Blog Post #3 Brass Instruments

Unlike stringed instruments, brass instruments were not near as popular.  One reason for this being the difficulty involved in playing these rather primitive instruments.  Later developments made them much more accessible to musical participants.  Music written during this time period was rather complex so playing any Baroque piece on top of one of these already difficult instruments would have been nearly impossible.

What is known as the “natural trumpet” became increasingly popular throughout the Baroque era.  Before the Baroque period it was used for military purposes such as announcing a retreat or breaking up camp.  Girolamo Fantini among others was one of the first that recognized this instrument’s capabilities in orchestral settings by changing the embouchure used.  By doing this he could add two notes therefore producing an entire harmonic scale.   Over the following years this instrument fell out of popularity because of its need for highly skilled musicians.  The invention of the keyed trumpet around 1815 was the final straw of the natural trumpet’s demise. 

The natural horn, an extremely popular instrument of this time, has a similar story to the natural trumpet.  It also ended its commission during the early 1800's due to the introduction of the “keyed” version.  This instrument had several notes missing in its range.  To compensate, a musician had to use “bending” or “hand stopping” to produce the missing notes.  “Bending” is changing embouchure slightly to lower or raise a pitch by just a fraction.  “Hand stopping” is inserting a cup shaped hand into the bell.  This changes the pitch as well as the timbre.  Pretty complicated methods…

Although brass instruments were not always the most popular choice during the Baroque Period, this era was again the foundation for the modern orchestra by introducing two crucial orchestral instruments: the trumpet and horn.