Skip to main content
Curved cornetto
Curved cornetto
Curved cornetto

Curved cornetto

Date1700 ca.
Place MadeFrance, Europe
Place MadeGermany, Europe
Serial No.none
Signednone
Markingsnone
DescriptionLowest note with all fingerholes closed: a
One-piece walnut, turned straight and then bent, no leather cover; brass ferrule at top end with engraved lines; curved to the right; octagonal, no diamonds; six fingerholes, no thumbhole.

This cornetto, being made of one piece rather than two leather-covered halves, stands in a long tradition of cornetto making in German speaking countries; the brass ferrule at the mouthpiece receiver is a feature found in cornetti from Germany. The lack of diamond carvings hint at German origin as well, also indicating a later period of manufacture, possibly as late as the eighteenth century. The lack of a thumbhole, on the other hand, is a characteristic mentioned by the French seventeenth-century scholar Marin Mersenne’s (Harmonie Universelle, Paris 1636/37). German or French provenance from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century is therefore possible.
DimensionsHeight: 575 mm
Tube length: 580 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum): 9.3 mm, 7.5 mm
Bell diameter (internal): 25.4 mm
Fingerhole position (from receiver): 237 mm, 277 mm, 315 mm, 383 mm, 422 mm, 461 mm
Hole diameter range: 7.6-7.8 mm


ProvenancePurchased in 2002 from Gerhard Stradner, Vienna, Austria. Previously sold through André Bissonnet, Paris, France.
Published ReferencesKlaus, Sabine Katharina. Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 2: Ways to Expand the Harmonic Series (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2013), pp. 78-79, 88, 90, 253.

Klaus, S. K. "Zinkengrößen: Überlegungen zur historischen Terminologie," in: Mozart im Zentrum. Festschrift für Manfred Hermann Schmid zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. by Ann-Katrin Zimmermann and Klaus Aringer (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2010), pp. 423 and 438.

Carter, Stewart A. "The Salem Cornets," Historic Brass Society Journal 14 (2002), pp. 289-290.

Klaus, S. K. "Competing with Violins and Almost Like a Human Voice … Two More Cornetti Added to Museum Treasures,” America’s National Music Museum Newsletter 29, no. 4 (November 2002), pp. 4-5.

Stradner, Gerhard. "Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart’s Remarks on the Cornett," in: Brass Scholarship in Review: Proceedings of the Historic Brass Soceity Conference, Cité de la Musque, Paris 1999, ed. by Stewart Carter (Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 2006), p. 116.

Stradner, Gerhard (ed.). Die Klangwelt Mozarts: Exhibition catalog, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlung Alter Musikinstrumente, 28 April-27 October 1991 (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1991), p. 295, no. 193.





Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 2002
Object number10136
On View
Not on view
Bass cornetto
Roland Wilson
2010
Curved cornetto
John R. McCann
1998
Curved cornetto
Christopher Monk
1988 ca.
Alto cornetto
John R. McCann
1998
We use cookies to ensure we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to use this site or by closing or clicking "I agree", you agree to the use of cookies. I agree