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Cornetto

	Lysarden and Cornetti

The word ‘cornet’, literally ‘little horn’, suggests an animal-horn ancestry for the instrument.

The most versatile Renaissance wind instrument was the cornett or zink. Between 1500 and 1650 the zink was used indoors and out, in serious music, dance music, town bands, rural households, at church, and court. Its uniqueness is due to its hybrid construction: a very small acorn cup mouthpiece (played on the side of the mouth where the lips are thinner) is attached to a hollowed out piece of curved wood or ivory. Six finger holes and a thumb hole are drilled in the body of the zink and it is fingered in much the same manner as a recorder. A competent performer can make the zink sound as loud as a trumpet or softly enough to blend with recorders. No other instrument came so close to the sound of the human voice.

Very little breath is used in playing the zink. Mersenne mentions a French court musician, M. Sourin of Avignon, who could play one hundred measures in one breath!!

The cornetto, also known as a zink, is a lip-vibrated instrument made by adding finger holes and a thumbhole to a signal horn. Its small cup-shaped mouthpiece is like that of a trumpet, but it is usually played on the side of the mouth, where the lips are narrower. Cornetti have a narrow bore, with a straight or curved body shape. They were made in several sizes, with the cornetto in A being the principal size.

It is not to be confused with the trumpet-like cornet.

The cornetto was a difficult instrument to master, but skilled players could excel in virtuosity and compete with the violin. Cornetti were widely used in polyphonic music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (see Odhecaton), to accompany choral singing in churches, to play the soprano part in trombone ensembles, and for both secular and religious music.

This cornetto has an octagonal body, slightly curved, and narrower at the top, where it is carved with a pattern of diamond facets. A gilt and engraved ferrule encircles the top of the body.

The cornettino is the descant instrument of the cornetto family.

The tenor cornett was also known as the lyzard, lizarden, lysarden or lyzarden, on account of the "S" shape of the instrument. The instrument was also known as the cornetto tenore, cornetto grosso, cornetto storto or cornone, in Italian, and Corno, Tenor-Zink or Groß Tenor-Zink in German. Tenor cornetts seem to have come in two varieties - small bore and large bore. The smaller bored instruments seem to have been "scaled up" cornetts, true alto or tenor cornetts. However, a number of instruments with a larger bore have survived and these instruments seem to have had a sound somewhat reminiscent of the serpent.

The mute cornett was an important variant of the treble cornett. Unlike the regular curved cornett, cornettino and tenor cornett, the mute cornett is made from a single piece of wood, bored out and given finger holes. The mouthpiece is integral with the instrument and forms a smooth cup shape at the top of the instrument. The cross section of the mouthpiece shows that is closer in structure to the mouthpiece of a French horn, this fixture eliminates the slight "brassiness" of the regular cornett and imparts the characteristic timbre associated with this instrument. Mute cornetts were not covered in leather, like the other forms of cornett.

There are three basic types of treble cornett: curved, straight and mute. The curved (Ger. krummer Zink, schwarzer Zink; It. cornetto curvo, cornetto alto (i.e. high), cornetto nero) is the most common type.

The serpent is a bass wind instrument, descended from the cornett, and a distant ancestor of the tuba, with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind. It is usually a long cone bent into a snakelike shape, hence the name. The serpent is closely related to the cornett, although it is not part of the cornett family, due to the absence of a thumb hole.

Forerunner of the brass family, the cornett was a conical bored instrument carved from two halves of wood which were then glued and bound together.

The cornetto curvo or krumme zink has a bore made from a curved piece of wood which has been cut in half, hollowed out, and glued back together. The outside is then planed to an octagonal shape and a leather covering is glued around it to seal any weak portion of the wood against the wind pressure built up inside.

Tipically, the cornetti are leather covered.

It remained the most versatile wind instrument from the 15th to the 17th centuries and it was and still is capable of an amazingly beautiful trumpet like quality.

This instrument is not to be confused with the modern brass "cornet" which is a small trumpet. The history of the earlier cornett stretches right back to the 10th Century, when it is first mentioned in English writings. It was very popular in Elizabethan times, with references to it in some of Shakespeare's stage directions. The cornett is a wooden instrument with a distinctive slightly curved shape. Unusually, it is made in two separate halves which are then glued together and covered with leather.

It has a mouthpiece similar to a modern brass instrument and is played in the same way, though some precision is required to sound the notes accurately. It was considered in the 17th century to be the only instrument to have the same expressive qualities as the human voice, and Bach used it in some of his cantatas. The unusually shaped 16th Century "serpent" was a larger version of the cornett which remained in use in orchestras right up to the 1930s.

[more about the Cornetto]

RWC Cornetto

	Lysarden and Cornetti

Not available.

Cornetto Kit

	Lysarden and Cornetti

Not available.

Cornetto Technical Plan

	Lysarden and Cornetti

Not available.

Cornetto Accessories and Spare Parts

Cornetto Availability and delivery time

Not all of the items listed on our site are available immediately. Products without a reference nor a price are rarely available for quick dispatch. If you are interested in them, please contact us.

We publish standard availability, which means that this product usually ships in that time since it has been ordered. But at the specific time of your order, that interval can be longer or smaller depending on many production factors.  In addition, you still will have to wait for your product to arrive (delivery time). [More info about availability & delivery dates]

Cornetto Configuration, References and Prices

			Check the offers: In April up to 25% Off
			Ref.				Price [1]
	Cornetto
	Finished Instrument
	Not avaiable				Finished			RWC
	Kit + drawing + instructions + license
	Not avaiable				Kit			RWC
	Drawing + instructions + license
	Not avaiable				Plan			RWC

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All published prices are exclusive of VAT and shipping costs. They are shown in RWC.
The following exchange rates are valid on April 28th, 2020. See other conditions

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Last modification: 03 de mayo de 2019

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