Cornet à pistons

As Printed on a Score

The French name for the valved cornet, abbreviated C. à p. or Pist., plural Cornets à pistons; Russian and Italian scores also print Pistoni or just Pist. It is written in treble clef with its key — usually B-flat (si♭) or A — sounding a whole step or a minor third below written.

Abbreviations: C. à p., Pist.

Also spelled: Cornets à pistons, Piston, Pistons, Cornet a pistons, Cornets

How Composers Use It

Paris orchestras from the 1830s added a pair of cornets to the pair of trumpets, and French and Russian composers gave them the melodic, agile brass lines: Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Bizet’s Carmen, Tchaikovsky’s ballets and his 1812 Overture. Its tone is rounder and warmer than the trumpet’s. Write it like a B-flat trumpet part, but give it the lyrical material and keep the trumpets for fanfares and weight.

Example

Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture: the cornet staves are labelled “Pist. B♭ I” and “Pist. B♭ II”, short for cornets à pistons in B-flat.

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