History

Dahlqvist, Reine

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.

Tarr, Edward H.

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.”

Buser, Ernst W.

Contract of apprenticeship as Field-trumpeter 1703

Publication of a 1703 apprenticeship contract for a field trumpeter, offering insight into training, discipline and professional life.

Aebi, Willi

The inner acoustics of the horn

Study of the horn’s inner acoustics, explaining how its structure and air column influence tone production and intonation.

Tarr, Edward H.

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.”

Bernoulli, Wilhelm

My collection of historical brass instruments and drums

Presentation of a private collection of historical brass instruments and drums, offering insights into their construction, variety and historical context.

Mertens, Albert

The trombone in Belgium

Published in memory of its author, this article reflects on the trombone tradition in Belgium and his lasting contribution.

Leloir, Edmond

The trombone with 6 independent valves

Technical analysis of the trombone with six independent valves, examining its mechanics, extended range and potential for new repertoire.

Salmen, Walter

Russian music and musicians before 1700

with special regard to Brass Music

Overview of Russian music and musicians before 1700, exploring early traditions, influences and the role of brass instruments.

Bonanni, Filippo

Gabinetto Armonico by Filippo Bonanni, Rome 1723

22 Illustrations

Selection of illustrations and excerpts from Gabinetto Armonico (1723), offering a visual insight into early instruments and musical practice.

Spruit, J. E.

The Fellowship of the Minstrels

Exploration of the medieval minstrel’s world, from marginalization and suspicion to the creation of fellowships that offered protection and structure.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) Biography

His First Twenty Years

First part of a detailed biography of Jean-Baptiste Arban, tracing his early years, studies at the Paris Conservatoire and the beginnings of his career.

Von Glasenapp, Franz Georg

Drollery in the medieval representation of musical subjects

Study of medieval drolleries in musical imagery, exploring humorous and symbolic representations of musicians and instruments in Gothic art.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) Biography

The beginning of his career

Second part of Jean-Baptiste Arban’s biography, covering the early years of his career, his public performances, work with Adolphe Sax and the development of his famous method.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) Biography

The Success

At the height of his fame, Arban fights to reshape musical education—and to save the trumpet from disappearing.

Huber, Heinrich

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) Biography

IV. The Conflict

Fame or duty—can you have both? At the height of his career, Jean-Baptiste Arban is forced to choose between international success and his post at the Paris Conservatoire… and pays the price.

Hall, Jack

The saga of the cornet and six of its outstanding artists

The cornet reached extraordinary heights in the 19th century. Jack Hall traces the rise of its greatest virtuosi and a remarkable era of technical brilliance.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) Biography

The Arban-Cornet

At 55, Jean-Baptiste Arban sets out to reinvent the cornet and impose it on conservatories. A relentless quest for perfection… ending in failure.

Lelong, Fernand · Coutet, Robert

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) Biography

The Last Years of his Life

Arban and the call for progress: inspired by Saint-Saëns, he makes a final push for a C cornet—an effort that would ultimately fail.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) Biography

Critical Analysis of his Method

Is the Arban method really ideal? This critique reveals its limits—and calls for a rethink of brass pedagogy.

Mende, Emilie

The tuba, Benjamin of the brass family

Where does the tuba come from? From serpent to ophicleide to saxhorns, this article traces a lesser-known path to the modern instrument.

Tarr, Edward H.

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.

Hickman, David

Herbert L. Clarke (1867-1945)

Boyhood Years

From forbidden beginnings to cornet legend: Herbert L. Clarke’s early years reveal a path shaped by setbacks, persistence, and decisive discoveries.

Hickman, David

Herbert L. Clarke (1867-1945)

Crucial Years

From illness and doubt to early triumph: Clarke’s “crucial years” reveal a fragile path—where talent, chance, and setbacks nearly drove a future legend away from music.

Tarr, Edward H.

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.

Hickman, David

Herbert L. Clarke (1867-1945)

Early professional years

From struggle to breakthrough: Herbert L. Clarke’s rise reveals relentless practice, early setbacks, and the defining audition that launched one of history’s greatest cornet careers.

Karjalainen, Kauko

The brass septet tradition in Finland

A hidden tradition revealed: over 200 Finnish brass septets shaped regional music life—blending military roots, festivals, and composers like Sibelius into a living legacy.

Hickman, David

Herbert L. Clarke (1867-1945)

His Career

From struggle to legend: Part 4 traces Herbert L. Clarke’s rise from hardship to global fame—touring, recording, teaching, and shaping modern cornet playing.

Beyer, Werner

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.

Thein, Heinrich

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.

Orvid, G. · Riaouzov, S.

