Cornet, B, B-flat, A, A-flat, G, and F
Date1850 ca.
Place MadeParis, France, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedStamped on bell: HALARI / FOURNISSEUR DE L’EMPEREUR / A PARISMarkingsStamped in valve casings and caps, respectively: 5, 6, 7, 8
DescriptionBrass, double loop with S-shaped tube arrangement before valves, tuning slide at second bow, removable leadpipe (shank and crooks), three top-sprung Périnet valves (1, ½, 1½) with spring inside removable baluster, one bottom-sprung Périnet valve (ascending wholetone), alignment by one key on piston, valve porting with elliptical tubing, pistons nickel-plated brass, windway 4-3-2-1.
Brass tuning shank stamped LA
Three brass crooks stamped LA B, SOL, and FA
Contemporary funnel-shaped brass mouthpiece
Wooden case painted black
Early example of a cornet with ascending fourth valve, transposing by a whole tone. With the surviving tuning shanks and crooks this cornet can play in the keys of A, A-flat, G, and F; actuating the fourth valve with the left hand raises the pitch by a whole tone from A to B-natural or from A-flat to B-flat. The function of the ascending valve is to automate key change and make transposition and playing in different keys easier. The elliptical intervalve tubing was introduced by Halari in 1846 as système de pistons perce conique.
DimensionsHeight: 319 mm
Tube length: 1090 mm (fourth valve in use), 1230 mm (fourth valve not in use), 1372 mm, 1448 mm, 1530 mm, 1740 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slide, valve slides): 11.2 mm, 10 mm, 11–11.4 mm, 11.8 mm
Bore diameter (shank and crooks, range initial, minimum): 9.3 mm, 8.7–8.5 mm
Bell diameter: 125 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Tony Bingham, London, England, 1995.
Published ReferencesSabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 4: The Heydey of the Cornet (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2022), pp. 205-6, 292.
Evgenia Mitroulia, “Adolphe Sax’s Brasswind Production with a Focus on Saxhorns and Related Instruments,” doctoral dissertation, School of Arts, Culture and Environment, College of Humanities and Social Science, University of Edinburgh, 2011, p. 409.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number07116
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