Jean-François Madeuf
The revival of the natural trumpet in the Baroque
repertory: utopian or not?
W hen I started to get serious about playing the
natural trumpet 20 or so years ago, it could
justly have been considered a Utopian madness
by quite a few of my fellow trumpeters who played
‘compromised’ instruments (i.e. with tuning holes)
in various early music ensembles. Today, after years
of research and hard work in organology as well as
instrumental practice and pedagogy, it has become
clear that more and more early trumpet players are
using the instrument in its historical form, and with
increasing success. To illustrate this evolution, the
level that I took ten years to attain—and my first
students at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de
Musique in Lyon seven or eight—is currently being
attained by a few of my students at the Schola Can-
torum Basiliensis after barely five years of study and
practice. Outside the circle of trumpeters I and my
‘uncompromising’ colleagues have taught, every day
there are new arrivals in the field whose psychologi-
cal barriers with regard to the instrument I observe
have fallen, and who display technical and musical
potential. It is as if the collective unconscious were
ripe for change, and thus at last the time has come
for a new generation of Baroque trumpeters, worthy
of our ancestors, to bloom in the coming years.
With regard to pure instrumental technique, it is
not at all a secret ‘lost art’ so often evoked by spe-
cialized musicians and musicologists. The technique
of the natural trumpet (and natural horn) resem-
bles that of any other brass instrument. It is only
that the limitations of the instrument itself increase
the demands on the player. Thus we should take
another look at the three essential parameters of
any acoustical system: the generator, vibrator and
resonator.
Early Music, Vol. xxxviii, No. 2 © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1093/em/caq016, available online at www.em.oxfordjournals.org
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The generator comprises the breathing appara-
tus, in other words all the muscles that work to pro-
duce pressure on the air, which is expelled in such
a way that the lips vibrate. Since the trumpet is a
high instrument, this abdominal respiration must
produce a sustained air pressure. Unlike the valve
trumpet, however, this pressure must be much
more equally distributed over all of the registers of
the instrument, since the older instrument is twice
as long as its modern equivalent. This aspect of the
instrument’s technique is illustrated very well by the
tradition of hunting-horn players.
The vibrator comprises not only the lips, formed
into a vibrating reed by the air, but the whole of the
‘embouchure’, which maintains the tension of the
lips as well as the tongue, and regulates the flow of
air and allows articulation of the musical phrase.
Any minor weakness or imperfection in the embou-
chure, even though it may not impede correct
playing on the modern instrument, definitely com-
promises playing on the natural trumpet, particu-
larly in the difficult repertory of the high register.
Lastly, the resonator, like that of a singer, com-
prises a part of the vocal apparatus (including the
soft palate and glottis) as well as other parts of the
body, which function as a resonating chamber for
the sound. On the modern trumpet, mastering this
aspect of technique enhances sonority, intonation
and facility, but it is not really necessary for sim-
ply ‘getting the notes’. On the natural trumpet, this
neglected element of brass pedagogy turns out to
be indispensable for obtaining any tangible result,
whether in security, accuracy or musicality. Thus we
are really more like singers who use our mouths like
vocal cords.
203
 Clearly, aside from the technical aspect, enor-
mous mental strength is necessary for tackling this
difficult instrument and the heavy symbolic charge
attached to it. One’s attitude towards the audience
and to the repertory influences the sonic and musi-
cal results. When a trumpet player in Part III of
Handel’s Messiah gets to the obbligato trumpet
part in the bass aria ‘The trumpet shall sound’,
he or she must not only play the part, but really
must be the angel-trumpeter announcing the last
judgement, in order to find the energy needed to
play this physically exhausting and nerve-wracking
aria to the end.
I would like to conclude by listing a few of the
indispensable human qualities one should develop
first, in order to create favourable conditions for
mastering this difficult instrument: humility and
sensitivity, passion and patience, since, as my trum-
pet teacher Pierre Dutot said, ‘nous jouons comme
nous sommes’!

Jean-François Madeuf studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, where he
has also taught since 1993. After a brief career as an orchestral player and conservatory teacher, he suc-
ceeded Edward H. Tarr at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2001. He performs with numerous French
and other European Baroque ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Le Concert Spirituel and La Petite
Bande, and is (still) currently one of the few trumpeters who play the natural trumpet in the histori-
cally correct fashion, without the aid of the corrective vent-holes which have been used since the 1960s.
madeus66@gmail.com

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