Flugelhorn

The German word Flügel means wing or flank in English. In early 18th century Germany, a ducal hunt leader, known as a Flügelmeister, used a Flügelhorn to direct his wing of the hunting party. It was originally a form of signal horn called a Halbmond, (lit. 'half-moon'), a large, semicircular brass or silver valveless horn with a conical bore.^[3] Military use dates from the Seven Years' War, where this instrument was employed as a predecessor of the bugle.^[4]

The first version of a valved bugle was sold in Berlin in 1828 by Heinrich Stölzel, inventor of the first piston valves.^[5] The valved bugle provided the Paris-based instrument maker Adolphe Sax, creator of the saxophone, with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modelled.^[4][6]

The flugelhorn is generally pitched in B♭, like most trumpets and cornets. It usually has three piston valves and employs the same fingering system as other brass instruments, although instruments with rotary valves are also made. It can therefore be played by trumpet and cornet players, although it has different playing characteristics. The flugelhorn's mouthpiece is more deeply conical than either trumpet or cornet mouthpieces, but not as conical as a French horn mouthpiece.

Some modern flugelhorns feature a fourth valve that lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth (similar to the fourth valve on most euphoniums, tubas, and piccolo trumpets, or the F valve on trombones). This adds a useful low range that, coupled with the flugelhorn's dark sound, extends the instrument's abilities. Players can also use the fourth valve in place of the first and third valve combination (which is somewhat sharp).

A compact version of the rotary valve flugelhorn is the oval shaped kuhlohorn in B♭. It was developed for the Posaunenchor, German church trombone choirs.

A pair of bass flugelhorns in C, called fiscorns, are played in the Catalan cobla bands that provide music for sardana dancers.

The valves on the flugelhorn give it the same facility and agility as the cornet or trumpet, but it can be more difficult to control in the high register from approximately written G₅, where in general it locks onto notes less easily.^{[citation needed]}

The flugelhorn is used frequently in jazz and popular music. It figured prominently in many of Burt Bacharach's 1960s pop song arrangements, and had a solo role in Bert Kaempfert's 1962 recording of "That Happy Feeling".

The flugelhorn is found in the Dutch and Belgian Fanfareorkesten (lit. 'fanfare orchestras'). The flugelhorns have a significant role in these orchestras, often 10 to 20 in number. They are pitched in B♭ and occasionally add an E♭ solo part, although it is often played on an E♭ trumpet or cornet.

Flugelhorns have occasionally been used as the alto or low soprano voice in a drum and bugle corps, and it is also a standard member of the British brass band. The 1996 British film Brassed Off features a flugelhorn performance of the Adagio from Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez as a pivotal plot device.^[7] The solo was played by Paul Hughes.^[8]

The flugelhorn appears occasionally in orchestral music. Works with flugelhorn include Igor Stravinsky's Threni,^[14] Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 9,^[15] and Michael Tippett's Symphony No. 3.^[16] The flugelhorn is sometimes substituted for the post horn in Mahler's Symphony No. 3,^[17] and for the soprano flicorni called for in Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome (1924), intended to be played on copies of the buccine from Ancient Rome. In HK Gruber's trumpet concerto Busking (2007), the soloist is directed to play a flugelhorn in the slow middle movement.^[18]