cornett

cornett, wind instrument sounded by lip vibration against a cup mouthpiece; it was one of the leading wind instruments of the period 1500–1670. It is a leather-covered conical wooden pipe about 24 inches (60 centimetres) long, octagonal in cross section, with finger holes and a small horn or ivory mouthpiece. Its compass extends two octaves upward from the G below the treble staff. Other sizes of cornett included the descant; the S-shaped tenor; and straight forms, including the mute cornett, with the mouthpiece cut in the head of the pipe itself.

With the trombones, to which it supplied the treble voice, it was one of the first wind instruments specifically scored for (by the Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, 1557–1612). Although obsolescent by 1700, the cornett continued to be played locally in Germany to support treble voices in choirs until about 1750, as well as with trombones in tower music, the religious music played in German church towers, until the 1830s. Its clear tone quality, crucial to the works of the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) and others, is essentially unmatched by any other instrument, and it began to be revived in the mid-20th century.