The Baroque Trumpet after 1721: Some Preliminary Observations.

Part Two: Function and Use

Author(s): Don L. Smithers
Source: Early Music, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Jul., 1978), pp. 356-361
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: [Link]
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The

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PART TWO: FUNCTION

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Concerto
no. 2 in F major,B WV 1047
ThefirstpageofBach'sautograph
BB. Am.B.78, Bl. 14v)
(Berlin,DeutscheStaalsbibliothek

The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship

from a corkscrewto a cathedral is to know what it is-what it
was intended to do and how it is meant to be used. After that
has been discovered the temperance reformer may decide
that the corkscrew was made for a bad purpose, and the
communist may think the same about the cathedral. But such
questions come later. The first thing is to understand the
object before you: as long as you think the corkscrew was
meant for opening tins or the cathedral for entertaining
tourists you can say nothing to the purpose about them.

C. S. Lewis: A Preface to Paradise Lost

In the course of the first half of this article (Science and

Practice), published in the April 1977 issue of EarlyMusic,I
wrote of the great 'ErsteTrompete' of the Leipzig town band
356

which Bach directed most Sundays during his tenure there as

Cantor from 1723. It was for the famous Johann Gottfried
Reiche, whose portrait by Haussmann was reproduced with
my article, that Bach presumably wrote the difficult and
remarkableprimatrombaparts so often required in his church
concertos and oratorios.
Reiche died, at the age of sixty-seven, in Leipzig on 6
October 1734, supposedly after a torchlight performance the
night before of Bach's Dramma per Musica, Preise dein Gliicke,

gesegnetesSachsen(BWV 215). This work incorporates music

from the far better known 'Hosanna' from the Mass in B
Minor-not a very difficult piece as far as the baroque
trumpet repertory is concerned. The story goes that Johann

the possibility that Reiche himself was associated with one or

more performances, since both his wide reputation and the
association of Leipzig and other Stadtpfeifer with nearby
courts is well documented.' And whereas Bach's score was
prepared at C6then, there is no reason to assume that such a
work as the concertocon trombawas not performed at some
relatively close and musically active place such as
Weissenfels, where Bach's second father-in-law, Johann
Caspar Wilcken was the resident trumpeter. (The musical
association of Wilcken and his daughter, Anna Magdalena, a
court soprano, is at times tantalizingly indicated in such a

Gottfried, then living in the Stadtpfeifer Gasslein in Leipzig,

inhaled the fumes of the torches used outside the royal
Leipzig residence of' Augustus III, King of Poland and Duke
of Saxony, and collapsed the next day in an alleywaynear his
home. Three months later Bach's WeihnachtsOratoriumhad
its first performance. Who, then, on that occasion played the
extraordinarysolo trumpet part?
Not only do we lack certain knowledge about the name
and reputation of Bach's solo clarinist after Reiche's death,
but there is virtually no information about the trumpeterson
whom a number of' other 18th-century composers made
serious demands, as evidenced by the concertos, sonatas and
cantatas by Molter, Michael Haydn, Richter, Querfurth,
Brixi and Leopold Mozart, to name but a few composing
after Bach's death in 1750. Works by these composers and
references by writers of the time belie any statements to the
effect that Reiche's talents were unique. Use of the baroque
trumpet as a high-tessitura solo instrument was not limited
to Saxony, or even to Germany. Use of natural trumpet in
stilo clarinois recorded to a greater or lesser extent throughout Europe from the beginning of the 17th century until the
appearance of the keyed trumpet (for which Haydn wrote his
famous Concerto in E flat) just before the turn of the 19th
century. There is no doubt that Bach's Second Brandenburg
Concerto in F is the most significant landmark in the long
history of the natural trumpet. There is, however, no documentary evidence of a contemporary performance of the
work, which leaves open a number of possibilities, not the
least of which is the chance that this still very difficult piece of
virtuoso trumpet writing was known to a number of trumpet
players in and around Saxony. There is no reason to exclude

work as Bach's church concerto Jauchzet Gott in alien Landen

(BWV 51)-a rare work in terms of its title-page indication

('per ogni tempo')-suggesting a wider use than merely as a
musical portion of the liturgy for the Fifteenth Sunday after
Trinity in the Lutheran rite.) This kind of conjecture-who
might have heard another's playing and been influenced by
it-is not an irrelevant consideration. In the history of the
violin and its performance, for example, it is quite possible
to trace lines of development and influence on stylisticas well
as historical grounds. But aside from conjecture about
Bach's and Reiche's influence on the development of
trumpet music and clarino playing, it is certain that composers before and after Bach were sufficiently sure of the
trumpet's technical possibilities in the hands of skilled
players to write compositions of real merit, using anything
from one to eight trumpets in concerted music with other
instruments and voices. Knowledge and use of the instrument was sufficiently widespread for us to make some
reasonable and well-documented observations.
In considering the role of the trumpet after 1721 it is as

