German horn player Heinrich Stölzel had developed…
September 1829 CE
German horn player Heinrich Stölzel had developed the first valve for a brass instrument, the Stölzel valve, in 1814, and has gone on to develop various other designs, some jointly with other inventor musicians.
Stölzel and another instrument maker, Frederick Blühmel, had almost simultaneously invented the modern piston valves, as still used today.
They had jointly applied for a patent and had been granted this for a period of ten years.
The cornet, a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality, was originally derived from the post horn.
The earliest cornets, with a Stölzel valve system, are called cornopeans.
German brass band music becomes popular as the cornet becomes a virtuoso solo instrument.
A brass band in the British tradition, with a full complement of twenty-five or twenty-six players (plus percussion), includes one soprano cornet in E flat and eight to ten cornets in B flat.