Historical instruments

Hermann Baumann

A virtuoso's career

A career built on sound, memory and the natural horn shows how Hermann Baumann helped redefine what a horn soloist could be on the international stage.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

The trombone: changing times, changing slide positions

From Virgiliano to Praetorius and Eisel, early sources reshape long-held assumptions about trombone tuning, slide positions and historical playing practice.

By Howard Weiner

Part 1

The Baroque trumpet, the high trumpet and the so-called Bach trumpet

Edward H. Tarr examines the Baroque trumpet and clarifies the origins and meaning of the so-called “Bach trumpet.”

By Edward H. Tarr

Part 1

On the early history of valves and valve instruments in Germany (1814-1833)

At the origin of modern brass: Herbert Heyde uncovers the true story of valve invention—revealing rivalries, experiments, and the breakthrough that transformed musical history.

By Herbert Heyde

Part 1

The Art of the Musical Instrument Maker

Encyclopédie méthodique — Paris 1795

A 1795 encyclopedia captures brass and wind instruments at a moment when their language, character and expressive roles were understood rather differently.

By Anonyme

Part 2

The Art of the Musical Instrument Maker

Encyclopédie méthodique, Paris 1795

In 1795, musical instruments were thought to need no further invention, yet their materials, construction and acoustic possibilities remained open to experimentation.

By Anonyme

Brass in the Operas of Berlioz

Berlioz turned a changing brass section into a dramatic force, using horns, trombones, cornets and saxhorns to shape colour, distance, ceremony and fear.

By Benjamin Perl

Part 3

The Art of the Musical Instrument Maker

Encyclopédie méthodique, Paris 1795

By Anonyme

On the Sackbut or Harmonic Trumpet

From Pierre Trichet’s Traité des Instruments de Musique (c. 1640)

A seventeenth-century description of the sackbut captures its moving slide, chromatic freedom and bass role at a moment when the instrument was still being defined.

By Pierre Trichet

The Remarkable Story Behind the Cover

A war, a theft, and an unexpected recovery turned one nineteenth-century cornet into a witness to musical memory beyond its craftsmanship and sound.

By Jean-Michel Gauffriau

Part 1

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

In a German communal settlement on the Oregon frontier, bands, choirs and original compositions shaped daily life as strongly as faith, work and education.

By Deborah M. Olsen

Part 1

Cesare Bendinelli (1542-1617)

Biography

Cesare Bendinelli (1542–1617), imperial trumpeter and teacher, shaped a tradition and wrote the first trumpet method — a key document of Renaissance brass playing.

By Edward H. Tarr

Part 2

Cesare Bendinelli (1542-1617)

The Trumpet Method

The first trumpet method rediscovered: Edward H. Tarr reveals how Bendinelli’s 1614 treatise reshapes our understanding of trumpet technique, signals, and ensemble art.

By Edward H. Tarr

J. G. Albrechtsberger (1736-1809)

Concertino for chromatic trumpet

Study by Reine Dahlqvist arguing that Albrechtsberger’s 1771 Eb concertino was intended for Jew’s harp rather than keyed or slide trumpet.

By Reine Dahlqvist

The Wrong Brass?

Between blind fidelity and reckless modernisation, instrument substitutions force performers to decide when the score’s wording serves—or betrays—the music.

By Rudolf Lewy

Part 2

On the early history of valves and valve instruments in Germany (1814-1833)

From invention to rivalry: the early history of rotary and piston valves reveals a battle of ideas, patents, and craftsmanship that transformed brass instruments forever.

By Herbert Heyde

Interview with Thomas Müller

The natural horn is not a retreat into the past: Thomas Müller argues that its demands on sound, technique and awareness can broaden a modern player’s craft.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Part 1

The contrabass trombone

Picture and sketches, taking particularly into account the construction principles (1973)

From Praetorius to Wagner: Heinrich Thein traces the evolution of the contrabass trombone—revealing how history, acoustics, and design shaped this powerful orchestral voice.

By Heinrich Thein

The untimely demise of the ophicleide

Once central to French orchestras, the ophicleide lost its place to the tuba—a disappearance shaped as much by institutions and repertoire as by sound.

By Stephen J. Weston

Early trumpet music in Schwerin

Hidden sources revealed: Stephen Glover uncovers early trumpet music in Schwerin—offering new insights into wind bands, performance practice, and the evolution of brass.

By Stephen L. Glover

Natural trumpets, basic techniques

Natural trumpet playing demands more than historical equipment: Friedemann Immer sets modern technique against Baroque sound, articulation, style and authenticity.

By Friedemann Immer

At the Sign of the Serpent

All sorts of old, rare and unusual musical instruments bought and sold by Tony Bingham

Behind a Hampstead shopfront, Tony Bingham’s trade in ophicleides, natural horns and cornets kept rare instruments circulating between collectors and players.

By Thomas Aitken

Dr. h.c. Bernoulli (1904-1980)

Necrology of a great collector

From a Swiss castle filled with 700 brass instruments to the Historical Museum Basel, a collector’s life reflects decades of dedication, scholarship and hospitality.

By Emilie Mende

Friedemann Immer

A new Trumpet

Baroque tradition and modern trumpet playing converge in Friedemann Immer’s unusual double career, shaped by Bach, natural trumpet and early music.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez