normally sung, and highlight the stressed beats that include the natural scale (stressed natural scale in red, stressed diatonic scale in blue), the following results (Figure 43, below):
    Figure 44: “Am fleasgach donn” Corrected to the Natural Scale If I adjust the pitches of the unstressed beats and the last two phrasal endings, the following results (Figure 44): It may appear that I radically changed the music to force it to match the natural scale. This is not true at all. Only two stressed notes were changed. Those two notes fit a pattern of falling to the tonic that the original musical editor followed with several sequential tunes in the original publication. The unstressed notes that were not in the natural scale in Figure 43 all fell between two stressed notes of the natural scale; for example, the first three notes’ original pitches are Ey, F,, and G4 with E, and Gy, being the pitches on stressed beats. It is quite common for a diatonically-trained musician to transcribe an unstressed note with a pitch between the two stressed pitches; this occurs even though the performer did not perform it that way.” In essence, since diatonically-trained musicians are accustomed to seven notes per octave, they use those notes even if the music that they hear does not have them. This is particularly true with pitches that fall on unstressed beats (or unstressed syllables).
    As above in “Am fleasgach donn,” the low G and preceding/following C is indicative of the natural scale with a trumpet’s G3 to Cy. To see this, here is the above example transposed down an octave with unstressed notes adjusted to match the natural scale (see Figure 47, below):
    Figure 47: "Frere Jacques" Transposed Down an Octave for Shepherds’ Trumpet °3 Capelle, Pierre Adolphe 1811 La Clé Du Caveau, A L'usage De Tous Les Chansonniers Francais, Des Amateurs, Auteurs, Acteurs Du Vaudeville & De Tous Les Amis De La Chanson, Paris: Capelle et Renard, de l'Impr. de Richomme , 309.
    If the pitches of notes that fall on unstressed pitches are adjusted as was done above, the following results (Figure 50): Transcribers often adjusted the key signatures to apparently confuse the reader (adding accidentals to the music but keeping the key signature “correct”) by making the music appear to be more complex than it was. For example: The Bird Song B” (Figure 51, below):
    Figure 48: "Had Mea Cat" Transcribed by Cecil Sharp This process can be applied to folk song that was transported from Europe to the Appalachians. Although many of the tunes as captured by Campbell and Sharp a hundred years ago which had many variations (“Barbara Allen’: "O Teannaibh dluth is togaibh fonn”), many, such as songs describing animals (such as “The Old Grey Mare” and “The Bird Song, A”), had not. Here is an example from Campbell and Sharp’s English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians™ (below, Figure 48): If this is transposed into C major, the following results (Figure 49):
    Figure 51: "The Bird Song B" As Transcribed by Cecil Sharp Notice that the E natural is in the music, but the key is deliberately not reflective of it. This makes the music appear (as it is placed on the staff) to be in the locrian mode. Here is the same music with the superfluous note removed from the key signature (Figure 52):
    In this configuration, it appears to be simply aeolian. Why Sharp wished to manoeuvre this is an anathema. Since it is hexatonic, there is only one half step (pentatonic tunes with no half step intervals) make it very easy to manoeuvre on the notational staff. Notice that E (only one instance) and A are both missing? So the first step is to try to move the “missing” note(s) to either F or B. Transposing down a minor 3” results in a tune ending on B natural with one C# It does not particularly reveal anything. However, if the tune is transposed so that the missing A is in the missing B position (up a major second), the natural scale is revealed (Figure 53): Figure 53: "The Bird Song B" Transposed to C Major
    Figure 54: The Natural Key Tuning for Harp This results in the creation of the following diatonic scale on a harp of thirty strings (Figure 55):
    This results in the following scale (Figure 57, below), which appears to be C major, but is actually G- mixolydian:
    lighland Bagpipe chanters (the part of the instrument that creates the melody) are tuned to the drones. here are two drones that are an octave lower than the low A on the chanter. Another drone is set at an ctave lower than that. The pitch of each individual pitch that the chanter produces is altered by carving ut the drilled hole of the chanter if it needs to be altered. In the past, sap or pitch was added to the top or ottom of the hole oppose to the carving. Today, often a piece of strong tape is used. The determination of xactly where each hole should be placed on the chanter is made according to its relationship to the rones. The pitch is adjusted up or down until the chanter’s pitch “locks in” to the pitches of the drones. n essence, the wavelength of each pitch of the chanter is lengthened or shortened to match the nodal oints of the overtones of one of the two drones (A or A;).” A nodal point is the starting point and the nding point of each wave. A pictograph might be useful here (Figure 58, below): ° When tuning to fifths or fourths (say, on a violin or guitar), the tension of one string is increased or decreased so that beating stops. It is not widely known that the beating is not caused by the interference between the principal frequency of one wave to the other; beating is caused by the interference between an overtone of the lower pitch with the second string.
    Figure 71: Bagpipe Reeds for “Concert A” Bagpipe (A=440 Hz.)
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    Eine frühneuzeitliche Keramikfanfare aus Wittenberg im Kontext der Funde gewundener Hörner aus Deutschland
    by Ralf Kluttig-Altmann

