Royal trumpets

Spin your yarns here.
Post Reply
User avatar
Grah
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:40 pm
Location: REDLAND BAY, AUSTRALIA

Royal trumpets

Post by Grah »

Reading this article about the crafting of trumpets for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Royal wedding, I get the impression that there are some wrong instrument descriptions being used:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-30/r ... ed/9599796

It seems to me that they are bugles and not trumpets. But, the size is going to make them sound more like a trombone :bassclef: than a trumpet :trebleclef: !

Anyway, what could be more attractive for Harry and Meghan than to herald their wedding with a fanfare played on an instrument that sounds like a trombone. :good:
Grah

(Transcribing jazz solos is fraught with difficulties because exact rhythmic notation is well-nigh impossible. So listen carefully because it's the only way to learn how to play jazz trombone so that we can return to the Golden Age.) 8-)
User avatar
Neo Bri
Posts: 1313
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2018 10:30 am
Location: Netherwhere
Contact:

Re: Royal trumpets

Post by Neo Bri »

The article mentions that they could be "as long as 6 feet" which is probably around a G bugle.
User avatar
BGuttman
Posts: 5893
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2018 7:19 am
Location: Cow Hampshire

Re: Royal trumpets

Post by BGuttman »

Trumpet and Bugle refer to the relative levels of conicalness. A trumpet is more cylindrical. In the past trumpets were made without valves much like Waldhorns. Players would use crooks to change the pitch.

There are Herald Trumpet ensembles in the US with different pitched instruments ranging from a regular trumpet length to a bass trombone length.

The one shown in the picture looks very much like the standard of the 16th Century.
Bruce Guttman
Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra
"Almost Professional"
boneagain
Posts: 215
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2018 4:52 pm

Re: Royal trumpets

Post by boneagain »

Smith and Watkins both know their stuff. Smith has been one of the greater contributors to brass acoustical knowledge over the last decades.
These "fanfare trumpets" have more to do with baroque trumpets like these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_trumpet

than with the valved instruments used by the US Army.

These DO seem a bit wide-bore for playing upper partials, but certainly not conical like a bugle. I wonder if the poor players will be stuck on upper partials, or play more of the lower, bugle-like stuff? The last sentence of the article, a quote from Wright, pretty much says it all, whatever the powers-that-be intend!
timothy42b
Posts: 1467
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2018 5:51 am
Location: central Virginia

Re: Royal trumpets

Post by timothy42b »

Is it just the angle, or does that mouthpiece look rather large? It looks more like a small trombone mouthpiece than a trumpet mouthpiece.
Post Reply

Return to “Tangents”