Practical Observations on Natural, Slide and Flat Trumpets

Author(s): Crispian Steele-Perkins

Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 42 (Aug., 1989), pp. 122-127
Published by: Galpin Society
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/842630
Accessed: 17-09-2018 03:57 UTC

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and private letters which may be reproduced. Of course, if a reader's
cellar or attic contains anything that looks like the Till rock harmonicon,
I would be delighted to hear from you.
The following is a very brief summary of known instruments and
their dates:
THE KESWICK ROCK INSTRUMENTS

Peter Crossthwaite's 1785-1869 in private hands

Set of Stones: 1870 given to the Fitz Park Museum
Richardson's Rock 1827-40 building
and Steel Band: 1840-62 performing in concerts
1862-1900 in possession of James and Richards
Henderson
1901 left in care of Fitz Park Museum

Till Rock Harmonicon: 1869-80 building (according to Till programmes)

1880-188? performing in England, Scotland,
Europe and America
Abraham instrument: 1886-98 building (see J. Blades)
1898-197? in a private museum
1982- with Mr W. Chamberlain

SMALL SETS OF STONES

These are located as follows:

1 'Elterwater stones', in Fitz Park
3 Lancaster Museum
Museum 4 Horniman Museum, London
2 Mr Byers, in Aplethwaite, near 5 Miss Dorothy Till
Keswick

I imagine these were all 'spinoffs' from the making of the larger ro
instruments.
DR A. M. TILL

10 Oakbank, Stroud Ro
Gloucester GL4 OAF
Tel. (0452) - 25141

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON NATURAL, SLIDE

AND FLAT TRUMPETS

A natural trumpet of Purcell's time, pitched in C,1 me

times the length of a modern valved 'piccolo' trum
mouthpiece to bell rim); and to be played well it requir
the lip (not the fingertips) formerly achieved on a dee
mouthpiece at a restrained dynamic which blends exqu
voices and with other baroque instruments. In contrast

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stringed instruments and woodwind, though more refined nowadays,
have not altered greatly in size. Although requiring dedicated study, and
despite the lack of sophisticated woodwind keywork, their baroque
counterparts do not necessitate such fundamentally different playing
techniques as must be faced by an orchestrally trained, modern
trumpeter.
In many of the reproductions of natural trumpets constructed in
recent years a compromising system of strategically placed vent-holes
for 'improving' intonation and security has been widely adopted. But
the current resurgence of interest not only in natural trumpets, but also
in slide trumpets and flat trumpets is now beginning to demand rather
more in the way of total commitment to the appropriate playing
techniques of former times. My own first steps in that direction
involved using original seventeenth-century equipment such as the
William Bull no. 2 trumpet from the Museum of London.2 Persistent
practice with such instruments has revealed that accurate intonation and
pure tone can certainly be obtained on a rigid (ventless) natural trumpet,
provided that a mouthpiece of the same period is used.3
Regarding the tuning of trumpets over the years, some clarification
and summarising of our knowledge is overdue. Firstly (as Eric
Halfpenny reported in GSJ XV), instruments of the late seventeenth
century were not soldered rigidly. They could therefore be dismantled
quickly for cleaning or repair and the parallel internal tubing under the
long garnishes (noticeably more solid on Bull's later instruments and
those of his son-in-lawJohn Harris - as discovered recently by Maurice
Byrne) could be slid further in or out for accurate 'fine' tuning.
Furthermore, the evidence of widespread crook-changing is indisputable
in England; the Ashmolean Bull trumpet has its tone crook, as did many
of the State trumpets whose issues and repairs are recorded in La
Fontaine. Despite the observation of Roger North, quoted later, the
'turne screw' used by John Shore seems to have enabled him to play
thematically exposed non-harmonic notes such as the famous flattened
tenth harmonic in Purcell's St Cecilia Ode and the opening bars of the last
work in which I have so far traced him performing, namely Vaughan
Richardson's Ode of 22 November 1704 (played in the Bishop's Palace,
Winchester). I am indebted to Dr Richard Luckett of Magdalene
College, Cambridge for furnishing me with this example (see Ex. 1).
In the original score the trumpet line is separate: there is no doubt
that the C4 was intended, and none of the trumpet's natural harmonics
fits the chord. Dr Luckett has also drawn my attention to Roger North's
'Cursory Notes of Musicke' (1698-1703)4 which give a brief description
of Shore's device which I think worth quoting fully, with reference to

