Singing lessons for brass players?

Johann Sebastian Bach's trumpeter Gottfried Reiche must have played the clarino part with absolute perfection, because the difficulties we meet with in Bach's music when playing the natural trumpet, are extraordinary. I just cannot believe the theory that the brass parts in those days were executed in a deficient way: a musician like Reiche shows that he not only played the trumpet but also the cornetto extremely skillfully. It was said in the brass player's guild that Reiche took with him into the grave the secret of how to play Bach's b minor Mass and all those difficult cantatas so perfectly. That cannot be a simple myth, there must be a reason for the saying - and for perfection. Perhaps there is a very important item that we overlooked in all our critical reviews and hypotheses on the subject: Reiche and many of his contemporary colleagues did not just concentrate on the trumpet, they also worked closely together with the « Kantorei » (= the choir-master's class). It seems very probable that brass players received useful impulses from this collaboration. Johann Ernst Altenburg points out in his « Essay to instruct the art of playing the trumpet and the drum » (Halle 1795) that to be able to play the trumpet, one should first master the art of singing.

And Martin Agricola, who introduced musical and instrumental education into the Latin schools, said as early as 1528: "Musica (meaning singing) is the foundation from which originate all instruments».