Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
A Capstone Manuscript
Presented by
Frederick A. Sienkiewicz
Submitted
May 2005
The academic tools provided by the undergraduate music curriculum here at the
University of Massachusetts are not mere academic exercises, separate from the practice
of music-making, but an integral part of the process of preparing and performing. As part
of preparing my Senior Recital, I chose to make an in-depth study to experience what this
perspective on musical performance means to me as a performer. For my recital and this
exploration, I chose five of the central works of trumpet repertoire, "The Trumpet Shall
Sound" (from Messiah) by G. F. Handel, Concerto for Trumpet in E-flat Major by Joseph
Haydn, Legend by Georges Enesco, Sonata fur Trompete und Klavier by Paul Hindemith,
and Variations on The Carnival of Venice by J. B. Arban. In this paper, I discuss my own
experience of the process of learning, studying, and performing each work, comment on
the diverse tools I used to gain deeper insight, and present the applicable conclusions I've
come to through my research and experience. These conclusions, where appropriate, take
the form of music-theoretic notes including harmonic, thematic, and formal analytic
sketches, historical background, and/or a survey of available recordings. At every step of
preparing this research, I was surprised at the new depth and interest, as both performer
and listener, which I found through the richer understanding of the formal structures and
historical context of each work. It is now my conviction that this process of detailed and
informed musical preparation is essential to my ability to be an effective performer and
create great music.
1
Chapter 1: Introduction, Purpose, Methodology
excellence become accessible when you integrate into the art of performing the many
diverse fields of study, both in academic and applied disciplines, which are included in
the academic music curricula of universities. My present teacher, Mr. Eric Berlin, has
clear aural concept of the music I wish to perform. Through his teaching, I have come to
believe that it is necessary that this aural conception must be as detailed as possible with
respect to both technical issues, such as intonation and rhythm, and musical
considerations, such as style and phrasing. It has been my goal to undertake research and
study to understand the uses of the conservatory tradition of solfege, academic theoretical
analysis, and historical scholarship in creating a more detailed aural and musical concept.
The study of these techniques is the core of the music curriculum at the University of
Massachusetts; however, the study of their integration and application to the practice of
department's offerings. My goal has been to understand and to put into practice a synergy
of all these disciplines to the end of more detailed, informed, and ultimately effective
musical performances.
The cornerstone of this process has been the presentation of five works of trumpet
spring. At both recitals, I presented informal spoken program notes, and written notes as
well at the latter. Three of these works -- the Concerto, the Legend, and the Sonata --
2
were also important works in my audition repertoire for graduate school and summer
orchestra festival auditions during the intervening winter months and also performed on
several other occasions throughout the school year. I began studying these works in the
Summer of 2004 and have been actively and continually engaged in their study
discipline to this process: I had lessons with my teacher's teachers, Mr. Charles Schlueter
and Mr. Vincent Penzarella, to refine my ideas which were the source of the project; I
studied solfege with Mr. Larry Scripp, a teacher of solfege in Boston and applied insights
gained there to my daily practice and preparations of my repertoire; I spent much time in
score study of these works, learning in as much detail as possible how the parts fit
together; I did my own harmonic, thematic, and formal analysis of each work, to the
extent appropriate to my abilities; and lastly, I researched the most prominent secondary
sources for historical details regarding the composers' lives, the circumstances of the
techniques to the specific work in question and I present the results of my research.
These results are by no means exhaustive treatments of the subjects; My focus during
this project on the application of techniques to my own performance ability limits the
focusing on results and insights which specifically influenced the way I think about the
performing music.
3
Chapter 2: "The trumpet shall sound," from Messiah, by G. F. Handel
composers and Messiah is one of his most popular, mature works. For me, this was my
first serious attempt at the performance of a work in Baroque style, an issue about which
there has been much discussion in the musical community in recent decades. My
of Ancient Music, the Bach Collegium Japan, and the Handel and Haydn Society, have
cultivated in me a real passion for the distinctive sound of Baroque music performed on
period instruments. I am now convinced that this music sounds better when performed in
Dr. Robert Eisenstein and the Five-College Renaissance Collegium, the working baroque
G. F. Handel
Before I address the important stylistic concerns about Messiah, I wish to consider
the circumstances of Mr. Handel and his Messiah, in order to understand properly the
importance of the work and some factors which governed its composition. Handel, a
German who spent his early years studying opera composition in Italy, began his
illustrious career in England around 1710 when he arrived at the start of a three-decade
affinity between the London public and Italianate opera.1 As a composer of Italian opera,
Handel, who was also a shrewd impresario, did very well for himself. Handel made his
4
way to the center of London's musical and operatic life and cultivated very profitable
associations with the Royal family in the process. Handel was a quick study of the
prevailing music of the English, and absorbed much from Henry Purcell, who was at that
English choral and orchestral music for Royal Celebrations: the celebrations of King's
victory at both Utrecht [Te Deum and Jubilate, 1713] and Dettingen [Te Deum and
Jubilate, 1743], a Royal publicity cruise down the Thames river [Water Music, 1717], and
the coronation of King George II [four anthems, 1728], among others. By the late 1730's,
Handel had won deep admiration from both the London nobility and public and was
composer-producer, especially the fruitful years 1720-1729 with the Royal Academy of
Music,3 John Gay composed his "Beggar's Opera," an operatic work in English which
parodied the excesses of London's Italian operas. This marked the beginning of the
decline of London's interest in that genre.4 Throughout the following decade, Handel met
with mounting difficulties composing and producing Italian operas and his interest
steadily shifted toward composing and presenting concerts of organ concerti, concerti
grosso, seranatas, and oratorios. Competition, lack of interest, and a poor 1740-1741
opera season strengthened Handel's interest in the invitation by the Duke of Devonshire to
produce a 1741-1742 concert season of choral music, concerti, and organ music in Dublin
2 Ibid., 9.
3 Ibid., 6.
4 Ibid.
5 Thomas Forrest Kelly, First Nights: Five Musical Premieres (New Haven: Yale University Press,
2000), 62.
5
Oratorios
Unlike his Italian operas, Handel's oratorios were unstaged (no costumes or
scenery), sung in English (rather than Italian), and often had Biblical subjects (which the
Bishops in England forbade to be presented theatrically, i.e. in opera). Oratorios did not
depend on the grand eloquence of the finest continental castrati to execute the
magnificent solo roles; rather, they emphasized choruses which were simple but beautiful
compositions that could be performed satisfactorily by less talented singers.6 Other than
these differences, oratorios are very similar to Handel's Italian operas. As the music
historian Donald Grout noted, "Most of the arias in these works [Handel's oratorios]
differ in no important respects -- neither in form, musical style, nature of musical ideas,
nor technique of expressing effects -- from arias in his operas."7 Like his operas, they
consist of alternations of recitatives, arias, often in da capo form, choruses, and the
occasional duet or trio. These essentially independent pieces are presented in alternation
Circumstances of Messiah
Handel composed Messiah in a month's time, late in the Summer of 1741, before
he left for Ireland, not yet knowing what orchestral or vocal performers he would have
available to him there.8 Both the idea of and libretto for Messiah were the work of
Handel's friend and patron Charles Jennens, a wealthy Englishman and serious theologian
who was as committed to the arts as to Protestant Christianity. Jennens compiled the
libretto for Messiah almost entirely of Old Testament texts which, in this context,
6
prophesy the coming of the Christian Messiah, with the didactic intent to justify the
doctrine that Jesus Christ is that Messiah. The result is that the story of Christ is "neither
directly narrated nor dramatized."9 Messiah is divided into three sections, the first
dedicated to the Christmas festival, the second to the Easter celebration, and the third is a
celebration of Christian thanksgiving for the triumph of life over death through the
resurrection of the Messiah. It is in this last section where "The trumpet shall sound" is
found.
in Dublin, with Messiah as the climax of the season.10 The next season, 1742-43, Handel
presented it to the London public to decidedly more mixed reaction, over the controversy
would become his main concert season for the rest of his career. Messiah would be
performed almost every year until and after Handel's death (it was also the last work he
heard performed12), and by 1750 it had attained "iconic status [which it] has never
relinquished."13 Annual Messiah concerts have become a mainstay of many amateur and
Society14). This remarkable work has been in almost continuous performance since its
composition
9 Hicks, 10.
10 Kelly, 100-101.
11 Hicks, 10.
12 Ibid., 12.
13 Ibid., 23.
14 Handel and Haydn Society, History (accessed 15 June 2005),
<http://www.handelandhaydn.org/learn/history/history_home.htm>.
7
Baroque Style.
The style of the Baroque trumpet is something which has become a field of study
unto itself in the latter half of the 20th century: dozens of craftsman have become
Performance"15; and orchestras like the Academy of Ancient Music or the Handel and
Haydn Society have dedicated themselves to performing and recording old works on
exploration of this subject is necessarily limited to the sources and elements which
Edward Tarr's excellent book The Trumpet should be read by every serious
trumpet player. It is a well-written volume on the entire history of the trumpet, and it was
framework of evolution, since medieval times (rather than the isolated and ad-hoc
understanding which I had developed). For sake of brevity, I have omitted here any
review of the natural trumpet and the details of its construction which I focused on in the
spoken notes I presented at each recital for the benefit of those audiences. If the present
reader is unfamiliar with the subject I highly recommend Tarr's book or The New Grove
In talking about historical trumpet style, I would like to first briefly discuss the
division between and details of the field and clarino styles of playing. Throughout
Medieval times, trumpeters' function was mainly for military, royal, and civil signaling
15 Thomas Handel, Scott Chaurette, and Andrea Rash, "New England Conservatory of Music, Academic
Catalog 2004-2005," (Boston: New England Conservatory, 2004), 104-106.
8
and consequently they played in the low register of the instrument (the first four or five
partials, where pitches are farther apart and therefore more distinct) with a loose
embouchure and a loud, blaring tone which could be easily heard and recognized.16 In the
early Baroque as trumpeters began to be accepted into art music, they were required to
develop a different embouchure so to play in the higher partials of their instrument, play
in tune, and be able to play softly as not to drown out the other instruments.17 The former
style continued to be refined in the trumpet corps which held great prestige in the Holy
Roman Empire18 and were associated with courtly splendor; the latter style as it
developed became the renown clarino trumpet style of the great Baroque works.
trumpet master, wrote "It is well known that the human voice is supposed to serve as the
model for all instruments; thus should the clarino player try to imitate it as much as
possible, and seek to bring forth the so-called cantabile on his instrument,"19 indicating
that a vocal quality was very important in clarino performance. Altenburg also mentions
a system of unequal tonguing which was practiced by all wind players of the Baroque and
early classical eras (also detailed in the treatise by the 18th century German flautist and
writer, Johann Joachim Quantz); this is an area of performance practice which I wish to
study further when the appropriate opportunity and guidance are available.
"The trumpet shall sound" is clearly a piece in the style and tradition of what has
become known as the "trumpet aria," or an operatic (or oratorio) da capo aria which
16 Edward Tarr, The Trumpet, trans. S.E. Plank and Edward Tarr (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1988),
48, 85-86.
