In the early years of the nineteenth century, the horn concertos of Mozart were recently composed, and the trumpet concertos by Haydn (1796) and Hummel (1803) suggested the birth of an era in which soloistic writing for brass instruments might provide an important means of musical expression. In fact, these propitious signals proved to be false, at least as far as the art music canon is concerned. The fact that few major composers from the nineteenth century wrote solo works for brass is surprising, given the new facility that technology brought to brass instruments.

The chief role of the trumpet, trombone and tuba in art music remained orchestral until the later twentieth century. Earlier solo and chamber music inspire curiosity and affection in the brass enthusiast, but such pieces were sporadic phenomena, arising largely through the efforts of exceptional individuals active in the orbit of some major cultural centres. A convergence of military, conservatoire and manufacturing connections were preconditions for the solo and chamber music to flourish, as indeed they did, though intermittently, in Paris, London, Vienna, Prague, Leipzig, Stockholm and St Petersburg.

The trumpet enjoyed a brief flourish of solo activity in Vienna, around the beginning of the nineteenth century, centred on the exceptional Anton Weidinger (1766–1852). Weidinger was a solo performer, inventor and entrepreneur. In 1800, he premiéred the work which Joseph Haydn had been inspired to write specifically for him and his Inventions-Trompete in 1796, the Trumpet Concerto in E♭ (Hoboken VIIe:1).