    2015, Forschungsberichte des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 7

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    Pictographic History of the Natural Trumpet
    by Aindrias Hirt
    This paper is a brief pictographic history of the natural trumpet in Europe. This subject is an adjunct to the previously published theory that the European Folk Music Scale was created on shepherds’ trumpets (a synopsis on:... more
    Figure 1: Four Polish Shepherds’ Trumpets
    Figure 2: A Famous Ukrainian Folk Musician Notice how this instrument is both thin and straight. This normally occurs when the instrument is made from the trunk of a tree that is grown in close proximity to other trees. It therefore struggles to get as Here is an example of a Ukrainian trembita (Figure 2, below):
    Figure 3: Romanian Shepherd with a Trambita/Trambita Here is another example of a thin, straight shepherd’s trumpet (Figure 3, below):
    Here is an example of a trumpet, a Scandinavian /ur in this case, wrapped in birch bark (Figure 5, below).
    Figure 4: Shepherds in the Field/Woods
    Figure 6: Bucium Player in Garcina, Neamt County, Moldavia, 2003
    Figure 7: A Romanian Shepherd and his Trumpet, 1938 (Photograph: Kurt Hielscher) Here is an example where the end of the trumpet is turned upward, but is carved with finesse (see below, Figure 7):
    Figure 9: Alphorn player in Nendaz, Wallis, Switzerland. Photo by Hans Hillewaert
    Figure 8: Trombita Players. Photograph: Martin Kleibl
    Figure 10: An Alphorn Maker in Switzerland Preparing to Split the End Section
    Figure 11: The Split Alphorn End Section http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=UTyC7DfWeSo. The result of the splitting can be seen below in Figure 11: Pictures of Shepherds’ Trumpets Made from Branches
    Figure 12: Polish long Trombita Here is an example of a trumpet probably made from a branch (Figure 12, below): In the latter form, they are made short, perhaps to resemble an animal (cow, sheep, goat) horn. In this shape, the bell is flared and the instrument is easy to carry. The short length does limit the number ot playable notes of the natural scale. Here is an example of the short form (Figure 13, below):
    This shorter, gently curving form is often portrayed in iconography (see Figure 14, below):
    Figure 14: A Mural a Monastery in Gura Humorului, Moldavia (Romania) Showing an Angel Playing a Bucium
    Figure 15: Detail of "La Somme Le Roy" Between 1290-1300. The British Library, London 1 this example, the instruments are apparently made of wood since there are a number of osier rings ot ach instrument. Also note that the trumpet bells are lifted high. The tapestry appears to be a depiction o 1e Moses and the Commandments where the top two panels (not shown here) depict Moses receives th ommandments from God and breaking them. The lower two (shown here) display three men blowin: umpets and the golden calf under an elaborate architectural canopy. Notice how the golden calf is aying close attention; why? If Moses was announcing the Ten Commandments, then that would imply yyalty and metal trumpets. Yet the golden cow is looking at them as a dairy cow might to a shepherd. I ould be that in the time when the tapestry was made, there was a closer connection between royalty anc 1e pastoral community. This is true in Irish Gaelic society in the Middle Ages where both the 12th entury Book of Leinster and the late 14th-century Yellow Book of Lecan describe the musicians in th iythical Hall of Tara. In it, musicians are described at a feast where they are seated amongst othe 1embers of the court including druids, wrights, hunters, poets, etc. according to rank. Our modern way o inking sharply divides nobility and peasantry perhaps due to the Norman invasion and subsequen ubjugation of the English. That delineation may not have been the norm in other courts, particularly ywer ranking/petty courts, in Europe.
    Figure 16: Detail of a 13th Century Book of Songs (Lessing Photo Archive)
    Figure 17: The meeting of Ursula and her fiancé Ereo, 1494
    In the figure above (which I put together from pictures as displayed, individually, from the British Museum, London), I have circled two elements of the Billingsgate trumpet, termed bosses. For metal trumpets, bosses are purely decorative and serve no apparent purpose. They are simply small cups soldered together and cut to fit on the bell section. It seems likely that they were added to resemble the wooden osiers used in wooden trumpet construction. There are certainly many examples of this in iconography, but relying upon images can be problematic. Therefore, the shape of both the metal and wooden trumpets shown above seem to be the same. The difference apparently is that wooden trumpets need osier rings along most of the instrument’s length; metal trumpets don’t seem to require this as much. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that the metal trumpet was a replica of the wooden one. In the hands of a skilled trumpeter, these shorter (by Baroque-era standards, where trumpets were generaly pitched in Eb or D) 5-6’ instruments were quite capable of playing melodic lines. Below is an example provided by the co-author Reidar Sevag from “Det gjallar og det laet (Oslo, 1973). This is his transcription of a tune as played on a Jur’ but adapted to match the way that the natural scale is normally displayed to be read by trumpeters, with the exception of depicting the 7” partial as Ay instead of Bb.
