Guess Who Played a Natural Trumpet from the Baroque Era Today?

Can you guess?? Me!!

(I think I've decided to start carrying the camera around with me, because I always miss fantastic photo opportunities like this one.)
(And in case you were wondering, I did hit myself in the face with that thing once. But only once! It's a lot longer than a cornet, which is what I've played most of this semester, and it's longer than a modern trumpet... so my muscle memory did fail me at one point, and I bashed myself in the tooth. Don't laugh. Those things are painful.)
(Hey, and in case you were wondering, the guy you can see past me is the one who has played Baroque trumpet for 40 years!!) 

The trumpet itself didn't actually come from the Baroque era, they didn't dig it up and clean it out or anything goofy like that. Its based off of the ones that existed at that time in history. (The Baroque Era was roughly 1600-1750.) The trumpet was still progressing in design at this point, and it doesn't have any valves, and finger holes and slides may or may not have been common- we're not quite sure.


So how did you play a trumpet with no valves?? That thing is so crazy looking!

I know! If you were to straighten out the Baroque trumpet and a modern trombone, the pipes would be the same length! Isn't that the coolest??

If they're the same length, how come the trumpet sounds like a trumpet and not a trombone??

The pipe for the trombone is bigger than the one for the trumpet. That's why it sounds lower. 


What about playing the trumpet with no valves...?

Oh yeah! So what happens is that there are things called partials. On a modern trumpet, it's the notes you can play without pressing any valves. The lower you play, the farther apart these "natural" notes are. The higher you play, the more partials you can play. The one I saw today essentially could play middleC-E-G-C, the arpeggio, and from there went E-F-G-A-Bb-B-C.


I have no clue if that makes sense to you, but if you want to know more, let me know in the comment box and I'll try my darndest to explain it better...?


The coolest part is that he let us get our own mouthpieces and play them! I thought it would be difficult because the proper tone for a natural trumpet isn't as bright and trumpet-y like what you might hear today if you went to a Mahler symphony or something. But it wasn't that hard! (For me anyways...)


And at the end of the forum they did to talk to us about it, they played a Baroque trumpet duet with organ accompaniment. I think the organ was supposed to be similar to a Baroque-style organ. It sounded beautiful. I loved every minute of it. (It combines two of my favorite instruments after all!)


And as an added bonus, my classes tomorrow, all of them, are cancelled! Guess who gets to sleep in too??? ME!!!  BEST DAY EVER!! (Especially compared to this semester in general!)