MUSI C. 
-800 
Egyptians, from whom it might have been tranfmitted to 
tthe Ifraelites. The trumpet of the jubilee is fuppofed to 
have been like our trumpets, widening gradually in a di- 
refl line to the orifice. See p. 348, 9. 
The modern trumpet conlilts of a mouth-piece, near an 
inch broad, though the bottom be only one-third fo much. 
The pieces which convey the wind, are called the branches; 
the two places where it is bent, potences; and the canal 
between the fecond bend and the extremity, the pavilion; 
the places where the branches take afunder, or are fol- 
dered, the knots; which are five in number, and cover the 
joints. See fig. 7. 
When the found of the trumpet is well managed, it is 
of a great compafs. Indeed its extent is not ftri&ly de¬ 
terminable ; fince it reaches as high as the ftrength of the 
breath can force it. A good breath, we are told, will 
carry it beyond four odlaves, which is the limit of fome 
old organs and fpinets ; but its ufual fcale, noticing its 
imperfections, has been given in the preceding page. It 
does not play info many different keys as the French horn ; 
little pieces of metal are applied at the upper part of the 
tube to effect a change of key, or to enable it to found 
certain notes ; but thefe pieces perform very imperfectly 
the office of the crooks upon the French horn. 
There are fome performers who blow the trumpet fo 
foftly, and draw fo delicate a found from it, that it is ufed 
not only in church-mufic, but even in chamber-mufic; 
and it is on this account that, in the Italian and German 
mufic, we frequently find parts entitled tromba prima, 
firft trumpet; trumba,J'egonrla, terza, fecond, third, trum¬ 
pet,. &c. as being intended to be played with trumpets. 
The moll celebrated trumpet-player of the laft thirty 
years, beyond all competition for a dexterous manage¬ 
ment of the inflrument, is Mr. Hyde : he is now declin¬ 
ing in the vale of years ; but is bringing forward his two 
fons, who bid fair to fuftain the credit of his name. 
The trumpet-marine is an inflrument confiding of three 
fid'es, which form its triangular body. It has a very long- 
neck, and one fingle firing, very thick, mounted on a 
bridge, which is firm on one fide, but tremulous on the 
other. It is ftruck by a bow with one hand, and with the 
other the firing is prefled or flopped on the neck by the 
thumb. See fig. 8. 
It is the trembling of the bridge, when ftruck, that 
makes it imitate the found of a trumpet, which it does to 
that perfection, that it is fcarcely poffible to diftinguifh 
the one from the other. And this is what has given it 
the denomination of trumpet-mariiie, though, in propriety, 
it be a kind of monochord. Of the fix divifions marked 
in the neck of the inflrument; the firft makes a fifth with 
the open chord, the l'ecor.d an oCtave, and fo on for the 
reft, correlponding with the intervals of the military 
trumpet. 
The trumpet-marine has the fame defeCls with the real 
trumpet, viz. that it performs none but trumpet-notes, 
and fome of thole either too flat or too (harp. This Mr. 
Fr. Roberts accounts for, (Phil. Tranf. 1692.) by premi- 
fing the common obfervation of two unifon-ftrings ; that, 
if one be ltruck, the other will move : the impulf'es made 
on the air by one firing letting another in motion, which 
lies in a difpofition to have its vibrations fynchronous to 
them; to which it may be added, that a firing will move, 
not only at the ftriking of an unifon, but alfo of that of 
an eighth or twelfth ; there being no contrariety in the 
motions to hinder each other. Now in the trumpet-ma¬ 
rine you do not flop clofe as in other inllruments ; but 
touch the firing gently with your thumb, by which there 
is a mutual concurrence of the upper and lower part of 
the firing to produce the found. Hence it is concluded, 
that the trumpet-marine yields no mufical found but when 
the flop makes the upper part of the firing an aliquot 
part of the remainder, and confequently of the whole; 
otherwife the vibrations of the parts will flop one another, 
and make a found fuitable to their motion, altogether 
Confufed. Now the aliquot parts, he fhows, are the very 
flops which produce the trumpet-notes. 
The clarion is a kind of trumpet, whofe tube is nar¬ 
rower, and its tone thriller, than that of the common 
trumpet. It is laid that the clarion, now ufed among 
the Moors, and by the Portuguefe who borrowed it 
from them, ferved anciently as a treble to the common 
trumpet. The ufe of this is now fupplied by the trom¬ 
bone, of which we are prefently to fpeak. 
The Sackbut. —The fackbut is an ancient inflrument 
mentioned in Scripture. It is a kind of trumpet, though 
different from the common trumpet both in form and 
fize. It takes afunder into four pieces, or branches; and 
has frequently a wreath in the middle ; which is the fame 
tube, only twilled twice, or making two circles in the mid¬ 
dle of the inflrument; by which means, it is brought 
down one-fourth lower than its natural tone. It has 
alfo two pieces or branches on the infide, which do not 
appear except when drawn out by means of an iron bar, 
and which lengthen it to the degree requifite to hit the 
tone required. The fackbut is ufually eight feet long, 
without being drawm out, or without reckoning the cir¬ 
cles. When extended to its full length, it is ufually 
fifteen feet. The wreath is two feet nine inches in cir¬ 
cumference. 
The ancient inflrument called the fackbut was difeo- 
vered among the ruins of Herculaneum or Pompeii. The 
lower part is made of bronze, the upper part and the 
mouth-piece of folid gold. The king of Naples made a 
prefent of it to his prelent majefty, and from this antique 
the inftruments now called trombones have been fafhioned. 
In quality of tone, it has not been equalled by any of 
modern make. 
Trombone, in Italian, fignifies a “ great trumpet,” as 
trombetta denotes a little trumpet; both being derived 
from the generic tromba. The trombone, becaufe its 
tube can be lengthened and fhortened at pleafure, is called 
in Latin tuba dudilis. 
Zarlini has deferibed this inflrument under the title of 
trombone amovibile, and the quantity and quality of the 
founds it is capable of producing, very exactly. “ The 
trombone (fays he) is an inflrument truly worthy of 
confideration, which I have feen and often heard by good 
performers, beginning at the lowed: found which it is 
capable of producing; when, beingclofed in all the joints, 
it can produce no found lefs than the otave; then from 
the otave to the 5th ; nor from that can it produce a lefs 
interval than the 4th ; and from the 4th to the 3d major, 
then the 3d minor, after which another 4th, the key-note, 
from which it can form a complete feries of eight notes. 
No other founds than thefe can be produced without 
altering, moving, and lengthening, the inflrument.” 
Supplimenti Muficali, lib. iii. cap. 5. 
The trombones are much ufed in the large churches of 
Germany. They are ufually made of brafs; and are now 
of fourdift’erent kinds, anfweringto treble, counter-tenor, 
tenor, and bafs ; but called firft, fecond, third, and fourth. 
They produce all the tones and femitones ; and the nota¬ 
tion is the fame as for the different voices, as will appear 
by the following fcale. 
1st Trombone. 2nd Trombone. 3rd Trombone. Bass Trombone. 
The laft, or bafs trombone, is reprefented at fig. 9. It is 
often ufed alone, as a bafs or double bafs to other wind- 
inftruments ; and has the fineft effiet in funeral procef- 
fions, and in general in melancholy drains. We never 
hear it with more pleafure in England than in Handel's 
Dead March in Saul. The tromboni and double drums, 
which were introduced in the abbey at the commemora¬ 
tion of Flandel, to make a grand crafh now-and-then, 
produced an admirable effect. Their ufe fhould be rare, 
and their effects would be more ftriking: but tromboni 
and double-drums are now fo frequently ufed at the 
opera. 