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 'T % IIVt._(_-_._

1 - 41

__-

TY_/1' I IF-I
ra, I . -
It

EX. 1

correcting faulty intonation, and 'turne screws':

But to cure these defects trumpetters have found some exp
sackbut, which prolongs the tube ad libitum. But a more ingenio
which Mr. Shoar [Shore], a most exquisite trumpetter, us
trumpet to consort. It was by an imperceptible lengthning or
tube, by the help of a screw or worme, so as by turning the tr
gained, or remitted of the length, by which his exotick notes fa
shall onely observe, that no devision will yeild the flatt third
trumpet musick is in sharp keys.
Apparently this 'screw or worme' was not a collar, but a
on the mouthpipe which extended the tubing sufficiently
without jarring the player's embouchure. Clearly also (exce
sentence) North seems to be describing Shore's ow
instrument, not a flat trumpet. I believe my friend And
overstates his case for the use of flat trumpets, altho
invention is immensely exciting. If their use had been
widespread there would surely have been no need to speci
in the few surviving passages of sombre, slow-m
manageable on these (frankly cumbersome) instruments.
and diatonic notes had been available, composers woul
used them, and the trumpet's singular character lost
occurred subsequently, of course, with the invention of
The 'slide' principle came into its own a century la
Barton's information on the Woodham-Rodenbostel s
suggests that the instrument was in use at the time of H

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infancy. Prior to that, Burney had complained of Handel's trumpet part
in the Atalanta Overture, that it '. .. has [a ?] few notes that are naturally
and inevitably imperfect on the instrument ... The fourth of the key
[hl 1] is, however, too much used, even for vulgar ears to hear patiently
... Indeed whenever the fourth or sixth of the key is otherwise used as a
passing note, the ear is offended'.5
An eminent trumpeter at the end of the eighteenth century, James
Sargant, could have had at his disposal two means of redressing Burney's
criticisms. One was the 1787 'Harmonic Trumpet' of William Shaw,
which used the principle of nodal venting: by opening a very small hole
in the lower yard, the fundamental pitch is raised by a fifth, giving (for
instance when the trumpet is crooked in the key of C) the harmonics of
G instead of C, i.e. d' g', b', d", f", g a b", b", etc. As the position
of the vent hole needs to be different for crooking in the other main
keys (E , D and Bb) four vent holes were provided. Those not required
can be kept closed by means of sleeves - except for the Bb hole, which
is so far from the player's fingers that a key is required to reach it.6
Interestingly to me, the size and positioning of the holes is perfect for
the secure production of the dangerously insecure harmonics and clear
production of the previously faulty ones.
The keyed hole (for use with the B6 crook) is the only unsuccessful
one, being too small; but otherwise the instrument seems to play
wonderfully (I should love to play it publicly some time). The nodal
venting system was elaborated on the Continent in the 1960s by the use
of holes that raise the pitch by a fourth, a major seventh, and an octave,
thereby satisfying the obsession of modern times for loud high notes and
secure middle ones (probably irrelevant to players of the eighteenth
century). Somewhat similar systems, devised by Michael Laird and by
Stephen Keavy, using four vent holes, are now widely used in Britain.
While it is certainly easier to produce equal-tempered intervals with
such instruments, and thereby to gain the approval of musical directors
and record companies, the notes requiring an open hole tend to lose the
authentic 'gritty' tonal quality (very aptly described by Roger North as
the 'chirruping sound') and this may have been the reason for the
dismissal of the 'harmonic trumpet' principle, around the end of the
eighteenth century, in favour of the slide trumpet. No such loss of tonal
colour occurs with a slide trumpet, whose use (despite the availability of
safer devices such as valves) persisted for a whole century: only one play-
ing generation divides Wyatt (who gave his slide trumpet to Ernest Hall,
one of my teachers) and myself - I use the instrument regularly.
I have five observations to make (with manufacturers and fellow
players in mind). After four years of regular professional performances

