The cornett family may be divided into two main groups: curved and straight. The principal group was that comprising the curved cornetts, also sometimes called “black cornetts” (cornetti neri) since they were nearly always made of two pieces of wood glued together down the length of the instrument and covered with blackdyed leather or parchment to ensure the integrity of the joint. Curved cornetts came in the following sizes:
Cornetto (Chorzink, dessus de cornet): The standard cornett was pitched in a (cornett pitches always refer to the note that sounds when all fingerholes are covered) and, in the hands of a skillful player, could ascend to d"' or, according to Michael Praetorius, as high as g"'. Because pitches in the seventeenth century were not standardized, it is impossible to fix this a with any precision in absolute terms. Surviving instruments, however, tend to be high with respect to the modern pitch standard of a' = 440. In general, it could be said that they range from approximately a' = 440 to a' = 500, with an average close to a' = 466 (a half tone above a' = 440). For this reason, modern cornett makers have tended to standardize cornett pitches at a' = 440 (usually referred to as “modern pitch”) and a' = 466 (usually called “high pitch” or sometimes Chorton).
Corno torto (Grosser Zink, tenor cornett, taille des cornets): Large cornetts pitched in d (a fifth lower than the standard cornett) are described in a number of historical sources, but the terminology they employ has led to considerable confusion. The name corno torto (crooked horn) is first found in Lodovico Zacconi (1592) and probably refers to the fact they these cornetts were usually made with a double curve resembling an S. They were made both with and without a key mechanism that added an additional fingerhole and c to the instrument’s range. Despite Praetorius’s disparaging remark that their sound resembles that of a cow horn and that they are better replaced with trombones, more than thirty-five such instruments survive in museum collections, many of them finely made. They seem to have been widely used both in Italy and in Germany if we are to judge by the large number of parts marked “cornetto” written in tenor clef or descending below the range of the standard cornett.
Cornettino (Kleinzink): Despite the Italian form of its usual name, the small cornett in d' or in e' seems to have been primarily a German instrument. Although Praetorius describes it as a Quintzink a fifth above the standard cornett, other theorists describe it as a Quartzink, and indeed, most surviving examples are in d. The cornettino was used extensively in the second half of the seventeenth century in Germany (particularly northern Germany) and Poland. Most cornettino parts are playable on the standard cornett, the preference for the smaller instrument in these cases presumably being one of timbre rather than of technical facility.
Alto cornett (haute-contre des cornets): Although Mersenne mentions an hautecontre des cornetts pitched in g, a step below the dessus, the existence of alto cornetts outside of France is largely conjectural. They are described by no other theorist, but contralto di cornetto is found as one of the regular positions in Bologna’s Concerto Palatino alongside the soprano di cornetto. Indeed, the alto parts of much of the canzona and motet repertory known to have been played by such groups would be unplayable on the standard cornett in a.
Bass cornett (basse du cornet): As with alto cornetts, there is some doubt that bass cornetts existed outside of France (although a few large instruments survive in museum collections). Mersenne describes an instrument in G, one octave below the haute-contre. This bass cornett is distinct from the serpent, which Mersenne indicates descends to E and which he calls “le vraie basse des cornetts.” The serpent was unknown outside of France until the eighteenth century.
The second major group of cornetts includes the straight cornetts, sometimes known as cornetti bianchi because of the absence of (black) leather covering. These instruments, turned in one piece, came in two types:
The cornetto diritto (gerader Zink) was equivalent to the curved cornett except that it was fashioned from one piece of wood turned on a lathe. Its detachable mouthpiece was identical to that of the curved cornetts and thus its sound was similar.
The mute cornett (cornetto muto, stiller Zink) was made like the cornetto diritto, except that its mouthpiece was fashioned from the upper end of the bore. This integrated mouthpiece, tending to be deep and wide and lacking the narrowed backbore of the separable mouthpiece, gave the mute cornetts a highly distinctive, soft consorts, but their use in the seventeenth century was mostly restricted to Germany and Austria, where they were effectively used by such composers as Heinrich Schütz, Praetorius, and Sances, often as an alternative to the transverse flute (cornetto muto o fiffaro).
