Milestones in the History of Trumpet Development

A Brief Analysis of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E flat

major

Written by Junchen Huang

Supervised by Fang Li

12.3.2020
 Table of content
Abstract ..................................................................................... 1
Foreword ................................................................................... 2
1. Briefly describe the history of the development of the
trumpet to the classical period .................................................. 3
1) The early form and application of trumpet ...................... 3
2) Introduction of keyed trumpet ......................................... 5
2. A Brief Analysis of Haydn's Concerto in E-flat Major .............. 6
1) Background of composing ................................................ 6
2) Music form analysis .......................................................... 7
3. Historical significance and later influence ............................ 10
4. concluding remarks.............................................................. 12
Epilogue ................................................................................... 13
References ............................................................................... 14
 Abstract

The trumpet has a extremely long history and can be

traced back to the ancient Egyptian era. Trumpets are often

used in military and religious applications as signal and

functional instruments. In its long history of development, the

trumpet has undergone various changes in various forms and

styles. It was popularized and used in richer music forms

during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Later, due to

design and structural defects, it made it in the 17th and 18th.

The instrument went through a trough. It wasn't until Haydn

created the trumpet concerto in E-flat major for the Valve key

trumpet invented by the court trumpet player Anthony

Weidinger, which opened a new chapter in trumpet

development.

Key words: Trumpet Concerto in E flat

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 Foreword

Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major is undoubtedly a

milestone in the development history of the trumpet. This

concerto, born from the innovative invention of the keyed

trumpet, has perfected and enriched the possibility of trumpet

performance and given the trumpet a new The vitality provides

more directions for the development of the trumpet.

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1. Briefly describe the history of the development of
the trumpet to the classical period
1) The early form and application of trumpet
The early form of the trumpet is very simple in design and

structure. The leadpipe is directly connected to the horn, with a

total length of about 120 cm and a diameter of about 10

cm.Records of this style of trumpet appear in the 15th century

BC, when the ancient Egyptians and Germans usually used

this early trumpet in military warfare and religious sacrifices.

This situation continued until the Roman era, however in

the early Roman era only Jews, Romans and Tibetans were

allowed to play the trumpet. There are relevant records in the

"New Testament". At that time, the sound of the trumpet was

considered to be the voice of an angel, and its status was

extremely special. People believed that only God could have

this musical instrument. But the trumpets of this historical

period did not have keys and could only play a single overtone.

Time went by to the 17th century, with the emergence of

the baroque, this trend also affected the evolution of the

trumpet. Its popularity is higher, the shape of the musical

instrument has also been improved, and the detachable tuning

tube has appeared, so that the tube length can be changed

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according to the needs of the music. While applying religious

materials, he combined various forms of musical works to

make creative attempts. Especially in the late Baroque, in

order to consolidate and demonstrate the authority of the royal

family, the European ruling class recruited a large number of

court trumpet players and promoted the process of applying

the trumpet to chamber music and church music.

However, until the 18th century, the trumpet did not solve

its range barrier and could not play semitones and part of the

whole tone. In this historical period, in order to break through

the technical problems of its performance, the trumpet began

to appear "button-type" trumpets. The aim was to keep up with

the rich variety required by the increasing number of musical

compositions.

The first key trumpets were produced in Dresden in 1770,

and between 1791 and 1792 by the largest trumpet in

Germany at the time. Manufacturer Nessman mass production.

Other notable manufacturers include: Michael Woeggel.

Schwanitz in Weimar and Kellner in the Netherlands. At this

time, the trumpet still has a large number of scales that cannot

be played.

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2) Introduction of keyed trumpet

The invention and creation of the keyed trumpet has

perfected the range of the trumpet playing scale. In order to

achieve the performance of the diatonic and chromatic scales,

especially in the bass region, this is the complete opposite of

the natural trumpet. The keyed trumpet adopts different sizes

of valve keys. The first keyed trumpet was born around 1760.

