Amazing how accurate and precise she played those lip trills. You just don't pick up an instrument and play those with the ease and clarity she displayed for us unless you have the talent she has. You are so amazing Allison Balsom.
I play both the modern and Baroque flute. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment playing the Baroque flute which, like the natural trumpet, is much more difficult to play.
It is definitely brighter. If you've ever played a natural horn the same is true but the horn isn't as bright an instrument as the trumpet so it isn't as noticeable.
This tone can be achieved on the modern trumpet, it just takes a lot of practice. like, when you lips don't hurt after 30 minutes I'd say you're ready. (I'm not a pro. this is just experience talking)
A bugle is basically a valveless trumpet, where the tubing is basically the same length as a modern trumpet. Meaning to say, the harmonic series is only limited to what she played om her modern trumpet. A baroque/natural trumpet is twice as long as a modern trumpet, which adds more partials. If you want a bugle, play the natural harmonics on the trumpet without valves. If you want a natural trumpet, you need to extend the tubing of a modern trumpet to ~8 feet Tl;dr bugle shorter, plays about 8 partials, natural trumpet, 16+ partials
What a kick. Human tastes really change and the taste for volume has left great sounding instruments in our collective dust. The clavicrord (for instance) has a killer sound that isn't like anything we hearing now.
Listening, looking and analyzing the recording sessions of this artist is just amazingly inspiring. I deeply respect the technical approach and emotions anchored in the work of Alison Balsom
Great introduction into the natural trumpet, by Allison. A wonderful player and such a personable individual! Now I know what the holes actually accomplish. And, I could listen to her speak all day long.
Such a cool vid. The baroque trumpet was a complete discovery for me, after 50 years of listening to classical music. The reference to Maurice André is a nice homage to the French trumpetist. Thank you.
That is intensely fascinating. I've offhandedly wondered about which instruments were correct for the pieces they're being used for. Not only that, I definitely prefer the feel and tone I just heard from that Baroque trumpet. So glad I wandered onto this.
This is fascinating. I played trumpet in 5th grade and cornet in 6th grade (I was absolutely terrible) from which I have some recollection of how the instrument works. This shows that even if a child has no musical talent (me) or does not pursue music, music education can still help understanding.
“When I was a child I thought as child…” too many children and perhaps their parents expect perfection without years of instruction, they give up. and refuse to practice, practice, practice. If they have passion and want to, they will.
What a joy to hear this! I majored on trumpet in school. Mostly baroque brass, some classical. Thank you so much for this video! I greatly enjoyed your comparisons! I played the Handel's Trumpet Will Sound on a D trumpet.
Got slapped off the road on my M/C and no longer have the use of my abs, so no more trumpet playing for me, as I can barely make a clear quarter note and I'm spent. The diaphragm just can't produce the velocity necessary for the horn. Sure do like her embouchure.
She mentions the late trumpet virtuoso Maurice Andre and there are a number of his performances that can be found on RU-vid. Definitely worth listening to.
I would like to see a a piece on the keyed trumpet that was featured by Haydn: the link between the natural and valve trumpet. (I am aware that it was more like a cornet than a trumpet, with its conical bore; but the Haydn concerto is generally listed as a 'trumpet' concerto).
@@hank1519 Someone asked me at the time I saw her, “don’t you just want to take her home, with you?” Or something to that affect.... She was totally right, I was and still am totally smitten!😀
Wow. As a trumpet player I'm ashamed I didnt know this about the Boroque trumpet. And this explains a lot about the trumpet sound I cannot mimic when playing "The Prince of Denmark's March". That tone and trill sound just not able to be produced with the modern trumpet. 🤯
This is an incredible and informative video. I've always been impressed by classical trumpet players like Alison Balsom, Wynton Marsalis, and Maurice Andre, for the sheer technical skills needed to play classical trumpet really well, compared to, for example, marching band trumpet and jazz trumpet music. I've also suspected for a long time that playing the Baroque trumpet was very different and much more difficult, especially playing the trills with only the lips (actually the tongue), and this video confirmed everything that I had suspected. I was particularly fascinated by Balsom's close-up demonstration of a lip trill on the Baroque trumpet, which is fiendishly difficult for many trumpet players. Now if Balsom can learn to play all the notes on the Baroque trumpet without using the vent holes, I would be even more impressed, as I believe that was how the trumpet players really played back during the Baroque era. Handel, Bach, and other Baroque composers demanded the absolute perfection from their musicians,, so we know that there were trumpet virtuosos during the Baroque era that can work miracles with the natural trumpet that for most of today's trumpet players are possible only with the modern trumpet with help from the chromatic valves. On a different subject, I have to say that Balsom naturally looks very beautiful without any makeup.
