The soprano cornet is a brass instrument that is commonly used in brass bands and is similar to an E-flat piccolo trumpet with a conical bore. The instrument is smaller in size and has a higher pitch of E-flat than the standard B-flat cornet. The instrument is difficult to master but produces a light, airy sound similar to the flute once mastered. The soprano instrument has produced many great musicians throughout history, including Charlie Cook of the Fodens Band, who was well-known both before and after WWII, and Peter Roberts, who has elevated soprano cornet playing to new heights.
A brass instrument produces sound when air from a player’s vibrating lips travels through the instrument. The bore is the inside compartment of a brass instrument, which can be conical or cylindrical in shape. The soprano cornet has a conical bore, which means that the diameter of the bore closest to the mouthpiece starts at zero and gradually increases throughout the instrument’s length. The timbre or quality of sound of an instrument is affected its bore shape, and instruments with a conical bore have a timbre of odd and even harmonics, or overtones.
The soprano cornet, like the standard cornet, is a transposing instrument, meaning the notes are played and read at a pitch other than concert pitch. Except for transposing instruments, musical instruments that are tuned before a performance, such as those in an orchestra, are tuned to the same pitch reference or concert pitch. As a result, if the musical note C was written down to be played during a performance, the soprano cornet and other transposing instruments would play a different note.
The soprano cornet is said to resemble the piccolo trumpet, the smallest member of the trumpet family, just as the standard B-flat cornet does. Piccolo trumpets are brass instruments with a pitch one octave higher than standard trumpets. The main difference between the piccolo trumpet and the soprano cornet is the shape of the bore, which is cylindrical on the piccolo trumpet. The sound produced the instruments differs as well, with the piccolo trumpet sounding similar to the standard trumpet.