The cornetto is an instrument well established in the world of early music. For example, it is regularly heard at prestigious festivals and concert halls. The challenge, therefore, does not lie in rediscovering a forgotten instrument. However, historical playing practices and traditions have only exceptionally influenced current cornetto performance practices. This PhD research by Lambert Colson focuses on a particular member of the cornetto family: the mute cornetto. By studying the strong local traditions in a specific period, a specific repertoire will be linked to historical musicians and preserved instruments. Thus, modern facsimiles of some historical cornetti will be made, studied and played.
The first part of the research will be devoted to the Court of Kassel in the time of Moritz van Hessen-Kassel (1592–1627) and will explore the repertoire of the cornetti mutti as well as the Kasseler Zinken preserved in Leipzig. One of these instruments bears the mark of Georg Graumann, an acclaimed cornettist active at the Kassel court. For the second part of the research, the focus shifts to sixteenth-century Verona and the instruments as well as the scores preserved in the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona.