Keyed bugle

Royal Kent bugle

Keyed bugle in E♭ built c. 1830–50 by Graves & Co. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Brass instrument
Other names	Keyed bugle
Classification	Aerophone Brass instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	423.21 (aerophone sounded by lip vibration with keys)
Developed	19th century
Related instruments
Bugle Ophicleide Keyed trumpet Cornet

The Royal Kent bugle or keyed bugle is a variant of the bugle popular in the 19th century, especially in the English Army in 1856. Its six keys allow pitch to be controlled beyond that possible with a standard bugle.

History

The first known mention of a bugle with keys appears on April 4 1800 in The Morning Chronicle:

NEW-INVENTED BUGLE HORN, which, by the improvement of Finger holes and Keys, may be performed on, in any Key of Music, with facility and ease, the Tones being much superior to those now in use, and is of handsome appearance–Made and Sold by G. ASTOR. at his Music Warehouse, No. 19, Cornhill.

However, not until 5 May 1810 was a patent on a five-keyed bugle granted to Yorkshireman Joseph Haliday, entitled "Halliday's [sic] Improvements in the Musical Instrument called the Bugle Horn." Shortly thereafter, in 1811 the first known solos on the instrument were performed by trumpeter Henry Willman, brother of the clarinetist Thomas Lindsay Willman. Performances at the Theatre Royal, Dublin were announced with "Mr. H. WILLMAN will play a Concerto on that highly-improved Instrument, THE Patent Kent Bugle Horn, (INVENTED BY MR. JOSEPH HALLIDAY)". The first book on the instrument, which by then had six keys to enable more tones, was Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Royal Kent Bugle by Johann Bernhard Logier in 1813.

While the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica claims that Haliday called it the "Royal Kent Bugle" as a compliment to the duke of Kent, who was at the time commander-in-chief, and encouraged the introduction of the instrument into the regimental bands, this appears to be at least partly erroneous. The duke was never commander-in-chief of any bands in Europe, and the dedication might have been made by Holden. A Royal Kent bugle in the key of C, stamped with Halliday’s name as inventor, and made by P. Turton, 5 Wormwood Gate, Dublin, was exhibited by Col. Shaw-Hellier at the Royal Military Exhibition in 1890. The instrument, made of copper, measures 17 inches (43 cm), and the total length of the tubing, including the mouthpiece, 50.5 inches (128 cm). The diameter at the mouthpiece is 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) and at the bell 5.75 inches (14.6 cm).

Pitch

The instrument has a chromatic range of two octaves, the open notes being: .

To the original instrument specified in the patent, Halliday added a sixth key, which became the first and was in the normal position open; this key when closed gave B♭, with the same series of harmonics as the open tube. The series, however, becomes shorter with each successive key. Thus, on being opened, the second key gives , the third key , the fourth key , the fifth key , and the sixth key . The bore of the instrument is just wide enough in proportion to its length to make possible the playing of the fundamental tones in the first two series, but these notes are never used, and the harmonics above the sixth are also avoided, being of doubtful intonation. In the ophicleide, the bass variety of the key bugle, the bore is sufficiently wide to produce fundamentals of a satisfactory quality.

The keyed bugle was chiefly used in B♭, a crook for B♭ being frequently added to the bugle in C.

Further reading

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bugle". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Ralph T. Dudgeon, The Keyed Bugle, Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8108-5123-7

See also

• Bugle
• Ophicleide