Mikhail Innokentiévitch Tabakov (1877-1958)

Founder of the Soviet trumpet school

A towering figure of trumpet history: Tabakov shaped generations—including the legendary Timofei Dokchitzer—and laid the foundations of the Soviet trumpet school.

Glover, Stephen L.

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.

Heyde, Herbert

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.

Heyde, Herbert

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.

Beyer, Werner

The classical solo concerto for trombone and its interpreters in the 19th century

From Queisser to Ferdinand David: the rise—and disappearance—of the classical trombone concerto in the 19th century reveals a forgotten golden age of virtuosity.

Perrins, Barrie

What is a Brass Band?

Barrie Perrins traces the 19th-century origins, instrumentation and social role of the brass band—from industrial roots to international musical life.

Selianin, Anatoly

Vassily Gueorguievitch Brandt (1869–1923)

Biography

Sélianine traces Brandt’s life and artistry, from Bolshoi virtuoso to influential pedagogue, revealing the foundations of a distinctly Russian trumpet tradition.

Heyde, Herbert

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.

Gade, Per

Anton Hansen (1877-1947)

Father of trombone playing in Scandinavia

From Nørrebro cafés to the Royal Orchestra, Anton Hansen’s early years reveal the shift from valve to slide trombone in Scandinavian orchestras.

Ree Wekre, Frøydis

The Leningrad School of Horn Playing

From St. Petersburg to the Soviet era, generations of horn players shaped a distinctive approach to sound, interpretation, and orchestral playing.

Heyde, Herbert

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

Poverty, patents and workshop rivalries shaped the first German valve instruments, from Blühmel and Stoelzel to the Vienna and Mainz systems.

Gade, Per

Anton Hansen (1877-1947)

Father of trombone playing in Scandinavia

Berlin, Leipzig and Copenhagen diary pages show Hansen testing slide-trombone ideals against Weschke, orchestral practice and Carl Nielsen.

Schmidt, Werner Christoph

Five generations of mouthpiece specialists

From Höchstädt to Markneukirchen and beyond, five generations of Schmidts shaped brass mouthpiece design through craft, anatomy and evolving orchestral demands.

Limmer, Rudolf

Brass instruments from the musical town of Graslitz

From 18th-century Graslitz to postwar Bavaria, brass makers rebuilt a vanished musical industry around Miraphone, preserving craft through exile and industrial change.

Hoza, Vaclav

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.

Laplace, Michel

The founders of the French Trumpet School

Merri Franquin, Eugène Foveau and Raymond Sabarich

Franquin, Foveau and Sabarich appear through their Paris careers, teaching legacies, recordings and role in shaping modern French trumpet playing.

Gade, Per

Anton Hansen (1877-1947)

Father of trombone playing in Scandinavia

From Sibelius to Paris, Anton Hansen’s later career links Scandinavian trombone playing with French repertoire, teaching, and orchestral reform.

Janetzky, Kurt

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.

Haine, M. · De Keyser, I.

The stamps on Sax instruments

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

Janetzky, Kurt

300 Years of the Horn in Bohemia

An unsigned portrait from the Dresden court links the rise of Bohemian horn playing to the ceremonial world of Baroque hunting culture.

Damm, Peter

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.

Sluchin, Benny

A Trombone Martyr

Auguste Léonard de la Tuilerie

A Paris apothecary turned trombone evangelist challenges 19th-century musical habits, imagining the slide trombone as the future voice of harmony.

Damm, Peter

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.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

10 Years of Brass Bulletin

Ten years after its launch, a small specialist publication reaches readers in more than sixty countries, reflecting how a shared artistic community took shape across borders.

Olsen, Deborah M.

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.

Reifsnyder, Robert

The Euphonium in America

A Short History

Euphonium terminology, bore sizes, and band instrumentation shifted across Europe and America, from Sax and Conn to Gilmore, Sousa, and Fennell.

Willener, Alfred

The Haydn Trumpet Concerto

As editions, instruments and traditions diverge, Haydn’s trumpet concerto becomes a lens on notation, style and the shifting meaning of performance.

Nakayama, Fujio

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.

Olsen, Deborah M.

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

Music shaped daily life in Aurora’s communal colony, from civic ceremonies and political events to touring brass bands that carried its identity across the American West.

Hiller, Albert

The Trumpet in the Works of Jean-Philippe Rameau

From court entertainments to operatic dances, Rameau’s trumpet writing reveals uncommon technical demands and a broader palette of Baroque brass practice.

Willener, Alfred

The Haydn Trumpet Concerto

André, Wobisch, Dokshitzer, Stringer and others reveal how tempo, phrasing, ornamentation and cadenzas reshape Haydn's trumpet concerto.

Weiner, Howard

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.

Olsen, Deborah M.

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.

