Peter Downey - Caspar Hentzschel's In Defence of the Knightly Art of the Trumpet.pdf

Historic Brass Society Journal, 1990

Historic Brass Society Journal, 2001

This work presents a discussion on the trumpet during the baroque and classical periods. It cites important names and events that happened before and after the two cited periods. Also, it brings a discussion about today's increasing interest for performing period music by using period instruments and tendencies concerning the musicians and audience interest. It includes a brief historical background of the instrument, the performer and the performance. In addition, it also presents comments from important period instrumentalists about earlier technique, cites significant works and instrument makers and influential names that provided significant contributions to the development of the instrument. Therefore, the content presented in this work shall be interpreted from a contemporary perspective. It does not intend to be an absolute truth; its approaches are based on existing and available sources about the subject. Moreover, there are aspects of the topic, which have been summarized to the most relevant points that need to be explained in more depth for better understanding. This opens the possibility for new developments for further research.

2001

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: http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/origin-european-folk-music-scale-new-theory and complete version: http://www.academia.edu/2627765/The_European_Folk_Music_Scale_A_New_Theory). My investigation into this topic has led me to question the assumption that metal natural trumpets (with the appearance of Baroque trumpets) have a unique development; previously, it has been assumed that metal trumpets were not imitations of shepherds’ trumpets but have a separate military or religious provenance. Additionally, the assumption that the history of trumpet playing at aristocratic courts springs from the military encampment and not the pasture seems doubtful. This paper displays a series of photographs taken from the internet that, at-a-glance, parallels my scholarly, written investigations. The material is easily available and accessible online; therefore, only general references are provided in the Bibliography.

Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 2018

In assuming that the violin family of instruments is the staple of Western instrumental art music, Hautboisten, among the most important musicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, constitute a neglected area of research. Hautboisten are known to have been among the major suppliers of musical entertainment in the German-speaking lands in the first half of the eighteenth century. The term Hautboistenbande has often been translated by contemporary scholars as ‘oboe band’. Indeed, these ensembles developed into wind bands known as Harmoniemusik; Hautboisten, however, were originally routinely trained to perform on multiple wind instruments as well as string instruments.The Lilien Partbooks, which are part of the Sonsfeld Collection (the Sonsfeldsche Musikalien Sammlung; now held in the Bibliotheca Fürstenbergiana in Herdringen; D-HRD Fü 3741a), represent the most comprehensive primary source of music for such an ensemble. A detailed incipit catalogue of the compositions comp...

Musica Baltica. The Music Culture of Baltic Cities in Modern Times. [5th International Musical Conference in May 2014 at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk], 2010

„Trumpets new, sent out from Gdansk with two mouthpieces in 1770 – 2” – on wind instrument makers in old Danzig Gdansk’s trumpets new, with mouthpieces [from] 1770 – 2 [probably repetition from the initial inscription].” Danzig (Gdańsk) was during the last centuries a very active music centre, kind of a musical capital of the region and surrounding lands. It was also a very productive centre for musical instrument making (organs, wind and stringed instruments, keyboard instruments and so on). Among others, about twenty-six wind instrument makers had been recorded among the town residents and citizens. Their activity during the last few hundred years up till the half of the 20th century will be the main topic of discussion in my report. Michael Howen, a shwam maker („Schalmeymacher”), recorded on 22 Aug. 1713 as working without proper permission, was the oldest known by name local wind instrument maker. He and other such Danzig’s craftsmen, including the famous 19th century Christmann family (of which one Carl Gottlieb ended as a very successful manufacturer in New York, USA), will be also listed with all known biographic information in the final annexe.

2018

The life and career of Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) coincided with a period of significant change in the development of the trumpet and the music scored for it. A professional musician from the provinces, mostly self-taught, Elgar slowly gained recognition and ultimately international fame. In the United Kingdom for most of the nineteenth century the pre-eminence of the slide trumpet, which was not a fully chromatic instrument, made for a unique situation, leaving the ubiquitous cornet to fill the gap when a fully chromatic instrument was required. The valved trumpet, at first in the form of the large F trumpet, only gained a foothold in the last decades of the nineteenth century. This thesis examines the development in the trumpet and cornet scoring of Elgar throughout his career and correlates this with the trumpeters he worked with both in the provinces and in London. This is set in the context of the instruments that were available to, and promoted by, these trumpeters. The anal...

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