trumpet.
1. Metal wind instr. of cylindrical bore, which in last quarter of its length widens into a moderate-sized bell. Cup-shaped mouth-piece. Since mid-19th cent. fitted with 3 valves which admit air to additional lengths of tubing, making available harmonic series at 6 pitches. Either a transposing instr. in B♭ (which may be switched to A) with compass from e upwards for nearly 3 octaves, or non-transposing in C (a tone higher). Used in orch. and jazz bands, also in military and brass bands (though sometimes replaced by cornet). Medieval tpts. without slides, valves, or finger-holes, were restricted to ‘natural’ notes of harmonic series. Straight tpt. of that time was over 6′ long, made in jointed metal sections, often with flared bell. Known as buisine. Shorter tpts. were called claro or clarion. In Renaissance, new methods of metalworking greatly improved sound quality, and the brilliant, high-pitched effects required from the baroque tpt. by Monteverdi and others were obtained from the clarino. Mutes in that day were inserted so far into the bell that they raised pitch by whole tone. Members of tpt. family are: bass trumpet: rare, sounding in C an octave lower than normal valved tpt.; piccolo trumpet; pitched octave higher, and sometimes has 4 valves; Bach trumpet: 19th-cent instr., in D, specially made (with valves) to play high tpt. parts in works of Baroque period. Ravel, Stravinsky, and Britten have included it in certain scores, and Maxwell Davies wrote a sonata for it. See also under crook.

2. Org. reed stop, 8′ pitch.