Keyed bugle
 Keyed bugle, c. 1830 | |
| Brass instrument | |
|---|---|
| Other names | |
| Classification | |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 423.21 (lip-reed aerophone with keys) |
| Developed | 19th century |
| Playing range | |
 | |
| Related instruments | |
The keyed bugle (also Royal Kent bugle, or Kent bugle) is a high-pitched brass instrument with a wide conical bore and tone holes operated by keys to alter the pitch and provide a full chromatic scale.[2] It was developed from the bugle around the year 1800 and was popular in military bands in Europe and the United States in the early 19th century, and in Britain as late as the 1850s,[3] by which time it had been superseded by the flugelhorn and cornet after the invention of valves.
History
[edit]The first known mention of a bugle with keys appears on 4 April 1800 in London's Morning Chronicle newspaper, in an advertisement for an instrument built by the London instrument maker George Astor.[4][5] However, not until 5 May 1810 was a patent on a five-keyed bugle granted to Joseph Haliday of Yorkshire, entitled "Halliday's [sic] Improvements in the Musical Instrument called the Bugle Horn."[6] Shortly thereafter, in 1811 the first known solos on the instrument were performed by trumpeter Henry Willman, brother of the clarinetist Thomas Lindsay Willman. Performances at the Theatre Royal, Dublin were announced with "Mr. H. Willman will play a Concerto on that highly-improved Instrument, The Patent Kent Bugle Horn, (Invented by Mr. Joseph Halliday)".[7] The first book on the instrument, which by then had six keys to enable more tones, was Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Royal Kent Bugle by Johann Bernhard Logier in 1813.[8][9]
While the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica claims that Haliday called it the "Royal Kent Bugle" as a compliment to the Duke of Kent, who was at the time commander-in-chief, and encouraged the introduction of the instrument into the regimental bands, this appears to be at least partly erroneous.[10] The duke was never commander-in-chief of any bands in Europe, and the dedication might have been made by Holden.[6] A Royal Kent bugle in the key of C, stamped with Halliday’s name as inventor, and made by Turton of Dublin, was exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition in 1890.[11]
Pitch
[edit]The instrument has a tessitura range of around two octaves, not including the fundamental tones. The notes of the harmonic series with no keys down are:[11]
To the original instrument specified in the patent, Halliday added a sixth key, which became the first and was in the normal position open; this key when closed gave B♭, with the same series of harmonics as the open tube. The series, however, becomes shorter with each successive key:[10]
The bore of the instrument is just wide enough in proportion to its length to make possible the playing of the fundamental tones in the first two series, but these notes were never used, and the harmonics above the sixth were also avoided due to poor intonation.[11]
The keyed bugle was chiefly used in B♭, usually by adding a small B♭ crook to the leadpipe of the bugle in C.[11]
References
[edit]- ↑ Herbert, Myers & Wallace 2019, p. 486, Appendix 2: The Ranges of Labrosones.
- ↑ Herbert, Myers & Wallace 2019, p. 234–6, Keyed bugle.
- ↑ Farmer, Henry George (1904). Memoirs of the Royal Artillery Band; Its Origin, History, and Process; An Account of the Rise of Military Music in England. London: Boosey and Co. p. 183. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
- ↑ Lasocki 2009, p. 16.
- ↑ "New-Invented Bugle Horn". The Morning Chronicle. London. 4 April 1800.; cited in Lasocki (2009).
- 1 2 Lasocki 2009, p. 11.
- ↑ Lasocki 2009, p. 36.
- ↑ Lasocki 2009, p. 13.
- ↑ Logier, Johann Bernhard (25 November 1813). Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Royal Kent Bugle. Dublin, Sackville-Street: J. B. Logier's Music Saloon. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- 1 2 3 4 Schlesinger, Kathleen (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). pp. 760–761.
- 1 2 3 4 Day, Captain C. R. (1891). A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. pp. 168–169, and pl. xi. fig. D. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
Bibliography
[edit]- Dudgeon, Ralph T. (2004), The Keyed Bugle, OL 8481503W, Wikidata Q116224505
- Herbert, Trevor; Myers, Arnold; Wallace, John, eds. (2019). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Brass Instruments. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316841273. ISBN 978-1-316-63185-0. OL 34730943M. Wikidata Q136027509.
- Herbert, Trevor; Wallace, John, eds. (1997). The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments. Cambridge Companions. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521563437. ISBN 978-1-139-00203-5. OCLC 460517551. OL 34482695M. Wikidata Q112852613.
- Lasocki, David (2009). "New Light on the Early History of the Keyed Bugle Part I: The Astor Advertisement and Collins v. Green". Historic Brass Society Journal. 21: 10–55. doi:10.2153/0120090011002 (inactive 1 July 2025). Retrieved 10 October 2021.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
External links
[edit]
Media related to Keyed bugles at Wikimedia Commons