17 Ibid., 86.
18 Ibid., 94-97.
19 Ibid., 91.
9
employs a trumpeter as duettist with a singer. This form had its start when Monteverdi
introduced the trumpet into art-music and Italian opera with L'Orfeo. The trumpet's role
in opera was progressively expanded by other Venetian opera composers who followed
him and found the trumpet suitable for arias expressing a heroic or noble Affekt and
Handel certainly knew of the style from his studies there. When he arrived in England, he
also absorbed the style of Purcell, who had introduced the tradition in England in the
In composing Messiah, Handel had been moving away from the practice of full-
length da capo arias, finding creative ways to through-compose arias yet still give the
feeling of the large repetition of the popular form. In composing Messiah, Handel seems
to have made conscious effort in this direction to avoid excessive length.21 The full-
length da capo form is therefore reserved for only the most important arias, of which the
"The trumpet shall sound" is one. It begins with an introduction, A section (bars 1-156)
in D major, a contrasting B section in minor (sans trumpet, bars 157-end), and concludes
with dal segno repetition of the A section. Handel scholar Friedrich Chrysander (1826-
1901) determined this to be the authentic interpretation22 of the work and my musical
intuition has been satisfied with the results of the contrast. I certainly found it appropriate
in recital context to begin with its paired recitative "Behold, I tell you a mystery." The
recitative, in concert performance as in the oratorio proper, helps prepare the drama of
Handel's music, and as the very first work of my recital it worked particularly well.
20 Max L. Morley, "The Trumpet Arias in the Oratorios of George Frederic Handel," International
Trumpet Guild Journal, vol. 5 (October 1980), 17.
21 Kelley, 70-71.
22 Cited in a footnote to Morley, 18.
10
It is widely known that in such da capo arias, there is an expectation for
working, and me from addressing the issue of the "expected" embellishments. Post-
Journal which asserts that the texture of the "The trumpet shall sound" is similar enough
to that of a Baroque trio sonata so that some of Quantz's comments on trio sonata
ornamentation apply:
The instructions from Quantz that apply to this trumpet aria are: "It
[ornamentation] should only be used in passages which consist of
imitation..." As already stated, "The trumpet shall sound" is not imitative.
We may infer then that other than the obligatory ornaments, such as trills
at cadences, appogiaturas, mordents, and double-dotting, highly florid
ornamentation would not have been practiced in this trumpet aria.23
inclined to immediately agree with him; however, this issue deserves more detailed
attention and research into available scholarship and precedents, such as the 1966
Analysis
In searching for a way to understand the formal construction of the "The trumpet
shall sound" in more detail, I am drawn to the text of as a guide. The recitative-aria
combination spans three verses from 1st Corinthians: "Behold, I shew24 you a mystery;
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump25: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
23 Ibid., 17.
24 Sic. "Shew" is an archaic synonym for "show."
25 Sic. "Trumpet" is the diminutive form of "Trump."
11
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality."26 The first half of the first sentence forms the
recitative text (through "trump"), the second half is the text of the A section, and the
second sentence is the text of the B section. As to be expected, the form is based around
the expression of this text, which I would now like to consider; for brevity's sake I will
textual phrases, and a concluding ritornello (see appendix 1-A). The introduction (bars 1-
28) begins with a tutti fanfare theme in French overture style (dotted rhythms), which
recurs throughout on the text "The trumpet shall sound." This is followed by two
imitative motives between the trumpet and orchestra, which recur throughout, and a
cadence in D. The first phrase (bars 29-44) begins with the "The trumpet shall sound"
text accompanied by with the opening fanfare motive. Harmonically, this phrase moves
from D to a cadence on A (bar 40, repeat cadence at 44). In phrase two (bars 45-58) the
"trumpet" text is repeated on the dominant, and the fanfare is adapted to the natural
trumpet's more limited ability to play in that key. Phrase three (bars 59-78) introduces
new text, "we shall be changed," and, appropriately enough, completely new melodic
material: the bass gives out a long melisma starting in E leading to a cadence in A (bar
69). The trumpet and orchestra answer with a 10-bar tutti which repeats the move from E
to A and introduces another new, recurring theme: the ornamented figure in the first
violins (bar 74). This completes a full first presentation of the text of the A section.
Phrase four (bars 79-98) begins with the bass entrance in D, repeats the opening
melody, and starts a second text iteration. All this happens under a sustained trumpet
26 1 Corinthians, 15:51-53.
12
note, a common Handelian gesture, which leads into the expected fanfare tutti, which
returns to accompany the "trumpet shall sound" text (bar 84). The trumpet leads off
phrase five (bars 99-120) with a change of texture in anticipation of the bass' text "we
shall be changed" in A, which is sung to a dotted rhythm version of the melisma in phrase
three. The bass continues singing through to the cadence in D, which last occurred as an
orchestral reprise. The last phrase (bars 121-140), which is also on "we shall be changed"
introduces another new motive and then the previous gesture repeats, with the soloist
continuing to sing, through music which again had previously been an orchestral tutti,
through to the deceptive cadence in B (bar 138) followed by a dramatic closing cadence
in D (bar 140). The last 16 bars of the A section are a concluding ritornello which echoes
Earlier, I discussed the difference between the field and clarino styles, the former
being associated with military and courtly signaling and splendor, the latter being a vocal
and musical style that opened the door for the trumpet to enter art-music. I feel here, as in
the Haydn Concerto, both of these styles of playing -- which were both current then and
old-fashioned now -- are invoked in the writing for the trumpet. "The trumpet shall
sound" is a clear reference to the trumpet's signaling function. As we saw previously, this
signaling function is primarily associated with courtly splendor and military might; in
Christian literature, Heaven itself is often described in terms of being the most splendid
of all royal courts, which I feel further strengthens the reference. Handel's oratorio-going
audience would certainly have been familiar with this allusion and the nature of the
fanfare motif seems based in this reference. This association of trumpet signals with
military strength and nobility is not lost on us even today, as our popular culture
13
continues to make associations between these images and the historical use of the
trumpet. With the exception of that fanfare theme, the rest of the trumpet writing is
lyrical and diatonic melody. Altenburg's comments about imitating the voice seem
particularly appropriate in the middle of phrase one (bar 37) where trumpet and voice are
Process
This process of research on form, style, history, and context has been extremely
this piece and its period have greatly expanded my understanding of how the historical
scholarship is conducted and has familiarized me with the landscape of primary source
material. I certainly have come to know much more about Mr. Handel and his career and
there is some very interesting scholarship about Valentine Snow, Handel's first trumpeter
throughout most of his later years, which did not find a formal place in this study.
rudimentary. While I was very pleased with my performance of this aria on both recitals,
I was unable to give the work more than a preliminary attempt at integrating the
challenges of both personal and ensemble preparation presented by opening the recital
with a ten minute work for piccolo trumpet and singer. Furthermore, to perform the work
conventional fashion first. Baroque trumpet players with whom I have spoken report that
14
the experience of performing period music in a "historically informed style" on the period
instruments meaningfully changes the way they approach the same repertoire on
conventional instruments. I am pleased with the milestone which I have passed and I
15
Chapter 3: Concerto per il clarino, J. Haydn
Joseph Haydn's (1732-1809) Concerto for trumpet is quite possibly the most
widely known and appreciated work for trumpet soloist in the classical genre, and it was
the very first of this type of music I ever heard in concert.27 Its accessible, classical style
seems to readily entertain the casual listener and it has, in recent years, become a central
piece of repertoire for recitals and auditions of all kinds. While it is relatively easy to
present the work as just a showpiece for a trumpet player's technique and talent, I believe
that with an interpretation informed through historical study and detailed knowledge of
the score, you can highlight Haydn's characteristic wit and humor and really bring this
work alive.
Joseph Haydn
The many details of Joseph Haydn's life and works, especially concerti, and how
they relate to this Concerto are beyond the scope of this work. To make such a study
would be richly rewarding and I encourage even casual readers to at least familiarize
themselves with Haydn's biography. The New Grove Dictionary is an excellent resource
for this. In the discussion that follows, I will focus on the details which specifically give
context to this work and generally assume an understanding of Haydn's life and his highly
Haydn had, for most of his life, been sequestered at the court of the noble
Esterhzy family in Austria, composing all his music at the court, for the court. A clever
man, Haydn made his works available to the publishers of Europe and, especially in his
later years there, he was well-known on account of them. In 1790, death and succession
led to a reorganization of the court which brought to an end the long period of strong
27 Mr. David Bilger as soloist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, sometime in the like 1990's.
16
musical patronage and set Haydn loose to travel and compose in the musical communities
acclaimed for the symphonies he composed and performed during his visit (The so-called
"London" symphonies, No. 92-104) and where he was impressed by the music at a 1791
Handel Commemoration celebration, which followed on the fervor aroused during the
spent the last few remaining years of active compositional life in Vienna focused on
oratorios inspired by Handel (The Creation, on a libretto originally intended for Handel),
masses, string quartets, and this trumpet Concerto, which is his very last orchestral work
Anton Weidinger (1766-1852), the Viennese court trumpeter and the virtuoso for
whom both Haydn and Hummel wrote their trumpet concerti, had been one of several
European trumpeters experimenting with designing a "keyed trumpet" at the end of the
18th century. The keyed trumpet is similar to the natural trumpet of Handel's day but,
like a woodwind instrument, it is fitted with vent-holes and keys to cover them;
uncovering the holes could raise the pitch some amount depending on number and
placement (for Haydn's Concerto, at least a minor third is required).31 Weidinger was not
the first to experiment with this, but probably had the best success and certainly is the
28 James Webster and Georg Feder, "Haydn, (Franz) Joseph," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy,
http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed 1 June 2005.
29 "the centenary of his birth as erroneously recorded by Mainwaring," cited in Hicks, 23.
30 Hicks, 23
31 Tarr, The Trumpet, 149-151.
32 Edward H. Tarr, "Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and its Origins," International Trumpet Guild Journal,
Vol. 21, No. 1 (September 1996), 32.