Balsom absolutely can play all the notes on the Baroque trumpet without using the vent holes. It's just that doing so would make the music sound out of tune to our modern ears, which are only used to hearing music that uses equal temperament. The vent holes do not help her to reach any notes in the harmonic series; rather, they just modify the pitch of certain notes a bit in order to place them where modern ears would like them to be.
While it's true the holes are there to correct the intonation of the harmonics that are too far out of tempered tunings, it doesn't have to do with equal temperament per se, nor is it true that natural trumpets historically would have been necessarily out of tune. The holes were invented as a shortcut to allow modern trumpet players to play the instrument without spending years and years mastering the historical techniques and to allow them to use modern mouthpieces or at least modern-sized mouthpieces. With the (much larger and differently shaped) historical mouthpieces and with dedication to historical techniques, it is possible to play true natural trumpets acceptably in tune.
@@bobbarclay8683: Guys, don’t forget the lips, embouchure, breath control of a diver, lungs of a lion, intelligence of an Einstein, memory of an elephant, beauty of a goddess, personality and patience uniquely hers alone. Other than that, she’s just like ME. Sound the trumpet, boys!
My trumpet teacher in college had a natural trumpet hanging on his studio office wall...on a hook. He would pick it up on occasions and rip off a fanfare. Always fascinating. I did not fully understand the overtone series until I took a college class on the physics of sound. Combined with my trumpet teacher's demos and explanations made it all click. It is interesting to note that there are American drum and bugle corps with 80 + members that are using "just" tuning. The third of all chords not being slotted where we are used to hearing them in traditional tempered tonality. I am not so sure it is not a fad that will fade that is being used, in part, to make an 80 person hornline stand out amongst the other top 10 DCI corps in the world all with essentially the same level of insane precision.
Discovered your brilliant trumpeting on Classic FM this morning (Haydn: Trumpet Concerto in E flat). I just wish my trumpet teacher played so well, on a basic trumpet (he played a cornet for the RAF). So what is the silver doughnut for, does it affect the sound, or is it a custom finger rest?
Casey Hill they are the same as I know, because in the baroque era only existed the natural trumpet, which became later known as “baroque trumpet” when valves were invented in order to adjust the sound to modern ear. So the philologically correct name for that instrument is natural trumpet.
@@3prosopio88 :: None the less there are small "soprano" trumpets used in orchestras when there is no baroque trumpetist ("trumpeter"? is that the word?)
Marco Trev Historically, natural trumpets had no vent holes to adjust pitch because they played the natural harmonic series and were used to it. They didn't use the modern equal tempered system we use today. Baroque trumpets are an entirely modern invention and were created by adding vent holes to natural trumpets so players could adjust pitches and satisfy modern audiences. I have heard pieces played on both Baroque and natural trumpets. They sound wildly different - so much so that most people would consider true natural trumpets horribly out of tune.
@@olavtryggvason1194 correct. Normally the term "natural trumpet" is used for replicas of the true natural instrument of the Renaissance and Baroque, while "baroque trumpet" is used to designate the compromise instrument invented in the 20th century (i.e. with holes) to allow baroque works to be played on something that looks and sounds a bit closer to the historical instruments but is still playable by modern players using their modern technique and mouthpiece if they wish. There's nothing wrong per se with playing baroque trumpet, the majority of players use holes, including some of the specialists who integrate more historical technique and historically informed performance practice and use historical mouthpieces. But it is considered controversial to call that instrument "natural" because it very much isn't actually natural, and there are in fact some specialist who do play the real natural trumpet and dedicate themselves to reviving the technique that goes with it (it is tremendously more difficult to master than the holed baroque trumpet)
Great video I love your British accent and the passion you show for those instruments. I can imaging how that Baroque trumpet would sound in the Bach Brandenburg concert # 2
I always enjoyed Alison Balson´s masterful play of the trumpet. But now I fell in love. She is gorgeous in any way! Such a likable person! How passionate, full of knowledge and taking she explains makes me feel that anyone in her surroundings has to be the luckiest person in the world.
