Cornetta

As Printed on a Score

The Italian label for the valved cornet, usually with its key (Cornetta in Si♭, in La) and abbreviated Cnt.; Italian and Russian scores also call it Cornetta a pistoni or simply Pistone (Pist.). It is written in treble clef; in B-flat it sounds a whole step lower. Do not confuse it with Cornetto, the Renaissance cornett.

Abbreviations: Cnt.

Also spelled: Cornette

How Composers Use It

Built like a compact trumpet with a more conical bore, the cornet is agile and warm, less brilliant than the trumpet. Nineteenth-century French and Italian-style scores often set a pair of cornets beside a pair of trumpets — Berlioz, Bizet, Franck, Tchaikovsky — giving the cornets the melodic lines. Today cornets are the core of the brass band; in orchestras their parts are often played on trumpet, so say where the softer cornet tone matters.