| Mark.... why not? You just might turn some of the other section members on to cornet and they'll start bringing theirs too! Remember that composers wrote (and write) for "cornet", for "trumpet" OR for both. They usually had a reason for specifying which and it has to do with the overall sound of the band. In an intermediate community band I play 1st trumpet in, I'll take whatever horns are called for in the folder (trumpet, cornet or flugel). I realize that the other members of the section do not have cornet or flugel, but there are usually only one or two of them for any given rehearsal so it works out anyway.
In our senior band I'm playing mostly 2nd and some 3rd in a section of 7. Because none of the others take alternate horns I only carry trumpet UNLESS there is a flugel solo or duet that shows up "while the trumpets are playing a different line" ("Finlandia" springs to mind). Then the flug gets it's exercise.
I think that there is too much "trumpet snobbishness" in North American community bands. I vote for carrying whatever axe you have that the music calls for and USING IT!
Yeah... that's the ticket... let's start a movement! Just make sure that you have the appropriate cornet mouthpiece so that you get the appropriate cornet sound! (brass band sound vs. dixieland cornet sound). |