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Contrabass trumpet

Musical instrument

Summary

Musical instrument

Field	Value
name	Contrabass trumpet
image	File:MIMEd 4546. Contrabass natural trumpet in E-flat by Evette & Schaeffer c.1920.png
image_capt	Contrabass natural trumpet in E♭ built c. 1920 by Evette & Schaeffer. St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh
background	brass
classification	{{hlist
hornbostel_sachs	423.233
hornbostel_sachs_desc	Valved aerophone sounded by lip vibration
related	{{hlist
builders	{{hlist
musicians	{{hlist

The contrabass trumpet is the largest and lowest-pitched member of the trumpet family, sounding below the bass trumpet. Only a few exist. The instrument appeared in the mid-20th century and has no orchestral or jazz repertoire. Usually built in 12′ F a perfect fourth below the B♭ bass trumpet, it has the same length as the F contrabass trombone, cimbasso, or tuba. Some (sometimes called the subcontrabass trumpet) are built larger in 18′ B♭— an octave below the bass trumpet and two octaves below the standard B♭ trumpet.

History

Musical Instrument Museum]], [[Phoenix, Arizona]]<ref name="reddit-mim"/>

A contrabass trumpet in 18′ B♭ played by tuba player Don Butterfield appeared in 1962 on the TV show I've Got a Secret. The instrument was loaned to the show from a Claremont College University musical instrument collection, which is now at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

In 1967, Roger Bobo, tuba player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, commissioned a contrabass trumpet from instrument maker George Strucel. Unhappy with the sound of the contrabass trombone in recording the Canzoni e Sonate by Gabrieli, they built an instrument in 12′ F in the shape of a large bass trumpet, out of spare tubing and a bass trombone bell from the Bach factory. Tuba player Carl Kleinsteuber made four similarly configured contrabass trumpets in F in the 1990s. He made them cheaply out of spare brass instrument parts as "fun" instruments, acknowledging the absence of any known repertoire. In the early 2000s, Latvian trombonist Vairis Nartišs built four instruments in 18′ B♭ which he called "subcontrabass trumpets", two of which are now in museums.

Repertoire

The contrabass trumpet has no historical repertoire in classical music or jazz. Whilst they have not gained wide appeal, they do occasionally appear in contemporary works. Slovenian composer Igor Krivokapič has scored a contrabass trumpet part in his 2021 Symphony No. 5 Sedem trobent Apokalipse ().

Performance

Very few instrument makers offer a contrabass trumpet today. Lars Gerdt in Sweden offers a model in F based on the Roger Bobo instrument. Their weight and unwieldy shape make contrabass trumpets difficult to hold up like a regular trumpet, so they are often played mounted to an adjustable floor rod. The timbre from their cylindrical-bore construction, use of valves and similar range allow them to be readily substituted with a cimbasso.

References

Leeman, Dan. (27 July 2020). "What In The World Is A Contrabass Trumpet?". Notestem.
(21 May 1962). "I've Got a Secret - Arlene Francis hands out Emmys!". CBS Television.
Gordon, Larry. (21 April 2008). "A departure sadly noted". [[Los Angeles Times]].
KontrabassTubaMann. (25 September 2021). "r/Tuba: The Contrabass trumpet at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ. Hilariously impractical and awesome.". Reddit.
Bobo, Roger. (16 November 2012). "Strucel Contrabass Trumpet in F".
Kleinsteuber, Carl. (13 January 1997). "Re: Contrabass trumpet". Contrabass-L list archive.
Nartiss Latvia. (2021). "Subcontrabass Trumpet Nartiss NATU711-1". Reverb.
Nartišs, Vairis. "Lowest Trumpet in the world: Subcontrabasstrumpet Nartišs Latvia". Showbrass.lv.
(13 September 2022). "7 Trumpets of the Apocalypse". [[Cankar Centre.
"Kontrabastrumpet i F mod. GS". Lars Gerdt AB.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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