Flugelhorn

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Flugelhorn
Engl .: Flugelhorn , Italian .: flicorno soprano
Yamaha Flugelhorn YFH-8310Z.jpg
Flugelhorn with pump valves
classification Aerophone
brass instrument
range Range trumpet.svg
Template: Infobox musical instrument / maintenance / sound sample parameters missing Related instruments

Trumpet , bow horn , cornet , tenor horn , baritone , French horn

The flugelhorn is the soprano instrument from the brass instrument family of bow horns . In terms of shape, tuning and range, it is comparable to the trumpet , but deviating from this it has a predominantly conical tube, another length and a mouthpiece with a deep cup (beaker mouthpiece). It is notated in B (rarely in C). (The flugelhorn in Bb is a transposing instrument because it sounds a big second lower than it is notated in the musical notation).

Origin and history

The flugelhorn has its origin in the signal horn. It was equipped with valves at about the same time as the trumpet (first evidence: royal Bavarian privilege for a chromatic flugelhorn for Michael Saurle the Elder, Munich 1832). Before that there was the flap horn invented by Joseph Halliday in 1810 . As early as the 18th century, the “flugelhorn” referred to the wing master's instrument, whose function was to use his signals to coordinate the various wings of a hunting party. At the same time it was probably also used as a signaling instrument in the marching company of the military. As a result, it was also used in military and marching bands, where it was placed on the left wing in front of the bass flugelhorns (tenor horns). Together with the alto , tenor and baritone horn , the instrument provides a wider range of sounds in military orchestras. Today it is used in the wind orchestra as a melody-leading instrument, in jazz (solo and big band ) and occasionally in art music (e.g. with Igor Stravinsky and Ralph Vaughan Williams ). The flugelhorn was also used for chamber music in the 19th century.

particularities

Concert flugelhorn

Due to the conical length it is more difficult to install a tuning slide than with the trumpet, which is why this is usually replaced by a sliding tuning tube fixed with a clamp directly after the mouthpiece. The sound of the flugelhorn is softer than that of the trumpet. A distinction is made between the (trivially named) jazz flugelhorn with Périnet valves and the flugelhorn in German design with rotary valves (also called concert flugelhorn), which is mainly used for traditional brass music . Concert grand piano horns are available in Bohemian (very wider) and Moravian (slightly narrower) lengths, some of which are played with a trumpet mouthpiece, which results in a sharper sound. The so-called Kuhlo flugelhorn is almost circularly wound, has a very short, wide mouthpipe, has a relatively narrow gauge and is equipped with a tuning slide.

A special design are flugelhorns with a fourth valve with the interval of a fourth, the so-called fourth valve, which is also built into concert trombones and piccolo trumpets. Since the valves are housed in the first third of the main pipe (in the case of the trumpets exactly in the middle) and the bell is then particularly long and conical from the start, it is possible, with good practice and preparation, to blow the first natural note of all valve combinations and to close it musically use. This is not playable for the trumpet due to the construction differences listed. The fourth valve is mainly used to close the gap between the regular lowest note when all three valves are pressed (range see above) and the first natural note without the valves pressed. This allows the range of a flugelhorn with a quart valve to be extended down by a whole octave, because notes below the first natural tone of the main pipe length are then also possible (without the valves being gripped). However, all these tones must be cultivated because they respond very poorly, lie far outside the regular trumpet register and are therefore completely alien to the trumpet player. The mouthpiece must be selected according to these requirements. In the lower tone range of such a flugelhorn, physically caused intonation deviations can be compensated. For example, the notated F sharp (sounding E) with valves 1-2-3 is considerably too high, with quart valve and 2-4 it is approximately correct.

There are structural differences between flugelhorns in the mouthpiece shaft and leadpipe area:

  • The American mouthpiece shaft is very narrow, as is the leadpipe that follows.
  • The German mouthpiece shaft is medium-wide and wider in the mouthpipe.
  • The flugelhorn mouthpiece with trumpet shaft is wide, the leadpipe is accordingly also and not conical.

The bell diameters also vary between 130 and 170 mm.

photos

See also

literature

  • Ralph T. Dudgeon, Franz X. Streitwieser: The flugelhorn. Edition Bochinsky, 2004, ISBN 3-932275-83-7 , German / English.

Web links

Wiktionary: flugelhorn  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Flugelhorn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. DTV Atlas Music. Munich 2001, p. 47