Baroque Trumpet
Have you ever wanted to learn or try the baroque trumpet? This post will help get you started.
Baroque Trumpet in a nutshell:
Trumpets in the baroque era did not have valves; different pitches were achieved using the embouchure alone. Only the notes along the harmonic series were playable, and notes outside of this had to be bent up or down to sound in tune (not an easy feat! To hear one of the few trumpeters that plays without vent holes (i.e. the real deal), check out Jean Francois Madeuf performing Brandenburg LIVE here). Newer to scene and abosultely mind-blowingly good is Julian Zimmermann–here’s a video of him playing the famous Telemann concerto in D on natural trumpet (no holes!).
Nowadays, most baroque trumpeters play instruments modernized with vent holes, which helps tremendously with intonation and accuracy.
There are 2 basic types of vent-hole systems used on modern baroque trumpets: the 4-hole system and the 3-howl system. I happen to prefer the 4 hole system (as recommended by John Thiessen, who got me interested in the instrument. Listen to his performance of Bach’s Cantata 51 here).
I found it surprisingly difficult to find a good fingering charts online, so I made Free Baroque Trumpet Fingering Chart PDF downloads for you:
Baroque Trumpet Fingering Chart | 4-Hole Version
Baroque Trumpet Fingering Chart | 3-Hole Version
Baroque Trumpet vs. Piccolo Trumpet
In case you haven’t seen it yet, Caleb Hudson and I made a video comparing Baroque Trumpet (4-hole) vs Piccolo Trumpet playing an excerpt from Bach’s incredible Easter Oratorio
Happy trumpeting!
-Chris
Here is a picture of a true copy of a baroque trumpet–no holes, just lots of tubing, a bell and a massive mouthpiece.
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