Images(5)

Flugelhorn, B-flat

ALTERNATE NAME(S)

Bugle à pistons

Maker Louis Muller

Date1835 ca.

Place MadeLyon, France, Europe

Serial No.none

SignedStamped on bell: MÜLLER / BREVETE / A LYON
MarkingsValve cases and top valve caps marked with three (first valve), two (second valve), and one dot (third valve) [sic].
DescriptionBrass, mother-of-pearl fingerbuttons, single loop with dummy tubing, small coil after valve cluster, telescopic tuning slide at leadpipe, three Stölzel valves (1, ½, 1½), screw alignment.

This early bugle à pistons or flugelhorn closely resembles the keyed bugle, particularly in the bell contour. Louis Muller, who worked with his uncle Fançois Antoine Sautermeister before establishing an independent workshop in Lyon, patented a cornet with three Stölzel valves in 1835 and a two-valve horn in 1838.
DimensionsHeight: 408 mm
Tube length: 1278 mm, 1295 mm
Bore diameter tuning slide (initial, minimum): 12.5 mm, 12.1 mm
Bore diameter valve slides: 12.1 mm
Bell diameter: 134 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 2004 from Tony Bingham, London, England.
Published ReferencesSabine K. Klaus, “Flugelhorn (bugle à pistons) in B-flat by Louis Müller, Lyon” (NMM 10736), International Trumpet Guild Journal, vol. 39, no. 5 (June 2015), p. 49.

Sabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 3: Valves Evolve (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2017), pp. 31-32, 294.

Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 2004

Object number10736

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