Orchestration Tip: C trumpet vs. Bb Trumpet 

2:00 is exactly right! Bb is warm and forgiving, C is bright and more tiring. But very much worth the timbre! 6:53 Mahler 5 is a famous excerpt and almost everybody I can think of auditions and performs it on C. You make a great point that a C lead over a Bb section has a great sound!!

Some interesting bits. Ravel's piano concerto excerpt is quite often played on D trumpet to make it easier to make it through those fast bits, and sometimes, (like on the Jurassic park score) the lead player would play exclusively play on Eb, but thats more of a player's personal choice anyways! Thanks for all of the resources on your channel

Would love to see a vid on a rotary vs. piston valve as you mention! Great vid!

Great video! A few thoughts on US practice: in school orchestras and amateur orchestras, you sometimes see C trumpets but not very often. Rich kids might have them, and wealthy schools might own a set. With college orchestras where there's a strong classical performance program, you'll have all the trumpets and then some, but if it's not a noted classical music program you are way more likely to see Bbs exclusively. If I am writing for a particular orchestra, regardless of level or type, I try to ask the director about what trumpets the players have and which are they best on, among a lot of other questions about the group. I prefer writing for people, for the musicians, rather than generically for instruments and parts. As impractical that is at times, I like to get as close to it as I can. I think I write better when I know the player who will play it.

As a trumpet player and an amateur composer myself, I have to admit that this video is a wonderful piece of education! Quite splendid! Anyway, do you have a tip on flugelhorns? I played one myself and I fell in love with it completely. Anyway, thank you so much for this video ❤.

My experience is that classical trumpeters strongly gravitate towards their C trumpets, as their basic "usin' horn" with old-shoe comfort. I once wrote a part for Bb trumpet because I wanted to use one of its lowest notes, only for the player to use his C trumpet and leave out that low note! Or there was the time I wrote an Eb trumpet part, thinking the tessitura would be easier, only for the player to tell me that he'd rather play it on his C trumpet and just transpose! As you say, professional classical trumpeters are so used to transposing, and I find that they always prefer to use their C trumpet as their home base for such. Then for higher parts, the piccolo trumpet is their other preferred instrument. It's now to the point where, instead of playing D trumpet parts on a D trumpet, they will use the piccolo and just transpose. In fact, when I wanted to write a part specifically for piccolo trumpet and asked the player if he wanted it transposed for it crooked in A or in Bb, he said to give him a D trumpet part, as playing the piccolo transposed that way was what he was most used to. From what I've seen, whether it's Handel's _Messiah_ or Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_, they'll use the piccolo trumpet instead of the D trumpet indicated in the score. Brass players have a need for security that goes beyond what many other instrumentalists desire. The feel and response of the more familiar instrument will always prevail for them, as well as facilitation in reaching higher notes without cracking -- thus the piccolo trumpet, or the higher pitches possible through the alternate tubings of the triple French horn.

Excellent video. Not a topic I've seen discussed a lot, despite being crucial for orchestrators. (In the sense that it's a choice people should go through) I already understood it somewhat because I'm a brass players, but I'm sure these things aren't intuitive for non-brass players.

I honestly think you may be exaggerating the differences between the two somewhat - especially when taking mouthpiece choices into account.

Thank you so much! Great lection!

As i have recently heared, the B-flat rotary trumpets sound more beautiful and that's why they are standard here in Germany. The C valve piston Trumpet is supposed to sound too sharp(coulor not pitch) and is aparently more used oversea. Do you know more? I invite to share your insights. PS: thank you for your very informative and helpful Videos :-)

He really looked at Trumpet Herald for discussion by trumpet players... What a Guy.

Ohhhh trumpets. I have lots of opinions on this topic….

My personal favorite approach to different keys of trumpet is that of Mahler. I personally find a relatively minimal difference between in timbre between Bb and C trumpets. This seems to be agreed upon by Mahler, who throughout his works only scored for Bb and F trumpet. F trumpet being pitched a perfect 5th above a standard Bb trumpet. This maximises the contrast between different types of trumpets. This approach is pne that I favor, and the only time I would say that at least the first trumpet player would likely dp their best to respect the composers wishes. I would also recommend scoring for Eb trumpet insted of the F that Mahler uses, since I have never seen a modern F trumpet, and Ebs are significanly more common. Hopefully this was helpful to someone.

What about trumpet in F? I've seen it in a lot of scores even after natural trumpets were obsolete.

What about trumpet/organ voluntariles, like Purcell, Stanley,"etc.?

16 seconds ago let's go

Is the rest of the evaluations for the beethoven challenge coming soon?

THOMAS!