17
from London and apparently asked him to compose a concerto for him, which Haydn did
in 1796. Around this time, Weidinger was active in the promotion of his new instrument
and in the four years which passed between the composition of this work and its
premiere, Weidinger performed several times, each presenting easier works on what he
called his "organized trumpet."33 When Weidinger had secured both the confidence and
[Mr. Weidinger will present] to the world for the first time, so that it may
be judged, an organized trumpet which he has invented and brought --
after seven years of hard and expensive labour -- to what he believes may
be described as perfection: it contains several keys and will be displayed in
a concerto especially written for this instrument by Herr Joseph Haydn,
Doctor of Music.34
Weidinger premiered the work in his first solo recital with the new instrument at
the Vienna Burgtheater on the evening of 22 March 1800. Despite Robbins Landon and
Tarr's optimistic speculation about the effect of the evening in the preface to the
Universal edition of the Concerto,35 the evening was in fact poorly attended and not very
acclaim for himself and was not only well known for his instrument, but for his
musicality as well. Weidinger's instrument itself was short-lived, driven out of service
within four decades by technical limitations which the piston valve, invented around
1813, overcame easily.37. The concerti composed for Weidinger and his instrument by
Haydn and Hummel, however, have survived and after a long period of dis-use the Haydn
18
Concerto was rediscovered by Alphonse Goyens or his students at the Brussels
conservatory around the turn of the (20th) century38 and the work has subsequently
Formal Analysis
expanded my understanding of the inner workings of the piece but, surprisingly, it also
example of this is the melody of the second movement: in bar 11, the ties are suspensions
which resolve to beat two and imply a natural phrasing (group together: beats 6-1-2,
break, 3-4-5, break, 6-1-2) whereas my intuitive phrasing had been different (beats 6-1,
break, 2-3-4, break, 5-6-1). Performers on many recordings have made a similar
"mistake," whereas the Rheinhold Friedrich, a performer known for his thoughtful and
informed performances, has recorded a performance39 with proper phrase emphasis on the
The first step I took in analyzing the score was to simply and mechanically
perform a chord-by-chord analysis of the work. This yielded a wealth of minute technical
details about pitch and harmonic rhythm, as in the rondo theme from the third movement
which has a very characteristic I-IV-V-I associated with it or in the main theme which has
an emphasis on subdominant in the third bar. However, this is not a very effective
methodology for addressing large-scale musical concerns; for that, thematic and structural
19
elements must be considered as well. This last insight is something important which I
The concerto form, like symphonic form and other larger-scale classical orchestral
forms, is a cohesive structure by which musical ideas are presented, developed, and
conjoined with one another in important and meaningful ways. In performing such a
work, understanding the larger musical phrases and relations is essential in helping to
bring musical depth and contrast to the work. In this case, this means elevating it beyond
a series of pretty or virtuosic passages strung together. Haydn's concept of the three-
movement form of the concerto was: "heavy and intellectual first movement, poetic slow
movement, light-hearted and brilliant finale."40 There are of course there are more
detailed conventions, which, for the present discussion, I will assume the reader has some
convention quite well. A full analysis which explores, in detail, the relationship between
the different thematic and phrase structures, including a study of how this relates to the
conventions of the time, is beyond the scope of this work; I will nonetheless begin my
(bars 1-36) which cadences in E-flat major and presents orchestral and solo themes which
will be used throughout the work (Theme A, the main theme; Theme B, the transition
motives; Theme C, the ending gesture of the second theme area; Theme D, a motive used
at the beginning of the development; and Theme E, which is also used as the movement's
coda); a solo exposition (bars 37-83) with a first theme (bars 37-44) in the tonic,
40 Robbins Landon, 232-233, cited in Willis, 11.
20
transitional material (bars 45-59) which moves from tonic to dominant, a second theme
area (bars 60-77) which cadences in the dominant, and closing material which reiterates
the second theme area's cadence (bars 77-83) -- Alternately, it is very possible that the
true closing cadence of the second theme area is at the trilled whole note (bar 83) and the
material immediately following (bars 84-92) is closing material, moving the beginning of
the development back to the trumpet entrance in C minor (bar 93); a development (bars
83-124) which touches on several diverse key areas (C minor, bars 87-95; A-flat major:
96-101; E-flat major: 102-124) and arrives on a prolonged dominant in the home key
(bars 113-124); a recapitulation in E-flat major (bars 125-169) which has a return of the
main theme (bars 125-132), a transition that remains in the tonic key (bars 133-137), a
different second theme area which remains in the tonic (bars 138-161), and a short bit of
closing material (bar 161-168) which arrives on a tonic 6-4 cadence with accompanying
cadenza to bring the harmony to a dominant 5-3 (bar 168); a perfect authentic cadence
The simple, cantabile second movement is in ternary form (ABACoda) and the
key of A-flat major. The A theme (bars 1-8, 9-16) is a simple singing melody that is
broken into two phrases of a regular period and is 8 bars long. The simple harmonies are
embellished with the expressive suspensions which I mentioned previously. The B theme
(bars 17-32) has a truly audacious modulation (bars 19-22) to the distant key of C-flat
major (bar 22-26) and a gentle modulation back (bar 27-30) to the dominant of A-flat
(bars 30-32). The second A section (bars 33-40) is a literal repeat with the exception of a
single note ornamenting the climax of the second phrase (bar 38, beat 5). It is worth
noting here that Gerard Schwartz, in a recording this Concerto with the Y Chamber
21
Symphony of New York,41 finds cause to further embellish the repeated material here. I
have not yet found scholarship on the issue although certainly further study is warranted.
The short coda (bars 41-50) begins as an imitation of the B section but cadences in the
familiar manner (bar 46) and relaxes into a prolongation of the final tonic, embellished by
will recall that the key feature of a Sonata-rondo is that it superimposes on the rondo form
a greater Sonata-allegro schema. Like each of the other movements in this work, there is
an orchestral introduction (bars 1-44) which introduces both the main rondo theme (bars
1-12, 13-25) and the second theme (bars 26-33). The solo exposition begins with the the
rondo theme, which is presented by the soloist twice (bars 45-56 and 57-68), the former
ending with a half cadence and the latter with a full cadence in E-flat major. The
transition (69-77) after the end of the first rondo theme (main theme) is played by the
orchestra alone and when the soloist enters again it is at the start of the first episode
(second theme, bars 78-124) in the dominant key. The episode develops the second
theme freely through several phrases and then cadences clearly on B-flat major (bar 116).
A small amount of closing material (bars 117-124) moves from B-flat as key center to B-
flat as dominant of the home key and the work stops for a short improvisatory episode
It is important to note that an Eingang is not a cadenza, although they share many
traits and in the Universal Edition of the Concerto, it is even marked as "cadenza." An
41 Gerard Schwarz, "The Classic Trumpet Concerti of Haydn/Hummel," (Hollywood: Delos International
Inc., 1983), tracks 1-3.
42 Michael Brydenfelt, "Works of Telemann, Haydn, Bach, Mozart," Liner notes by Edward H. Tarr,
(Netherlands: Channel Classics BV, 1997), 2.
22
Eingang usually begins on a dominant triad or seventh chord, rather than the tonic 6-4
chord from which cadenzi begin, and serves not as an embellishment of the final cadence
of the preceding phrase, but as an introduction to the fixed thematic material which
follows it and is often shorter than a cadenza.43 I was unfortunately not aware of this until
colleague of mine pointing the spot out as being rather awkward. The Eingang resolves
into the last rondo theme of the exposition (bars 125-136), this time only one 12-bar
developments do, with a reference or repeat of the main theme, but that quickly changes
course and develops thematically through several diverse key areas (A-flat major, bars
142-148; F minor, bars 149-167; G major, bars 168-176). The tonal ambiguity at the end
of the section (bars 177-178) masks a clever direct modulation to the dominant of E-flat
major which brings back the next rondo theme and the recapitulation section of the
Sonata-rondo.
As expected, the main (rondo) theme (bars 181-192), transition (193-198), and
second theme (third episode, 199-204) of the recapitulation are all re-arranged to remain
in the tonic key. The third episode begins by recalling the first episode (199-209) and
then continues on as the first did in free development of the themes (bars 210-238)
coming to a decisive cadence in the tonic key (bar 220). The closing material theme
returns (bars 221-235) and the harmony moves to a prolonged dominant (bars 232-237)
which then cadences into a return of the rondo theme (bar 238). The last rondo theme
23
comes as a very abbreviated reference (bars 238-241) before Haydn develops the thematic
material in another free episode or closing material (bars 242-279). This section ends
with a dramatic dominant and grand pause which seems to suggest a cadence, although
Haydn did not intend there to be one44 (albeit modern soloists have performed and
recorded it otherwise). This is clearly supported by the resolution in the orchestra of the
tonic 6-4 to dominant 5-3 before the grand pause. The coda that follows starts with an
unsettled reference to the main theme (over a dominant of sub-dominant harmony) which
Motivic Analysis
When considering this work in its context, I feel that there are three compositional
gestures that deserve comment because of their characteristic nature and the sense of
thematic integration they bring to the three movements of the work. In the previous
chapter, I discussed the distinction between clarino and field styles of playing which had
existed side-by-side in Europe for more than a hundred years and were still directly
meaningful to audiences of Handel's day. Haydn's audience still lived with these styles,
although clarino playing was, by this time, considered a markedly "old style" and the
The first gesture of note is the frequent reference to the traditionally martial
character of the instrument and its characteristic "sol-do" signal: the fanfare in the
orchestral exposition of the first movement (I:13-16, more on these later), the short
exclamation in the first movement transitions (I: 49-50 and 141-142), and several
separate places in the third movement (III: 117-120, 155-164, 168, 170, 204-209, 225-
228, 276-279, and 290-end). To make matters more interesting, in the third movement's
44 Brydenfelt, 2.
24
development, Haydn takes this characteristic gesture which would have only been
performable in one key at a time on a natural trumpet and now weaves it into the
developing texture calling for the keyed trumpet to successively play it in F, B-flat, and
A-flat. Lastly, the descending "natural" arpeggio in the first movement, second theme
The second gesture is the use of the full diatonic scale in the low register of the
instrument. The first movement's main theme may have been a delightful treat for the
audiences in Vienna who had never before heard a trumpet play a full scale in its third
octave (between e-flat' and e-flat''). In fact, it is noticeable that the first movement is
mostly composed in conjunct motion, both diatonic and chromatic, in varying speeds and
registers of the instrument. Willis suggests that this is partly because of weakness of
Weidinger as a performer and limitations of his instrument, and that Haydn was avoiding
the more difficult to perform leaps to keyed notes.45 The second movement's simple lyric
melody is in the low register of the instrument and in keys quite "distant" from the
instrument's E-flat base: the main melody is in A-flat major (A-flat itself being a "keyed
note" on Weidinger's instrument) and the development is in the remote key of C-flat
major.
Thirdly, natural trumpets do not possess any half-step interval between partials
until the third octave (e''-f'' on a trumpet pitched in C). Throughout this Concerto, Haydn
seems to bring special emphasis on the trumpet now playing chromatic half-steps
throughout the middle of its compass. In the first movement's exposition, the melodic
line several times emphasizes a chromatic neighbor motion (I: 55-59, 66-71) and
throughout the entire Concerto, Haydn finds ways to insert ascending and descending
45 Willis, 24-25.
25
chromatic scales (I:47, 101, II: 21-22, III: 227-299) which specially demonstrate the new
instrument's chromatic abilities. The most noticeable instance of this idea, however, is a
characteristic "sighing" motif which appears in every movement (I: 115-117, II: 25-26
The first opening notes of the solo trumpet in this Concerto seem out of place: in a
classical concerto, the soloist is not expected to play until the solo exposition. So what is
the trumpet soloist doing playing during the orchestral exposition? One suggestion,
made by Willis expresses a popular sentiment that these are "warm-up" notes for
Weidinger, who needed them because of his weak playing abilities.46 I like to think that
this is Haydn's special brand of musical humor at work. Much of the composition of this
piece seems to play the expectations of form and the traditional role of the trumpet
against the newfound abilities of Weidinger's instrument. The first of these exclamations
is but a single note, the tonic of the new instrument, and merely punctuates the first
cadence. The second alternates (in the orchestral setting) with the tutti trumpets in
fanfares which lie entirely within the harmonic series. If you have come to see and judge
for yourself the advertised "perfection" of Mr. Weidinger's "organized trumpet," then
there is a certain reaction when the first notes you hear from this new instrument are these
fanfares, which you have always heard any trumpets play. In a certain sense, Haydn
teases his audience along before he gives them the what they have been waiting for: a
new, fully chromatic trumpet. I am aware that this position is not backed up by any
scholarship and it remains an open question to find a more scholarly opinion on the
matter.
