Music: The Inflated Trumpeter

As every trumpeter well knows, to sustain a note of clarity, volume and high pitch through 53 inches of drawn-brass tubing requires the lung power of a bull moose and the finesse of a brindled gnu. What few trumpeters know is that while tootling they approximate the effects of "a formidable Valsalva maneuver," i.e., a hard nose-blow with nostrils and mouth blocked. To find out just how formidable the effects are, London's Dr. E. P. Sharpey-Schafer and California Musician Maurice Faulkner last summer sat down in London. Faulkner huffed his way through several trumpet passages, including a phrase from Wolfram's Song...