Europe had long established classical musical organizations but there too, a growing and more educated middle class had a hunger for culture.
Only a few orchestras had existed in the US previously and the only source for classical music for most of the country was as played by brass bands, in church or in the parlor by family and friends. In the last quarter of the 19th century, there was a great increase in the demand for proper symphony orchestra performances. These are fairly strong words, and while the sentiments may have been held by some, and possibly many, in the world of symphonic music at the time, it is surely a resistance to change that was already well under way. Even at this late date, he makes no allowance for the possible use of trumpets in Bb or C even though they were becoming common. The trumpets described and illustrated there are pitched in G and lower, with and without valves. (Francois- Auguste) Gevaert, who says-‘No conductor worthy of the name of artist ought any longer to allow the cornet to be heard in place of the trumpet in a classical work’”.
In some cases, especially in provincial orchestras, this may be a necessity, as it is not always possible to find trumpet players but it is none the less a degradation of the music. It is, however, so much easier to play than the trumpet, that parts written for the latter instrument are very often performed on the cornet. The tone of the cornet is absolutely devoid of the nobility of the trumpet, and, unless in the hands of a very good musician, readily becomes vulgar. Technique of the Instruments”, published in London in 1897: “The tone of the trumpet is the most powerful and brilliant of any in the orchestra…Its quality is noble and it is greatly to be regretted that in modern orchestras it is so frequently replaced by the much more vulgar cornet. Hector Berlioz, who at a time when trumpets and cornets were very different instruments, very often included cornets in his scores, stated in his treatise on instrumentation in 1855: 'A phrase that would appear tolerable, when performed by violins or the woodwind, becomes flat and intolerably vulgar when emphasized by the incisive, brash and impudent sound of the cornet.' Much later in the century, a similar, but more strongly critical comparison to the orchestral trumpet is expressed by Ebenezer Prout, professor of music in the University of Dublin, in “The Orchestra, Volume 1. There certainly are cornet parts written into symphonic scores, especially in French Romantic music, but by and large, the trumpet was the soprano brass of choice even when cornets became available. The subtitle may not at first seem appropriate, but comes from a thought that struck me recently: the modern, French style Bb trumpet was invented, at least in some part, as a substitute for the use of cornets for performing the trumpet parts in symphonic orchestras.