The Royal Kent bugle or keyed bugle is a variant of the

bugle The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, normally having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure. History The bugle developed from early musical or communication ...

popular in the 19th century, especially in the English Army in 1856. Its six keys allow pitch to be controlled beyond that possible with a standard bugle.

History

The first known mention of a bugle with keys appears on April 4 1800 in

The Morning Chronicle ''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...

: However, not until 5 May 1810 was a patent on a five-keyed bugle granted to Yorkshireman Joseph Haliday, entitled "Halliday's icImprovements in the Musical Instrument called the Bugle Horn." Shortly thereafter, in 1811 the first known solos on the instrument were performed by trumpeter Henry Willman, brother of the clarinetist Thomas Lindsay Willman. Performances at the

Theatre Royal, Dublin Over the centuries, there have been five theatres in Dublin called the Theatre Royal. In the history of the theatre in Great Britain and Ireland, the designation "Theatre Royal", or "Royal Theatre", once meant that a theatre had been granted a ...

were announced with "Mr. H. WILLMAN will play a Concerto on that highly-improved Instrument, THE Patent Kent Bugle Horn, (INVENTED BY MR. JOSEPH HALLIDAY)". The first book on the instrument, which by then had six keys to enable more tones, was ''Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Royal Kent Bugle'' by

Johann Bernhard Logier Johann Bernhard Logier (9 February 1777 – 27 July 1846) was a German composer, teacher, inventor, and publisher resident in Ireland for much of his life. Biography Logier was born in Kassel and was first taught music by his father, a violinist. ...

in 1813. While the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica claims that Haliday called it the "Royal Kent Bugle" as a compliment to the

duke of Kent Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edwar ...

, who was at the time commander-in-chief, and encouraged the introduction of the instrument into the regimental bands, this appears to be at least partly erroneous. The duke was never commander-in-chief of any bands in Europe, and the dedication might have been made by Holden. A Royal Kent bugle in the key of C, stamped with Halliday’s name as inventor, and made by P. Turton, 5 Wormwood Gate, Dublin, was exhibited by Col. Shaw-Hellier at the Royal Military Exhibition in 1890. The instrument, made of copper, measures , and the total length of the tubing, including the mouthpiece, . The diameter at the mouthpiece is and at the bell .

Pitch

The instrument has a chromatic range of two

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

s, the open notes being: . To the original instrument specified in the patent, Halliday added a sixth key, which became the first and was in the normal position open; this key when closed gave B, with the same series of harmonics as the open tube. The series, however, becomes shorter with each successive key. Thus, on being opened, the second key gives , the third key , the fourth key , the fifth key , and the sixth key . The bore of the instrument is just wide enough in proportion to its length to make possible the playing of the fundamental tones in the first two series, but these notes are never used, and the harmonics above the sixth are also avoided, being of doubtful intonation. In the ophicleide, the bass variety of the key bugle, the bore is sufficiently wide to produce fundamentals of a satisfactory quality. The keyed bugle was chiefly used in B, a crook for B being frequently added to the bugle in C.

History

Pitch

References

Further reading

See also