The Trumpet

Trumpets found in King Tut's tomb.

    Did you know that there’s evidence that trumpets have been around since at least 1500BC? In fact, there were several trumpets found in the tomb of King Tut. However, these trumpets, as you can see from the picture, don’t look anything like the ones we know of today. Some might even argue that they’re not trumpets, but merely an ancestor of the trumpet. I would be one of those people. The modern trumpet that we recognize today was created by the evolution of its ancestors. Some say that it’s for that reason that all of its ancestors, even the conch shell, can all be considered early trumpets, but I chose to stray from this belief. I can accept them as ancestors, but I don’t think that anything tribe people picked up and blew into can really be considered an “early trumpet”; however, that is where it all began, and I will not dispute that. In early civilizations they blew into conch shells and animal horns to produce sounds. It was used mainly for communication over long distances. Years later, the natural materials evolved into metal and the bugle was born (otherwise known as the “natural trumpet”). It came in many different shapes and lengths. Its intended use was not yet for music, but mostly for military and hunting calls as well as religious or royal ceremonial introductions. Unlike the modern trumpet, the bugle still had no valves and the mouthpiece was built-in as opposed to being a separate piece like it is nowadays. For these reasons the bugle could only play a few notes, so when the time came to introduce it to the world of music and bands it became obvious that the instrument still needed to evolve some more. In 1828, the inventor Jean-Hilaire Asté experimented by adding valves to a bugle horn and discovered that with the addition of the valves it could now play every note. This not only led to the modern trumpet, but with the adjustment of tubing and size, it also led to the creation of other brasswind instruments such as the tuba, the cornet, the piccolo trumpet, the euphonium, etc…

Modern Trumpert

    Now, after the valves were implemented, we took it from there. Revolutionary artists like Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gilespie came around and rocked the roof with their mad trumpet skills, thus gaining it the respect I have for it today.

Fun Fact: The sound of trumpets (and many other brasswind instruments) can be altered by mutes. One of my favourites is a toilet plunger. I kid you not. It’s for real! In this clip, the man on the right is using a harmon mute and the man on the left is using what seems to be a pixie mute in addition to a plunger mute.

Sources:

http://www.wwbw.com/A-Brief-History-of-the-Trumpet-g26396t0.wwbw

http://www.the-solo-trumpet.com/trumpet-history.html