Joe Bishop, as a member of the Woody Herman band in 1936, was one of the earliest jazz musicians to use the flugelhorn. The 1996 film Brassed Off features a flugelhorn performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, Adagio, as a key moment. Due to poor intonation these E ♭ flugelhorns are mostly replaced by the E ♭ trumpet or cornet. They are pitched in B ♭, with sporadically an E ♭ soloist. In these orchestras the flugelhorns, often between 10 and 20 in number, have a significant role, forming the base of the orchestra. Flugelhorns have occasionally been used as the alto or low soprano voice in a drum and bugle corps.Īnother use of the flugelhorn is found in the Dutch and Belgian " Fanfareorkesten" or fanfare orchestras. It is featured in a solo role in Bert Kaempfert's 1962 recording of "That Happy Feeling". The flugelhorn figured prominently in many of Burt Bacharach's 1960s pop song arrangements. In HK Gruber's trumpet concerto Busking (2007) the soloist is directed to play a flugelhorn in the slow middle movement. The flugelhorn is sometimes substituted for the post horn in Mahler's Third Symphony, and for the soprano Roman buccine in Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome. Famous orchestral works with flugelhorn include Igor Stravinsky's Threni, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony, and Michael Tippett's third symphony. It also appears occasionally in orchestral and concert band music. The flugelhorn is a standard member of the British-style brass band, and it is also used frequently in jazz. The flugelhorn is as agile as the cornet but more difficult to control in the high register (from approximately written G 5), where in general it locks onto notes less easily.ī ♭ trumpet playing the same excerpt as above The sound of the flugelhorn has been described as halfway between a trumpet and a French horn, whereas the cornet's sound is halfway between a trumpet and a flugelhorn. The tone is fatter and usually regarded as more mellow and dark than the trumpet or cornet. It was developed for the German protestant trombone choirs.Ī pair of bass flugelhorns in C, called fiscorns, are played in the Catalan cobla bands which provide music for sardana dancers. Players can also use the fourth valve in place of the first and third valve combination (which is somewhat sharp).Ī compact version of the rotary valve Flugelhorn, is the oval shaped Kuhlohorn in B ♭. This adds a useful low range that, coupled with the flugelhorn's dark sound, extends the instrument's abilities. Some modern flugelhorns feature a fourth valve that lowers the pitch a perfect fourth (similar to the fourth valve on some euphoniums, tubas, and piccolo trumpets, or the trigger on trombones). The shank of the flugelhorn mouthpiece is similar in size to a cornet mouthpiece shank. The flugelhorn mouthpiece is more deeply conical than either trumpet or cornet mouthpieces, but not as conical as a French horn mouthpiece. It can therefore be played by trumpet and cornet players although it has different playing characteristics. It usually has three piston valves and employs the same fingering system as other brass instruments, although four-valve versions and rotary-valve versions also exist. The flugelhorn is generally pitched in B ♭, like most trumpets and cornets.