Cornet: musical instrument and its features. Cornet (ancient musical instrument) Wind instruments cornet

is a brass instrument. It belongs to a family that is called: the cornet family. This is not a very extensive family, since cornets are few in number, but this does not prevent them from occupying a leading place in symphony orchestras and even performing as solo instruments.

The body of the cornet, as well as its “relatives”, has the shape of a conical pipe with a wide bell. Cornets are characterized by a wide mouthpiece that resembles a cup in appearance. Cornets have many similarities with the trumpet family, but they should not be confused. Cornets have a more conical shape, which provides a softer sound compared to a trumpet.

The main component of the cornet is the trumpet, which is called the main one. It is on this pipe that the mouthpiece is located, which is necessary for the reproduction of sounds. A special feature of cornets is the presence of a piston mechanism, as well as a piston mechanism tube. The piston mechanism consists of buttons, which are located at the top of the instrument, at the same height as the mouthpiece. Many of you have seen how a musician plays and presses three buttons at the same time. This mechanism is similar in structure to a pipe. However, the cornet does not stop there. At the bottom of the case there are condensate drain keys. And, of course, there is a bell from which sounds “come out.”

The tonal range of the instrument is quite extensive - up to three octaves. This allows you to play on the cornet not only program works from the classical repertoire, but also often resort to improvisation to enrich the melody of cover groups whose repertoire fits the tonal range of the cornet. The tool is quite compact in size. The total length of the cornet does not exceed sixty centimeters. Thanks to such miniature dimensions, the cornet does not create problems in terms of transportation. The tool can be carried to any distance without worrying about additional and often bulky luggage.

Since the cornet is a brass instrument, it is naturally made of copper. This is not only durable material, but also quite presentable. The cornet looks very impressive when, during playing, its body shines and stands out noticeably against the background of matte violins and cellos. This is undoubtedly a tool that will not leave anyone indifferent.

The volume of the actual sound of the cornet coincides with the range of the trumpet - from “E” of the small octave to “C” of the third octave. Used in B-flat and A tunings, notes are usually written without key marks, a tone or one and a half higher than the actual sound. Cornet belongs to the class of aerophones. This means that the instrument produces sounds by vibrating a column of air. The musician blows, and the air, accumulating inside the body, begins to oscillate. This is how the sound of the cornet is born.

The history of the cornet is quite unusual. The ancestor of the cornet is rightfully considered the postal horn, which was significantly improved by Jean Louis Antoine in the nineteenth century. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the cornet enjoyed great popularity. In 1869, a cornet class was opened at the Paris Conservatory; the founder and first professor was the famous virtuoso cornetist Jean Baptiste Arban.

In the twentieth century, improvements in trumpet design and the skill of trumpet players virtually eliminated the problem of fluency and timbre, and cornets disappeared from the orchestra. Nowadays, orchestral parts of cornets are performed, as a rule, on trumpets, although sometimes an original instrument is used.

A cornet (cornet-a-piston) is a brass instrument. It looks very impressive and its copper sides shine favorably against the background of other instruments in the orchestra. These days, his glory, unfortunately, is a thing of the past.

The cornet is a direct descendant of the post horn. Interestingly, the horn was made of wood, but it was always classified as a brass instrument. The horn has a very rich history; Jewish priests blew it so that the walls of Jericho would fall; in the Middle Ages, knights performed their feats to the sound of horns.

A distinction should be made between the modern cornet-a-piston instrument, which is made of copper, and its predecessor, the wooden cornet (zinc). Zink is the German name for cornet. Now few people know, but from the fifteenth to the mid-seventeenth centuries the cornet was a very common musical instrument in Europe. But without a cornet it is impossible to perform a large layer of musical works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. City festivals during the Renaissance were unthinkable without cornets. And at the end of the sixteenth century, the cornet (zinc) in Italy became a masterful solo musical instrument.

The names of two famous zinc playing virtuosos of that time, Giovanni Bossano and Claudio Monteverdi, have reached us. The spread of the violin and the growing popularity of violin playing in the seventeenth century caused the cornet to gradually lose its position as a solo instrument. His dominant position lasted longest in northern Europe, where his last solo compositions dated back to the second half of the eighteenth century. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the cornet (zinc) had completely lost its relevance. Nowadays it is used in the performance of ancient folk music.


The cornet-a-piston appeared in Paris in 1830. Sigismund Stölzel is considered his father-inventor. This new instrument was equipped with two valves. In 1869, mass training in playing the cornet began, and courses began at the Paris Conservatory. At the origins was the first professor, a very famous cornetist, a virtuoso of his craft, Jean Baptiste Arban. By the end of the nineteenth century, the cornet-a-piston was at the peak of its popularity, and on this wave it appeared in the Russian Empire.

Nikolai Pavlovich was the first Russian Tsar to play several types of wind instruments. He owned a flute, horn, cornet and cornet-a-piston, but Nicholas I himself jokingly called all his instruments simply “trumpet.” Contemporaries repeatedly mentioned his outstanding musical abilities. He even composed a little, mostly military marches. Nikolai Pavlovich demonstrated his musical achievements at chamber concerts, as was customary at that time. The concerts were held in the Winter Palace, and, as a rule, there were no extra people at them.

