The cornett (Italian cornetto) is a hybrid instrument of the Renaissance: it has a wooden, slightly curved body with finger holes, like the woodwinds, but the sound is produced through a cup mouthpiece, like the brass. This combination gives it exceptional flexibility and expressiveness.
Contemporaries considered the cornett the instrument whose voice was closest to human singing — flexible, warm, capable of subtle dynamics and ornamentation. In the 16th–17th centuries the cornett was one of the chief virtuoso solo instruments, sounding in cathedrals (notably in Venice, in the works of Giovanni Gabrieli) and in courtly ensembles alongside sackbuts. With the arrival of the Baroque it was displaced by the violin, but thanks to the authentic-performance movement this refined voice of early music again rings out on concert stages.
