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The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cornet in E and cornets in A and C. All are unrelated to the Renaissance and early Baroque cornett.
The instrument could not have been developed without the improvement of piston valves by horn players Friedrich Blühmel (or Blümel) and Heinrich Stölzel, in the early 19th century. These two instrument makers almost simultaneously invented valves, though it is likely that Blühmel was the inventor, while Stölzel developed a practical instrument. They were jointly granted a patent for a period of ten years. François Périnet received a patent in 1838 for an improved valve, which became the model for modern brass instrument piston valves. The first notable virtuoso player was Jean-Baptiste Arban, who studied the cornet extensively and published La grande méthode complète de cornet à piston et de saxhorn, commonly referred to as the Arban method, in 1864. Method for Trumpet, Jean-Baptiste Arban, Carl Fisher & Co, NY, NY 1982 Up until the early 20th century, the trumpet and cornet co-existed in musical ensembles; symphonic repertoire often involves separate parts for trumpet and cornet. As several instrument builders made improvements to both instruments, they started to look and sound more alike. The modern-day cornet is used in brass bands, , and in specific repertoire that requires a more mellow sound. The American History and Encyclopedia of Music, W.C. Hubbard (ed.), "Musical Instruments", George W. Andrews, Irving Square, NY, NY, 1924
The name "cornet" derives from the French corne, meaning "horn", itself from Latin cornu. While not musically related, instruments of the cornett family (which includes serpents) are named "cornetto" or "cornett" in modern English, to distinguish them from the valved cornet described here. The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica referred to serpents as "old wooden cornets". The Roman/Etruscan cornu (or simply "horn") is the lingual ancestor of these. It is a predecessor of the post horn, from which the cornet evolved, and was used like a bugle to signal orders on the battlefield.
Cornets and trumpets made in a given key (usually the key of B) play at the same pitch, and the technique for playing the instruments is nearly identical. However, cornets and trumpets are not entirely interchangeable, as they differ in timbre. Also available, but usually seen only in the brass band, is an E soprano model, pitched a fourth above the standard B.
Unlike the trumpet, which has a cylindrical bore up to the bell section, the tubing of the cornet has a mostly conical bore, starting very narrow at the mouthpiece and gradually widening towards the bell. Cornets following the 1913 patent of E. A. Couturier can have a continuously conical bore. This shape is primarily responsible for the instrument's characteristic warm, mellow tone, which can be distinguished from the more penetrating sound of the trumpet. The conical bore of the cornet also makes it more agile than the trumpet when playing fast passages, but correct pitching is often less assured. The cornet is often preferred for young beginners as it is easier to hold, with its centre of gravity much closer to the player.
The cornet mouthpiece has a shorter and narrower shank than that of a trumpet, so it can fit the cornet's smaller mouthpiece receiver. The cup size is often deeper than that of a trumpet mouthpiece.
One variety is the short-model traditional cornet, also known as a "Shepherd's Crook" shaped model. These are most often large-bore instruments with a rich mellow sound. There is also a long-model, or "American-wrap" cornet, often with a smaller bore and a brighter sound, which is produced in a variety of different tubing wraps and is closer to a trumpet in appearance. The Shepherd's Crook model is preferred by cornet traditionalists. The long-model cornet is generally used in concert bands in the United States and has found little following in British-style brass and concert bands.
A third, and relatively rare variety—distinct from the "American-wrap" cornet—is the "long cornet", which was produced in the mid-20th century by C. G. Conn and F. E. Olds and is visually nearly indistinguishable from a trumpet, except that it has a receiver fashioned to accept cornet mouthpieces.
Without valves, the player could produce only a harmonic series of notes, like those played by the bugle and other "natural" brass instruments. These notes are far apart for most of the instrument's range, making diatonic and chromatic playing impossible, except in the extreme high register. The valves change the length of the vibrating column and provide the cornet with the ability to play chromatically.
Jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden played the cornet, and Louis Armstrong started off on the instrument, but his switch to the trumpet is often credited with the beginning of the trumpet's dominance in jazz. Cornetists such as Bubber Miley and Rex Stewart contributed substantially to the Duke Ellington Orchestra's early sound. Other influential jazz cornetists include Freddie Keppard, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, Ruby Braff, Bobby Hackett, and Nat Adderley. Notable performances on cornet by players generally associated with the trumpet include Freddie Hubbard's on Empyrean Isles, by Herbie Hancock, and Don Cherry's on The Shape of Jazz to Come, by Ornette Coleman. The band Tuba Skinny is led by cornetist Shaye Cohn.
Cornets continued to be used, particularly in French compositions, well after the valve trumpet was common. They blended well with other instruments and were held to be better suited to certain types of melody. Tchaikovsky used them effectively this way in his Capriccio Italien (1880).
From the early 20th century, the cornet and trumpet combination was still favored by some composers, including Edward Elgar and Igor Stravinsky, but tended to be used for occasions when the composer wanted the specific mellower and more agile sound. The sounds of the cornet and trumpet have grown closer together over time, and the former is now rarely used as an ensemble instrument: in the first version of his ballet Petrushka (1911), Stravinsky gives a celebrated solo to the cornet; in the 1946 revision, he removed cornets from the orchestration and instead assigned the solo to the trumpet.
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