The cornett (, ) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. Although smaller and larger sizes were made in both straight and curved forms, surviving cornetts are mostly curved, built in the treble size from in length, usually described as in G. The note sounded with all finger-holes covered is A, which can be lowered a further whole tone to G by slackening the embouchure. The name cornett comes from the Italian cornetto, meaning "small horn".
It was used in performances by professional musicians for both state and liturgical music, especially accompanying choral music. It also featured in popular music in alta capella or loud wind ensembles. British organologist Anthony Baines wrote that the cornett "was praised in the very terms that were to be bestowed upon the oboe [...]: it could be sounded as loud as a trumpet and as soft as a recorder, and its tone approached that of the human voice more nearly than that of any other instrument." It was popular in Germany, where trumpet-playing was restricted to professional trumpet guild members. As well, the mute cornett variant was a quiet instrument, playing "gentle, soft and sweet."
The cornett is not to be confused with the modern cornet, a valved brass instrument with a separate origin and development. The English spelling cornet, which had applied to the cornett since about 1400, was in around 1836 transferred to the cornet à pistons, the predecessor of the modern cornet. Subsequently, cornett became the modern English spelling of the older instrument.
Construction
thumb|Cornetts in [[Syntagma Musicum, 1619. Left to right: alto straight cornet with mouthpiece (lowest note g), alto mute cornett (front and back), tenor mute cornett (lowest note g, key on 7th hole for f), treble straight cornett with mouthpiece (lowest note a), cornettino (lowest note e), treble cornett (lowest note a), tenor cornett (lowest note c).]]
Pipes as short as the cornett are able to play only four or five notes of the harmonic series when sounded with all finger-holes closed; these harmonics are used as part of the standard fingering within the cornett's designated range. Other short trumpets, including King Tut's Trumpet, are capable of playing only two notes without a modern mouthpiece.
The instrument has features of both the trumpet and a woodwind instrument. Like the trumpet, the cornett has a small cup-shaped mouthpiece, where the instrument is sounded with the player's lips. Like many woodwind instruments, it has fingered tone holes (and rarely, keys) to determine the pitch by shortening the vibrating air column, although pitch can also be adjusted by varying the tension of the player's embochure. In comparison, Praetorius gave cornetts credit for achieving 15 notes, before players used techniques to expand the range.
The cornett has a conical bore, narrow at the mouthpiece and widening towards the bell.
The cornone was pitched about a fifth below the alto cornett, with a playing range of C to D.
Even though tenor and bass instruments were created for the family, these came later in the instrument's development, perhaps as long as 50 years after the instrument became mainstream.
These were tuned "a pitch or so below the type instrument" or an octave below the cornettino. The Paris instrument is described as having "an octagonal exterior and 4 extension keys." The Hamburg example has 2 extension keys.
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File:Ivory Cornetto in A, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|Ivory cornetto in A, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:Ivory Cornetto in A, mouthpiece.jpg|Highly decorated cornett and mouthpiece, cornetto in A, mouthpiece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:GER — BY — Oberbayern — München — Isarvortstadt — Museumsinsel 1 — 1. OG (Dt. Mus. · Abt. Musikinstrumente · Krummer Zink) Mattes 2022-11-27.jpg|Curved cornet. Lines of the octagonal body are visible.
File:Contrebass de cornet à bouquin.jpg|Contrebass de cornet à bouquin, Paris Conservatoire Museum.
File:Cornets à bouquin2.jpg|Curved cornetts from the Cité de la Musique, Philharmonie de Paris. Black cornets (wood covered with leather or black parchment) and ivory cornets.
File:Cornets à bouquin3.jpg|Possible tenor cornetts, which were sometimes called lizards. From the Cité de la Musique, Philharmonie de Paris.
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Straight cornett
The common treble cornett was also made as a straight cornett (German: gerader Zink, gelber Zink, Italian: cornetto diritto or cornetto bianco)]]
Aurignacian pipes, fashioned with four finger holes 26,000–40,000 years ago from the slender bones of bird wings or mammoth ivory, have long been considered flutes. Recovered from Vogelherdhöhle and other caves in the Swabian Jura in Germany, they are among the oldest musical instruments yet discovered. British music archaeologist Graeme Lawson found that a replica of a complete specimen played as a flute has an indistinct whispery sound, but produces the first five notes of the diatonic series in a clear, strident tone when played as an end-blown lip reed instrument. He contends that this method of playing is supported by microscopic wear patterns, the absence of a fipple or blowhole, and the well-rounded end aperture.
In modern history, the cornett has been considered by musical historians to be a development of the medieval horn, such as a cow's horn. Francis Galpin believed the horns preceding the cornett to be goat horns. In the 11th century, some of the fingerhole horns began to be made longer and thinner, beginning to take on the appearance of the cornett.