The application of the key mechanism makes the fingers of the

performers fit the keyed trumpet itself more closely, and the

fingers and each hole are more suitable. There is a good

balance between the size and position of the keys. The

notation (Clarino) was quite common in the Viennese school at

the time, so whether it was a division trumpet in an orchestra or

a solo in a piece of music, the trumpet was uniformly

represented by "Clarino". However, according to music critics

at the time, the emergence of the valve key trumpet

(klappentrompete) solved a major impact on the difficulty of

pitch and timbre control, because the pronunciation principle of

the Baroque trumpet could not be controlled with high

precision, which gave The player created a large range barrier,

and the valve trumpet successfully corrected this problem.

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2. A Brief Analysis of Haydn's Concerto in E-flat Major

1) Background of composing

In 1796, the Austrian composer Haydn composed this

piece for the new keyed trumpet invented by his friend trumpet

player Anton Weidinger. Haydn composed this piece to

promote the revolutionary playing ability of the new trumpet,

inspired by his visit to the Handel Memorial Festival in

Westminster Abbey in England in 1791. Inspired, the mature

period of Haydn's creative career was born. As Haydn's last

concerto, Haydn skillfully combined the essence of symphony

and sonata to create a new concerto style. During the

Viennese Classical School, Haydn greatly improved the status

of the solo instrument, and also wrote the colorful part for his

concerto, he established the first movement of the concerto by

C.P.E. The sonata-style structure of the exhibition section is

presented, and the rondo style is used in the third movement,

especially in this concerto, the theme motive is used and

conceived as a whole.

However, the core reason why Haydn composed this

piece is still because of the emergence of the valve trumpet. In

1793, Weidinger's invention of the keyed trumpet attracted the

attention of the music industry and instrument manufacturers.

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The Viennese musical instrument maker Reid was eager to

support the invention of the instrument and supported the

collaboration. All this prompted Haydn to compose this piece in

1796, in order to show this new achievement to the public.

2) Music form analysis

The Trumpet Concerto in E flat major is divided into three

movements. This trumpet concerto is played by a two trumpets

and string orchestra, which brings out the bright and dynamic

characteristics of the trumpet, and follows the quick-slow-quick

musical layout of the classical music concerto, which vividly

expresses the beauty of the trumpet's timbre. They are: the

first movement, allegro, the second movement, andante, the

third movement, allegro. This is a typical classical-style

musical structure, but in the first movement, Haydn boldly

combines the sonata style with the classical symphony style.

The theme of the whole piece is introduced by the first violin,

and the 7-bar foreshadowing extends to the 8-bar orchestra in

unison. , in the 19th bar, the theme of the second part is

introduced. The key changes from E-flat major to B-flat minor.

After 4 bars of development, it is closed in unison. The trumpet

part of the solo appears in bar 38, and the theme follows. The

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progression of the piece is constantly changing. The second

part of the trumpet solo imitates the second part of the prelude.

In order to elicit the quick high notes of the development part,

the key is changed to C minor, and the recapitulation appears

in bar 125, which is mutually exclusive with the first part of the

solo theme. Correspondingly, expanding the notes of the first

part, until the 168-bar whole piece comes to the end, followed

by the colorful part at the end of the whole piece. The whole

piece of the first movement pushes the development space of

all phrases to a new height in the complete key harmony

structure. Enriched the layering of the phrases.

The second movement is Andante. This movement Haydn

adopts the style of Italian folk Sicilian dance music. This

movement adopts the subordinate key of the main key of the

first movement: E-flat major: A-flat major. Strings are still the

first to play the theme part. The Sicilian dance style of the

theme mostly adopts the rhythm form of 12/8 or 6/8. This style

has beautiful and lyrical melody, and most of the

accompaniment parts use broken chords. After the 8-bar

unison of the orchestra, the trumpet is used as the lead to

guide the complete repetition of the prelude theme. In the

whole piece, the trumpet and the orchestra are mutually

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corresponding roles, as if telling a story. In the second

movement, there are I-V and V-I harmonic structures. What is

very special is that Haydn used decorative dominant chords in

the music.