Belowleft: Leipzig:[Link]. G. Schreiber,1712 (Bach-Archiv

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Tilly'ssiegeand thestormingof Magdeburg,1631; decisiveeventsin the ThirtyYears'Warwhich

to restoretheprimacyof theCatholicFaithto Germany.
sprangfromFerdinandII of Bohemia'sdetermination
Berlin-Nikolassee
EngravingbyMathiiusMerian(1593-1650) ArchivfiirKunstund Geschichte,

well to bear in mind its ecclesiasticaland militaryuses before

then. During the Thirty Years'War, for example, the trumpet
was particularly important in giving troop signals. Military
engagements during the 17th century were often won or lost,
depending upon the ability of cavalry to manoeuvre quickly
according to orders relayed by trumpet calls.2 The trumpet
has been likened in this respect to the use of the walkie-talkie
in World War II. In religious history, also, various Old
Testament passages refer to the importance of the trumpet as
an instrument of public safety and military strategy. In all
likelihood the ancient Israelites observed and emulated the
militarily powerful civilizations like that of Egypt in placing
such importance on signalling instruments such as the shofar
and [Link] successes in the field have seldom been
without some form of public rejoicing and thanksgiving,and
just as the trumpet was an instrument of God's chosen
people in battle, so too was it a means of worshipping that
God who had helped win the day. This dual role is easily forgotten today when looking back at an age that was as
thoroughly steeped in biblical history as was baroque
Europe. It is no accident that the trumpet became such a
ubiquitous emblem of pomp and a symbol of divine right
and majesty in the hands of the majority of baroque composers. Few people of discernment during the 16th, 17th and
18th centuries would not have recognized the symbolic
implications of trumpets, cornetts, and other highly charged
musical-allegorical emblems.
In the first volume of my study of the trumpet I
interrupted the discussion at the year 1721, the date of the
358

only contemporary source of Bach's Second Brandenburg

Concerto. This landmark work is no less a test of a
trumpeter's skill today than it would have been in Bach's
own lifetime. Before the composition of this unique concerto
the baroque trumpet repertory had reached a wide plateau,
the common ground for Purcell, Torelli, Schmelzer, Biber,
and the Miihlhausen and Weimar church concertos
(cantatas) of Bach himself. But with the Brandenburg
Concertos the skills demanded in pitch, dynamic and technique from the baroque trumpet rise to an unprecedented
degree. The scope of the Second Brandenburg Concerto is
greater than any work with trumpet composed previously
(and the majority of works composed afterwards);its musical
content is larger; its use of non-harmonic tones requires
greater virtuosity on the part of the trumpet player than for
any other work composed by Bach, or anyone else for that
matter; the dynamic balance is far more precarious than for
nearly any other work in the entire trumpet repertory (the
necessity fobra trumpet to be dynamically balanced with a
recorder playing in its lowest, hence softest, register is
peculiar to this one work); and, notwithstanding the use of
numerically higher trumpet partials by composers before
and after Bach (and by Bach himself), the Second Brandenburg Concerto, by dint of its key (irrespectiveof a probable
lower pitch standard at the time of its composition) and consequently the smaller trumpet required, does have the
highest range of any trumpet piece composed before 1721.
Trumpet music after 1721 becomes more demanding,
greater in scope and more alienated from its traditional and

musically less interesting military usage. What trumpet parts

can compare with the majority of those from Bach's Leipzig
church concertos during the first two or three years of his
tenure as Cantor of the Thomaskirche? What composer, even
after 1721, wrote the sort of parts associated with Bach's
WeihnachtsOratorium,the first and second versions of the
Magnificat, or Lobet Gott in seinemReichen(BWV 11)? I, for one,

do not know of any music with trumpet as severe and physically demanding as that in the opening chorus to Bach's
Eastertide Cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen (BWV 66), and, in

