Welcome to 110 Cornets - Corbett’s Cornet Sanctuary
About 110Cornets.com
Mission
Rescue, restore and revive cornets from the La Belle Epoque and Les Années Folles (1880s - 1930s). My goal: build and donate a collection of 110 playable cornets to an internationally renowned museum after my stewardship.
Why, why, why?
Since Covid-19, what was before a hidden passion (– wife says unhealthy obsession), has become more public. I sit amongst my collection, and it is the background for all my “online work-from-home meetings”. I am in meetings all day with folks from around the planet. So, I have been outed by my background.
...What a weird hobby
The most common question I get is whether the background is real. I affirm that indeed it is. Usually if there is time, I grab a cornet and show the intricate engravings and explain that these instruments were the equivalent of the Rock n’ roll guitar in their time and, that with the coming of larger performance venues, musicians like Louis Armstong needed louder instruments to reach a wider fan base. Hence the trumpet begins to supplant the cornet and make it a second-class citizen of the music world –at least in the United States. A regrettable fall from grace…
How on earth did you ever get into that …!?
Well, that’s a long story –but here is the short version. I have played the trumpet off and on with varying degrees of intensity since third grade. I always thought I was good at it, but the reality is I am only mediocre. I don’t really have a lot of innate musical talent and I have never really put in the hard effort of practicing to make up for it. Now, I am comfortable with the fact that I am a fairly “talentless musician”. It took years to realize that and accept it. That is how my journey to 110Cornets started.
In search of talent
When you are a talentless musician, you tend to blame your quacks and inabilities on the instrument. In the trumpet world you see this a lot as players go on their quest for the ultimate mouthpiece. They search for their holy grail mouthpiece, the one that will allow them to play easier, better, higher and with more flexibility. It happens to all of us. So many of us wind up trying the mouthpiece of their idol – thinking “if it works for them it will work for me”. Want to sound like Miles? Buy a replica of his mouthpiece… Prefer Maynard? You know what to do. The reality is that great players can pick up any old ax and make it sound like a million bucks. One of my favs is Trent Austin. He demos most of the horns he sells -- and they all sound great. I have bought many a horn from him but when I get them home, they just don't sound the same ...hmmm... I wonder why? Still doesn't stop me. Anyway, I took the mouthpiece quest to whole other level – the horn itself…
New beginning as a comeback trumpet player
For my 50th birthday –and after some serious thought – I gifted myself a Taylor Phat Boy Flugel horn. I still had my Bach Stradivarius that I had kept with me since I purchased it at age thirteen. But for my comeback I decided I needed something different and since it was my 50th, I should spoil myself. I had done the research and listened to the silky-smooth demo tapes on YouTube. I loved it and had to have it. The Taylor Phat Boy is a Ferrari of Flugels ---so I should sound great, right? I ordered it and waited for it to be delivered. The instrument came well-packed in a wooden box. I couldn’t wait to unpack and give it a go. When I finally put it to my lips what came out of the bell was pure crap. Nothing silky. Nothing smooth. In fact, I couldn’t even play it above fourth space E on the staff.
Innovations in instrument design
In the early 2000s when I was recruited by a high-tech firm it was common for the first three words on a job description to be “Change the world”. Indeed, high-tech is a place where ideas and innovations abound. As part of my effort to “change the world”, I filed some 20-odd patents. I became fascinated with invention and innovation. My professional deformation spilled over into my trumpet playing and I started to look at the innovations in brass instruments. It turns out there’s a plethora of innovations documented in cornet patents starting around 1880 and tapering off in the 1930s when the trumpet started to take over. The cornet patents all boasted the merits of new inventions and how they would make it easier for the player to access levels artistry never before achieved.
Old Cornets were a dime a dozen
Well, it was clear there was no way the wife was going to let me buy expensive horns à la Taylor Phat Boy as I went through my mid-life crisis as a comeback trumpeter. So, I turned to Ebay, where there was no shortage of $75 cornets that had fallen into disuse. The first one I bought was a Besson Prototype from around 1885. I found it in France. I have a lot of affinity to France and am a Francophile, so I thought that was neat, and the horn appeared to be in good shape. That was my foray into cornets. It has been a downward spiral from there. Oh, but what fun!
So, why the name 110Cornets.com?
I originally wanted to be a trombone player. Why that? Because of Willson Meredith lyrics in the 1958 Tony Award winning musical, The Music Man. The song Seventy-six Trombones starts with “Seventy-six trombones led the big parade…” ...and I wanted to be a leader. Mr Dykema my third-grade teacher actually made a house call to my parent's house to discuss my selection of instrument for band. The outcome was the trumpet. To this day, I don’t know exactly why. Was it that he was short in that section that year? Or that if I really wanted to lead, trumpet was the better part –and easier to carry! Anyway, it was so decided and trumpet it was. Well, if you are humming the tune, you may remember that right behind the trombones were “One hundred and ten cornets right at hand”. Voila, that’s the first part of the story --but there is more. Since my wife sees my passion as akin to an illness, perhaps moreover an addiction, I don’t get carte blanche to purchase horns willy-nilly. I need a limit and a goal. So 110Cornets.com it is. If it is enough for a band, it is enough for me. Hopefully my result will make some museum happy, some day!
Note to my lovely wife: 110 is a goal --not a hard limit!
Amour, I must caveat: the goal is 110 cornets, meaning rescued, restored, and revived. That means brought back to playability. So here is my disclaimer: to get to 110 I may have to flex while I make mistakes, cannibalize for parts, and seek out the best, most diverse and representative collection of the period. I will have to go bigger, no doubt, to reach my aspirations...!