    The Bb valved trumpeter today would be surprised by the range displayed in the music (Figure 19, below). The trumpeter ascends to concert Ds and does so without valves which are used on a shorter instrument to separate the pitches for accuracy. The highest note, an A; in the example above, is a perfect fourth below the highest note of Ds (concert G¢) that Bach wrote in his Brandenberg Concerto No. 2. Again, this casts doubt as to the genesis of trumpet playing at an aristocratic court. “Feld” (field) trumpeters played lower pitches of the natural scale while encamped. Playing high is not a requirement for military signals played on a trumpet.
    Up to that point in time, to make a tube, a rectangular (or slightly cone-shaped) sheet of brass was bent around a cylindrical (or slightly flared) solid mandrel. The seam was soldered. The tubing was worked to eventually harden the metal. What the smiths could not do well was to bend the resulting tube. If they made the arch radius of the metal being bent too short, the metal would crimp and break. A new technology developed where the instrument makers would fill the tubing with lead and then gently and carefully bend the tubing; in this way, the crimping could be managed. The direction of the bend was always 90° to the seam so that it was never stretched. This technology did not develop until the eleventh century where the straighter, shorter, metal trumpets began to be replaced by S-shaped trumpets. Straight trumpets were still cheaper and easier to build. Iconography of straight metal trumpets existed until at least the sixteenth century. bronze Irish trumpets, and cast litui (as opposed to the wooden counterparts used by the Roman cavalry) attributed for religious use.
    Figure 21: Karjapasun from Estonia
    Figure 22: Three Warriors Playing Carnyx
    Figure 23: Trumpet Positioning During a Hutsul Ceremony In a similar fashion, here are trembitas being used during a Hutsul ceremony (Figure 23, below):
    Figure 24: Demonstration of the Loughnashade Trumpet
    Figure 25: Angel with S-Shaped Trumpet (note the bosses)
    Figure 26: An S-Shaped Trumpet of the Late 14th Century Tere are three examples of natural trumpets with one boss per instrument shown in Figure 27, below:
    Figure 27: Three Niirnberg Trumpets
    Figure 28: Roy Benson Bb Trumpet
    A lituus is an instrument with a confused past. Most scholarship indicates that it was originally a religious instrument that evolved into a signalling instrument used by the Roman cavalry. There are two mair shapes. One is where the hollow tube is of about the same diameter for the length of the instrument. I curls back on itself and is in the shape of the letter <J>. It is three feet long. The other shape is where 1 appears to be a development of a horn-pipe (a pipe with an animal horn stuffed on one end with the othe: end having a cupped mouthpiece). In this case, the bell expands rather quickly and points upward.
    Here is another example (see Figure 31, below): Figure 31: Another Mosaic of Hydraulis,
    The tuba (pl. tubae) was often accompanied by the hydraulis, a water-driven pipe organ. Here is an example for a gladiatorial event (Figure 30, below). The combination of tubae, cornua and hydraulis for gladiatorial combat seems to reoccur in mosaics from antiquity. Figure 30: Mosaic of a Gladatorial Event; Hydraulis, tuba, and Two Cornua
    Figure 33: Hydraulis and Cornu, Mosaic, 2nd-3rd century A.D., Nennig, Roman Villa. Photo: Barbara McManus Here is an example of a cornu being accompanied by a hydraulis (Figure 33, below): Here is another example of cornua in relief (see Figure 34, below):
    Figure 34: Roman soldiers with cornicae (horns). From the cast of Trajan's column in the Victoria and Albert museum,
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    ICOM–CIMCIM Bulletin 2019/1 (January)
    by Christina Linsenmeyer
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    The Life and Trials of Lutheran Musicians at the Courts of Wilhelm IV and Ludwig X of Bavaria
    by Grantley McDonald
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    LONDON'S WATERFRONT -: SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS FROM FOUR EXCAVATIONS THAT TOOK PLACE FROM  TO
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    2019, Antiquaries Journal 99, 63-94

