Double Bell Trumpet

10 years ago I started playing my quarter-tone, double bell trumpet!

A résumé

Concept

In my career as a soloist and ensemble player mainly performing contemporary music, I felt a strong need to enhance my trumpet. Somehow the trumpet didn’t seem complete: new repertoire often uses quarter-tones and fast mute changes.

Gradually I developed the idea of a trumpet that could do both easily: a quarter-tone, double bell trumpet.

In 1999, after trying several trumpet makers, I visited Dieter Gärtner in Düren, Germany. http://www.gaertnerundthul.de/site/index.php?nav=impr.

He was very open to my ideas. Over the years I had collected quite a few trumpet parts, like bells, lead pipes and tuning slides. It was obvious to use these for the realization of the idea.

Dieter started with adding a 4th valve; the quarter-tone valve. He soldered a rotary valve onto the tuning slide. That seemed easy!

The next step was to add a fifth valve for attaching a second bell.

We thought the best place to build in the valve was after the valve case, where the bell is still fairly cylindrical. A second bell was shaped, pointing up, over the first bell. Although the bend is very different from the first, the second bell has the same length, therefore the exact same pitch. The valve sends the air to the lower or upper bell, or in half-valve position, divides the air between the 2 bells. It can change the sound in a split second: between open and muted, or between two different mutes.

The process needed a lot of trial and error, but in March 2000 the quarter-tone, double bell trumpet was finished – and good! In May that year I played my first concert on the instrument.

Effects

The 4th valve is for playing quarter-tones.

In combination with alternative fingerings on the other three valves, you can play even smaller microtonal steps.

The 4th valve can also be used in a half-valve (hv) position. It makes the sound unstable, rather jazzy, fragile and soft, like a heavily muted trumpet. In contrast with the traditional trumpet, you can still use the first 3 valves in a normal manner, while adding the half-valve effect of the 4th valve.

The 5th valve is for color change.

Changing quickly from open to muted can make an echo effect, like 2 trumpets playing instead of one. An unexpected, surprising effect occurs when using the fifth valve in half-pressed positions. When changing slowly from the lower to the upper bell (or visa versa) the sound becomes a mixture of the two bells. These blends are unique and impossible to realize on a traditional trumpet.

Some more effects

Using the trumpet with an extremely soft mute and an open bell gives an enormous dynamic range!

The trumpet is a very directional instrument: one bell points in the normal direction, the second points up:, changing bells/directions results in a great acoustical effect.

After gaining experience on my first double bell, I had a second one built for technical improvements and for another effect: On my second trumpet I can turn the second bell backwards, resulting in a trumpet that can play sounding forwards and backwards – another great acoustical effect.

Success

The audience has always responded enthusiastically to the instrument, without exception.

The look is strange but cool! The available sound colors, the acoustical effects and the dynamic range cause big unexpected surprises and leave open ears startled.

In the beginning brass colleagues mostly responded with skepticism…

It started when I presented the idea to trumpet makers. I was told adding an extra bell or valve was nonsense, impossible or would ruin the quality of the trumpet.

When I started performing, I was often surprised by reactions from colleagues. I got remarks and comments like: “impossible to improve the trumpet, it is perfect as it is” or “ a second bell is superfluous…” ,“ just for the fancy looks…”. Many just laughed at the idea.

I experienced trumpet colleagues who didn’t even want to look or listen when I showed up as a soloist with their group or orchestra.

Brass players can be very conservative, almost scared of changes and developments. (Generally, as a performer of new music, I notice an aversion among brass players towards new repertoire).

Many composers were inspired by the new possibilities. New repertoire has been written for my instrument: solo works, chamber music, works using electronics, and solos with ensemble and orchestra!

Peter Eötvös was the first composer interested, even before the instrument was actually built. He was planning on writing a piece for me and when I told him about my idea of the 2 bells he started working immediately. The result “snatches of a conversation” was premiered during the “Basel Musikmonat” in 2002.

The second work for double bell trumpet and ensemble followed in the same year. Dutch composer Martijn Padding composed “Pieton de Hauterives” in 2002.

Soon after that other commissions followed.