Jeurissen, Herman

The Midwinter Horn

De Midwinterhoorn

A Christmas horn tradition from eastern Netherlands preserves ancient construction, ritual and performance, linking rural practice with Leopold Mozart's Sinfonia pastorella.

Sumerkin, Viktor

Pyotr Naumovich Volkov (1877-1933)

First trombone professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory

From imperial St. Petersburg to Soviet Leningrad, Volkov shaped a distinctive Russian trombone tradition through performance, teaching and generations of pupils.

Willener, Alfred

The Haydn Trumpet Concerto

Haydn’s trumpet concerto becomes a study of manuscript detail, performance choices, and the fragile ways listeners receive a familiar work.

Gauffriau, Jean-Michel

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.

Sumerkin, Viktor

Vladislav Mykhaylovich Blazhevich (1881-1942)

Trombonist, Composer and Teacher

From village band to the Moscow Conservatoire and the Bolshoi, a lifelong commitment to performance, teaching and wind music shaped Soviet trombone tradition.

Hiller, Albert

Unknown Treasures for Trumpet Ensembles

Processional Music from 18th century Bavaria

Forgotten Bavarian monastery archives preserve hundreds of ceremonial trumpet works, where local tradition and practical performance survived long after their cultural world disappeared.

Ehmann, Wilhelm

100 Years of Kuhlo's Posaunenchor Book

A century-old brass choir book reveals how revivalist faith, Bach chorales, folk song, and practical notation reshaped church music.

Menzel, Ursula

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.

Bourgue, Daniel

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.

Scott, Sue

The Streitwieser Foundation Historic Trumpet Museum

A private collection built through one musician's lifelong search became an unexpected center for brass history, where every instrument carries a story beyond its display.

Poncet, Jacques

The hunting horn

Long-held beliefs about the French hunting horn are challenged as forgotten playing practices and Baroque traditions reshape its early history and repertoire.

Hiller, Albert

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.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Jazz and the Horn

The horn was once considered incompatible with jazz until changing ideas of sound and musicians like John Graas quietly overturned that certainty.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

W. A. Mozart and the Trumpet...

A forgotten anecdote places one of music's greatest figures in startling conflict with the trumpet, raising unexpected questions about fear, sound and musical sensibility.

Damm, Peter

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Performance once depended as much on informed invention as on written notes, and early horn concertos still carry that forgotten freedom in plain sight.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

Before Louis Armstrong became the defining figure, jazz already carried competing traditions of tone, style and technique shaped by cornet players across New Orleans and beyond.

Weston, Stephen J.

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.

Aitken, Thomas

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.

Damm, Peter

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Essential ornaments

Natural horn technique left little room for excess: Peter Damm sets 18th-century ornamentation against the practical limits of range, style and notation.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The “Classical” Period 1927-1945 — The Golden Age of the Trumpet

Between Armstrong’s rise and bebop’s arrival, the trumpet became jazz’s dominant voice, reshaping technique, orchestras, sound, mutes and virtuosity.

Höltzel, Michael

Round the Horn

Hamburg 1982

A 1982 Hamburg exhibition brought 150 horns out of collections and into players’ hands, collapsing centuries of hunting, signalling and concert traditions into one room.

Damm, Peter

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Deliberate divisions

Improvisation, articulation and ornament were once inseparable: Peter Damm recovers an 18th-century horn practice later narrowed by increasingly precise notation.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The pluralism of the so-called “modern” forms (1945 to the present)

Bebop, Miles Davis and the rise of the flugelhorn mark a postwar jazz landscape in which trumpet playing splintered into competing sounds and ideals.

Trichet, Pierre

On the Sackbut or Harmonic Trumpet (ca 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.

Laplace, Michel

Harry James (1916-1983)

Young Man With A Horn

Harry James stood between jazz virtuosity and popular showmanship, turning the trumpet into a mass-audience voice without losing the respect of classical players.

Perl, Benjamin

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.

Laplace, Michel

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The instrument for jazz

Jazz trumpet playing balances equipment, embouchure and articulation, as changing sound ideals reshape mouthpieces, technique and the physical approach to playing.

Damm, Peter

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Changes and modifications of tempo

Tempo, dynamics and cadenzas expose how much an 18th-century horn concerto once depended on choices that modern notation and instruments can easily obscure.

Trichet, Pierre

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.

Tarr, Edward H.

Bach and the Others

Eighteenth-Century Trumpeter-Hornists

From Bach’s Leipzig cantatas to the Stadtpfeifer tradition, trumpet and horn emerge as interchangeable tools within a remarkably versatile musical profession.

Tarr, Edward H.

Bach and the Others:

Eighteenth-Century Trumpeter-Hornists

Beyond Leipzig, the practice extended from Weissenfels to Dresden and Vienna, as horn and trumpet gradually diverged into distinct musical identities.