A Soprano Helicon is a coiled brass instrument from the helicon family. The design of the modern Soprano Helicon takes acoustical advantage of the helicon's easy blowing, but is not simply another circular Petite Bugle or Soprano Cornet. The helicon clearly has a larger bore and wider tapered conical tube with a large bell for the instrument of its size. The pitch of E4 was deliberately chosen, so that musicians can easily play the soprano line within the middleregister of the instrument going mostly up to G5. E4 was also chosen for its open and piercing nature within the pitched bass winds since it was intended for the Soprano Helicon to become a first and leading voice of the family. The crew of Melton’s Development Department, led by Ferdinand Kleinschmidt and Andreas Gambs made the first prototypein the beginning of May 2006. This instrument had a bore of an E alto horn, so the smallest Alto hornmouthpiece was used for playing it. The tapering and bell size was from the Melton MW-F10 Flugelhorn. The instrument had an intense dark sound and great low register down to the lowest pedal tones but on the other hand it had a problematic high register, starting with the written middle C. Although the intention was to make a brass wind with a voluminous dark sound, there was still problems in the case of the first prototype - mostly caused by creating a soprano instrument with a timbre of an alto. So the next prototype, which was ready a month later, used a regular bore of B Flugelhorn and a deep cup Flugelhorn mouthpiece. The tapering of the main tube had to be reshaped but the bell size stayed the same –. The instrument had four valves. The main tube was also reshaped by moving the tuning slide after the 4th valve instead of having it at the beginning like the Flugelhorns. The 4th valve also had a trigger mechanism to extend the tube for better intonation of tones between low F-sharp and pedal C. The 4th valve itself is operated by the left hand. Another characteristic of this instrument was the bore profile, which remained conical even between the valve sections. The instrument still preserved the richness and volume of the 1st prototype, had a great low register, and it also played well in the higher "soprano" tessitura. The instrument was ready for the first public appearance. Matej Rihter, the eminent Slovenian trumpeter gave its first performance, playing Après un rêve by Gabriel Fauré by himself on the MID EUROPE Festival 2006 in Schladming on 14 July. After this debut, the instrument had to go back to the Melton factory in Geretsried for further improvements and finalization. One of the problems was the complicated right thumb mechanism for 4th valve trigger which was very indirect and so far slow in reaction. The concept was changed and the trigger is now operated with the left hand. Since the main tube tended to be too long, the general intonation was a bit flat. With simple pulling out a general tuning slide and tuning slides on the third valve, an E instrument could be easily changed from E to a D instrument. This is especially appropriate for performing the baroque and classical repertoire for corno da caccia, which was often composed "in D". Ferdinand and Andreas decided to equip the instrument with a set of the two tuning slides and two 2nd valve slides. Then the Soprano Helicon needed a lacquer and Melton Kunstgravur. By the end of September 2006 the first Soprano Helicon was completely finished and sold to Irena Nadler who is now the first regular student in the world, learning this instrument.
Sound characteristics
As expected, the Soprano Helicon:
Has its own and special timbre and musical personality
It’s an easy blowing instrument, well balanced in all registers and dynamics
It has a useful range of more than three octaves, starting with pedal tones up to C6
It could be played easily at a high speed and has a potential to become a virtuoso instrument
It sounds "big enough" to bear a leading melodic line as well as in different Band scorings as in Symphony orchestra
