Fiscorn powerful baritone voice has no counterpart, (save perhaps the piston-valved marching baritone), in the organology. The forward-projected sound makes a pair of fiscorns the most suitable two instruments to join the shrill Catalan shawms (tenoras and tibles) and flabiol pipe, together with trumpets and trombone in the outdoor town-square setting where the cobla bands play for sardana dancers. While the instrument is often played by trombonists, its conical nature is easily mastered by tuba or euphonium players. Several instrument manufacturers have attempted to solve the intonational discrepancies of the instrument in recent years, with a varied success. The instrument is
Brass instrument valve by Heinrich Stölzel in 1815) was an early variety. The piston valve found in the majority of valved brass instruments was invented in 1838 and patented in 1839. They are sometimes called Périnet valves after their inventor, François Périnet. They work by diverting air obliquely through ports in the stock of the valve so that a loop of tubing is included in the air stream, lowering the pitch. The stock of the valve is cylindrical and moves up and down through a larger cylindrical casing. The rotary valve works using a short circular plug housed in a larger cylindrical casing.