[Tradjazz] Cornet vs. Trumpet

[Steve Barbone]

And here is what Wynton Marsalis has to say about Cornets.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


Around the turn of the twentieth century, the wind band was the primary
medium for average Americans to hear music performed live. Bands were
everywhere. Community ensembles were found in every size city and town;
numerous industries and military regiments fostered band activity. Millions
flocked to the amusement parks, state and industrial expositions and to
local theaters to hear professional ensembles - directed by such luminaries
as John Philip Sousa, Patrick S. Gilmore, Frederick Innes and Arthur Pryor -
performing programs of marches, orchestral and operatic transcriptions,
lighthearted incidental music, and, especially, to hear the numerous
soloists featured on each concert. The distinguished lineage of cornet
soloists performing throughout America from the end of the Civil War through
the 1920s included Gillmore, Matthew Arbuckle, Jules Levy, Ben Bent,
Alessandro Liberati, Hermann Bellstedt, Herbert L. Clarke, Walter Emerson,
Frank L. Simon, Edna White and Louise Horn. Many of these performers went on
to found and direct their own professional bands.

The cornet was an outgrowth of technical developments emanating from the
addition of valves to the natural trumpet. The design of the cornet,
basically a conical bore instrument versus the cylindrical bore of the
trumpet, provides it with a mellow, warm, rounded sound as opposed to the
brilliance or cutting edge of the orchestral valved trumpet. It earned
itself a position of prominence in wind bands and brass bands where music
was written primarily in flat keys (versus the sharp keys that favor the
string instruments in an orchestra) and where the sweeter sound of the
instrument provided a satisfactory treble melodic line. Indeed, the
principal requirements for a cornet solo included gracious melodic lines,
simple harmonies and strong clear rhythms set in patterns that alternated
the soloists with the accompanying band. The band would be featured in the
introduction and in the "break strains," short passages of contrasting
material that set up the soloists for his (or her) next variation or
statement. In addition, cornetists performed encores that dazzled the
audience with technical proficiency or lulled them into a sense of rapture
through the sheer simplicity and beauty of a lovely slow melody presented in
a warm singing manner.