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on ventless natural trumpets, and some extensive research, I suggest the
following:
(a) To reproduce a truly authentic tone quality for English trumpet
music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries one must use a
suitable mouthpiece that eliminates the strident high frequencies of a
modern instrument.
(b) The most responsive surviving early trumpets are of copper or
coppery brass.
(c) Why did flat trumpets come into existence ? An alto trombone is less
cumbersome and plays fully chromatically, at speed. I should add that if
tenor oboes and flutes were employed for only a few bars of an opera,
the same apparently applied to the flat trumpet.
(d) One also notices the lack of a quick-tuning device on Harper's
instruments - such as the U-bend tuning slide on a modern trumpet.
The Harper trumpet tutors mention 'tuning bits' rather casually and pass
over what we would nowadays call 'fine tuning'.7 Returning the slide to
anything but a 'closed' position leads to inaccuracy on either a slide or a
flat trumpet.
(e) Finally, another enigma: if the crossbar for the fingers had been
placed closer to the spring box on Harper's 'Improved' trumpets, the
slide could come out further, to produce an F and a D in the lower
octave that are well in tune. The Tutors describe how these notes must
be 'lipped down' - but why on earth did Harper not do it with the
mechanism already provided?
The whole subject is an endless source of fascination, and we are
indeed fortunate today in being able to pool our winnings through the
exchange of ideas, and through the enthusiastic co-operation not only of
players and historians but also of a number of fine craftsmen who can
supply the means for bringing ideas to life.
CRISPIAN STEELE-PERKINS*

NOTES

1 The pitch standard at that time is generally believed to have been a

whole tone lower: approximately a'= 392 to 405 hz.
2 For details of this instrument (which was used in the recording), s
notes to LP disc, 'Shore's Trumpet', EMI EL 270556-1/4, or CDC 74
See also Eric Halfpenny, 'William Bull and the English Baroque Tr
GSJ XVI (1962), 18-24.
3 See Eric Halfpenny, 'Early British Trumpet Mouthpieces', GSJ XX
pp. 76-88.
4 Mary Chan and J. C. Kassler (eds.), Roger North's Cursory Notes of Musicke
(c.1698-c. 1703): a Physical, Psychological and Critical Theory (Kensington, NSW,
Australia: Unisearch Ltd, University of New South Wales, 1986), p. 119.

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 5 Charles Burney, A History of Western Music, vol. VI (London, 1789),
p. 396.
6 Eric Halfpenny has discussed this instrument in GSJ XIII (1960), pp. 7-13.
The only known specimen is the one in the Museum of London, which dates
from 1787. I think it may have been used a bit! It plays really well.
7The Woodham-Rodenbostel trumpet (as described in Peter Barton's article
in this issue) has a fine-tuning device on the finger-rod which is so simple and
effective that I cannot understand why it was not permanently adopted.
* Editor's note: Crispian Steele-Perkins is Professor of Trumpet at the
Guildhall School of Music and is currently Solo Trumpeter with The Academy
of Ancient Music, The English Baroque Soloists, The King's Consort, The
Parley of Instruments, and The King's Trumpeters.

A SLIDE TUBA?

The splendid instrument in P1. XXIV is the most im

interesting collection of brass and other musical instru
Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire, where it h
was presented by R. B. Marriner of Greengate Mills, K
It was made by Besson & Co., London, to the design of
the bass trombonist in Marriner's Private Band, Keighl
a music seller by trade, according to the entry form fo
in the 1861 and 1862 Crystal Palace Brass Band Con
Although at first glance a cumbersome monster, it
instrument, with a large compass and capable of
dynamics, and quite passably in tune at A4= 440 hz w
mouthpiece. Its inventor must have been pleased with it
Crystal Palace Brass Band Contest, using this instrume
the prize for the best bass player in the whole contest.
E bass Sonorophone, an instrument apparently no l
The design is the subject of a British Patent dated 18
patent and on the contest entry form, and also in the pr
contest, the instrument is described as a double-slide
double B flat) trombone.
In the catalogue of the 1862 London Exhibition, a ver
instrument is advertised by Messrs. Boosey & Son
appellation, 'The Basso Profondo', with the statement th
of manufacture had been purchased from the invento
instrument. The similarity between the Basso Profon
'King Kong' model contrabass trombone is obvious, tho
are more commonly pitched in C? Only one or tw
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