Outside the cornett and sackbut ensemble, the principal roles of the cornett were those of substituting for or playing with the violin and supporting or substituting soprano voices. In addition, toward the end of the seventeenth century, the cornett was sometimes used as a substitute for the trumpet, both in Germany and in Italy, and it was a regular member of the bande des hautbois at the French court, doubling the top part.
Up until about 1650, it is extremely common in Italian printed music to find the indication per violino overo cornetto (for violin or cornett). Indeed, it is rare to find a printed work with the simple indication per cornetto. The cornett was the preeminent virtuoso soprano instrument in the sixteenth century, but after 1600 it began to lose ground to the more modern and fashionable violin. The alternative instrumentations found with great frequency in the early part of the century reflect both a musical practice and a commercial reality. In many respects—range, agility, and dynamic flexibility—the cornett and violin were musically equivalent and were often considered interchangeable. This flexibility of instrumentation had its commercial side as well, however, as publishers tried to sell their printed music to players of both the older and the newer instruments.
After 1650, it became commercially unattractive to associate new music with the old-fashioned and difficult cornetto. This does not mean, however, that the cornett went out of use at this time. Manuscript sources demonstrate that professional cornettists of a high level continued to be active in at least some centers, such as Venice, Bologna, and Ferrara. While writing for the cornett before 1650 tended to emphasize agility, particularly through the use of rapid linear divisions, writing after 1650 tended to imitate the natural trumpet, sometimes, though not always, being restricted to the notes available in the natural harmonic series of the trumpet, and frequently exploiting the extreme high range of the instrument (up to d"' and even e"'!).
Evidence from Bologna indicates that while it was the violin that initially led to the cornett’s decline, it was sometimes the oboe that directly replaced it. There exist in the archives of San Petronio instrumental parts with the indication cornetto scratched out and obois written over it in a later hand.
Even where virtuosos were unknown, the cornett was widely used to support human voices, or to substitute for them where boy sopranos were scarce. This was true wherever the cornett was played, from Italy to Germany and from England to France. In Germany, the ways in which the cornett was used with voices are better documented both because writers like Praetorius described them in detail and because both printed and manuscript music tended to be more specific about this function. Most typically we find a pair of cornetts or mute cornetts playing obbligato parts (often in alternation with a pair of violins or recorders, probably played by the same Stadtpfeifer) and one or two cornetts doubling the soprano lines of the ripieno choir. In some cases, the cornett takes this soprano part alone, replacing the soprano voice. An example of this practice in a small-scale piece is provided by Schütz’s Benedicam Dominum from the first book of Symphoniæ sacræ, where the cornett provides the soprano to a “vocal” quartet.
In the third volume of his Syntagma Musicum, Praetorius gives detailed information on the instrumentation of polychoral works. After describing the use of the cornett to double the soprano line of the vocal choir, he suggests two characteristic uses of the cornett. In a choir with high clefs, cornetts may take the top three parts or may be mixed with violins (either two violins and a cornett, or two cornetts and a violin), with a trombone playing the bass. In addition, in a string choir with normal clefs, a cornett, particularly a mute cornett, may play the alto line an octave higher. Precisely this practice is described in the preface to a collection of motets published by Bernardino Borlasca in 1616, the year in which he was also appointed Hofkapellmeister of the Bavarian court in Munich:
The first choir is to consist of four principal parts with a soprano, castrato or pleasant falsetto, accompanied by a body of diverse [stringed] instruments such as viole da braccia or da gamba, a large harp, a lirone, or other similar instruments as are common today, especially at the Bavarian court [ . . . ] The second choir should, like the first, also consist of the same voices, but of different instruments. For if in the first are found plucked instruments or strings, in the second should be placed wind instruments, such as cornetts and trombones, and pleasingly tempered by a violin playing the contralto part an octave above. In the same way in the first choir, a cornett playing the same part if it is a choir of viols is such a different instrument that by following these instructions one will be assured of obtaining lovely and delightful harmony.Moreover, a collection of polychoral motets from 1613 by the Viennese composer Christoph Strauss has many parts in alto clef marked cornetto muto. These are probably meant to be played an octave higher, in the manner described by Praetorius.
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