Tenor Cornett - Variants

Variants

Tenor cornetts seem to have come in two varieties - small bore and large bore. The smaller bored instruments seem to have been "scaled up" cornetts, true alto or tenor cornetts. However, a number of instruments with a larger bore have survived and these instruments seem to have had a sound somewhat reminiscent of the serpent. The timbre of the small bore tenor cornetti is more "focused" and incisive than that of their large bore counterparts. Some modern cornett makers, like Christopher Monk, for instance, have made both varieties of tenor cornett available to customers.