Research

Then three notes would change the world...


Perhaps the statement on the home page is a little exaggerated! Yet what took place in that concert was truly revolutionary. The audience were listening to a groundbreaking new invention and the three notes, from the opening trumpet phrase, had until then been impossible to play.

Never before had the trumpet been able to play chromatically, perform complete scales in the low register or negotiate extreme modulations with comparative ease. The significance of this new phenomenon would not have been lost on the audience who must have grown accustomed to the plain and basic trumpet writing from this period. Few could have expected to hear virtuosic music being executed with such precision and skill.

The work performed? Josef Haydn’s Concerto for Trumpet in Eb Major.

The instrument? The Keyed Trumpet.

Haydn’s concerto is now one of the most popular works for the modern trumpet. So often, programme notes name the original instrument and its performer, Anton Weidinger, but only rarely is the instrument itself dealt with at all, let alone in detail. I felt that it was wrong for performers to acknowledge the existence of the keyed trumpet, only to disregard the instrument entirely after it’s somewhat token inclusion in their programme notes. I decided that I would like to know more about this instrument so as to become informed in my performance of the repertoire and also gain knowledge of how to play the trumpet itself.


Contents