The tsar did not have the time or physical ability to regularly devote time to music lessons, so he obliged A.F. Lvov, the author of the hymn “God Save the Tsar,” to come on the eve of the performance for a rehearsal. Especially for Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich A.F. Lvov composed the game on cornet-a-piston. In fiction, there is also often a mention of the cornet-a-piston: A. Tolstoy “Gloomy Morning”, A. Chekhov “Sakhalin Island”, M. Gorky “Spectators”.

It was all about his superiority over other brass players in playing music that required greater fluency. The cornet has great technical agility and a bright, expressive sound. First of all, such an instrument is allowed to “draw” the melody of the work for the listeners; composers trusted the cornet with solo parts.

The trumpet was an honored guest at the court of monarchs and in wars. The cornet traces its origins back to the horns of hunters and postmen, with which they gave signals. There is an opinion among connoisseurs and professionals that the cornet is not a virtuoso-sounding trumpet, but a small, gentle horn.

There is one more instrument that I would like to talk about - this is the echo - cornet. It gained popularity in England during the reign of Queen Victoria, as well as in America. Its unusual feature is the presence of not one, but two bells. The cornetist, switching to another trumpet while playing, created the illusion of a muffled sound. The second valve helped him with this. This option is useful for creating an echo effect. The instrument gained wide popularity; works were created for the echo cornet, which revealed all the beauty of its sound. This ancient music is still performed by cornetists abroad on such a rare instrument (for example, “Alpine Echo”). These echo cornets were manufactured in limited quantities, the main supplier being Booseys & Hawkes. Now there are similar instruments made in India, but they are not well made, so when choosing an echo cornet, experienced performers prefer old copies.

The cornet resembles a trumpet, but its tube is shorter and wider and has pistons rather than valves. The body of the cornet is a cone-shaped pipe with a wide recess. At the base of the pipe there is a mouthpiece that produces sound. In a cornet-a-piston, the piston mechanism consists of buttons. The keys are at the same height as the mouthpiece, at the top of the structure. This musical instrument is very similar to the trumpet, but there are differences.

The undoubted advantage of the cornet-a-piston is its size - a little more than half a meter. Its short length is very convenient to use.

In the generally accepted classification, the cornet-a-piston is classified as an aerophone, which means that the sounds in it are produced by vibrating air masses. The musician blows air, and it, accumulating in the middle of the body, begins oscillatory movements. This is where the unique sound of the cornet originates. At the same time, the tonal range of this small wind instrument is wide and rich. He can play up to three octaves, which allows him to play not only standard programs that are classics, but also enrich melodies through improvisation. The cornet is a mid-tone instrument. The sound of the trumpet used to be heavy and inflexible, but the cornet's barrel had more turns and sounded softer.

The velvety timbre of the cornet-a-piston is heard only in the first octave; in the lower register it becomes painful and insidious. Moving to the second octave, the sound changes to a sharper, more arrogant and sonorous one. These emotionally charged sounds of the cornet were beautifully used in their works by Hector Berlioz, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Georges Bizet.

Jazz performers also loved the cornet-a-piston, and not a single jazz band could do without it. Famed jazz lovers of the cornet included Louis Daniel Armstrong and Joseph "King" Oliver.

In the last century, trumpet designs were improved and trumpeters improved their professional skills, which successfully eliminated the problem of lack of speed and dull sound. After this, cornets-a-pistons completely disappeared from orchestras. Nowadays, orchestral parts written for cornets are performed on trumpets, although sometimes the original sound can be heard.

Cornet (musical instrument)

In the 20th century, improvements in trumpet design and the skill of trumpet players virtually eliminated the problem of fluency and timbre, and cornets disappeared from the orchestra. Nowadays, orchestral parts of cornets are performed, as a rule, on trumpets, although sometimes an original instrument is used.

Currently, the cornet, in addition to the brass band, is used as a teaching instrument and occasionally as a soloist.

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An excerpt characterizing the Cornet (musical instrument)

