Newsletter of the
Volume V: No. 1
The cornet mouthpiece is deeper than the trumpet cup and more gently shouldered into the throat. The stem is short and narrow and modern designs of the cornet no longer have the detachable shank, the mouthpiece is inserted directly into the instrument.
HISTORY
Parisian
brass players in 1830 regarded the cornet
a pistons as a valved improvement of the circular post horn.
The
cornet is gay and homely, and delivers neither the exciting ring of the trumpet
or the ominous sonority of the bugle.
It has remained popular because of the technical flexibility inherent
from its mouth-pipe taper and from the characteristic mouthpiece.
(This is not a mouthpiece article, but it seemed important to talk about this aspect of tone production).
Brass bands use four cornet parts.
1. Solo Cornet
2. Repiano Cornet (Flugelhorn also reads from this part)
3. Second Cornet
4. Third Cornet
Salvation Army units usually have three.
1. Solo
Cornet
2. First
Cornet
3. Second Cornet (There is usually no third
cornet part)
E-flat Cornet is included as an important
brass band voice pitched a 4th higher. A separate consideration of Eb Cornet has been done in an earlier
Shepherd's Crook.
The cornet was derived from the Circular
Post Horn
to which valves were added. It should be noted that cornet and trumpet
evolved from separate lines. A quick
perusal of the Barkley book (mentioned below) will make this
obvious.
An analogy could be drawn to the classical guitar and lute, which are both plucked cordophones, but with two completely separate histories.
The
trumpet seems to have been derived from the longer, straighter instruments such
as the “heraldic trumpets” while the cornet came from the Circular
Post-Horn.
The keyed bugle in Brass Band history was
important prior to 1856. The history of
this instrument and its recent revival are chronicled in The Keyed Bugle by Ralph T.
Dudgeon.
The famous contest in 1856 between Ned Kendall
(keyed Bugle) and Patrick S. Gilmore (Cornet) in Boston was the beginning of
the end of keyed bugle in Brass Bands.
Some authors have seen this event as a decline of the Keyed Bugle as a
virtuoso instrument and its replacement by the Cornet. Dudgeon found no
mention of an outcome of this contest that favored Gilmore on the Cornet. Thomas Carroll, an eyewitness, felt the
outcome was indecisive. (Carroll,
Thomas. Bands & Band Music in Salem. Historical
Collection of the Essex Institute XXXVI,
No. 4, October 1900. P. 227)
Tonal Quality of the Cornet
The vital difference between cornet and a
small-valved trumpet lies in the deeper cupped mouthpiece. It is this that gives
the cornet its unfatiguing nature and flexibility of execution. This is why Brass Bands have owed their
success from the cornet’s first manufacture in London under the name Cornopean, “horn of triumphal
song.”
The tone
quality of the modern cornet has changed since the mouthpiece has changed. The early cornet mouthpiece in England as
well as France was like that of the French horn; narrow-rimmed, thin-walled,
with a deep conical interior. This
author recently toyed with such a mouthpiece on a “pocket cornet” found in a local
pawnshop. (For an interesting photo,
see the pocket cornet photo in The New Grove under “Don Cherry.”)
Surprisingly,
I was able to produce reasonable tones quite easily on the pocket cornet. (I have never actually played cornet). I attribute this to the mouthpiece that was
with the instrument; it was of the “French-horn style.” These older mouthpieces
were said to produce a rounder and more velvet sound than the hardy penetrance
made when the more cupped trumpet style mouthpiece was used.
Unfortunately,
Arban, Levy, and Clark all used this “trumpet style mouthpiece” and its use has
persisted. Arban was not yet
twenty-three years of age when the cornet was labeled a “snappy vulgarity”
among classically minded brass players.
UTILIZATION
IN BRASS BANDS
Brass
bands are enjoying rising popularity in the North America. This resurgence adds to the marketing of the
instrument and to resurgence of playing orchestral cornet parts on cornets.
Cornet
parts add contrast in tone color between cornets and trumpets. This contrast
was utilized in scoring by Berlioz, Franc, and other composers.
Genuine
cornet tone is darker and mellower than the clear ringing trumpet timbre and
can be colored with an expressive vibrato.
The latter effect can easily be overdone and should be avoided for
purposes of blend. To
stress once more,
this cornet timbre is achieved only through the use of a
mouthpiece with a distinctly deeper and more conical cup.
