Bass trumpet
low sounding member of the trumpet family
The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet which was first developed during the 1820s in Germany. It is usually pitched in 8' C or 9' B♭ today, but is sometimes built in E♭ and is treated as a transposing instrument sounding either an octave, a sixth or a ninth lower than written, depending on the pitch of the instrument. Having valves and the same tubing length, the bass trumpet is quite similar to the valve trombone, although the bass trumpet has a harder, more metallic tone. Certain modern manufacturers that sell 'valve trombones' and 'bass trumpets' employ the same tubing, valves, and bell in different combinations; in these circumstances, the bass trumpet is nearly similar to the valve trombone.
History
The earliest mention of the bass trumpet is in the 1821 Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, in which Heinrich Stölzel's Chromatische Tenor-Trompetenbaß and Griesling & Schlott's Chromatische Trompetenbaß are described. Several other variants were produced through the 1820s and were employed in military bands. Wide-bell versions in 9' B♭ are still used today in Austria and Bavaria under the name Baßtrompete, and narrow-bell versions in 9' B♭ are used in Italy under the name tromba bassa. They perform no melodic function, but are used solely to fill out harmonies.
Wagner's bass trumpet
Richard Wagner's first intention for Der Ring des Nibelungen was a bass trumpet in 13' E♭, based on the instruments he would have come across during his dealings with military bands. However, while the opening section of Das Rheingold might indicate the use of such an instrument, the part quickly rises to G♭5, which would be the nineteenth partial on this long instrument; Wagner understood brass instruments very well and saw that this was impractical.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bass trumpet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.