Inventionshorn

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Inventionshorn, Inventionstrompete (Ger.). Invention horn, invention trumpet. The prefix ‘inventions’ has been used to characterize several novelties. The Inventionshorn was the work of Charles Clagget (1740–c.1795) who united 2 instr., one in D and the other in E♭, in such a way that the player had both at command and could thus gain the advantage of the full chromatic scale. Clagget's work, patented 1788, was made possible by the invention, by the hn. player Hampel of Dresden, of curved sliding crooks called ‘inventions’, hence the name. The term Inventionstrompete seems to have been applied not only to the tpt. equivalent of the Inventionshorn but also to 2 earlier novelties, a short horn in F with crooks for every key down to B♭, and the ‘Italian trumpet’ (coiled into horn shape).

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