Trumpet players often use the same trumpet mouthpiece with a smaller
shank when performing on the cornet.
This negates much of the contrast in timbre between the two
instruments.
The
only traditional cornet mouthpieces available in North America are the Denis
Wick models; these were designed in collaboration with leading British cornet
players. In the Bach range, only the 5A approaches the requisite cup depth.
Most manufacturers have produced “long model” cornets (lacking the Shepherd’s Crook in the bell). The changes in these models unfortunately affect the timbre and the tone becomes closer to the trumpet than the cornet.
The
cornet is at its best in soft melodic passages where its voice like tone can be
uncommonly expressive. Another asset of
the cornet is its uncommon agility.
The
true Brass Bands of England have an unbroken performance style reaching back to
the 19th Century. This style
has been maintained independent of the influence of the trumpet and modern
orchestral brass playing.
Salvation
Army Brass Bands place a premium on melodic expression. Of particular interest is a recording
produced by the International Trumpet Guild of performances of the legendary
Herbert L. Clarke, dating from 1904 to 1921. (Crystal S450).
The
cornet is a versatile workhorse in the Brass Band. It has been fruitfully utilized in a myriad of instrumental
combinations by arrangers and composers.
Each
new arrangement and composition seems to bring surprises. The cornets can be utilized as soloists, unisono, solo groups within the
section, as well as in ensemble with various combinations of other instruments
in as many permutations as the composer can conceive.
The cornets can provide harmonic counterpoint to other Brass Band soloists and provide rhythmic, harmonic and melodic diversity as well as distinctive tone qualities in the milieu of the Brass Band. Truly, the brass band is a “cornet band!”
NEWS
AND VIEWS
This is
the first newsletter of the millennium, and the first to go totally on
line. The reasons are simple, cost and
effectiveness. We can reach more brass
players cheaper, and faster with mailings of the Shepherd’s Crook via the
Internet. It has cut the production
cost by 95 %.
Sorry
if you did not receive your snail-mailed Shepherd's Crook. There
are no more mailings unless special arrangements are made.
We are totally on-line as of this moment.
Lets
hear from you, and send all your Brass-playing friends a copy of this
Newsletter through the Website. “Mail a
Copy to a friend”—it is easy.
Again,
would like to remind you that we are totally on line as of this
communication. Regional directors are
asked to distribute through the website shown below. Communication can also be done through the guest book on the website.
Let’s hear from you on the Internet:
Ed:
A
POIGNANT LETTER !!
In 1921
Herbert L Clark was conducting the Anglo Canadian Leather Company
Band in Huntsville, Ontario Canada.
In a letter to Elden E. Benge of Winterset, Iowa the same year, this was
the text:
My Dear Mr. Benge:
Replying to yours of the 19th
just received, would not advise you to change from Cornet to Trumpet, as the
latter instrument is only a foreign fad for he time present, and is only used
properly in large orchestras of 60 or more, for dynamic effects, and was never
intended as a solo instrument.
I
never heard of a real soloist playing before the public on a Trumpet. One cannot play a decent song even,
properly, on it, and it has spring up in the last few years like “jaz” music,
which is the nearest Hell, or the Devil, in music. It polutes the art of Music.
Am
pleased that you are making improvements in your playing. Keep it up, and
become a great Cornet Player. You have
an equal chance with all the rest, but you must work for it yourself.
Wishing you all the best of success,
I remain.
Herbert L. Clarke (signed)
A copy
of this letter was published in the INSTRUMENTALIST
and is used with their kind indulgence.
A scan of the letter in its block entirety is now on the site.
Finally, I
must give credit for this edition where credit is due:
Baines, Anthony. Brass Instruments,
their History
and
Development. Faber & Faber. London. 1976.
Barkley,
Robert. The Art of the Trumpet Maker:
The materials tools and
techniques of the 17th and 18th Centuries
in Nuremberg.
Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press.
New York. 1992.
Dudgeon,
Ralph T. The Keyed Bugle. Scarecrow
Press, Inc. Metuchen NJ
& London. 1993.
New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Ed. by Stanley Sadie.
Macmillan Ltd 1980 London
Volume 4. Cornet. by Anthony Baines.
Whitener,
Scott. Complete Guide to Brass.
Shirmer Books, New York, Toronto.
A Division of Macmillan, Inc. 1990.
Volume V. No. I Spring 2000