– It’s already been a week since the campaign began, and you have failed to defend Vilna. You are cut in two and driven out of the Polish provinces. Your army is grumbling...
“On the contrary, Your Majesty,” said Balashev, who barely had time to remember what was said to him and could hardly follow this fireworks of words, “the troops are burning with desire...
“I know everything,” Napoleon interrupted him, “I know everything, and I know the number of your battalions as accurately as mine.” You don’t have two hundred thousand troops, but I have three times that much. “I give you my word of honor,” said Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor could not have any meaning, “I give you ma parole d"honneur que j"ai cinq cent trente mille hommes de ce cote de la Vistule. [on my word of honor that I have five hundred and thirty thousand people on this side of the Vistula.] The Turks are no help to you: they are no good and have proven this by making peace with you. The Swedes are destined to be ruled by crazy kings. Their king was mad; they changed him and took another - Bernadotte, who immediately went crazy, because a crazy person only being a Swede can enter into alliances with Russia. - Napoleon grinned viciously and again brought the snuffbox to his nose.
To each of Napoleon’s phrases, Balashev wanted and had something to object to; He constantly made the movement of a man who wanted to say something, but Napoleon interrupted him. For example, about the madness of the Swedes, Balashev wanted to say that Sweden is an island when Russia is for it; but Napoleon shouted angrily to drown out his voice. Napoleon was in that state of irritation in which you need to talk, talk and talk, only in order to prove to yourself that you are right. It became difficult for Balashev: he, as an ambassador, was afraid of losing his dignity and felt the need to object; but, as a person, he shrank morally before forgetting the causeless anger in which Napoleon, obviously, was. He knew that all the words now spoken by Napoleon did not matter, that he himself, when he came to his senses, would be ashamed of them. Balashev stood with his eyes downcast, looking at Napoleon’s moving thick legs, and tried to avoid his gaze.
- What do these allies of yours mean to me? - said Napoleon. – My allies are the Poles: there are eighty thousand of them, they fight like lions. And there will be two hundred thousand of them.
And, probably even more indignant that, having said this, he told an obvious lie and that Balashev stood silently in front of him in the same pose submissive to his fate, he turned abruptly back, walked up to Balashev’s very face and, making energetic and quick gestures with his white hands, he almost shouted:
“Know that if you shake Prussia against me, know that I will erase it from the map of Europe,” he said with a pale face distorted with anger, striking the other with an energetic gesture of one small hand. - Yes, I will throw you beyond the Dvina, beyond the Dnieper and will restore against you that barrier that Europe was criminal and blind in allowing to be destroyed. Yes, that’s what will happen to you, that’s what you won by moving away from me,” he said and silently walked around the room several times, trembling his thick shoulders. He put a snuff box in his vest pocket, took it out again, put it to his nose several times and stopped in front of Balashev. He paused, looked mockingly straight into Balashev’s eyes and said in a quiet voice: “Et cependant quel beau regne aurait pu avoir votre maitre!”
Balashev, feeling the need to object, said that from the Russian side things were not presented in such a gloomy way. Napoleon was silent, continuing to look at him mockingly and, obviously, not listening to him. Balashev said that in Russia they expect all the best from the war. Napoleon condescendingly nodded his head, as if saying: “I know, it’s your duty to say so, but you yourself don’t believe in it, you’re convinced by me.”

With the advent of the valve mechanism, the closest “relative” of the pipe got its start - musical instrument cornet. It is also called a cornet-a-piston to distinguish it from another instrument, which was also called a cornet (or zinc), was a wooden instrument and was used in earlier eras (By the 19th century it had completely fallen out of use).

The invention of the cornet-a-piston is attributed to Sigismund Stölzel, whose instrument was shown in Paris in 1830 and had 2 valves.
The cornet was a great success among both musicians and listeners. A great passion for the cornet began.
Its appearance is due to the fact that the chromatic trumpets of that time had a heavy, inflexible sound. The cornet, on the other hand, had a greater number of barrel turns than the trumpet and sounded softer. Another advantage was that the first chromatic trumpets were in F tunings, and cornets in B and A, which are more convenient for playing.
The 19th century is the time when the cornet began to be actively introduced into the scores of many composers. Everyone knows the cornet solo in the “Neapolitan Dance” from Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake”.
2 cornets were most often combined into one group with 2 trumpets playing in the lower register.
The cornet is also called a “cornet-a-piston.” This French name means an instrument with valves or pistons.
Solo works for the instrument were written mainly by the cornetists themselves: G.L. Clark, J.B. Arban, W. Brandt, E. Tronier, V. Wurm and others.
Nowadays the cornet is almost never used.

Echo cornet

This unusual instrument was popular in America and England during the era of Queen Victoria. Its peculiarity is the presence of 2 bells. The performer, switching with the help of an additional valve to another bell, could create the effect of playing with a mute. Most often to create an echo. The instrument was extremely popular; many works were written specifically for it. Some of them, for example “Alpine Echo,” are performed by foreign trumpeters on this instrument to this day. These cornets were produced in limited editions, mainly by Boosey & Hawkes. Nowadays, the production of such instruments has been established in India, but their quality does not bear any criticism, therefore, when choosing such a cornet, professionals give preference to old instruments.

(Flügelhorn, Piston) - a small metal wind instrument approximately shaped like a trumpet; it is shorter than the last one, equipped with three piston valves (see). Part K. is written in the key salt. Volume of the chromatic scale of K.-a-piston:

The most common tunings of K. - in IN And A. In service IN it sounds for a big second, in tune A- a minor third below the written notes. In K.'s part, the method of indicating tonality in the key is the same as in clarinets (see). Tenor-K. softer, weaker than the timbre of the trumpet. Melodies of a soft rather than militant nature are more suitable for K. K. is used in both military and symphony orchestras (the latter has two K.).

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