46 Willis, 23.
26
Process
The detailed score study was a huge help in being able to bring out the sense of line in
some of the phrases. While sometimes my sense of phrase became "heady" and the
attempt to emphasize theoretical concepts obstructs musical intuition, the way in which
score study (and to a lesser degree, analysis) helped bring the music alive to me as a
performer was amazing. More than the other works on the recital, this concerto has both
great depth and is readily accessible to my skills in analysis and score study. The
harmonic and thematic syntax is very familiar and so it allows me to to ask the higher-
level questions about form and structure earlier. Unfortunately, the benefits which my
detailed chordal and harmonic understanding brought to my intonation did not find
expression during either recital: technical issues involving tension and my playing
For all the exploration which I have done, there is room for much more research in
both analysis and performance of this piece: Other authors have certainly addressed the
issue of analysis of this work, and I am eager to see what details or analytic concepts I
have missed; the way in which this Concerto relates to other Haydn works and other
mentioned regarding the second movement and correct performance of the turns indicated
in the third movement are still open questions; uncritical sources have suggested to me
that in this time period there were two senses of the adagio tempo marking in the second
movement, a topic about which I have heard no scholarly opinion; I look forward to
finding a better way to treat the Eingang in the third movement in my next performance
27
of the work; all of my studies in this project were from the piano reduction of the
Concerto and it has been suggested to me that to truly know the work means to study the
orchestral score and get a sense too for Haydn's orchestration; this last point also implies
performance of the work with a Chamber Orchestra, which would be another milestone
experience to understanding the nature of the piece to be sought; and, for all my textbook
research on Weidinger and his instrument, I have not heard any of the several modern
I have come to feel, through this project, that both the questions which I have
answered in the course of this discussion and the ones for which I will continue to search
for answers are the issues that performers must address when they propose to present a
piece of solo literature. It is simply not enough to know the notes on the page and be able
to play them all, although that is certainly a prerequisite. It has to mean something to me
as a performer and so it is my job to search for what that meaning is, and the process of
that search is something I believe I should undertake every time I perform a work; it is a
never-ending process.
28
Chapter 4: Legend by Georges Enesco
exposure to it my freshman year (2000) at a performance by Tom Bergeron for our studio
class. My formal study of the work, however, did not begin until I prepared it for my jury
last spring. It is unique among the trumpet repertoire with which I am familiar as an
Chronologically, Legend is one of the very next works we have after the Haydn and
Hummel concerti, despite the intervening century. In the time since I began with this
project, I have performed this work more than any other and I enjoy its musical
effectiveness greatly.
Score study
When I first approached the work, I was overwhelmed: the trumpet part seemed
very complicated and technical, the French terms in the score and part were foreign to
me, and the piano score was so dense with notes that I could not begin to imagine how
the parts fit together. In this regard, this work has been one of the clearest experiences in
the importance of score study. Larry Scripp, the solfege teacher with whom I studied this
past year, put it like this: "On one level, music is an inquiry. This is the implicit question
we're asking every time we perform a piece of music: How does it go? How should it
go? How am I going to interpret it?"47 Some of my first performances of the Enesco were
not very effective, musically, because my answer to some of these questions was, in
effect, "I don't really know, but I'll do something that I think approximates what the music
should be." Especially in the fast sections, the musical line becomes muddied and unclear
29
One of the tools I now use when I approach a new work is to ask these questions,
starting with the broadest sense and getting progressively more detailed: First, do I
understand each of the printed musical directions in the score? In this case, since I do not
speak any French, this required some time with both a musical and a common dictionary,
and I have included the results in a glossary table (see appendix 3-C). Next, do I
understand the rhythms and pitches that appear in my part? Do I understand the notes and
rhythms of all the parts? Is there a form? There is no end to this line of questioning.
With the Legend, I experienced strongly that it was not until I knew the answers to many
of these questions, and not until after I had spent the time in deep study of my part and the
score to really understand what was there, that the work became transparent to me as a
performer and listener. Once this started to open up, it became accessible to me to
perform more accurately and with more musical flexibility and effectiveness.
Circumstances of Legend
It is not too much of a stretch, then, to think of the historical research I have
advocated as an ancillary line of questioning to the one I have suggested above. I found
Romania's most famous composer and was a talented and active violinist. He was known
in France under the French interpretation of his name, Georges Enesco, but later in life
prodigy from a very young age, he attended the Vienna Konservatorium starting at age 7,
the Paris Conservatoire at age 14, had a prodigious memory, and commanded a wide
30
remembered as being a very humble, self-effacing, and sincere musician,49 and I feel that
around the composition of the work. A few short years after he graduated from the Paris
Conservatoire (1899), Enesco composed this work for a competition there in 190650 and
dedicated it to the current trumpet teacher, Merri Franquin (1848-1934). Franquin was an
active proponent of the 4-valved, small-bore C/D trumpet and he actively encouraged
composers to write for it and performers to perform on it.51 Enesco was apparently
convinced and his work is one of the few works of that time published for C trumpet.
The tradition of using the C trumpet became popular in the early part of the twentieth
century in French orchestras, crossed the oceans, and is prevalent in American orchestras
When you take the aforementioned process of inquiry a still further, the question
becomes "What does this given musical gesture mean in relationship to the whole of the
work?" Formal analysis becomes the next step in understanding the work better. In
Legend, what seems like dense complexity at first boils down to a fairly basic harmonic
framework onto which a generous amount of dissonance and harmonic color is added.
Enesco, who was very familiar with the lush Romantic compositional style of Wagner52
and also apparently influenced by the Impressionistic style of Debussy, composed this
work in a manner which blends the two styles. Common Practice Period harmonic
49 Ibid., 2.
50 Ole J. Utnes, "Merri Franquin," http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/franquin/. Accessed 29 March, 2005.
51 Edward Tarr, "Franquin, Merri," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed
01 April 2005.
52 Malcolm, 1.
31
structures and an almost Wagnerian weaving of motifs coexists with use of
Impressionistic techniques such as chord planing. While the piece is divided into clear
sections by tempo and character, neither the late-Romantic nor Impressionistic syntaxes
facilitate making those divisions clear and rigid, allowing the music to integrate into a
free-floating, rhapsodic work spun out from a small amount of thematic material.
There are five of these sections, easily recognizable by two contrasting tempi and
styles (A and B), in alternation: slow, fast, slow, fast, slow or ABA'B'A'' (see appendix 3-
A; bars 1-19, 20-30, 31-43, 44-68, and 67-77, respectively). This schema is an expansion
of ternary form, where the form is the traditional tripartite ABA but with the BA grouping
repeated again, as in the scherzo of Beethoven's 7th symphony53. The A sections are in
the tempo-style "Lent et Grave" and both notated in 6/4 meter whereas the B sections
both have the same musical double-time relationship to the A section, although B is
written out in double-speed note values and B' is written out in double-speed meter (2/4).
The only difference I can perceive is that the B' seems to have more of a hypermetric
emphasis on two (i.e. bars are grouped in twos) rather than the three which you would
expect from an imitation of the B section's 3/4 notation (because one bar of B' equals one
beat of B).
32
These sections are also, to some degree, thematically delineated. On a coarse
level, the theme given in figure 4.1 forms the basis of the material in the A sections and
the gesture of the excerpt given in figure 4.2 is the germ for the B sections. This level of
study can be very fruitful, and is the level on which the listener will probably perceive the
piece with the first hearing. I feel, however, that there is a deeper structural unity which
goes beyond this division. Enesco treats the first four notes of figure 4.1 as a rhythmic
and melodic motive out of which much of the melodic material is somehow derived,
including that of figure 4.2, above (in Appendix 3-A, I have indicated with a circled star
many of the places I consider to be somehow derived from this motive). A few subtler
instances of this relationship include: in bar 13, taken without octave displacement, the E-
flat, C, B-flat, A-flat gesture in the trumpet is the retrograde of the interval structure of
the principal motive; in the buildup to the climax (bars 56-59) the melodic gesture is three
instances of that four-note motive, doubled in octaves, and in stretto; lastly, the interval
structure of the arpeggios after Plus Lent (bar 73) is the four-note interval pattern which
has been developed from the beginning (in movable do: do-me-fa-sol) to here (do-me-fi-
sol).
33
Harmonic Analysis
rough analysis). Some portions of the work resist my analysis by use of impressionistic
chordal techniques which I understand only superficially. Others are parsable by the
techniques I understand well through the simplification of the harmonies down to the
basic structural tones (i.e. ignoring the copious dissonances). While expanding my
language of analysis sufficiently to explain all the notes in detail was beyond the scope of
this project, the challenges in my work on the simplified analysis broadened and
not easily yield up their function and it required a lot of contextual study to make sense of
the different sections. What follows is a terse discussion of the harmonic structure that I
found.
The work begins with a long expansion on the tonic C minor. There is free use of
dissonance within this, and frequent use of neighboring chords, but there is very little
actual harmonic motion. In the bar before the first 3/4 (bar 5), the upward melodic line is
accompanied by a series of complex and dissonant chords which end with a supertonic-
tonic resolution. I feel the entire harmonic gesture here is one of an intense neighbor
dissonance to the tonic. The first substantive harmonic motion of this first phrase (bars 1-
16) is a harmonic progression to A-flat major (bar 12). Despite my use the symbols of
modulation, the progression is not one of modulation but merely of expansion over three
measures (bars 11-14). Even though there are moments of dominant-tonic resolution in
A-flat, they are downplayed very cleverly: at the first resolution of dominant-tonic in A-
flat major (bar 12) rests on beats 4 to 5, which is very weak metrically; in the next
34
measure (bar 13), dominant-tonic similarly comes on beats five to six and over the barline
the "tonic" A-flat harmony shifts into an upper neighbor D-flat 6-4 chord. Functionally,
this A-flat area serves as an expanded upper neighbor harmony and resolves to G (bar 15)
which in turn is a brief but unequivocal dominant resolving in the very first cadence of
the piece (bar 16). When I discovered that the trumpet's G-C gesture (bars 15-16) was the
goal of the whole first 16 measures of harmonic motion, my perception of those two
lonely notes changed from being a throwaway gesture of sorts to something much more
The music which comes after the cadence (bars 16-19) serves as transition toward
the next section. The harmonic motion from B-flat to E-flat in bar 17 appears to set up a
cadence in A-flat major but instead there is a direct modulation to the distant F-sharp
minor (bar 18). F-sharp gives way to A major and the bar before Mouvt (bar 19) lingers
on the minor dominant (i.e. E minor) resolving properly across the barline to the
the B section is much less stable. There is a sense of A as a home key, although the
tonality moves through the distant key areas of C (bar 22), B-flat (bar 23), D-flat (bars 24-
25), and F-flat (bars 26-27). When we reach the tonally-ambiguous end of the B section
(bars 29-30), I feel the melodic contours link the diminished harmony back to "tonic" A.
Given this context, the last two notes in the trumpet (bar 30) set up a kind of dominant
feeling: the D-sharp as a leading tone to the dominant E which follows. This "cadence"
does not resolve to A across the barline as we might expect, but rather the tonality of E
slides in beneath it and becomes the starting tonality of the next A' section.
