The Philadelphia Natural Trumpet Ensemble was a group of seven musicians who performed on valveless trumpets with timpani accompaniment. The ensemble is now disbanded.
An 8-foot cylindrical bore instrument, the natural trumpet can sound many more notes than a bugle, with a tone superior to that of even a modern valved trumpet. With the revival of the natural trumpet, we are afforded the opportunity to hear the music of Bach and Handel played on the instrument familiar to those composers and whose sound they admired.
The ensemble used accurate reproductions of instruments made by the Nuremberg builders Ehe (Stephen Keavy/Andrew Naumann), and Hainlein (Robert Barclay) as well as the English maker Harris (David Edwards). We also use reproductions of 19th century French e-flat cavalry trumpets (Richard Seraphinoff). The use of 18th century style mouthpieces also lends a characteristic tone and percussive dimension to the playing.
PNTE performed numerous times at the Streitwieser Historic Trumpet Museum, where from its inception in 1991 until 1994 it was the natural trumpet ensemble in residence. The highlight of those performances was a concert featuring Giuseppe Torelli's Sinphonia in C for Four Trumpets, Timpani and Strings (G33). The natural trumpet group performs annually at Easter Services of the historic Old Pine Street Church in Philadelphia, where for a number of years, it has taken part in various joyous movements from the cantatas of J.S. Bach with chorus and organ. Recently, the group joined the choir and organ of the 1st Moravian Church of Riverside, New Jersey, for an excerpt from Bach's Cantata #129, a fanfare by Antonin Dvorak, and a processional fanfare by the 17th century Salzburg trumpeter Riedl.
There is also a large and little known body of music produced from the 17th through 19th centuries for natural trumpet ensemble and timpani. Composers such as Johann Michael Gottmann, Bartholomaus Riedl, Daniel Georg Speer, Jan Dismas Zelenka, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, Leopold Mozart, Anton Diabelli, and other central European and French composers, have written music for groups of between two and twenty-four trumpets and timpani. The titles of these pieces are frequently referred to as "aufzüge" or processional fanfares. The Philadelphia Natural Trumpet Ensemble specializes in this musical literature.
Last update: 8 August 2005