some respects, I am rather grateful that I do not !3

Bach: Erfreut euch, ihr lferzen, BWV 66
Tromba

Thetrombada cacciain Haussmann's

portraitof Reiche7

tit~
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t 1 OR

There is also the question of the trombase piace (or

corno) da tirarsi, the sort of innovative aspect not noted
elsewhere save in the music of Purcell and a possible usage
alluded to in some 'flatt tunes' by Gottfried Finger. There is
no mystery about the use of the trombada tirarsi,even if we
conclude that it was not some form of trombone but rather
the older, less complicated, though more demanding singleslide natural trumpet.4 Bach's specified use of this ancient
Stadtpfeiferinstrument is truly innovative. Once it is realized
that the trombada tirarsiwas almost always employed as a
natural trumpet, not as a trombone, but with the advantage
of 'instant crooking' to other harmonic series, it becomes
clear precisely how Bach intended it to be played in such
cantatas as Halt im GeddichtnissJesumChrist(BWV 67).
Playing the tromba da tirarsi in stilo clarino, crooking it in a

suitable key or harmonic series to minimize the shifting of its

air column (most especially in the midst of rapid passagework, on account of the undesirable shaking effect that
occurs from having to move the instrument to and fro), does
allow a more accurate realization of Bach's original concept.
Whether it was Bach's experience of growing up in a Stadtpfeifer's household (his father was the senior trumpeter and
principal musician of the town of Eisenach) and his various

encounters with trumpeters and their peculiar traits--or,

indeed, Reiche's influence on him-that accounts for the
introduction of the trombada tirarsi,its use is now beyond
question. Bach's own scoring requirements may well have
paved the way for the more efficient use of mechanical
crooking devices that anticipated the valve and slide
mechanisms which were introduced at the turn of the
century. Whether one player doubled on more than one
instrument, or separate players were used for instruments of
different pitch, remains to be answered. Certainly it would
have been possible for a Stadtpfeifer trumpeter to have an
apprentice play a musical figure stated in the dominant, or at
some further remove from the tonic, as in most works with
trombada tirarsiparts. There is some evidence that changes of
key for both trumpet and horn parts were shared among
more than one player using the appropriately crooked instruments. But most tromba (or corno) da tirarsi parts seem to

have been written for only one player. And Bach alone specifies such an instrument.5The only occasions when the instrument might have been used in the manner of a trombone is
during its presumed collapartedoubling of the soprano line,
generally in the concluding chorales to Bach's sacred
concertos, where the all-embracing term tromba(or corno)
merely suggests a supporting but necessarily variable pitch
brass instrument. The use of the cornetto, despite some
recent claims, cannot be justifiable either on historical or
allegorical grounds. Bach's writing for cornetto is quite
specific and follows the tradition of 17th-century Italian
dramatic compositions. However much one may argue with
Bach's seemingly unique use of the trombada tirarsi, the
musical evidence is quite conclusive: the instrument is more
often than not treated as a trombain stiloclarino,but with the
advantage of being able to shift quickly from one harmonic

byHans Veit,Nuremberg,1651
Zugtrompete
(Berlin,InstitutfiirMusikforschung)

359

series to another. Only when used as a collaparteinstrument

and (more specifically)as an additional colour added to the
soprano line in the simpler chorales is it ever required to
shift positions from one tone to the next in the manner of a
trombone. Even in this respect a player skilled at 'note
bending', that is, lipping down particular notes to execute
non-harmonic tones, could reasonably have coped with the
variety of pitches found in many chorales without ever
having to change positions. My own experience, which may
be heard in recorded performances of cantatas 67, 74, 75, 76,
77 and 78,6 demonstrates that a skilled 18th-century trumpeter could have performed many middle-register chorale
treble parts on the trombada tirarsieasily and with a minimum
of position changes, providing the dynamic was not too loud
fborsuch note-bending. As far as dynamic balance is concerned, it must be remembered that Bach more often than
not had as many sopranos in his choir as trumpet players in
his orchestra, and that a suitably balanced trombada tirarsi
playing collapartewith only three boy sopranos would have
been rather quiet by any standards. The kind of noise from
doubling trumpets, especially of the sopranino, piccolo
variety heard nowadays is neither historically correct nor in
good taste, however 'exciting' some may think it.
Since the appearance of the first part of this essay, a
number of people have disputed the use of the trombada
caccia by Johann Gottfried Reiche in the performance of
Bach's rather daunting clarino trumpet parts. There are
several facts to be mentioned in this regard. First, there is the
question of Reiche's instrument as shown in the detailed
portrait by Elias Gottlieb Haussmann (c1716):' there is no
mystery here, despite the efforts of a number of highly
opinionated commentators to prove that a virtuoso of'
Reiche's fame should choose to have his picture painted with