35
A series of chordal motions, one to a bar, leads back to the dramatic return of
tonic C minor with the entrance of the trumpet (bar 35). The melodic line, which has
been building since the beginning of A', climaxes at the trumpet's high C which also
articulates a shift to the minor dominant. This dominant is emphasized in the a volont
section that follows and all of the motion from here to the Vif (bar 43) is an expansion of
this weighty dominant. The last chord before Vif (bar 43) is a clear dominant seventh,
cadence into the next bar. Since this piece is in an ABA plus BA form, this cadence
marks the end of the regular ABA form; The rest of the work (BA) can be understood as a
coda of sorts, and this is supported by the conspicuous lack of any sense of dominant-
The repose of the Vif cadence is quickly overridden by the explosion of rhythmic
energy. The 16th note triplets articulate the upper triad of a C-seventh chord (E, G, and
B-flat), changing this tonic to an applied dominant of F (which arrives four bars later) and
robbing the cadence of its sense of harmonic repose and sending us off through the next
whirlwind section. The series of alternating scales seems to be based on a sense of scalar
harmonic motion (both diatonic, bars 48-51, and chromatic, bars 53-54) which leads to
D-flat or C-sharp major. As a key area, D-flat is also never confirmed by cadence but
seems to act as a prolonged precursor to the final tonic; the rhythmic and thematic fervor
builds to a climax at Furieusement and then a brief transitional episode relaxes away from
the climax and resolves D-flat downward back to C minor. The final A section is in the
style of the first A section and the major motion to D-flat (bar 73) and B-flat (bar 74)
36
In this work more than the others, knowing the chordal structure of each bar (as a
result of my harmonic sketches and score study) yielded great insight in terms of
intonation and phrasing: For instance, each time the theme in figure 4.2 occurs, it is
outlining the upper triad of a seventh-chord (in bar 20, A-seventh, in bar 22, D-flat
seventh, and in bar 44, C-seventh), yet in each of these cases I had previously been
starts as F-half-diminished but the top note of the line is marked with a change to F-flat-
major, not A-flat minor which I had thought it was; the G-F appogiatura in bar 23 makes
more sense knowing it is over a B-flat chord; most importantly, however, the 32nd note
run starting in measure 60 outlines the prevailing tonality of D-flat minor, and being
mentioned the importance of the G-C gesture in bars 15-16, and this pattern of musical
emphasis repeats at each "cadence": the F-sharp-E at the end of bar 19 as dominant of A,
the D-sharp-E at the end of bar 30, and the G as dominant in bar 37.
Process
harmonic motions which I find in the work has influenced my sense of musical phrase in
very positive ways, most of which I alluded to in the body of my analysis. It is still very
powerful for me to think back to when I began performing the work and was "guessing"
at what the phrasing should be for lack of understanding and to contrast that with the
understanding which I present in the present discussion. It was also very useful to listen
in detail to several other major recordings of the work. It was very insightful to compare
37
their senses of style and phrasing, and I have included a brief annotated discography in
appendix 3-D.
experiences. The inquiry into each area of the piece, much of which happened between
my first and second recitals, is perceivable in the quality of each successive performance.
In addition to all the benefits of this research which I have discussed above, the detailed
knowledge of the score quite simply helps tremendously in putting this work together
with the pianist. As the work I performed most this year, it was repeatedly amazing to
come together with my pianist after months and with only minimal rehearsal prepare a
performance which fit together much easier than the last; I felt like a large part of this
phenomenon was my expanded comfort with the score. Even though there were still
issues of execution in my last performance of Legend, it was one of the works that I feel I
performed most musically. Its Romantic-Impressionistic Affekt is one that many modern
listeners, even those unfamiliar with classical art-music, can tap into readily and it is a
piece that I will continue to keep in my solo repertoire for auditions and future recitals.
38
Chapter 5: Sonata fr Trompete und Klavier, P. Hindemith
Paul Hindemith's (1895-1955) Sonata is the first major work of 20th century
literature for solo trumpet and is another piece which I had been exposed to repeatedly
but had not learned prior to this project. Hindemith's work had always been opaque to
me, but through this study and the performance of his work, I have begun to learn and
appreciate his compositional techniques and harmonic language. In studying the details, I
have come to deeply appreciate and love Hindemith's work; study and performance of
this Sonata was the most enjoyable of the five works in this project.
Paul Hindemith
performer he was a member of the Frankfurt Opera orchestra (and soon its
concertmaster), and performed with several of the most prominent string quartets of the
1910's and 1920's. During World War I, Hindemith was impressed into the armed service
where he served as a bass drummer and experienced the power of music to cross political
boundaries.57 On his return, he switched from violin to viola and unleashed his creative
powers, creating a large quantity of new works in a style known as Neue Sachlichkeit (or
39
composer.58 While his active career as a performer helped secure performances of his
own works, he gained further influence as chair of a major new music festival (the
Donaueschingen Festival) and was invited to teach at the Berliner Hochschule fr Musik
(in Berlin).
In adopting the Neue Sachlichkeit style, Hindemith left behind the language of
Romanticism which he had absorbed at the conservatory. This new style is described in
the Neue Sachlichkeit was thus identified stylistically with the dissertations
of a fundamentally linear, polyphonic musical idiom that seemed new in
the context of the time. Formal coherence was no longer supported and
articulated by motivic-thematic developmental processes, tonal functional
harmony, or regular syntax, but rather by a rhythmically and metrically
uniform structure or a sometimes supple, sometimes strict continuity of
musical movement. In this continuity, musical procedures were reduced to
their primary elements, such as a pulsing meter, often made markedly
dissonant in these works, to allow the often extremely individualized
voices in the musical texture to stand out against one another.59
Whereas the Romantic style was woven around the subjective experience of the listener
reacting to the music on stage, the "New Objectivists" specifically placed themselves
against subjectivism. To give you a taste of the Zeitgeist of the Neue Sachlichkeit
movement, Hindemith's Concerto for Orchestra (1925) was judged to have "struck the
By this time, too, Hindemith had formulated some of his fundamental socio-
musical ideas: he believed firmly that music needed to assume a practical role in society
and he rejected the Romantic ideal of the inspired artist composing for the sake of
58 Ibid, 2.
59 Ibid.
60 Ibid, 3.
40
encouraged amateur music-makers to take an interest in serious composers and vice
radio; and he used his influence through articles and festivals to encourage practical
teach composition by the materials of the day. Unhappy, he set out to author his own
texts on composition; to this end, he studied mathematics, acoustics, and music theory in
The rise to power of the National Socialists (Nazi Party, 1933) in Germany
repulsed Hindemith; the feeling was mutual and many of his works were banned from
performance. His beliefs forced him to react to the situation in his art, which he did in
several works of the period, especially his opera Mathis der Maler (1933-35), to which he
composed his own libretto which addresses the relationship between politics, art, power,
when the popularity of his Violin Sonata in E was seen as a political threat; performance
of his works was then completely forbidden by the Nazis. He had been preparing to
emigrate for several years, and finally did so, to Switzerland, in 1938.
During these years of restricted performing, teaching, and composing under the
Nazi regime and in Switzerland, Hindemith took the time to focus on the theoretical
im Tonsatz (or "The Craft of Musical Composition") was begun in 1935, the first part
completed in 1937, and the second part in 1940. In it, he presents new theoretical
61 Ibid., 4.
62 Ibid., 5.
41
principles governing the harmonic and melodic relationships of pitches. This work both
grew out of his compositions and influenced them, and he substantiated his new theories
in his sonatas, which he composed for nearly every orchestral instrument, including this
works.
the subject in his "Theories and Analyses of Twentieth-Century Music."64 I will begin
with a very brief discussion of Hindemith's compositional ideas before analyzing the
ordering of relationships between pitches which he called "Series I" (see figure 5.1,
below). Series I is based on the acoustical properties of the overtone series, and read left
to right the pitches' relationships are ordered from "closest" to "most distant," relative to a
constant tonal center (in this case, C). Hindemith also presented a "Series II" of interval
classes which is arranged based on the acoustic phenomenon of "resultant tones" in order
63 Ibid., 6.
64 Except where noted, the following discussion comes entirely from J. Kent Williams, "Theories and
Analyses of Twentieth-Century Music," (Orlando: Harcort Brace & Co., 1995), 216-233.
42
of increasing tension or dissonance (also left to right). Note here that interval classes are
grouped together by barlines and are equivalent across inversions. Hindemith theorized
that tense melodic intervals have more melodic "force" than did consonant ones;
inversely, consonant harmonic intervals have more harmonic "force" or stability. This
latter concept was the basis of a new system of chord classification which is itself quite
complex and not directly relevant to this discussion. The point here is that while
Hindemith's music is very dissonant, especially works composed after 1935, he is still
fundamentally a tonal composer. He has written his own rules on tonality and until a
listener becomes accustomed to his tonal language the expression in his music is difficult
to grasp.
Sachlichkeit period, he experimented with works where he "stripped the musical fabric
"that the bass line and the next most important line form an immediately understandable
two-part texture."66 A clear example of this in the Sonata is the Wie am Anfang section at
the end of the third movement: the piano's parallel octaves reduce to one voice and the
music is unadorned two-voice counterpoint up until bar 58. It is also significant that in
his theories on counterpoint he does not draw a hard line, as traditional counterpoint does,
between "dissonant" and "consonant" intervals. Rather, according to his "Series II," he
saw resolutions of intervals as a relative process: a very tense interval may resolve to a
less tense interval, even if the latter would be considered dissonant under traditional rules
65 Schubert, 2.
66 Ibid.
43
Analysis
When I began this project, I had hoped to conduct an in-depth analysis of each
work on the program, and through the process learn what I needed in order to accomplish
this. Hindemith's language of melodic and harmonic consonance and dissonance was,
three movements of the Sonata is a task that is beyond the scope of this study, although
one which I leave to myself as an open project. For now I must content myself instead to
discuss briefly the formal and thematic elements of the work, ignoring all but the most
obvious or intuitive of "harmonic" details. The reader should keep in mind the
limitations and problems of this study from lack of scholarly understanding of the
"harmonic" fabric of the work when adopting any of the ideas presented herein.
The form of these works seems fairly clear, even without careful study of
piece entitled Sonata. Marked Mit Kraft (see appendix 5-B for translations of German
terms found in the score), the first melody heard (bars 1-9) is the main theme which is
divided into the two motives shown in figures 5.3 and 5.4. Both are the subject of
imitative treatment throughout the opening section. Rehearsal 3 (bar 27) marks the
beginning of the transition. The trumpet calls (bars 28-29) announce the basic motive
(see figure 5.5) of the next section, which Hindemith crafts into a rhythmic fabric and
builds toward a dramatic statement of it between the trumpet and piano at rehearsal 5 (bar
44 with pickup). The second theme is the lyric melody presented before rehearsal 6 (bar
44
47-54). Like the main theme, Hindemith then treats it imitatively (bars 54-62) as the
music builds toward a section that seems to be closing material for the exposition.
The dramatic Breit section (bars 67-84) repeats the opening theme but now
seeming around a tonal center of D and pushes ever forward toward a resolution on D
after rehearsal 9 (bar 84). This section could signal the beginning of the development
(Sonatas, as we have seen with the Haydn, often begin their development with a citation
from the main theme somehow treated differently); however, the structural weight of that
concluding resolution (bar 84) and the sense of direction throughout the second theme
toward the Breit section lead me to group it in with the exposition. I am convinced that
Given that the Breit section is part of the exposition, then the Wie vorher section
(bars 85-107) begins the development with almost an exact quotation of the second
theme, modulated up a whole step to a tonic of B. Again using imitation of the theme, he
sets it against a duple accompaniment (clearly a developmental gesture at this point) and
45
on several other tonics. The next section in 12/8 is very similar to the transition from the
exposition and has the same sense of a building tension which continues all the way to the
9/8 before rehearsal 14 (bar 124), which I interpret as a kind of "dominant arrival." The
change from driving forward melodic motion (bars 119-122) to the more static repetition
of the pitches B-C-D (bars 124-126) has a feeling that gives the impression of some kind
of arrival.