In 2004 I was able to present new works for my instrument by Rebecca Saunders and Isabel Mundry on my first Solo CD “Blaauw”. In 2005 followed my second CD with works by Hanna Kulenty and Valerio Scannicandro.

The trumpet also turns out to be useful for existing repertoire, for example Toru Takemitsu’s “Paths”. I even use the instrument for standard repertoire in ensemble and chamber music. Composers arranged existing works, originally for normal trumpet, for the double bell trumpet.

In addition to performing the new repertoire, I used the new possibilities for improvisations.

I have presented some of those results on 2 CD’s: “Improvisations” and “PlayRobotDream.”

Even after 10 years, this instrument is still a fascinating tool for me. I continue to discover and develope nuances that surprise me.

In 1999/2000, parallel to the development of the double bell trumpet, I invested in electronics. Both investments were attempts to enhance the trumpet.

In that year I practiced both the new trumpet and performing with electronics intensely.

To play the trumpet was more complicated than expected. Using the 3 valves of the right hand had been automated since childhood. The coordination with the new 4th and 5th valves of the left hand, however, required lots of practice.

Working with electronics was also like learning a new instrument. It was a new field with unlimited possibilities. In concert situations though, I found that I always needed an extra person for sound projection. Usually the sound people had a lot more knowledge and skills than I did, which lessened my interest in pursuing electronics myself. The work on the double bell trumpet was much more satisfying.

Practicing the trumpet still occupies me and continues to be very rewarding.

The electronic equipment is packed and stored away…

History

A trumpet is a collection of brass tubes. You can shape it in many ways:

"It was Francois Perinet in 1839 invented the piston valved trumpet, the most preferred trumpet of today. The valves ensured a trumpet that was fully chromatic because they effectively changed the tube length. An open valve lets the air go through the tube fully. A closed valve diverts the air through its short, subsidiary tubing before returning it to the main tube, lengthening its path. A combination of three valves provides all the variation a chromatic trumpet needs."

Read more: How trumpet is made – material, making, history, used, parts, procedure, product, machine, Raw Materials, Design, The Manufacturing Process of trumpet, Quality Control http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Trumpet.html#ixzz14K8P9d9G)

For me the quarter-tone valve and the extra bell were a logical development, an enhancement that solved many problems and created new possibilities for contemporary music.

It is a development, not an invention!

I remember seeing pictures of Bobby Shew playing on a trumpet with 2 bells, long before I got the idea. I hadn’t even thought about becoming a professional trumpeter at that time.

Later on, while studying at the conservatory in Amsterdam, I often saw Billy Brooks play at Central Station Square on an instrument with two bells.

Hear the Shew Horn on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6ayD4yjUQk

and

Billy Brooks on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D5ub0qlDGs

I had long forgotten about these players when I started working as a professional, specializing in contemporary classical music. The kind of music I had to play triggered the wish for a new trumpet.

After I started using the double bell trumpet in concerts and presented the trumpet on radio and television, people began sending me pictures of double belled instruments. I learned that my instrument is actually part of a big family.

10 years of double bell trumpet have been successful! Fantastic music has been written for the instrument. It is because of this repertoire that the new developments of the instrument could establish themselves. And it works great – it did not ruin the quality of the trumpet!

I’ve noticed that even skeptical colleagues have started investigating the repertoire and discovering the possibilities. It makes me really happy that several players have copied and started using the double bell trumpet.

Repertoire

Peter Eötvös; “snatches of a conversation” double trumpet, noise maker and ensemble

Martijn Padding; “Pieton de Hauterives” double trumpet and ensemble

Rebecca Saunders; “blaauw” trumpetsolo, “neither” for 2 double bell trumpets

Isabel Mundry; “Solo auf Schwellen” double trumpet

Gijsbrecht Royé; “zonder titel” chamber ensemble

Hanna Kulenty; “brass No1” “brass No3”

Valerio Scannicandro; “Llanto”

Fabian Panisello; “trumpetconcerto”

Agata Zubel; “3d Symfonie” for double bell trumpet and orchestra

Magdalena Buchwald; “Labyrinth.Exit”

Yannis Kyriakides; “Dog Song” double bell trumpet and soundtrack

David Dramm; “Chaincurve” double bell trumpet, hammond organ, sound track and live electronics