Imma feelin' so danged edgumacated and sumfisticated now. Can't wait to tell all my buds down at the slaughterhouse 'bout broke music and them thar tootle horns.
This is wonderful! I'm a big fan of yours and play trumpet as a serious hobby. I would like to learn to play the baroque/natural trumpet and was wondering if you could tell viewers what make/model and key the instrument you are playing on is? Also, it would be wonderful if one could purchase sheet music of your baroque trumpet arrangements from your albums. Thank you!
@@bobbarclay8683 I think I want to play the baroque trumpet. I see that they come in different keys and wonder what is the most practical key to start with (for me this would be the one for which the most repertoire exists). Any advice is much appreciated!
Yeah but for Clifford Brown or Chet Baker or Woody Shaw or Kenny Wheeler or Miles that museum artifact that you so admirably manage to resurrect would have no real usefulness. Because duhh harmonic sophistication... But I see the original/anachronistic instrument faction is still going strong. I remember when it got started. Well you are the most charming proponent I can imagine I suppose.
I've played folk string instruments for over forty years; brass and woodwinds have seemed mysteries unasked. The lady musician has to have studied deeply for years and her discipline and joy come through wonderfully...
Thank you Alison, I'm a pianist but this gave me a lot of insights on the production of the trumpet sound, and totally new view on how the trills were made on the baroque trumpet, the baroque trills are very difficult, imagination must be used
Surprisingly enough, it isn't as difficult on a Baroque trumpet as it is on a valved instrument. I was shocked when I picked up a Baroque trumpet in D and played the opening of the L. Mozart Concerto in D, complete with the trill, with no real difficulty - something I was not in any way able to do on a valved instrument at that time. Accuracy in picking off notes in the upper register is another matter entirely.🥴
I was wondering about trills on a trumpet with no valves and was glad to see you demonstrate it. Trill with the lips??? Wow, I never would have imagined that! (I've never played the trumpet.)
I played trumpet in school, from 4th grade through High School. I still have it, but have not played in decades. I was introduced to the French horn in HS, but never anything like those two horns! I do wish I had been given a chance to experience them back when I still played.
If you started all over, forgot what you think you know, and practice all day long for the next fifty years, nooooo! From pre-school til today, Ms Balsom is continually developing her technique, lungs, legs and stamina. She was most likely born with a tiny little trumpet in her sweet little hand! Her family are musicians. Why not search on line Amazon.eBay and Google for a reasonably priced horn assuming you are an adult. No one in the universe will ever sound like Alison, ok? Just be YOU, and practice! Of course it will sound like cats fighting in the attic at first, that’s perfectly natural. There’s so much to learn. Hope you don’t smoke, that shortens your breath and life.
I have never played a trumpet before. I don’t know why this showed up in my feed but I’m glad I did. Can we just have her teach us music stuff all day?
Enjoyed your playing and video. The baroque trumpet reminds me of my 1920s vintage " peashooter" trumpet but not stretched as long and of course with valves to aid playability. Loved listening to you ! Thank you. Mike from Boston
Wonderful. My father used to play trumpet. I play several musical instruments, but because of neighbours I did not dare to start playing my father's trumpet. Thanks to this video, I'll start practising and I'll play the trumpet ... 👍👍👍👍👍
I love listening to classical pieces featuring the trumpet but until watching this I really didn't have much of a clue about how they worked. After watching it I am even more impressed how the range of notes are produced. Thank-you.
Interesting. I've heard trumpeters warming up on the natural tones available with just one length of tubing. When tunning a piano 4th are slightly augmented and 5th's are slightly demolished. There is a battle between the 3rd and the 5th. Perfect 5th's result in raunchy sounding 3rd's and sweet thirds result in poor sounding 5ths. Sweet tempered tuning is very much a compromise.
Trumpet has a cylindrical bore and a Cornet has a conical bore. Meaning the size of the tubing is the same for the entire length up until the bell, where the cornet gets gradually bigger and bigger. This gives the cornet a slightly warmer and more delicate sound.
Thank you a very informative video , I am learning the trumpet on my own and that cleared up some problems i was having understanding how the valves function.
So she know Baroque brass did not have valves. So why is seen in videos playing Back on a trumpet with valves? It couldn't be hypocrisy? could it? Or incompetence, because she can't play the same way performers did then?