The half-step (and thus strongest possible) melodic resolution to the return of the
main theme at rehearsal 14 (bar 127) is clearly the beginning of the recapitulation (bars
127-142), although the recapitulation then lacks what I identified as the second theme
comes to mind where the transition of the exposition (bars 30-45) is actually the second
theme (the theme being the motive of figure 5.5), and then the recapitulation would be
presentation of the main and secondary themes simultaneously. Again, this is a question
left open to further study. The main theme keeps building in an upward motion through
to 137 and the powerful melodic half-step resolution downwards to F-natural (bar 138) is
the final resolution of the piece. The remainder of the movement (138-142) is a short
coda.
The second movement is in a clear ternary form with 5 distinct themes (labeled 1-
5 in Appendix 4-A, subsequent occurrences also notated) whose repetition and imitation
are the markers I use to think about the structure of the movement. The A section begins
with a presentation of three thematic ideas (the latter possessing two distinct phrases; bars
1-12). Next, theme one is imitated at the interval of a fourth (bars 16-18), and then a
46
repetition of theme one (bars 23-26) concludes the section. These these small sections
are divided from one another by the fanfare motif of theme two.
The B section (bars 26-58) has a related treatment of themes, but is divided into
two parts. The first part (bars 16-48) presents the material labeled as themes four and
five (bars 26-32) followed by a melodic episode (bars 32-39), a brief reference to theme
five (bars 40-41), and a closing rhythmic episode (bars 41-48). Similarly, part two (bars
49-58) begins with a repeat of the opening of the B section (themes four and five) and
then closes with a short rhythmic episode (bars 54-58) between the trumpet and piano
The A' section begins by swapping the roles of trumpet and piano: the trumpet
plays the melodic themes one (bars 59-61) and three (bars 61-69), whereas the piano
interjects with a motive which is gesturally similar to theme two, but derived from theme
five (bar 61). In addition, a new rhythmic or harmonic layer is added underneath the
repeat of the melodic material, and again themes are separated by references to theme two
(bars 69-71). Theme one is again imitated at the interval of a fourth (bars 72-77) and
resolves downward by a half-step at Wie vorher (bar 77) into the coda (bars 77-87). The
coda consists of a static repetition and brief imitation of the rhythmic motive from the B
section.
The last movement is also in a ternary form wherein the compositional sub-
(bars 1-16) tempo is labeled Trauermusik (or "funeral music") and the first two themes
(themes one and two, bars 1-3 and 3-7) set the tone for the movement: it is in the style of
a European funeral march (compare, for instance, to "Siegfried's funeral march" from
47
Wagner's Gtterdammerung). At rehearsal 23, the opening repeats (theme one, bars 7-
10) accompanied by a solemn fanfare in the trumpet (theme three, bars 7-8). The
melodic tension (theme four, bars 9-12) before relaxing into the continuation of the march
(theme two, bars 12-15). There is an important half-step resolution (bar 15-16) and
reference to the opening theme and solemn fanfare (themes one and three, bar 16) which
The B section (bars 17-50), which begins at the Ruhig bewegt marking, is a lyrical
section which makes generous use of imitation and stretto. As before, the three themes of
the section are presented simply and in order at the beginning by the pianist alone (themes
five, six, and seven in bars 17-20, 20-22, and 22-26 respectively). The trumpet answers
with a statement of first theme (theme five, bars 26-29) followed by an imitative section
on theme six where statements in progressive keys between trumpet and piano elide one
another (bars 30-33). A brief transition (bars 33-34) builds to a section of cannon on
theme five (bars 35-40), first in two-beat cannon (bars 35-38) and then in one-beat
cannon (38-41). The expected theme six follows (bars 42-45) in a thickly woven texture
of motivic imitation between the trumpet and piano which resolves to an open fifth and
octave at rehearsal 28 (bar 46) and the trumpet presents the only the second statement of
A new rhythmic texture (constant dotted eighth and sixteenth motion) underlies
the entire A' section (bars 51-67) with the exception of the musical "exclamation" (theme
four, bars 61-63) and also unifies the A' with the Coda, which shares the same rhythmic
texture throughout. After one introductory measure, the Trauermusik of the opening is
48
imitated at the interval of the fourth, but, as in the A' of movement II, given by the
trumpet with this new rhythmic texture underneath it. The thematic material is also given
in sustained pitches rather than short, rhythmic gestures and there are numerous small
alterations of rhythmic values and/or added embellishment (most notably the downbeat
triplet of bar 56). Following the form of A, the fanfare motif accompanies the next
occurance of the main theme (themes one and three, bars 58-60) and the exclamation is
also imitated (theme four, bars 60-63), this time with more insistence by both the trumpet
and piano before fading away into a somber repeating reference to a melodic fragment of
The melody of the Coda (bars 68-94), titled Alle Menschen mssen sterben, is a
modified quotation of the entirety of the 1710 chorale (See Appendix 5-B) by the same
title which Bach had used as the basis for a chorale prelude.67 The original chorale and
Bach's prelude on it are both composed in quadruple meter and major key which makes
Hindemith's treatment of this chorale quite a stark contrast in affect from either model he
may have been familiar with. As with the other details of Hindemith's compositional
style, a close look at what specific compositional devices are used is beyond the scope of
this project.
Affekt
While I have not seen any scholarship suggesting that Hindemith actively had a
program in mind with this work, there are a number of circumstantial and compositional
details which I feel make a strong case that Hindemith was artistically responding to the
impending war in Europe which was brewing strongly when he composed this Sonata in
67 This chorale prelude of Bach's was presented in arrangement for brass quintet on the recital I of 15
November.
49
1939. Working from Switzerland, he composed his clarinet, horn, and trumpet sonatas in
the brief period between fleeing Germany in September 1938 and just prior to his
emigration to the United States in February of 1940.68 A quote from Hindemith's private
journal demonstrates some of his feelings of the time: "I always see myself as the mouse
who recklessly danced in front of the trap and even ventured inside; quite by chance,
when [I] happened to be outside, the trap closed!"69 In what must have been a very heady
When I look at the work with this in mind, several gestures take on new meaning
for me. I hear in the first movement a kind of racing toward destruction: the rhythmic
inevitability of the pianist's figures around rehearsal 4 and again around rehearsal 12, the
insistence of the minor thirds right before the Breit which, to my ears sounds like the
insistence of a European emergency siren (their emergency vehicle sirens are pitched as
alternating minor thirds), and the quotation of the end of the military signal "taps" in the
last two bars all seem to be painting an artist's picture of Europe on the brink of self-
destruction under the Nazi regime. While more light-hearted, even tender, the second
movement echoes the insecurity and unsettling nature of the entire work. The first theme
to me is almost chorale-like in its embellished four-part texture and with the shifting
rhythmic patterns throughout and the high tessitura of the piano accompaniment to the
If the first movement gives me a feeling of what Hindemith is reacting to, the third
movement is a look into the emotions of that reaction. The marking Trauermusik and its
compositional style in that style already hints at the feeling of death. The measured
68 Schubert, 5.
69 Paul Hindemith: "Das private Logbuch," 357, cited in Schubert, 5.
50
march rhythm of the A sections, especially the second one, is interrupted only by the
angstful sustained trumpet lines which remind me of some of Gustav Mahler's "scenes of
death" in the first movement of his Fifth Symphony. Lastly, the citation of the Alle
Menschen chorale gives a clear textual association with the emotions Hindemith has been
portraying (see Appendix 5-C). The sweetness of the Lutheran chorale's message of
hope, which pervades Bach's arrangement, is saved for the final resolution to major mode
in the final two bars of the piece and is all the more powerful for it.
Process
It is without a doubt that Hindemith's trumpet Sonata is one of the most difficult
works in the repertoire. The sustained physical endurance and efficiency that is
demanded simply to play the piece alone puts it in a category by itself, and the mental and
work on an already-full recital program was a true test of of my stamina, and was very
compositional techniques, score study was still tremendously useful in preparing the work
for performance. There are many complex and difficult rhythmic passages (such as the
end of movements I, II and the beginning of movement III) and imitative passages which
time I get the opportunity to perform this work to apply the formal and thematic
understanding which came from score study to performing the work, as well as to start to
understand the counterpoint of his composition. While this work among the five is still
the one I understand least well because of Hindemith's complex and unique neo-tonal
51
compositional vocabulary and syntax, its powerful and emotional Affekt has made it my
52
Chapter 6: Variations on The Carnival of Venice, J. B. Arban
experience, it is also one of the most widely known works of trumpet literature, almost as
well known as the Haydn Concerto. When I set out to learn the work, I felt, as many do,
that the biggest challenges lie in getting my fingers to move fast enough, teaching my
embouchure to surmount the rapid arpeggios, and getting my tongue to respond with the
crispness and agility which the fast multiple-tonguing sections demand. What I came to
discover is that the real challenge lies not there, but rather in presenting the work, in all of
Circumstances of Carnival
The work is of a style of "bravura theme and variations" that was quite popular in
the salons and entertainment-concerts of Europe in the first half of the 19th century. The
("finest European castrati"), had made the leap to instrumentalists' performances and
composers began composing show-pieces for instrumentalists based on opera themes and
and other popular tunes.70 In 1829, Paganini composed his "Il Carnivale di Venezia", Op.
10, which includes a set of bravura variations on the popular Italian tune "O Mamma,
Mamma cara." Paganini influenced many composers to write their own set of variations
on the tune, including Arban. I searched quite far and wide and have been unable to find
an original Italian text for this tune, however, in personal experience, I can attest that it is
used as a folk tune by both the English ["O come to me, Ill row thee / Oer across yon
53
peaceful sea"] and the Germans ["Mein Hut hat Drei Ecke / Drei Ecke hat mein
Hut..."].
Certain composers and other art-music advocates of the time came to despise this
form, and I think it is important to understand their artistic criticisms when preparing a
performance. Robert Schumann "found most variations of this time irredeemably trite
and vapid" and wrote "in no other genre of our art is more bungling incompetence
displayed."71 He also advised against using popular themes, notably "the most hackneyed
Italian ones."72 Another composer in Schumann's circle, Julius Schaeffer wrote, in 1860,
that "The variation form, although cultivated by the masters with special partiality, is still
so badly mistreated by bunglers and hacks that, when it appears, people avoid it or
encounter it with mistrust, and as a consequence of its bad reputation noteworthy theorists
and aestheticians scarcely want to grant it even a modest spot next to legitimate art
forms."73
One of the things which Arban himself is most famous for is that he established
the cornet as a soloistic instrument. Since the end of the age of the clarino players, the
trumpet had been relegated, with a few exceptions like Weidinger, to being a purely
orchestral instrument. The same desire for a fully capable and chromatic trumpet that
pushed Weidinger came into bloom between 1820 and 1840: inventors and craftsmen
however, were mistrustful and hostile to the new inventions and there was great
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid.
