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The keyed trumpet is a
brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin an ...
that makes use of keyed openings in its bore rather than extensions of the length of the bore as the means of playing all the notes of the chromatic scale. The instrument's popularity reached its high-point around the turn of the nineteenth century; but it waned with the emergence of the valved trumpet in the early nineteenth century and it is rarely seen in modern performances. Prior to the invention of the keyed trumpet, the prominent trumpet of the time was the
natural trumpet A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series. History The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication (e.g. break camp, retreat, etc.). Even before t ...
. The keyed trumpet has holes in the wall of the tube that are closed by keys. The experimental E keyed trumpet was not confined to the natural notes, but was chromatic in all registers of the instrument.Geiringer, K and Geiringer, I (1982) Haydn: A Creative Life in Music, p. 324-325 Before this, the trumpet was commonly valveless and could only play a limited range of “harmonic” notes by altering the lip tension and embouchure. These harmonic notes were clustered in the high registers, so previous trumpet concertos could only play melodies at very high pitches. There is also some discrepancy over who created the E keyed trumpet, as it is claimed that “the Viennese court trumpeter, Anton Weidinger invented the keyed trumpet”Warburton, A (1867) Analyses of Musical Classics: Book 2. London, Spottiswoode, Ballantyre and Co Ltd though elsewhere it is insisted that although “the invention of the keyed trumpet has been ascribed to the Viennese, Anton Weidinger, who is said to have constructed it in 1801... the instrument itself is older than that, as Haydn's concerto was written five years earlier.”


Tone

Due to its physical characteristics (bore, bell, historical mouthpiece), the keyed trumpet is closer in tone to the natural trumpet than the valved trumpet. It was once said to have sounded like a "Demented Oboe... despite Haydn's efforts, the keyed trumpet had no real success- the explanation may be that the holes detracted from the brilliant tone of the instrument.”


Concertos

J. Haydn – trumpet concerto In 1796
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have le ...
wrote his Trumpet Concerto for Anton Weidinger and it was performed on 22 March 18