A Brief History of the Trumpet

What do most people think when they see the trumpet? Do you think a wake-up call in the military or something more ceremonial like taps? Or even that one time Reggie didn't stop playing in Shrek? Regardless of what brought you here, this is the first episode to a series about the trumpet, mainly aimed towards beginners, adults, and children, and for those who are just plainly interested in the trumpet. So welcome, and enjoy the show. Now, a brief history of the trumpet. The trumpet is not as old of an instrument as the violin, and really, the modern trumpet is pretty recent in the grand time scale of instruments. But, since most inventions come from earlier forms, we can speculate that people have been blowing into objects to create sound for a very long time. For example, some civilizations blew into an animal horn or conch shell to produce a sound. First known metal trumpets go way back to 1500 BC. In fact, silver and bronze trumpets were discovered in the grave of King Tut in Egypt. But it wasn't just limited to Egypt. Other ancient versions of the instrument were found in China, South America, Scandinavia, and Asia. Many of these early examples were not used to make music as we know it today. Typically, they were used for religious and military purposes, which historians have pointed out in major religious writings and other historical records. In medieval times, for example, trumpeters were highly guarded by the military units, since they were crucial to relaying instructions over great distances. In modern times, the bugle is still used by militaries, but mainly for paying respect to the past use. There isn't really much that goes into making a trumpet. It's just a sheet of metal that's kind of coiled up and made into the shape of a trumpet or a horn. There really doesn't even need to be a loop-de-loop in the middle. So when it came time for instrument design, as well as metal making, it improved a lot in the middle ages and the renaissance. So there, they made natural trumpets more suitable for creating actual music. However, these trumpets did not have valves and could only produce a small number of notes. Also, changing the key meant that you would have to change the length of the trumpet or change the horn or bell. Why is that? Well, there's a little thing called partials. Partials in brass are the notes that can be played by a certain tube or encase the trumpet. So when it came time for you to change keys, you would have to change the different tubes of the trumpet and the different pipes. So what fundamentally is happening in the modern trumpet now is that the tubes or the different lengths of tubing in the trumpet is changed by the pistons or the valves. Different lengths of the trumpet give it different keys and different notes that you can hit for each partial. The natural trumpet's peak of popularity was actually during the Baroque era, but in recent years it has seen somewhat other resurgence. In fact, many examples of the natural trumpet can be found easily on YouTube. Due to the limited amount of notes, usage of the natural trumpet started to fade during the classical and romantic periods of music. By the 1800s, instrument improvements such as keys and valves led to its chromatic use. Following its capability of playing any note needed by the composer, it redeemed its rightful place as a dominant musical instrument. Closer to now the modern times during the 20th century, the concept of pop music or popular music emerged, and although popular music has always existed in one shape or another, this area of sound recordings meant that songs could become hits by reaching as many people at once. Early on, many instruments did not translate well to tape. However, the trumpet proved to be an exception and quickly became a standout favorite, thanks to its clear, focused sound. Virtuosos like Louis Armstrong brought the trumpet to the forefront of popular music during the 1930s, and its popularity continued for decades from Dizzy Gillespie to Miles Davis. The trumpet has been there all throughout history, and today it can be heard in all kinds of musical styles, from rock to classical. Remember, trumpet is much more than a musical instrument. It's a symbol of humanity's progress, so I hope that this video kind of helped you get a little basic idea of what the trumpet was, and what it is today. Thank you.