The fanfare trumpet maker who created the instruments heralding Harry and Meghan on their big day today talks to Ruth Campbell about his work, which takes place in a North Yorkshire cowshed

HARRY and Meghan can be forgiven for suffering from last minute wedding nerves. After all, few brides and grooms get married in front of several hundred heads of state while proceedings are broadcast to two billion people across the world.

But spare a thought for the man who, in a converted North Yorkshire cowshed, created the gleaming new set of six, silver-plated fanfare trumpets which will be raised to serenade the Queen and Prince Harry’s new bride at Windsor Castle on May 19. For, as the gold-jacketed official State Trumpeters, led by the Trumpet Major, lift these unique hand-crafted instruments to their lips, Richard Smith, with his heart in his mouth, will be keeping his fingers crossed that no duff notes will emerge.

Because fanfare trumpets have no valves and are made up of 42 different parts, he explains, they are notoriously difficult to play. “If they don’t play the notes right, it will be my fault, I’m sure,” he says, only half-jokingly.

The 73-year-old Richard’s pitch perfect fanfare trumpets have playing starring roles at some of the most high profile events in the world – including William and Kate’s big day seven years ago.

Also known as Dr Smith, Richard, a world authority on acoustics whose research has been published in influential scientific journals, he cheerfully admits he is obsessed by the science of sound. Thanks to his knowledge of quantum physics, and meticulous, methodical research, he has come up with some surprising and novel solutions to perfecting the instrument. And while some of his seemingly backroom boffin-type methods may seem unorthodox, he has proved they work.

Sitting in a room he calls his "trumpet laboratory", at his home in the Ryedale village of Sheriff Hutton, looking out on the Howardian Hills and the Vale of York, he is surrounded by various instruments, rigged up to recording software, with oscilloscopes, amplifiers, various laptops, a pulse generator and coils of brass tubing scattered about the room. Happiest when he is experimenting, he’s currently exploring how he can improve the trumpet’s higher ‘Super C’ notes, an octave above the highest note played in a symphony orchestra.

One of his most brilliant inventions, interchangeable lead pipes, which enable the same trumpet to be played in different ways, was devised using sticky tape and Plasticine, while his ground-breaking "tone generator", which replicates lip vibration, featured on TV’s Tomorrow’s World.

He even got a farmer down the road to knock up one of his key pieces of trumpet-making equipment, a special hydraulic table on which he sculpts the telescopic brass tubes, which need to be accurately sized down to less than one thousandth of an inch.

In our world of mass production, Richard’s tendency to follow his own path has clearly paid off for, ever since his small, two-man company, Smith-Watkins, was first commissioned by the Ministry of Defence in 2000, he has supplied every military band in Britain, and is now renowned as one of the top makers of brass instruments in the world.

The Queen always attends the State Opening of Parliament to the sound of Smith’s trumpets and they are used to mark the beginning and end of the Grand National. His creations have also heralded occasions such as the 2012 London Olympics and he created the 35 silver-plated fanfare trumpets played at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert in 2012.

But he still gets excited every time he watches them in action. “I’m thrilled, to be honest,” he says. “The sight and sound of these instruments is always quite spectacular. It’s very exciting.”

His wife Professor Deborah Smith, pro-vice-chancellor for research at the University of York, has delayed her attendance at the World Universities Network Conference in Australia so she and her husband can savour the wedding in front of the TV together. “I think we will probably crack open a bottle of champagne,” he says.

The son of a junior school headmistress who played the piano and an insurance specialist who enjoyed singing, at primary school Richard didn’t appear to be particularly academic and he failed his 11-plus. But he loved music and playing the bassoon and developed a fascination for sound and the science behind how instruments worked: “I am basically a scientist and musician, the two subjects shouldn’t be separated.”

Always practical, he tinkered with crystal sets as a boy and, using a tube and various other bits and pieces, even made his own TV set. “I managed to get loads of O-levels including metalwork and technical drawing, and various science subjects," he says. "Physics was my big love.”

Following an apprenticeship with the telecommunications company Marconi, he did teacher training at St John’s College, York, then took his master’s and PhD on the acoustics of brass instruments as a mature student at Southampton University.

After working as chief designer at musical instruments manufacturer Boosey and Hawkes, he went on to found Smith-Watkins with his trumpet-playing partner, the late Derek Watkins – who played with Benny Goodwin, Frank Sinatra and the James Last Orchestra.

It was while developing a trumpet for his friend that Richard came up with the idea of using sticky tape and modelling clay to lash the bell and valves together so they could alter the pitch, strength and quality of notes. The pioneering pair came up with the innovative idea of calibrated lead pipes, which could be changed to suit the mood or playing environment. It also changed the future of trumpet making for ever.

What started as a small business in 1985, making instruments on the kitchen table of his north London home, soon grew to the point where his house, including roof-space and two garden sheds, was overflowing with instrument-making paraphernalia and packaging materials

By 2005, he and Deborah decided they needed to move somewhere with more space so relocated to a farmhouse in North Yorkshire, a county they both love. “My grandfather was a Methodist preacher in Robin Hood’s Bay and ended up living in Hovingham, where I loved visiting him,” explains Richard.

He converted the old stone cow byre into a workshop, which now has benches piled high with lathes, old broken bells, widgets and half-finished trumpets.

This is where part-time assistant Richard Wright now helps him make the 130 instruments, costing between £3,000 and £8,000, which Smith-Watkins produce each year, while musicians travel from as far as the States to be "fitted" for their individually-crafted trumpets.

Richard, who is in demand all over the world and travels widely to lecture and test instruments with top musicians and orchestras, is not likely to retire anytime soon. “I’m still full of passion for it all," he says.

TRUMPET FACTS

The earliest version of the modern instrument discovered in Britain is the ‘Billingsgate Trumpet’, excavated in 1984 from the muddy banks of the Thames, where it is believed to have been dropped in the 14th Century. It is now in the London Museum.

When Charles II returned to London to reclaim his throne in 1660 following the death of Oliver Cromwell, it was to the blast of 12 instruments not dissimilar to those Richard makes today.

Trumpets have a long association with the British monarchy. In 1937, fanfare trumpets with valves were designed to mark the coronation of King George VI.

The world record for the longest fanfare trumpet team is held by 91 soldiers, all of them playing Richard’s instruments.