Editing Cornett (section)

==Playing the cornett==

[[File:Hra-na-cink-evangkostel-v-Miroslavi2011.jpg|thumb|left|The cornetto, played by Ben Skála]]
The cornett's pitches are controlled using a combination of the player's lips and fingerholes. The lips change pitch through different tensions. The fingerholes alter the length of the sound column.

Cornetts are made with a mouthpiece, similar to that on brass instruments, but very small. Unlike the brass mouthpieces, players don't press the instrument to the center of their mouths, as on a trumpet.<ref name="Cornett-GroveDMI-1984"/> Rather the technique to produce sound is to hold the instrument to the side of the mouth, where the player's lips are thinner.<ref name="Cornett-GroveDMI-1984"/> Players stretch their lips to tighten them, with help from cheek muscles.<ref>{{cite book |title= Colour Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments |first= Alexander |last= Buchner |translator= Simon Pellar |publisher= Hamlyn |place=London |date= 1980 |isbn= 0-600-36421-6 |page= 101}}</ref>

{{Multiple images
|align=right
|image1= Jurgalič Jože, Groblje 26 "pastir" (67 let), nekdaj črednik, trobi na kravji rog 1952 (2).jpg
|caption1= Slovak shepherd playing a cow's horn, the horn pressed to the side of his mouth.
|width1= 150

|image2= Рожечники обрез.jpg
|caption2= Russian [[rozhok]] horns, with fingerholes and played from the side of the mouth.
|width2=150
}}
The technique is not unique to cornets, but has also been used for the traditional animal-horn horns, such as the shofur<ref>{{cite web |website= ajudaica.com/ |title= Shofar guide |url= https://www.ajudaica.com/jewish-guides/shofar |quote= Many experts use the side of their mouth to blow the Shofar, in order to get the right sound.}}</ref> and Slovak shepherd's horn, as well as for folk horns such as the Russian [[rozhok]].

[[Girolamo Dalla Casa|Girolamo dalla Casa]] wrote about how the coronet should sound when played, and in doing so revealed other ways it could sound as well. He felt that the instrument was meant to imitate the human voice, saying,  "The cornetto is the most excellent of the wind instruments since it imitates the human voice better than the other instruments." He warned that improperly played,  it would sound "horn-like or muted."<ref name=Rosenberg/>

To play it properly, he said that player's must focus on the tone (with lips not spread apart and loose, or too tight and shrill). He felt tonguing was important to the sound, with energy but not too aggressive. Finally he felt that divisions or diminutions should be used,  but sparingly and well. He said that cornettists should focus on making their playing sound like the human voice.<ref name=Rosenberg/>

===Learning to play===
Books with cornett instruction included ''Grund-richtiger Unterricht der Musicalischen Kunst'' (''Fundamentally correct instruction in the musical arts'') by [[Daniel Speer]], 1697<ref name=Groveonlinecornett/> and ''Museum Musicum Theoretico-Practicum'' (''Museum of theoretical-practical music'') by [[Joseph Friedrich Bernhard Caspar Majer]], 1732.<ref>{{cite book|last=Maier|first=Joseph F. |title= Museum Musicum Theoretico-Practicum |others=München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek |place= Schwäbisch Hall |date= 1732 |url= https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10527435?page=63 |quote= Applicatio zum Zinken}}</ref> Books written for other instruments were also applicable to the cornett. Among these were [[Silvestro Ganassi dal Fontego|Ganassi 
dal Fontego]] (''Opera intitulata Fontegara'', 1535) and Bismantova (''Compendio musicale'', 1677).<ref name=Groveonlinecornett/> These books covered the recorder, but the instructions on "tonguing" with "force and speed" has application to the cornett,<ref name=Groveonlinecornett/> which was pictured on the ''Fontegara'' title page illustration.

Besides tonguing, books taught students to improvise. Students learning cornet music were encouraged to play in the "diminuative", looking at sheet music and adapting it by creating runs of fast notes to replace long slow notes in written works.<ref name=Groveonlinecornett/>

The book (''Il Vero Modo Di Diminuir'', 1584) by cornett virtoso [[Girolamo Dalla Casa]]  focused on tone, tonguing and [[Division (music)|divisions]] to make the cornett sound like the human voice.<ref>Dickey, Bruce. 1982. "The Decline of the Cornett: Most Excellent of Wind Instruments". Musick 4, no. 1 (September):23–32. p. 26.</ref><ref name=Rosenberg>{{cite journal |author= Girolamo dalla Casa detto da U dene |translator= Jesse Rosenberg |title= Il Vero Modo Di Diminuir |date=1584 |page=112 |journal= Historic Brass Society Journal |url= https://www.uco.edu/cfad/files/music/casa-vero-modo.pdf}}</ref>