TromboneChat

Reading this article about the crafting of trumpets for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Royal wedding, I get the impression that there are some wrong instrument descriptions being used:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-30/r ... ed/9599796

It seems to me that they are bugles and not trumpets. But, the size is going to make them sound more like a trombone than a trumpet !

Anyway, what could be more attractive for Harry and Meghan than to herald their wedding with a fanfare played on an instrument that sounds like a trombone.

The article mentions that they could be "as long as 6 feet" which is probably around a G bugle.

Trumpet and Bugle refer to the relative levels of conicalness. A trumpet is more cylindrical. In the past trumpets were made without valves much like Waldhorns. Players would use crooks to change the pitch.

There are Herald Trumpet ensembles in the US with different pitched instruments ranging from a regular trumpet length to a bass trombone length.

The one shown in the picture looks very much like the standard of the 16th Century.

Smith and Watkins both know their stuff. Smith has been one of the greater contributors to brass acoustical knowledge over the last decades.
These "fanfare trumpets" have more to do with baroque trumpets like these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_trumpet

than with the valved instruments used by the US Army.

These DO seem a bit wide-bore for playing upper partials, but certainly not conical like a bugle. I wonder if the poor players will be stuck on upper partials, or play more of the lower, bugle-like stuff? The last sentence of the article, a quote from Wright, pretty much says it all, whatever the powers-that-be intend!

Is it just the angle, or does that mouthpiece look rather large? It looks more like a small trombone mouthpiece than a trumpet mouthpiece.