    The area around the north end of the medieval London Bridge in the City of London has attracted much archaeological attention. This article summarises the main findings for the period 1100-1666 from four excavations, recently published.... more
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    The Use of Trumpet on Board ships of The Dutch East India Company
    by Ralph Henssen
    Reprints from the to promote communications among trumpet players around the world and to improve the artistic level of performance, teaching, and literature associated with the trumpet
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    The War-Trumpet and the Sound of Domination in Ancient Greek Thought
    by Sarah Nooter

    2019, Greek and Roman Musical Studies

    In this piece, I contend that the war-trumpet (salpinx) was understood in ancient Greek literature as connected to the divine and invincible. I show how this understanding arose from a focus on the sound of the war-trumpet, accompanied by... more
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    Vincent Bach and the Modern Trumpet
    by John Thomas Burson
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    Analysis of Clifford Brown’s Extended Solo on “Hot House” from Live at the Beehive
    by Jonathan Saraga

    2019

    This paper examines specific musical elements of Clifford Brown’s improvised solo on “Hot House”, from the recording “Live at the Bee Hive". Solos from live recordings, such as this one, give a window into the history and existence of the... more
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    The painted trumpets in the Kazanlak tomb: parallels with Tutankhamun’s trumpets, instrumental and performance hypotheses
    by Alexandra Fol

    2020, Ancient Thrace and Thracians

    The painted trumpets in the Kazanlak tomb: parallels with Tutankhamun's trumpets, instrumental and performance hypotheses... more
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    "PIEZAS ANDALUZAS" PARA TROMPETA Y PIANO DE SANTIAGO JOSÉ BÁEZ CERVANTES (1982): ESTUDIO ANALÍTICO PIEZAS ANDALUZAS PARA TROMPETA Y PIANO OF SANTIAGO JOSÉ BÁEZ CERVANTES (1982): ANALYTICAL STUDY
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    2019, Revista AV Notas, nº7

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    The Trumpet from the Bible to the End of the Tannaitic Period: An Archaeo-Musicological Study Regarding Its Function, Shape, Sounds and Symbolic Meaning
    by Moshe Piamenta

    2019, Ph.D. Thesis

    The object of this dissertation is to elucidate various aspects related to trumpets from the Second Temple period to the end of the Tannaitic period. The study investigates the roles of these instruments, the identity of their players,... more
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