74 Tarr, The Trumpet, 158-161.
75 Ibid.
54
F.G.A. Dauvern (1799-1874), who was Arban's trumpet teacher at the Paris
Conservatoire, was one of the early-adopters of these instruments and introduced the
valved trumpet to the Conservatoire in 1833. Arban, after studying at the Conservatoire
from 1841 to 1845 and presumably picking up Dauverne's enthusiasm for possibilities of
the new instruments, took up the related "Cornet a Piston" and mastered the instrument to
become "arguably the first complete technician on the cornet."76 He traveled and
performed as a virtuoso, working to prove to the world the fitness of the cornet as a solo-
voice instrument, and built out of that an international performing and conducting career.
In 1869, Arban returned to the Conservatoire and founded the cornet class as
separate from trumpet and later, in 1880, retired from his international career to return to
Venice appears in the back of the very popular method book he wrote as a course of study
for his students at the Conservatoire, and was certainly also inspired by Paganini's op. 10.
The work set a new standard of excellence of which the valved cornet was capable, and
would continue to be the standard that people looked up to for several generations.78
Analysis
complete analysis of the piece is not particularly difficult. Following a melodic but
thematically unrelated introduction, the theme and variations repeat, quite predictably, in
groups of two separated by a piano refrain. While the work would have been performed
with a concert band in its heyday, it is often presented today as a cornet and piano recital
55
piece and I have been working from the Edwin Franko Goldman piano arrangement.
Despite this publisher's markings, which indicate just four variations, I understand the
work to have fully 8 variations, which, together with the theme, are grouped as follows:
theme, var. 1, refrain, var. 2, var. 3, refrain ... refrain, var. 8, coda. The theme and each
AABB form, with only a minor alternation from that schema in variation 8. Excepting
the introduction, refrains, and the coda, the work has a harmonic rhythm of 1 chord per
bar, and each of the theme and variations' 4-bar phrases' harmonic progression is tonic-
dominant-dominant-tonic.
In the score analysis I have provided in appendix 5-A, I have not, for most of the
the formula I gave in the preceding paragraph. The harmonic structure is unaffected by
the soloist's non-chord tones, which can all be understood as suspensions, neighboring, or
passing dissonances. The introduction is more interesting, and I found it useful to study
and prepare my ears to "tune in" to the accompaniment more clearly and to incorporate
the many melodic suspensions into my phrasing (of course, not at the expense of the
simple, lyric style). The coda, which begins on the final tonic of the last phrase, naturally
is a tonic prolongation with the final cadence repeated several times for emphasis.
variation, to understand how the variation relates to the principal theme of the work. In
studying this relationship, I condensed each variation into the melody that it is
embellishing, and I have included that work in appendix 5-B. The embellishments, which
include many strong-beat dissonances whose resolutions deserve attention, and bravura
56
passages need to be grounded in this simple framework. Many of my teachers have
commented that "getting all the notes" simply was not as important as a sense of phrase
Process
As Schumann and his contemporaries point out, the work should not be mistaken
for a piece of high art-music. The melodic and harmonic constructions are exceedingly
simple, the form is repetitive, and the virtuosity can be notey and bland if performed
without strong character. I have come to believe that the most important challenge of this
work is to integrate a complete mastery of all the above elements with a light and joyful
programmed the work at the conclusion of the concert for just this effect, and while I
never achieved the level of complete mastery and lightness which I can imagine, at both
recitals this piece evoked a sense of excitement and suspense which really helped make
57
Chapter 7: Conclusions and Reflections
This project has been a groundbreaking experience for me in many, many ways.
The types of insights I have gained from the research process have been invaluable and in
many ways my thinking has discretely changed modes in the past year, in large part
through learning related to this project. Through the independent nature of this project,
the challenge of what I set out to do has required me to take strong personal responsibility
which I asked at the outset and has enlarged my sense of the importance of asking those
questions. While I consider this paradigm shift to be the most important benefit of this
process, the many ways in which each area of my performing and academic skills have
Performance Experience
I did not understand what it was that I was planning I decided to give this recital,
with the given program, twice. The program itself was quite demanding and simply
constant growth through learning a large quantity of solo trumpet music, applying a high
intense preparation and steady progress toward a quality performance, and dealing with
the performance anxieties that arise with giving a weighty solo recital.
The continued study of this repertoire, both the academic research which had
begun before the recital and the constant musical practice, in the months after presenting
the first recital proved to be extremely insightful. By the time of my second recital, I
became aware that throughout the undergraduate curriculum, most student performances
58
are structured as a long period of intense preparation concluding with a single
performance of the work. Like most performances structured in this way, when the time
approached to perform the first recital, it was an extremely challenging process to deal
with the many fears which arose about the possible success or failure of the recital.
performing: giving a performance which has already been successfully performed once
several months prior. The most obvious benefit was a sense of relaxation and confidence
about the second recital.. I cannot overstate how amazed I was at the confidence and
relaxation which became available through the memory of the successful performance in
the fall. Whenever some anxiety came up, I was able to simply think back to the the fall
and say to myself "at the worst, it can be like that. But I have studied and practiced a lot
since then, and so this time it will be even better." Through this sense of confidence I
was able to relax and enjoy myself more than ever before, while still performing with a
This experience has changed my understanding of what the nature of the approach
to performing and performance anxiety that I want to cultivate for myself. Confidence is
a product of my ability to envision my own success and with this recital I tasted what
performing with a new level of confidence means. That experience of confidence is now
my goal when I approach performing and something that I work towards before every
performance.
Score Study
59
In each opportunity that I have had to study the effects of knowing the score
better, I have been impressed with the positive effect of score study on my musical
performance. This was clear to me at my first recital and the performances leading up to
it where I performed for the first time having consciously begun to think about score
study as an important part of the music learning process. The positive effects of score
study were even clearer to me at my second recital, where I could observe the effects of
my almost continual score study throughout the winter months. In both cases, in addition
to the many benefits I have espoused throughout the course of this paper, I found that the
detailed knowledge of the score helped me to relax and perform more confidently.
understanding of the score which has manifested itself in much of the presentation of
research which I have done here (theoretical analysis, knowing terms, understanding
musical conventions and style, etc.) and the use of solfege (singing and conducting,
especially) to know (auralize) the music contained in the score. Larry Scripp put it to me
like this: 'when you are playing a concerto and you turn to the conductor and ask him if a
certain line in the second violins can be phrased differently and you sing it for him the
way you would like it, nobody blinks -- they think "ok, he knows the score" and then you
can have a conversation about it.'79 It means knowing more than just your part to the
My newfound understanding about the importance of score study has very much
changed the way I go about learning music. My understanding now is such that simply
learning to play the notes of my part first seems deficient. Without the context of score
study, it is entirely possible to learn just your part to a piece in a way which does
79 Paraphrase from a private conversation with Larry Scripp, 19 March 2005.
60
disservice to the music when taken in context and requires remediation in rehearsal (or
results in a less integrated and satisfactory musical result). "How do I play my part?" is
not even my first question anymore, because with the context of the score, which really
means the music, the notes' musicality is clearer and the range of answers to questions of
"how should this go?". Once I know the music of the score, then I can clearly and
Theory
When I began this project, I had never before attempted a detailed analysis of a
complete work of solo literature. I believed it would not be terribly hard to take the time
to do that analysis before performing these works. As I attempted this analysis I began
my inquiry of "what does it mean to analyze?" with the goal of a more detailed, musical
performance in mind. I had never asked myself this question before, and through it, as
mostly Common Practice Period syntax and form, basic understanding of counterpoint,
but the foundation on which the real tools of analysis have only just begun, through the
My goal was to analyze each work on my recital program and come to a detailed
understanding of it from thematic, harmonic, and formal perspectives and then, from that
knowledge, to present an informed and musical presentation of the work. From one point
80 Obviously, this is an idealized picture of the musical process. There are many important situations
where being able to make music without the aid of the score is essential and that skill should not be
overlooked.
61
of view, that is precisely what I did and it was a tremendously successful study. On the
other hand, an academically thorough and detailed analysis of any of the works on the
program, in the way which I know believe is possible, proved to be beyond the scope of
this project or my present understanding of analysis. Many questions remain open: I still
do not understand well how High Baroque composers thought about harmony and how to
analyze their harmonic and formal syntax on a broad level; I do not understand what
tools are available for thematic or motivic analysis, which analyzing a large-scale
classical work such as the Haydn Concerto demands; my understanding of the post-
Wagnerian late Romantic and Impressionist schools of composition's formal designs and
only the most rudimentary knowledge of Hindemith's tonal, contrapuntal, and thematic
language. Analysis of each work has opened questions which stretch the boundaries of
my understanding of the role of music theory in my life as a performer and has endowed
What strikes me most about the historical scholarship involved in this project is
that it is all at the most secondary of levels. The majority of my sources are from the
New Grove Dictionary of Music with a little bit of influence from Ed Tarr's essential
book on The Trumpet. The questions I set out asking of each work -- "Who was the
composer?", "Why did he compose the work?", "What were the circumstances
surrounding the composition process?", "What was the style of the period?", and "How
does the answers to these questions relate to my interpretation of the piece?" -- were all
62
been presented in another's research. On the contrary, with the exception of the Haydn
Concerto, I have found very few books or papers written on the questions I was asking.
The limited scope of my research likely has much to do with this, but what I learned
about the nature of historical research is that most often you have to connect your own
dots. The people who are saying the kinds of things that I want to be able to say about
about the works I am studying have done deep and thorough explorations that cross many
What I have come to understand about my knowledge is that Music History class
prepares you with understanding of only the major threads of the large and detailed
tapestry of music history. This framework does not prepare you to answer the question
"So just what was Mr. Handel doing in 1741 when he composed Messiah?" I was
amazed that every New Grove Dictionary article I read on a given subject contained often
large amounts information which was completely new to me, and I now consider this very
The cases where I went into more depth with my research, exploring two or three
historical detail available to the researcher who is willing to, for instance, go and study
primary sources such as Hindemith's personal letters to find out just what he was thinking
Naturally, studies of this kind of depth for each subject I have touched on in the
past year would be a ludicrous amount of work for an undergraduate paper. I consider the
results of my studies successful insofar as I have found a great many answers to the
63
questions I was asking and am now familiar with both the process of in-depth research
and some of the most prominent primary and secondary sources in the subject areas I
unanswered: How is the unequal tonguing of Quantz and Altenburg applied to Baroque
aria like "The trumpet shall sound"? What kind of instrument was the "F trumpet" that the
Romantic orchestral composers were writing for, and how does that affect how I interpret
that music? What did Franquin's 4-valved, small-bore C/D trumpet really sound like and
how should it affect my performance of Enesco's Legend? These and other questions will
Style
have begun to understand the history of the style of the trumpet. While history of trumpet
style finds its most prominent manifestation in Baroque works, whose instrument and
trumpet style were deeply different than our modern instruments and playing style, I
believe that an understanding of the history of style applies to all works. This is
especially true of the orchestral world, where a majority of the repertoire performed is old
enough for a historical style to apply. In consulting the many recordings which I chose to
listen to, especially those of the Legend which I commented on in appendix 4-D, I
became aware that I have a very weak conceptual framework in which to understand the
Style is a tricky subject, however, because understanding style and being fluent as
a performer in various styles are two closely related subjects with very different
64
methodologies. The brief study of recordings of the Legend was enough to convince me
that there is a wealth of information about style available through recordings, which have
been made since the advent of that technology in the 1920's and 30's. Trumpet players in
many different places and times, playing many different kinds of music, have each had
their own sense of style. In a sense, each performer has a vocabulary of styles which they
select from when approaching a new work. It follows naturally from academic
vocabulary which matches academic understanding. While an active study of the whole
spectrum of styles throughout history of this did not find a place in my studies this past
year, I believe that this will be an essential study for me as a performer to undertake in the
Conclusions
I chose this topic of research for my project in large part because my curiosity and
interest had been piqued by the field of "historically informed performance." What are
these musicians doing differently and why can I perceive such a profound musical
difference? In the process of this project, I have come to see a certain kind of synthesis
between all the different elements of my research: what teachers have suggested in terms
of aural conception and solfege, the application of the tools of historical scholarship and
theoretical analysis, and score study. I think of this synthesis as simply "informed
performance," and my experiences with this project have confirmed the usefulness of this
I am aware that the present study has emphasized the results and processes of the
65
experiences this past year have continually reminded me that regardless of my academic
knowledge, performing is still a musical art and requires a real and vital connection to the
concept-less and theory-less essential nature of the music itself. When I have let my
concepts about music dictate to my intuition how the music should go, my performance
often becomes stilted and awkward, and so in a paper about applying academics to music,
and the artistic discipline of performing is essential to achieve a truly great performance.
