Reine Dahlqvist

The Keyed Trumpet

and Its Greatest Virtuoso, Anton Weidinger

Anton Weidinger has always been held to be the inventor of the keyed trumpet. This assumption probably derives from Wilhelm Schneider, Historisch-technische Beschreibung der musikalischen Instrumente (Leipzig, 1834), page 43. In this book, Schneider states that Weidinger invented his keyed trumpet in 1801.

When Haydn's trumpet concerto became well known through a phonograph recording of 1938-39, some authorities changed their mind. The concerto dates from 1796 and is written for a chromatic trumpet, which could only be a keyed one.