anything but the instrument he normally used. The remarks

of Kurt Janetzky in the preface to his Leipzig edition of
trumpet duets (1972) do not inspire confidence: 'Since it was
the Leipzig town council who commissioned the portrait of
Gottfried Reiche, trumpeter to the great Cantor of St
and
Thomas's, Johann Sebastian Bach, and chief Stadtpfeifer,
having regard to the privileges of' the court and military
trumpeters, he (Reiche) could not be shown as a town
musician with a "proper" trumpet, but only with a cornodi
caccia-like instrument. The painter, Elias Gottlieb
Haussmann, nevertheless put in his hand a piece of manuscript with a virtuoso clarino part.'8 Now many military
trumpeters' privileges published during the 17th and 18th
centuries are very clear about civic trumpeters, whose
principal duties were performing ecclesiastical music, and
specifically mention the right of such musicians to go about
their business unmolested and without fear of military trumpeters bringing any kind of action against them. Besides,
when the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony was in
residence at Leipzig, Reiche was expected to perform along
with the king's retinue, which included the ducal trumpeters
firom Dresden. There is a copper engraving firom the
Lutheran hymnal Die unfehlbare Engelfreude, published

at

Leipzig in 1710, which clearly shows a trombada cacciabeing

played (presumably by Reiche) in the St Thomas's choir
gallery under the direction of Kuhnau.
There is also the information provided by Johann Ernst
Altenburg in his Versuchof 1795: 'The so-called "Invention"
or "Italian" trumpet, because of its greater coiling, is a more
convenient form and merits highest consideration. It is particularly favoured in Italy; it has the same trumpet sound as
the former [i.e. military trumpets of the"First Category"]and
is in various sizes.'9 Add all this data to the nota benefound
with the manuscript set of parts to Johann Schelle's cantata,
Salvesolisorientis,'0
and the evidence becomes quite clear: 'NB.
This clarino part is scored for the small Italian trumpet
which (plays) a tone higher; if this part is played on another
instrument, it must be transposed up a tone, for the piece (is)
an exception (to the rule).'" The trombada cacciawas not only
easier to hold but it seems to have been easier to play and
tune with others, if' one can judge from Dr Fitzpatrick's
evidence.12 That Reiche chose to play the best possible
instrument, however rare for those lands north of the Alps, is
thoroughly in keeping with his reputation and the evidence
of his great skill.
In attempting to do justice to the once highly important
and now nearly extinct baroque trumpet (with a hope,
perhaps, of hastening its successful revival), one must have
some understanding of the causes of its virtual disappearance. Instead of the usual simplistic explanation
(which says that overspecialization and a 'lost art' of clarino
playing led to the baroque trumpet's demise), let me offer a
number of likely and very closely interrelated reasons to
account for its decline. Changes in military tactics: while the

Reiche,paintedbyE. G. Haussmann(Stadtgeschichtliches
Museum,
Leipzig.)

360

trumpet seems to have played an important role when the

'new model' armies were first introduced in the 17th century,

the better training of standing armies, the advent of

uniforms, and the increasing formalization of tactics may
have reduced its importance as a means of controlling
formations in the 18th century. Moreover, the rising din of
battles from muskets and artillery led to the adoption of the
louder, but musically more limited, bugle. Smaller and
shallower mouthpieces: the

diminution

of

brass

signal

instruments and the increase of dynamics necessaryfor them

to be heard above the din of heavier and more violent military engagements required this change of mouthpiece. The
disappearance
of guilds:the onset of the Industrial Revolution
brought about the decline of families of skilled trumpetmakers. The evolution of the mechanicaltrumpetfrom Weidinger's
keyed trumpet to trumpets with primitive valve mechanisms: this

followed a parallel course with the shortening of military

signal instruments.

The rise of the bourgeoisie:this led to the

decline of court musical establishments and the death of

trumpet guilds. Similarly, with the erosion of church musical
establishments (not nearly so well-researched as that of court
musical life just before, during and after the Napoleonic era)
went the disintegration of civic and church orchestras and
the decline of the English town waits and the German
Stadtpfeifer. Changes in orchestrationand the growth of symphony

orchestras:this paralleled changes in the military sphere,

especially with an increase in dynamic and a rise in pitch and
dissonance. The new harmonic language required quicker
methods of crooking (key and valve mechanisms) and the
increase of dynamics meant shorter bores and smaller
mouthpieces (as in the army). By the early 19th century many
military field bands consisted solely of fifes, bugles (or shortbore keyed trumpets)and drums.
These few observations would seem to suggest that the
decline of the natural trumpet was associated with changes in
social institutions and ways of' life that had remained
relatively unchanged for hundreds of years. In concluding
this two-part essay--which, as I have said, consists simply of'
preliminary observations I have made in preparing the
second

volume

of The Music and History of the Baroque

Trumpetwould like to put forward some comments on the

present revival of the instrument. Scholars with a
predilection for the 'classical precedent' are swift to
remind us of the ancient precept, 'each age discovers itself in
the past'. If the history of art is the history of revivals there
would seem to be strong and pertinent reasons for the

I\

.-.w

present revival of music composed before the romantic era.

We might also recall Goethe's surmise that 'the classic is
health, the romantic disease'. The baroque trumpet is the
last remaining instrument of the baroque orchestra to be
revived. It is an irony that the instrument always placed
uppermost in the scores of Bach should be the last to know a
modern revival. Perhaps this says something about the
baroque trumpet--or then again, perhaps it says more about
trumpeters.

Don Smithers, The BaroqueTrumpetbefore1721 (London, 1973),

p. 129.
2 Jon
Sumida, 'Trumpet Music and the "MilitaryRevolution" of the
Seventeenth Century', Journal of ModernHistory,48/2 (June 1976),
p. 294.
a
3 The only instance in the works of Bach where I have seen

trumpet part marked se piace, as it pleases-the director or

whomeverelse.

There is as yet no certain knowledge regarding the cornoda [Link]

is not inconceivable that such an instrument was a hybrid
combination of a trombada cacciawith the slide assembly of an alto

trombone,sinceboth had thesametenon-socketfittings,enablinga

playerto couplethe slideassemblyto the coiled trumpetinsteadof
the more usual crook. An instrumentof similarform is noted in
Hanoverianmilitarybandsin the 18thcentury.

I It is
important to note that even the redoubtable Michael
Praetoriusdoesn't mention the instrument, despite references to it in
church inventories and Stadtpfeifer examinations well into the 18th
century.
xvii, xix, xx.
6 Telefunken:J. S. Bach:Das Kantatenwerk,
7 Stadtisches
Museum,Leipzig.SeeEM5/2 (April1977), p. 177.
8 'Selbst als der Rat der Stadt
Leipzigdes grossen Thomaskantors
Johann Sebastian Bach beriihmten Trompeter und Senior der
Stadtpfeifer Gottfried Reiche portratieren liess, konnte er als
Ratsmusiker mit Riicksicht auf die Hof- und Feldtrompeterprivilegien nicht mit einer "richtigen" Trompete, sondern nur mit
einem corno-di-cacciaartigen Instrument dargestellt werden. Der
Maler Elias Gottlieb Haussmann gab ihm aber ein Notenbldttchen
mit einem Clarin-Virtuosenstiickchenin die Hand ...'
9 'Hier verdient die sogenannte Inventions- oder italienische
Trompete den ersten Rang, weil sie, wegen der 6ftern Windung, auf
eine bequeme Art inventirt ist. Sie sind vorztiglich in Italien
gebriuchlich, haben den nemlichen Trompetenklang, wie die
vorigen, und sind von verschiedener Gr6sse.'
10 Oxford, Bodleian Library,MS Mus. Sch. c.31.
" 'NB Der Clarin bey diesem Stick ist auf einer kleinen italienischen
Trompete gesetzet, welche einen Tohn h6her, wovon aber diese
Stimme auf einem andren Instrument soil geblasen werden, muss es
einen Tohn h6her geschehen, dann das Stick ausser d[er] R[egel].'
12 EM
4/3 (July 1976), p. 349.

Ar

Theclosingbarsof thetrumpet
partofBWV 1047 (BB. Am.B.78, BI 26)

361