From Sea Shells to Armstrong: A Brief History of the Trumpet

May 23, 2017

As I’m sure you’re well aware by now, music is as old as human civilization, and has developed right along with us, evolving as our tastes and needs have changed. But there has been one piece of musical equipment that, even though it has gone through a lot of changes over the centuries, has more or less been with us for the entire history of music: the trumpet.

Earliest Horns

Over its long and prestigious history, the trumpet has played a vital role in nearly every major civilization on this planet Earth. Much more than a simple musical instrument, the trumpet has made itself an important part of human history as a whole for thousands of years.

In fact, the first known metal trumpets have been dated to as far back as at least 1500BC. Trumpets made from silver and bronze were even found in the tomb of King Tut of Egypt, as well as in archaeological digs in China, South America, Scandinavia, and even Asia. Possibly the most interesting discovery about these early metal trumpets is that it’s very unlikely that any culture’s first version of any musical instrument would be made of metal. This implies that there would have been trumpet like horns made from over, possibly more fragile materials long before they began to forge the instrument from bronze. There is a lot of good reason to assume that many civilizations were blowing into objects like animal horns or conch shells to make a loud, far reaching sound well before they were able to do any metal working.

Which is what these instruments were most likely first developed for. Many early examples of modern musical instruments, particularly drums and horns, were not initially created to make music as we know it today. Instead, they were generally used for either ceremonial or military purposes, meant to communicate and signal. In fact, trumpeters were highly regarded by military units in medieval times, thanks to their ability to communicate instructions or orders over long distances. That role has continued to today, and the bugle, which is an offshoot of sorts from the trumpet, is still used by militaries all over the world. That being said, thanks to things like radio communication, the bugle’s role is more ceremonial today.

Middle Ages to 1800s

Both metal working and instrument design went through a little bit of their own rebirth during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. These developments helped the trumpet become much more suitable for making sounds that we would recognize as actual music. However, even with improvement to the design and materials, the trumpet still didn’t have any valves, and could only create a small range of notes. Additionally, if you changed keys, you would have to physically change the pipes on the instrument. Thanks to these limitations, the popularity of this kind of “natural trumpet” peaked during the Baroque era, but faded through the Classical and Romantic periods.

But, by the 1800s, certain improvements had been made to the instrument, bringing it much closer to the modern trumpet we would recognize today. The addition of keys and valves led to a much improved note and key range, effectively allowing the instrument to create any note needed my the composer. It had finally regained its rightful place among the orchestra.

Pop Music

With the 20th century came the new concept of “Pop Music.” Of course, popular music has been around in one form or another for basically forever, but this new concept meant that recordings of songs could reach countless people, virtually at once, and could become a “hit.”

Early on, during this new era of sound recording, many instruments didn’t translate well to tape. The trumpet, however, proved to be an exception, and easily became a standout favourite for listeners, thanks to its clear, forceful, and focused sound.

It was this clear, clean, and sharp sound that helped the trumpet become the lead instrument in a new and exciting genre coming out of the United States in the later end of the 1890s an into the 20th century: jazz.

Jazz helped produce the some of the first musical superstars, with names that are still recognizable even today. Joseph “King” Oliver was one of the first jazz stars, hitting it big in Chicago in 1922. His band’s feature was break passages, in which two trumpets played together, where Oliver would play, then be followed by his protege. And while King Oliver helped bring both jazz and the trumpet into the public consciousness, it would be his protege who would go on to become one of the biggest musical legend to ever live. Who was that apprentice? None other than the singular Louis Armstrong.

Armstrong would go to New York in 1924 to play with his first big jazz band, then returned to Chicago with what he had learned to form his Hot Five band, and Hot Seven group. With his clean and distinctive trumpet leading the way, the recordings these groups made would make up the very first recordings of modern pop music as we know it today. And when Armstrong added vocals and scat to his trumpeting, he set the template for basically all popular music to come after, from Frank Sinatra to U2.

Other legendary names would come and go. Musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Chet Baker would all leave their lasting mark on the instrument and popular music as a whole. The genres of music that feature the trumpet heavily have started to fade a bit in popularity as highly processed and electronic sounds have taken over the pop music world. And yet, the trumpet persists.

This humble instrument has had a long and incredible life, and shows no sign of going extinct any time soon. From protecting our homes and villages as a warning of danger, to passing military information across vast distances and an instrument of the first popular music, from a single length of bent and curved tubing made from animal horn, sea shell, or even primitive metals to a complicated valved and keyed device crafted from modern alloys, the trumpet has been through a lot over the course of it’s long history. Only time will tell what changes our tastes and needs will bring to this amazing instrument in the future.