Historical instruments

Václav F. Cerveny (1819-1896)

Famous instrument maker

A pioneer of brass design: V. F. Červený shaped modern wind instruments—challenging Adolphe Sax and defining the rich sound of the Austrian school.

By Vaclav Hoza

The universal trumpet of Gabriele Cassone

Baroque instruments, Berio and neglected Italian music meet in Cassone’s unusually broad conception of what a modern trumpeter can be.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Part 2

300 Years of the Horn

in the Dresden Court Orchestra

From Dresden’s court musicians to Hampel’s hand-horn technique, virtuoso players and court repertoire shaped a decisive shift in horn playing and orchestral writing.

By Peter Damm

The stamps on Sax instruments

Sax instrument stamps reveal makers, addresses, patents and distinctions, giving collectors concrete clues for dating instruments across three generations.

By M. Haine, I. De Keyser

The alto trombone and contemporary concepts of trombone timbre

Alto trombone timbre from Vienna to Brahms, orchestral balance, period practice, and why bright brass sounds gradually disappeared.

By William E. Runyan

The Trumpet

An exhibition at the Trumpeter's Castel in Bad Säckingen

Natural trumpets from Verona, Nürnberg and Vienna framed a 1979 gathering in Säckingen linking Baroque practice, collecting culture and modern playing.

By Kurt Janetzky

The trombone: changing times, changing slide positions

Did trombonists always use seven positions? Heinrich Huber reveals how history, theory and early music reshaped the slide.

By Heinrich Huber

Part 2

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

Continuation of Edward H. Tarr’s study on the Baroque trumpet, examining the high trumpet and further clarifying the concept of the “Bach trumpet.”

By Edward H. Tarr

Editorial

A wealth of Baroque music lies dormant in libraries, caught between historical instrument names, technical demands, and the competing claims of horn and trumpet players.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

The tuba in France

How did the tuba emerge as an orchestral force? Fernand Lelong and Robert Coutet trace its path—from serpent to Sax—and its rapid rise.

By Fernand Lelong, Robert Coutet

The contrabass sackbut

a modern copy

A reconstructed 17th-century contrabass sackbut revives forgotten low brass practice, from Venetian polychoral music to modern performance challenges.

By Richard Lister

Reminiscence of trombonists of the past

Echoes of the past: Werner Beyer traces great trombonists from the 17th century to Wagner’s era—revealing how tradition, players, and instruments shaped the modern orchestra.

By Werner Beyer

On the Cornett and Serpent

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

Written around 1640, Pierre Trichet’s Traité des Instruments de Musique preserves a firsthand account of the cornett and serpent in musical life and construction.

By Pierre Trichet

On Trumpets

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

Trumpets served war, ceremony and even medicine before Trichet turned to the mute, a simple device whose purpose extended far beyond changing the sound.

By Pierre Trichet

Part 1

300 Years of the Horn

1680-1980, an attempted survey

From Versailles to Bohemia, hunting horns enter orchestral life through makers, players, early works and the Austro-Bohemian tradition.

By Peter Damm

Japanese painting from the 18th century

An 18th-century Okinawan scroll preserves a ceremonial procession where Chinese-derived instruments, including the rapa trumpet, marked diplomatic exchange with Japan.

By Fujio Nakayama

Tower-watchmen and night-watchmen in Bohemia

From Hussite suspicion of musicians to tower signals over Bohemian towns, horns and trumpets shaped civic life, danger warnings and ritual memory.

By Vaclav Hoza

Part 3

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

Aurora’s bands, chamber groups and restored instruments show how communal faith, German heritage and American public life met in sound, from parlors to parades.

By Deborah M. Olsen

Interview with Hans Pizka

From Vienna horn traditions and natural-horn training to orchestral style and pedagogy, Hans Pizka reflects on the foundations of horn playing and musical identity.

By Jeffrey Agrell

The French Hunting horn, its history, its technique and its music

Centuries-old hunting signals still shape performance today, where technique, ritual and oral tradition preserved a musical language unlike any other brass practice.

By Daniel Bourgue

Early Brass Instruments and Restoration

Restoring historic brass instruments means deciding what to preserve, what to undo and how modern methods can serve objects shaped by another musical age.

By Ursula Menzel

Bad Säckingen, Trumpet museum

A romantic legend, a remarkable private collection and Edward H. Tarr’s scholarship converged in Bad Säckingen to give the trumpet a museum of its own.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Jean-Baptiste Prin (1669-1742)

A tromba marine virtuoso

A forgotten string instrument leads to an unexpected treasury of Baroque trumpet music, challenging long-held assumptions about repertoire and performance.

By Albert Hiller

Part 3

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

Herbert Heyde traces early German valve instruments from Stoelzel’s horns to basses, makers, patents, and shifting brass-band sound.

By Herbert Heyde