Story above

Representatives of the older generation probably remember how they woke up and fell asleep to the sounds of top in pioneer camps, where most of the city’s children spent their summer holidays. The horn is also known to the children as an obligatory attribute of all training camps, rallies, military-patriotic games. But few people know that this simple, well-known musical instrument is one of the oldest, which laid the foundation for the emergence of other brass wind instruments. The bugles themselves originate from signaling instruments, which were made in ancient times from the bone horns of animals. The material for the hearth is copper, brass. Horn means horn in German.

What was the purpose of the horn?

Curved in a ring two, sometimes three times, they were used by hunters to transmit signals to each other during the hunt. It was not only hunters who blew the horn to signal long distances. Over time, people tried to make a tool that resembled a bone horn, but from metal. The instrument exceeded expectations – it produced louder and more distinct sounds. Later it was also used in carriages to give signals on the road. The bugle first appeared in the army in 1758 in Hannover. Because of the U-shape, it was called “Halbmondblaser”, which translates as “halbmoon trumpeter”. A special belt was attached to the mouthpiece of the bugle, which the bugler threw over his shoulder. A few years later, the bugle was brought to England, where it was widely used in various infantry units, replacing the flute. But in the cavalry and artillery, the signal instrument was the trumpet.

Musical instrument device

The bugle is a narrow metal barrel, curved into an elongated oval shape like an orchestral trumpet. Most of the bore has a cylindrical shape, the remaining third of the tube gradually expands and passes at one end into a socket. The other end has a special mouthpiece for lips. Despite the similarity to the pipe, the performance capabilities of the forge are limited due to the lack of a mechanism for valves and valves. The sound pitch is adjusted with the help of an ear cushion – a special addition of the lips and tongue. Notes are reproduced only within the limits of harmonic consonances. You can extract 5-6 sounds, a complex melody cannot be played on the bugle. As a signal instrument, the horn is used in the army, but it is not used in orchestras. As noted above, the bugle, along with the snare drum, were important attributes of pioneer detachments and camps in the Soviet era.

Varieties above

The bugle reached its heyday, perhaps, in the 19th century, it was then that many of its variations appeared with the use of valves and gates. So, at the beginning of the century in England, a keyboard horn or horn with valves was invented, which almost immediately became a fairly popular instrument. A large valved horn, called the ophicleide, was used in symphony and brass bands. Its popularity lasted until the middle of the century. Later it was replaced by another instrument – the tuba, which moved the horn with keys far into the shadows. Valve horn or flugelhorn is used in brass bands, jazz ensembles.