A filigree trumpet? It’s Almada Trumpet

His name is Almada Trumpet and a trumpet like no other. Twelve Portuguese companies, from the filigree to the metal-mechanic areas, helped create this instrument, which was conceived in Viana do Castelo, where, moreover, is on display this Wednesday at the Viana do Castelo Polytechnic Institute Summit (IPVC).

“The network of companies that collaborated to make the trumpet is very diverse, ranging from strictly handcrafted production to the high technology of industrial production,” Ermanno Aparo, a professor at the School of Technology and Management (ESTG), told Lusa. , the IPVC, and ideologue of the project.

If a company from Póvoa de Lanhoso “produced the trumpet rings made in silver using the Portuguese filigree technique,” the “steel molds for the bell and other components of the instrument were produced by a metal-mechanic company of Viana do Castelo, which makes parts for shipbuilding, “explains the design professor.

Produced in copper by Francisco da Cunha Liquito, an artisan from Caminha, the Almada Trumpet, as it was baptized, is valued at eight thousand euros. “It combines state-of-the-art technology, using numerical control machines or 3D printers, to the finishes and techniques not very common in the production of this type of wind instruments”, stressed the professor of ESTG.

According to Ermanno Aparo, the instrument is “80% made in Portugal”, and only in the piston block is “the only component manufactured outside the country by an Italian specialist, Cristian Bosc”. The trumpet prototype in B-flat – the most widely used and most common instrument version – “aims to demonstrate the high quality of domestic production, capable of building quality products in an extremely difficult sector such as musical instruments.” Also in the north of the country was Ava Royale, a violin made of carbon fiber, which recently won a design award.

What is national “sounds good”

Initiated two and a half years ago at the Center for Research in Architecture, Urbanism and Design at the University of Lisbon, which holds a pole at the IPVC, the project was guided by the Music Department of the University of Minho. “” Since the 1970s that trumpets are not made in Portugal. This is an example of how reference research, articulated between polytechnic education and university education, is not afraid to get involved with the business world, determining the quality of the national product and demonstrating that what is national sounds good, “he said. , adding that “there are expressions of interest in the instrument originating in Japan, Israel, USA, Brazil, Argentina and Greece.”

In order to validate the creation process, the trumpet was tested by 25 trumpet players of classical music and jazz music from Portugal, among them Luis Granjo, of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Casa da Música, Pedro Monteiro, of the Portuguese Symphonic Orchestra, João Moreira, professor in the Superior School of Music of Lisbon, and António Silva, trumpet player and teacher at the Vocational School of Music of Viana do Castelo.

The project “has already been presented at scientific events in Portugal and Brazil, and to participants in two masterclasses of trumpet held at the Bairrada Music Conservatory and at the Professional Art School of Alto Minho.The public presentation will take place in Lisbon in May, and other actions involving musicians and institutions “with the aim of promoting the instrument and at the same time promoting its experimentation with professionals in the field”.

In a second phase, the project foresees “the creation of a suitcase for the instrument, which will be produced with the collaboration of a company from Santa Maria da Feira, a world producer of cork, and an office equipment factory that will guarantee the finishing of the skins “.

 

http://p3.publico.pt/cultura/design/25883/um-trompete-com-filigrana-e-o-almada-trumpet