It is interesting to note that in the U.S. Army Field Band, several chamber ensembles exist. This page lists the ones that are currently in existence. One of which is a trombone quartet (I have posted a video of them).

http://www.armyfieldband.com/pages/ensembles/chamber.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB3dcSgnVTk

Suite for Three Trumpets – Tomasi

Earlier in the semester, I mentioned that Henri Tomasi wrote a Suite for Three Trumpets. This piece has been newly recorded on a new album by French trumpeter Erik Au Bier, famous for being the first player to record Chayes’ Concerto No. 1. The album is titled Erik Au Bier Plays Henri Tomasi. For the recording, Au Bier is joined by French trumpeters Frederic Mallardi and Alexandre Bati. The CD also includes Fanfare Litergiques, Tomasi’s landmark brass ensemble composition. The liner notes from the album are as follows:

In 1964, Tomasi composed his Suite for three trumpets, whose title owes nothing to a neoclassical pastiche. The first movement is a Habanera overlaying two elements, one marked by the rhythm of the dance, the other referencing, with its flexibility and melodic design, the servants’ theme of Pénélope in Ulysse ou le beau périple (1961). The tight dialogue between the three instruments comes forth as a limpid counterpoint, a synthesis of seduction and density of thought. The Lento Égéen, swathed in modal colours, is made up of three voices, whose subject passes from one to the other with slight variations. The Danse bolivienne is an incisive toccata where its principal melodic line is underscored with a subtly varied rhythmic ostinato.

Pershing’s Own Trumpet Ensemble

Some of the nation’s top military bands are now forming trumpet ensembles, including the “Pershing’s Own” band of the United States Army. The ensemble was featured at the 2010 International Trumpet Guild conference in Sydney, Australia, and they have premiered works by composers like James Stephenson and Phil Snedecor. It’s interesting how trumpet sections of military bands are forming ensembles to play trumpet ensemble music by modern composers, and not just military fanfares. The press room of their website is found at the link below. They are currently working on recording a debut album.

http://www.usarmyband.com/press/2012/03/trumpet_ensemble.html

Andre Smith Article Thoughts, Part 3

My thoughts on Smith’s ideas about instrumentation is that the brass ensemble of Ewald’s day and the instruments themselves probably did not look too different than all of ours. We have to look at the traditions out of which brass chamber music grew, according to him. I think it’s absolutely important to examine the tradition out of which these grew. 

It seems that the American Brass Quintet played a huge role in the re-dubuting of the Ewald quintets. They performed them at Carnegie Hall and even got musicians in Russia talking about them again!

Andre Smith Article Thoughts, Part 2

As far as rotary vs. piston valves, there is indeed a slight difference in tone color where trumpets are concerned, but it seems still unlikely to me that Ewald and most composers for brass would write with an ultra-specific ensemble of rotary valve instruments! We must be careful not to read into history so much that our imaginations come up with ideas like this. I don’t agree with Forsyth that a true legato cannot be achieved on the slide trombone. It is entirely possible and as a young music student, I never completely realized essentially every note had to be tongued on the trombone to avoid glissandos until about halfway through my undergrad degree. I think a legato can be achieved, and I know for a fact that Bob Dorer of the Minnesota Orchestra slightly tongues lip slurs on the trumpet. When he played for use in studio class, he certainly sounded very legato in come of his playing, so yes, I do not believe Forsyth’s claim.

Andre Smith’s Research on the Ewald Quintet

First, for those of you following this blog because you’re interested in trumpet ensemble repertoire, this post won’t be devoted to trumpet ensemble repertoire, but a discussions we having our brass literature class at the University of Iowa. You can check out what my classmates and Prof. Manning are saying if you visit the site at http://abelcentral.blogspot.com/. Anyway, to answer Prof. Manning’s questions about the Ewald quintets:

I didn’t know much about Ewald other than that he was Russian, one of the first composers to write for the brass quintet, and that his quintets are one of the very few pieces the brass quintet has from the Romantic era. I had didn’t know he wrote four quintets (I only thought there were three).

Smith’s article reminded me of the importance of not claiming a revolutionary idea to be the Gospel truth without examining the facts from as many viewpoints as possible. It is so tempting as a human researcher to think we’ve discovered something that was forgotten about a century ago and claim we have found an incredible piece of missing history. Level-headedness is essential when researching.

It is intriguing to think that Ewald could have written his quintets for an ensemble of five instruments, each outfitted with rotary, but Smith proves this is not the case. Facts do not lie, and people get trapped in insignificant details or ones that simply are not true when they present research.

More coming soon!!!