specific, tangible result but is rather a process of inquiry, study, and growth, and that my
goal at the outset was to explore what it means to go through this process for my senior
recital, then I consider this project a resounding success. I have asked many questions,
gained many answers and insights, and tried many different ways of applying them to the
art of performing. Furthermore, I am not left just with answers, but with a clear
understanding of my own academic abilities and knowledge, a glimpse of the large world
of academic research, and ultimately many more questions than I started with. If my
theories and experiences are valid, then this process of informed performing is never-
ending, and I will continue to ask questions, study materials, apply it to music-making,
66
Bibliography
Baker, Theodore. Schirmer Pronouncing Pocket Manual of Musical Terms, Fifth edition,
revised Laura Kuhn and Nicolas Slominsky. New York: Schirmer Trade Books,
1995.
Bible, King James Version. Oxford Text Archive, via University of Michigan Humanities
Dahlqvist, Reine. "Weidinger, Anton." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 10
Deansutcliffe, W., and Tilmouth, Michael. "Ternary form." Grove Music Online, ed. L.
1992.
<http://www.handelandhaydn.org/learn/history/history_home.htm>.
<http://www.xreferplus.com/>.
Haydn, Franz Joseph. Concerto, with preface by E.H. Tarr and H.C. Robbins Landon.
67
Hutchings, Arthur, et all. "Concerto." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 11
Hicks, Anthony. "Chrysander, Friedrich." Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 11
Hicks, Anthony. "Handel, George Frideric." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed
Kelly, Thomas Forrest. First Nights: Five Musical Premieres. New Haven: Yale
Malcolm, Noel. "Enescu, George." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 02 April
2005, <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
Morley, Max L. "The Trumpet Arias in the Oratorios of George Frederic Handel."
Pasler, Jann. "Impressionism." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 2 July 2005,
<http://www.grovemusic.com>.
Reilly, Edward R., and Giger, Andreas. "Quantz, Johann Joachim." Grove Music Online,
Samson, Jim. "Romanticism." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 2 July 2005,
<http://www.grovemusic.com>.
Schubert, Giselher. "Hindemith, Paul." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 28
68
Sisman, Elaine. "Variations." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. 15 April 2005,
<http://www.grovemusic.com>.
Tarr, Edward H. "Arban, Jean-Baptiste." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 31
Tarr, Edward H. "Franquin, Merri." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 1 April
2005, <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
Tarr, Edward H. "Haydn's Trumpet Concerto (1769-1996) and its Origins." International
Tarr, Edward H. The Trumpet, ed. Reinhard, G. Pauly, Ph.D. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus
Press, 1988.
<http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/franquin/>.
Webster, James. "Haydn, Joseph." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy. Accessed 5 May
2005, <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
Willis, Melissa. "The Trumpet Concertos of Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk
69
Appendix 1:
"The trumpet shall sound," G. F. Handel
Part A:
An Annotated Piano Score
Part B:
Discography
Discography for J. Haydn's Concerto.
Part A:
An annotated piano score
Part B:
Translations of French terms
that appear in piano score
Part C:
An annotated discography
Translation of French terms and phrases:
Hardenberger, Hakan. "Mysteries of the Macabre." Philips Digital Classics 426 144-2
(1988 / 1990). With Roland Poentinen, piano. Track 4.
Hardenberger clearly plays with a lot of style on this recording, but not all of it is
to my taste. Most notably, he has a thin, wavy vibrato that I find undesirable, but it
doesn't stop him from making good music. His tempi are faster than other recordings,
but uses a lot of rubato and is free with the meter; Between the two, I feel he has a very
pleasing and musical result with a real sense of vitality. Sometimes it's too fast, such as
the chromatic run and the piano (bars 55-59), and in the first A section the momentum
plows right through the fermati before the B section. His rapport with Poentinen is quite
good, and I enjoy listening to the ensemble they create. I enjoy the control Hardenberger
exhibits in his soft playing in the first fast section, and I also like the energy and musical
freedom of the a volont in the B section. Also, drawing on the formal analysis I've done,
I greatly admire the attention Hardenberger gives to the D-flat-C resolution (bar 12),
where we get the first very first dominant-tonic in A-flat which I mentioned in my
analysis. This is an unconventional recording, but one that has made me think about
musical ideas and risks.
Marsalis, Wynton. "On the Twentieth Century." Sony Classical SK 47193 (1992 / 1993).
With Judith Lynn Stillmann, piano. Tracks 13-15.
Marsalis' recording of the Enesco is quite good, especially the faster tempi (this
includes the middle "slow" section as well). His soft sound and interpretation both leave
me wanting: the sound is thin and airy, without body, and his lines lack the kind of
sustain and sense of "line" that I value deeply in this piece. This becomes almost (to my
ears) painfully apparent in the las slow section where each note is beautifully started and
ended with a nice neat space between each of them and the lines are mostly disjunct from
one another. That said, Marsalis gets a great "heroic" sound when he unleashes,
especially at the first a volont, has a crisp articulation and rhythmic precision in the
faster passages that is very satisfying.
Schlueter, Charles. "Virtuoso Trumpet." Kleos Classics KL5114 (2001). With Deborah
DeWolf Emery, piano. Track 2.
Schlueter's first line begins with a wonderful sound which is the part of his
playing I like best: a rich, dark sound with a very smooth and connected sense of line.
Unfortunately, there are a number of less good things in this recording: here and there
there are intonation issues, weak articulation, or fuzzy note beginnings and in general not
enough contrast from the dark sound at the beginning to the brighter sound I hear in my
head at the climax in the B section. Ms. Emery is a under-balanced and not as
exaggerated in her style as some of the other recordings. There's one particular quirk of
articulation that I think works well and I enjoy: Mr. Schlueter articulates the ascending
16th-note triplet scales (bars 22, 29) in a slightly held-back, slur-two tongue-four manner
with a full-value kind of articulation; Most performances triple tongue the passage and
rush through it where as Schlueter relishes each note.
Smith, Philip. "Philip Smith: Principal Trumpet, New York Philharmonic." Cala
Records CACD0516 (1996 / 1998). With Joseph Turrin, piano. Track 3.
Philip Smith's sound and control of his instrument is amazing to me, and it really
comes out in this recording. Unfortunately, I find that he does not attend to many of the
musical details which I've found interesting about this work in my research. The
harmonic shift to A-flat major (bar 12) which I mention in the body of this paper as an
important structural detail, Smith charges through it at full steam; same to with the
transitions at the end of the A section, the end of the B section, and the a volont of the
A'. That said, his control over the instrument provides him with great accuracy and
dynamic contrast throughout the A section which I like, musically. I really enjoy his
playing in the climactic "high c" section (bars 35-37) and the way he keeps the musical
intensity pushing all the way to the end of B'. He makes an unconventional choice to use
a cup mute instead of a straight mute for the last section, but I like the sound he gets and
it seems musically appropriate. I also find in his soft playing a pleasing sustain and sense
of line. The very first phrase by the trumpet (bars 2-3) is a great example of this.
Tangentially, I find it very unfortunate that there's only about 2-3 seconds of silence
between the end of the Legend and the beginning of the next track: it's a bit jarring.
Appendix 4:
Sonata fr Trompete und Klavier, P. Hindemith
Part A:
Piano Score
Part B:
translation of German terms
that appear in the piano score.
Part C:
Text for the chorale
Alle Menschen mssen sterben
Part D:
Discography
Translation of German terms and phrases:
Alle Menschen mssen sterben: "All people must die." See Part C.
Breit: Broadly.
Lebhaft: Lively, animated.
Mig bewegt: Moderately moving.
Mit Kraft: With power or strength.
Ruhig bewegt: Calm or peaceful but with motion or agitation.
Sehr langsam: Very slow.
Sehr ruhig: Very quite, calm, tranquil.
Trauermusik: Funeral music.
Wie am Anfang: As in the beginning, Tempo I.
Wie vorher: As before, Tempo I.
Wie zuerst: As it was first, Tempo I.
Source:
Both common knowledge and the Schirmer Pocket Manual of Musical Terms
(see bibliography for a full citation)
Discography for P. Hindemith's Sonata.
Part A:
An annotated piano score
Part B:
Reductions of each variation to component melody
1
Thematic Reductions
Theme
>
> > * > > > > > * * > > > > > > > * ( > > > > > > > * * > > > > > >
6
8
*( > >
> * *
> > > > > > > > > > > > * ( > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > * ( :
* *
8
Variation 1
> * > * > > * > > * > > * > > > > * > > * > > * > * > >
>
> >
6
8
* > > * > > * > * > > >> > * >
* > * > > * >
12
> * > > * * > * > > > > > > > >> > > > >
> > > >>>>>> ( ( > > >> > > >
7
>
> >> >> > >> > > > >> >
> ( ( > >> >> > > ( ( > > > > > > ( ( :
12
>
Variation 3
> > * > * > > * > * > > * > > * > > : > * > > * > * >
6
8
> > >
2
Variation 4
> > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * >
6
8
>>> >
> >
> > > > > > > > > > > > > * > > > > > > > > > > > (
11
Variation 5
> > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * > > * >
6
8
> * * * > * > * > * * > > > * > > * * > * >
> > > > > >
6
> > * * > > > * > > * * > > * > >> (
12
Variation 6
6 > > > > > >: ( > > > > > > > > ( > > > > > >: ( > > > > > >
8
( > > > > > > > ( > > > > ( > > > > > > > ( > > > > ( :
>> > > >> > > >>
8
Variation 7
6 > > : : :
+ >> + > > + > > > > > > > > > >
> > >> *> > : :
+ >> + >
8
> + : > > > > > * > > > > > > >
>*> >>>>>
> > > > > > > > > *
6
> >
>
> > > > > > > > > > * > > (
> * > * > >> * > * > > >
12
> >
Variation 8
* * * * * * * * >
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
6
8
* * * * > * > * > > > > > > > > >>> > >
6
>