Natural trumpet
Trumpet without valves, limited to the natural tones.
What it means
The natural trumpet is a trumpet without valves, keys or finger holes. It consists of a long, coiled tube and is limited to the notes of the harmonic series. The player selects notes solely through lip tension and air control. Crooks served to change the basic pitch.
Musical use
In the Renaissance and baroque the trumpet was an instrument of courts and cities and reserved for court trumpeters. In the high register, the clarino register, melodies can be played on it, because the natural tones lie close together there. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote extremely virtuosic parts for it, for example in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. With the invention of valves in the 19th century it was replaced by the valve trumpet.
It should be distinguished from the modern valve trumpet, which can play all semitones, and from the keyed trumpet of the Classical period, in which keys made additional notes possible.
Performance practice
On the natural trumpet you control the pitch through embouchure and air. Play in the high register with very fine lip tension and little pressure, and pay attention to the sound: the natural tones are partly out of tune and must be adjusted actively.