Trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B♭ or C trumpet.
"Trumpeter" redirects here. For other uses, see Trumpeter (disambiguation) and Trumpet (disambiguation).
Trumpet-like instruments have historically been used as signaling devices in battle or hunting, with examples dating back to at least 2000 BC.[1] They began to be used as musical instruments only in the late 14th or early 15th century.[2] Trumpets are used in art music styles, for instance in orchestras, concert bands, and jazz ensembles, as well as in popular music. Sound is produced by vibrating the lips in a mouthpiece,[3] which starts a standing wave in the air column of the instrument. Since the late 15th century, trumpets have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, usually bent twice into a rounded rectangular shape.
There are many distinct types of trumpet, with the most common being pitched in B♭ (a transposing instrument), having a tubing length of about 1.48 m (4 ft 10 in). Early trumpets did not provide means to change the length of tubing, whereas modern instruments generally have three (or sometimes four) valves in order to change their pitch. Most trumpets have valves of the piston type, while some have the rotary type. The use of rotary-valved trumpets is more common in orchestral settings (especially in German and German-style orchestras), although this practice varies by country. A musician who plays the trumpet is called a trumpet player or trumpeter.[4]
Musical pieces[edit]
Solos[edit]
Anton Weidinger developed in the 1790s the first successful keyed trumpet, capable of playing all the chromatic notes in its range. Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto was written for him in 1796 and startled contemporary audiences by its novelty,[45] a fact shown off by some stepwise melodies played low in the instrument's range.
![The Last Judgment (workshop of Hieronymus Bosch) [nl], c. 1500–1510](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Workshop_of_Jheronimus_Bosch_001.jpg/120px-Workshop_of_Jheronimus_Bosch_001.jpg)
Illustration for The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner from Baby's Own Aesop, a children's edition of Aesop's fables
