Bugle facts for kids
Bugle in C
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| Brass instrument | |
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| Classification | |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 423.121.22 (Natural trumpets – an aerophone, with vibrating air enclosed within the instrument, the player's lips cause the air to vibrate directly, the player's lips are the only means of changing the instrument's pitch, the instrument is tubular, the player blows into the end of the tube, the tube is bent or folded, the instrument has a mouthpiece) |
| Developed | Antiquity; modern forms, c. 17th century |
| Playing range | |
| Related instruments | |
| More articles or information | |
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The bugle is a very simple brass instrument. It has no valves or other mechanisms, the only way the player has to control the pitch is changing the shape of his lips. This means that only notes from the harmonic series can be played.
History
The bugle comes from instruments made from animal horns. The earliest bugles were shaped in a loop – usually a double loop, but sometimes triple or single – similar to the modern French horn, and were usually used to send messages during hunts. Predecessors and relatives of the developing bugle included the post horn, the Pless horn, and the bugle horn.
The first use of a brass horn as a military signal was the Halbmondblaser, meaning "half-moon blower", used in Hanover in 1758. It was U-shaped (this is where its name comes from) and easily carried with a shoulder strap. It first arrived in England in 1764 where it was slowly it became used often by foot soldiers. Cavalry did not normally use a proper bugle, but instead used an early trumpet that made a sound which was easier to hear from nearby, but travelled less far.
Uses
The bugle is used mainly in the military where the bugle call is used to make announcements. A long time ago, the bugle was used in the cavalry to pass instructions from officers to soldiers during battle. In the Bible, bugles are found in the time of Moses, when God commanded Moses to 'make two bugles of hammered silver' in Numbers 10:1-3. They were used to assemble the leaders and to give marching orders to the camps.
In the drum and bugle corps the bugle has changed from its military origins, and now has valves. In American drum and bugle corps, G is considered the traditional key for bugles to be pitched in. However, current rules in both Drum Corps International and Drum Corps Associates define a bugle as a brass instrument in any key, with 0 to 4 valves, and bell front.
Civilian drum corps were made using instruments sold off by the military in the early 1900s, and the last official change made to the military bugle (before it stopped being used because of the invention of the radio) was to make them all use the key of G. Bugles in other parts of the world used to be in B flat or E flat.
The bugle is also used in the Boy Scouts. They use some of the same calls as the military, but not all.
Variations
The cornet is sometimes wrongly considered to be the "valved version" of the bugle, although it comes from the French cornet de poste (post horn).
19th century versions based on the original bugle included keys and valves. Keyed bugles were invented in England in the early 19th century, with a patent for one design, the Royal Kent bugle, taken out by Joseph Halliday in 1811. This bugle was highly popular and widely in use until around 1850 – for example, in works by Richard Willis, later bandmaster of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point. This version of the bugle stopped being used when the valved cornet was invented.
Modern instruments considered bugles often have valves.
Pitches of bugles
- Soprano bugle (high pitch)
- Alto bugle (medium pitch)
- Baritone bugle (tenor pitch)
- Contrabass bugle (bass pitch)
Images for kids
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Iberian Celtic trumpet or bugle made from clay, 2nd-1st century B.C., Iberian Peninsula.
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Roman bugle, 4th century. Added to the British Museum in 1904, this late Roman bugle is bent completely round upon itself to form a coil between the mouthpiece and the bell (broken off). Found at Mont Ventoux, France.
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13th century. Angels sounding horns or trumpets. The horns were manufactured in the shape of oxen horns.
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Awareness of trumpet experiments reached a 1405 illustrator in France, who painted a grotesque playing a trumpet bent into a U.
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Virdung illustrated (1511 A.D.) bent trumpets including felttrumet (field trumpet) and busaun (sackbut).
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Clarion trumpet, buisine trumpet, 2 shawms. Painted in France between 1412 and 1416. (upper left corner). The clarion matches the felttrumet in Virdung's 1511 illustrations of musical instruments.
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Mehterhâne, Ottoman miniature circa 1568. The musicians play two zurna, two spiral trumpets (boru), a cylinder drum davul and a pair of kettle drums (nakkare). In 1529, the "Turkish field clamor" reached Vienna for the first time.
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Hessian-Darmstadt soldiers, 1816, one with a halbmondbläser.
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Bugle scale.
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Chinese Eighth Route Army bugler during World War II. Photograph by Sha Fei.
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American poster during the Second World War depicting a bugler from the Ethiopian National Defence Force Band
See also
In Spanish: Corneta natural para niños
