The cornett (Italian: cornetto, German: Zink) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650.

[10] British organologist Anthony Baines wrote that the cornett "was praised in the very terms that were to be bestowed upon the oboe [...]: it could be sounded as loud as a trumpet and as soft as a recorder, and its tone approached that of the human voice more nearly than that of any other instrument.

"[13] The cornett is not to be confused with the modern cornet, a valved brass instrument with a separate origin and development.

[16] Pipes as short as the cornett are only able to play two or three notes of the harmonic series when sounded as an end-blown lip-reed instrument.

[17] In comparison, Praetorius gave cornetts credit for achieving 15 notes, before players used techniques to expand the range.

[17] The ordinary curved treble cornett is made by splitting a length of wood, usually walnut, boxwood or other tonewoods like plum, cherry or pear.

[20] A small number of surviving instruments were made from one straight piece, bored on a lathe, and then bent into a curve with steam.

[22] The separate cup mouthpiece is usually made of horn, ivory, or bone, with a thin rim and thread-wrapped shank, which is used to tune the instrument.

Because it usually lacks a (seventh) little finger hole, its lowest note is A3 below middle C, though G3 is readily obtained by adjusting the embouchure.

[12] About 3.5 feet (1.1 m) long from the Syntagma Musicum drawing, it was "proportionally wider" (bottom compared to top) than the treble and alto were, and that changed the tenor's sound quality to be more bugle-like.

[12] The other should be called contrebass de cornet à bouquin according to Marcuse and Baines, and there are only two examples of it, one in the Paris Conservatoire museum and the other in Hamburg.

Its "gentle, soft and sweet" sound is different than the other cornetts because of its mouthpiece, and can be used in a consort of viols or recorders.

Aurignacian pipes, fashioned with four finger holes 26,000–40,000 years ago from the slender bones of bird wings or mammoth ivory, have long been considered flutes.

Recovered from Vogelherdhöhle and other caves in the Swabian Jura in Germany, they are among the oldest musical instruments yet discovered.

British music archaeologist Graeme Lawson found that a replica of a complete specimen played as a flute has an indistinct whispery sound, but produces the first five notes of the diatonic series in a clear, strident tone when played as an end-blown lip reed instrument.

He contends that this method of playing is supported by microscopic wear patterns, the absence of a fipple or blowhole, and the well-rounded end aperture.

[12][25] In the 11th century, some of the fingerhole horns began to be made longer and thinner, beginning to take on the appearance of the cornett.

[12][35] The earliest cowhorn instruments were played with one hand covering four or fewer fingerholes and the other stopping the bell to create additional tones, much like on a French horn.

[42] Heinrich Schütz also used the instrument extensively, especially in his earlier work; he had studied in Venice with Gabrieli and was likely acquainted with Bassano's playing.

Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and their German contemporaries used both the cornett and cornettino in cantatas to play in unison with the soprano voices of the choir.

Occasionally, these composers allocated a solo part to the cornetto (see Bach's cantata O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV 118).

It was scored for by Gluck, in his opera Orfeo ed Euridice (he suggested the soprano trombone as an alternative) and features in the TV theme music Testament by Nigel Hess, released in 1983.

Professional musicians performed in public spaces and as part of official pomp before the country's residents.

Like the serpent, another fingerhole horn that was paired with it, the cornett was used to reinforce the human voice, accompanying choral music.

[19] This was particularly popular in Venetian churches such as the Basilica San Marco, where extensive instrumental accompaniment was encouraged, particularly in use with antiphonal choirs.

Unlike the brass mouthpieces, players don't press the instrument to the center of their mouths, as on a trumpet.

[27] Rather the technique to produce sound is to hold the instrument to the side of the mouth, where the player's lips are thinner.

[48] Books with cornett instruction included Grund-richtiger Unterricht der Musicalischen Kunst (Fundamentally correct instruction in the musical arts) by Daniel Speer, 1697[19] and Museum Musicum Theoretico-Practicum (Museum of theoretical-practical music) by Joseph Friedrich Bernhard Caspar Majer, 1732.

[19] These books covered the recorder, but the instructions on "tonguing" with "force and speed" has application to the cornett,[19] which was pictured on the Fontegara title page illustration.

[50][48] As a result of the recent historically informed performance movement the cornett has been rediscovered, and modern works for the instrument have been written.