This glossary gives the names of the main groups of brass instruments over time.

Another guide specifically covers the taxonomy of the lower brass with photographs.

Cornett - Renaissance lip-reed instrument constructed of wooden strips bound with leather and provided with 6 finger holes and a thumbhole to vary pitch. Usually constructed with a gentle curve to the right. Produces a uniquely beautiful and delicate sound. The tenor cornett is called the lysard and has an s-shape double curve. Bass cornetts are serpents.

3 Cornetts

Ophicleide - This is the early 19th century keyed bass bugle, essentially a brass-built keyed serpent which filled the bass brass role until the development of the tuba, the instrument which superseded it. The so-called Russian bassoon or basshorn is an earlier stage in its development.                            

Serpent and Ophicleide

Trumpet - Usually a soprano brass instrument with a larger proportion of cylindrical bore to conical bore. Modern trumpets have valves; natural trumpets do not.

Trombone - Slide trumpet, usually of low pitch. ‘Trombone’ just means ‘large trumpet’. Some trombones have valves instead of the slide, or in addition to the slide. The early English name for the trombone is ‘sackbut’. The contrabass valve trombone is the cimbasso.

Natural trumpet and Sackbut

Cornet - A soprano brass instrument in Bb or high Eb invented in the 19th century as a valved development of the post horn. Its invention inspired developments in other brass instruments. Cornets differ from trumpets in having a greater proportion of conical bore than trumpets. This gives them a slightly warmer tone. The name ‘cornopean’ is applied to early forms of the cornet.

Bugle - A conically bored natural trumpet used as a military signalling instrument. American bugle bands use instruments with valves which are similar to bell-forward saxhorns. The bugle is a metal version of a simple animal horn trumpet like the ceremonial Hebrew Shofar.

Flugelhorn - A soprano valved bugle in Bb mainly used in brass bands and for jazz. High Eb flugelhorns also exist on the Continent. Even mellower in tone than the cornet and trumpet. A German variation of the flugelhorn is the Kuhlo horn, which was 'designed' by Pastor Johannes Kuhlo for use in churches. It is almost circular in design and has a trumpet mouthpiece receiver and rotary valves..

Trumpet, Cornet and Flugelhorn (below)

Johannes Kuhlo with his Kuhlo horn

Saxhorn - The family of valved bugles, generally built in bell upright form. Patented in Europe by Adolphe Sax in the 19th century. Probably originally invented by the American Allen Dodworth, and later refined by Sax. These horns are the core of a modern brass band. The flugelhorn is almost identical with the contralto saxhorn in Bb.

Dodworth's 'over-the-shoulder' Horn

Tuba - The family of wide-bored low-pitched saxhorns. Bass tubas have been called bombardons in the past. Tenor tubas are usually called euphoniums. Helicons and sousaphones are marching variants of bass tubas.

Tuba

Horn (French Horn) - This is the modern valved orchestral development of the larger type of hunting horn known as the parforce horn. The small hunting horn known as the furst pless horn is more similar to the bugle. Wagner tubas are oval, upright types of horn played without the hand in the bell. All horns have valves operated by the left hand rather than the usual right hand.

Bugle, Furst Pless Horn and Parforce Horn (below)

Mellophone - Valved horn with a more exponentially flared bell than the saxhorn, originally manufactured and patented by Courtois in the 19th century as a family of Koenig horns invented by German cornet virtuoso Herman Koenig. Various names were given to early forms of the instrument, constructed in various keys and marketed by different manufacturers; ballad horns, vocal horns, cornophones etc. Most modern day mellophones are in F or Eb or designed to be played in either pitch. Mellophones are built in a circular form normally known as the tenor cor, or in bell forward versions like the mellophonium.

Antoniophone - An attempt to make middle range saxhorns look more impressive was to construct them in a sweeping elegant S-shape similar to the saxophone. The antoniophone was invented by Antoine Courtois in the 19th century. Not a survivor, but it must have turned heads in its day!  

Saxhorn, Mellophone and Antoniophone (below)

Trombonium - A mid-20th century American designed Bb valve trombone built in upright bell front form, and essentially like a baritone saxhorn. It apparently sounds something in between a trombone and a baritone. The altonium is a smaller version in F or Eb. There have been a few other hybrids from the USA, notably the flugabone, frumpet and flumpet, none of which have really caught on in a big way, although they have had a novelty appeal amongst aficionados.

Trombonium, Frumpet and Flumpet (below)