The mute cornett was an important variant of the treble

cornett The cornett (, ) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. Although smaller and larger sizes were made in both straight and curved forms, surviving cornetts are most ...

and it was used in compositions by European composers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A significant number of mute cornetts have survived and are preserved in various European museums. Modern makers of cornetts produce mute cornetts and the numbers of recordings of music featuring this instrument has increased in recent years.

Construction

Unlike the regular curved

, cornettino and

tenor cornett The tenor cornett or lizard was a common musical instrument in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This instrument was normally built in C and the pedal (lowest) note of the majority of tenor cornetts was the C below middle C. A number of survivi ...

, the mute cornett is made from a single piece of wood that has been turned on a lathe, bored out and given finger holes. The non-detachable

mouthpiece Mouthpiece may refer to: * The part of an object which comes near or in contact with one's mouth or nose during use ** Mouthpiece (smoking pipe) or cigarette holder ** Mouthpiece (telephone handset) ** Mouthpiece (woodwind), a component of a wood ...

forms a smooth cup shape at the top. The cross section of the mouthpiece shows that it is similar in structure to that of a

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

. It eliminates the slight brassiness of the regular cornett and imparts the characteristic

timbre In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...

associated with the instrument. Unlike other forms of cornett, mute cornetts were not covered in leather.

History

Like all cornetts, the mute cornett was developed from the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

cow horn with finger holes. The mute cornett seems to have come into prominence in the 16th century, although it certainly existed in the 15th century. Lists of instrumentations in performances of music, particularly the Florentine Intermedii, sometimes mention the use of mute cornetts.

Lassus Orlando di Lasso ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with William Byrd, Giovanni Pierlu ...

conducted performances of instrumental and vocal music in Munich, and descriptions of these concerts mention the use of mute cornetts. A painting of Lassus directing his musicians and singers shows both a regular cornett and a mute cornett. Mute cornetts were produced by makers in Venice in the 16th century and these instruments seem to have been exported to various cities in Europe. The mute cornett was popular in Italy around 1600, although the instrument was rarely specifically named by composers in their works. In Northern Europe, composers were more precise, and the mute cornett was specified by 17th-century composers such as

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque music, Baroque composer and organ (music), organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of ...

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and Music theory, music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of ...

and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. In the early 18th century, the mute cornett seem to be becoming an increasingly rare instrument, however,

Johann Joseph Fux Johann Joseph Fux (; – 13 February 1741) was an Austrian composer, music theorist and pedagogue of the late Baroque era. His most enduring work is not a musical composition but his treatise on counterpoint, '' Gradus ad Parnassum'', which ha ...

composed a

Requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...

in 1720 which specified two mute cornetts.

Tessitura

Mute cornetts were generally built in A or G, the same as treble cornetts. (A treble "cornett in A" means that the lowest note, all holes closed and the fundamental sounded, is A below middle C.) Most music for the mute cornett seems to have been written in the C1, C2, or C3 (soprano, mezzo-soprano, or alto) clefs and is generally of a slightly lower

tessitura In music, tessitura ( , , ; ; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer (or, less frequently, musical instrument). It is the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characteristic) tim ...

than that of the regular treble cornett. However, the mute cornett is a genuine soprano instrument and one of its primary functions appears to have been playing ''colla parte'' with the soprano voices of vocal choirs.

Pitch

Like all the members of the cornett family, mute cornetts were generally pitched around A = 466 Hz, the so-called Chor-ton or Kornett-ton pitch, which was about one tone higher than the common pitch of other string and wind instruments in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Timbre

Praetorius described the sound of the mute cornett as (soft and lovely) and modern professional performers have amply demonstrated these qualities. The sound of the mute cornett is more flute-like than the regular cornett and far less incisive. The mute cornett's piano is very soft indeed and it may be used in consorts of soft instruments like recorders, flutes, viols and lutes. In Michael Praetorius's ''Polyhymnia caduceatrix et panegyrica'' of 1619, three mute cornetts are specified in "Choir I" of the

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

, , however, Praetorius suggests that the mute cornetts may be replaced by transverse flutes (i.e. "Fiffari").

Variants

Two specimens of mute cornettino have survived, however, it seems that such instruments were very rare.

Nomenclature

The mute cornett is known as the ''cornetto muto'' or ''cornetto sordino'' in Italian, ''stiller Zink'' in German and ''cornet muet'' or ''cornet sourdine''.