The allegro is used again in the third movement, and the

two themes are presented in the form of a rondo sonata. The

string part played the theme content of the first part together,

and then repeated it once before the music progressed to the

theme of the second part, and the very energetic phrase ended

the presentation part of the orchestra part. It is followed by a

cheerful presentation of the trumpet. The trumpet has a very

gorgeous tone in the treble area. This section fully

demonstrates the characteristics of the trumpet. In the

recapitulation at the end, the trumpet replays the theme of the

first part, while bringing the whole piece of music to the end.

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3. Historical significance and later influence

This trumpet concerto in E-flat major was mainly for the

trumpeter Anthony Weidinger, who was in the Vienna Court

Orchestra at that time. Weidinger modified the trumpet, which

could only play overtones at that time. He opened a hole on the

wall of the trumpet and added a flute-like button key. The

reason for this design is to make the trumpet play scales

smoothly. The improvement of Weidinger has always been

discussed by scholars. Although this instrument with keys will

not be completely unified due to its imperfect structure, and

even the baroque trumpet playing method cannot be used, but

the improvement of Weidinger can be said to be a link between

the past and the future. Provides an improved direction for

future piston trumpets and rotary valve trumpets. It is worth

mentioning that the baroque playing method was a way to

make the trumpet play a high pitch in the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries. At that time, the natural trumpet could

only play overtones, so after the overtone of the third octave, it

could be played one pitch. A group of harmonic groups of

similar scales. So there are many composers such as Bach

(J.S.Bach, 1685~1750) who are particularly keen on the

trumpet to write in this range. In addition to having Haydn write

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this concerto for Weidinger's improved trumpet, Haydn's work

also inspired Hummel (Johann Nepomuk Hummel, 1778-1837)

to write a similar trumpet concerto in his reply to Haydn. Works

for Trumpet Concerto in E flat major. Both Haydn's and

Hummel's works are now the most common repertoire in

concerts and competitions, thanks to Haydn's works and

Weidinger 's bold innovation. Development breaks the

deadlock and forge ahead, and also brings inspiration to future

generations of infinite possibilities. Today's trumpet career is

inseparable from their pioneering innovation, and its value is

enough to be called a "milestone".

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4. concluding remarks

Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major is the

culmination of Haydn's life. Its musical structure and theme

melody are thought-provoking and inspired and innovative for

later composers and performers. Natural trumpet were in the

Baroque period. The development of the classical period

gradually declined. The reason was due to the loss of part of

the Baroque playing method, which led to the silence of the

trumpet for many years. Written by the trumpet, it can not only

quickly control the upward sound group, but also greatly

improve the bass range of the trumpet, which caused a

sensation in the classical music world at that time. The

expansion of possibilities has attracted a large number of

composers to create for this new form of musical instrument,

which has also inspired performers of the past dynasties to

explore more possibilities for trumpet playing. Three hundred

years ago, the trumpet performance around the world has

made great progress.

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 Epilogue

Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E flat major was inspired by

Weidinger's trumpet. The compositional style of this piece is

clear, and the smooth melody has brought rich inspiration to

later trumpet players. The natural trumpet and the baroque

trumpet developed very little from the Baroque period to the

classical period. The pioneering work of Haydn and Weidinger

influenced the continuous exploration of successors. In 1827,

Francois Dauveme became the first musician to use a

three-valved trumpet. This undoubtedly confirms and

establishes the success of Haydn and Weidinger's innovation

and reform more than 30 years ago.

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Gramophone, April 2002.
[4] Baines, A. Brass instruments: their history and development. London:
Faber and Faber. 1976
[5] Bendinelli, C. Tuttal’artedellatrombetta . MS 1614, facs. with
commentary by E. H. Tarr. Nashville, Tennessee: The Brass Press.
1975
[6] Blandford, W,Morley Pegge, R,Carse, A..Letters to the Editor: Clarino
and Trumpet, The Musical Time,81,32-33. 1940
[7] Blom, E. Some Music of the Month. The Listener,13 April 1932,543.
[8] Bobel, D.A comparison of four editions of the Haydn trumpet concerto
with the original manuscript[Masters Thesis]. Bowlin Green State
University. 1975
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Haydn’s the Creation. The Musical Times,131;1767,73-76. 1990

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