History

Part 2

The solo trombone of the bohemian baroque

By Ken Shifrin

Part 3

The modern concert hall

The Trumpet Echo

By Sabina Pade

José de Juan Martínez's tutor for the circular hand-stopped trumpet (1830)

By Beryl Kenyon De Pascual

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.

By Jack Hall

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

Part 3

Instrument Makers in USA

C. G. Conn Ltd. Abilene, Texas

In Abilene, automated production and workshop skills meet under a familiar name, as an American brass maker seeks to regain ground lost over the previous decade.

By Stephan Suter

Part 1

The Horn Concerti of W. A. Mozart

By Herman Jeurissen

A short history of the tango

By Abel Larrosa Cuevas

Part 4

The modern concert hall

Spreading walls, shrinking sound

By Sabina Pade

Part 1

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.

By Edward H. Tarr

Schloss Kremsegg: Serpent in C

By Siegfried Kristofl

Edna White

A Woman and a Life in the Service of the Trumpet

At a time when the cornet still ruled, Edna White made the trumpet a solo voice, building a career across concert halls, radio, recordings and new repertoire.

By Michel Laplace

Heinrich Domnich (1767-1844)

By Robert Ricks

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

Part 2

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.

By Michel Laplace

Part 2

A look at the evolution of the valved cornet and its repertoire

By Géry Dumoulin

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

Special Finland

A brief survey of the history of the Finnish brass music

Finland’s brass identity grew between Russian military traditions and Western orchestral models, turning competing influences into a distinctive national voice.

By Simo Kanerva

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

An historical perspective of the alto trombone

By Saeki Shigeki

Franz (Frantisek) Schollar and the Russian school of horn playing

By Vitali Bujanovsky