After 4 hours of score and part study on the plane — with my eyes starting to cross and my brain showing signs of overheating — I decided it was time for a change, so once again my handy iPhone comes out to blog. It is still amazing to me that I will be able to write and post this from my phone while traveling — write in the air, post when I land. It wasn’t so long ago that connecting a phone cord to a bulky home computer was the only way to even access the internet. Now, I have a much faster connection virtually everywhere I go with a device that fits in my palm. I’m glad I didn’t have to carry-on my old tan desktop! Very difficult to fit underneath the seat in front of me.

Since my 150 or so traveling companions are not likely fans of trumpet fundamentals, I have decided that some good old-fashioned score study would be a good way to get in some necessary work. While pouring over the music for the Cabrillo Festival, I am once again struck by how difficult it is to prepare for this festival. Most pieces you play are totally unkown and unrecorded (no buying the recording to see what a piece sounds like for this festival). Not only that, much of the music is by composers whose music is unfamiliar, so you don’t have the instant knowledge of tendencies and style that you would have with a Stravinsky, Mahler, Brahms, etc. Oh yeah, and the music is just flippin’ hard too; that definitely plays a role.

So as the plane lands and I fight my way through the airport, I will likely be fingering thoughtlessly through a tricky passage, or singing some off the wall rhythm, or wondering how, as is indicated in one piece, it is going to work to have me play into the bell of a tuba with my Harmon mute on, while the tuba player wiggles the valves creating a “watery effect”. It might be cool. It might not. Either way, it will certainly be different.

Tray table is up. Time to update my blog.

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I was listening to the radio this morning –

The radio?
Yes.
Not your iPod or computer?
No, the radio. An actual radio. With a knob
In the car?
No, at home.
They make them for the home?
Yes.
Do you have to pay for it?
No, it’s free.
What’s it like?
It’s like an iPod where someone else picks the music.
Weird.
No, it’s actually pretty cool, because they pick things that I wouldn’t pick on my own.
Don’t they sometimes pick stuff you hate?
Sure, but they also pick things I love, and most importantly, they pick things that I love, but that I would never have picked on my own.
Like what?
Well, that’s what I was trying to write about when you interrupted me.
Oh. Sorry.

Anyway, I turned the radio on this morning and the local classical station was playing Aaron Copland’s Red Pony. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear the entire piece, but I really enjoyed what I did catch. It has been a while since I listened to any Copland, but I found myself wondering why, as I listened on the radio this morning. He has such a distinctive style: extraordinary use of color and texture in his orchestration, simple and clear themes… His is a defining voice of American classical music, if not the defining voice. What is perhaps the most extraordinary about his music, though, is how instantly recognizable it is. Whether you are listening to one of his more popular pieces (Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Billy the Kid) or one of his more obscure (Inscape, Orchestral Variations) you can always tell it is him. This is a trait of a great artist: a voice so clear and strong that it transcends whatever form or technique is used and emerges as a profound and distinctly unique voice amongst a chorus of voices.

That is what I was thinking over coffee this morning. But it’s not all I was thinking: I thought also of Steinbeck, whose novella was the origin of the movie and the inspiration of the music; of my time in the San Francisco Symphony and our recording of the Copland the Populist CD (one of my favorites of all the orchestral recordings I have done); of playing principal trumpet on that recording of Appalachian Spring with (Andrew McCandless playing an incredible second trumpet); of the fire and energy that Michael Tilson Thomas created in the orchestra, especially for that recording. All of this was on my mind because I just happened to turn the radio on and listen while having a cup of coffee. This is not music I would have ever chosen to put on myself this morning, not on any device. But there it was. On the radio. And the fact that it was there is what got me thinking, the fact that it existed without my having chosen it, that it was there for all to hear. I was a musical tourist, bumping shoulders with other musical tourists listening from their homes and cars all around South florida, reflecting on what was being broadcast, each of our thoughts and feelings overlapping here, contrasting there…

As much as I love my iPod, these thoughts and memories would have never flowed from it. Perhaps the radio is not as outdated as some might believe. I’m glad I turned it on.

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If I were to choose any trumpet concerto to sit and listen to, just for the sake of enjoyment, I believe I would choose Desolation Wilderness, the piece that has been occupying real estate on my music stand for quite some time now. The reason I would sit and listen to it isn’t because of that, however. There are plenty of concertos that I have spent a ton of time learning that will never see the light of day on a playlist of mine. This concerto by Joby Talbot offers us trumpet players something that is sorely lacking from our repertoire: a beautiful concerto that is exciting, challenging, and flashy, while giving the trumpet player that rare chance to really sing a truly heartfelt line. Simply put, it is finely crafted and dynamic music, with a soul.

I suppose it is a good sign that I feel this way as I work to get the piece ready for it’s U.S. Premier. This is one concerto that should definitely become a staple of our repertoire. I know it will of mine.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, unlike many trumpet concertos, it doesn’t have a crappy 3rd movement. Rejoice!

Joby Talbot

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The Cabrillo Festival (which is discussed in more detail in the post, New Trends for New Music) starts in one week, which means I am in the throes of final preparation right now. This year, as every year, I am wondering how I am going to get everything learned in time, especially with a difficult concerto added to the mix. Playing new music is always demanding; composers don’t always have what I would call a perfect grasp on how to write effectively for the trumpet. A couple of composers this year suffer from one of my personal pet peeves — I call it the D Trumpet Disorder. This condition leads to parts like this:

A classic example of DTD

I can see it now, the composer sitting guiltily at his desk, wanting to stretch the range of the trumpet to include that high E, held by the knowledge that it really is not a reasonable thing to write. “I know,” he thinks excitedly, “I’ll write it for D trumpet! It will still have a big sound, but it will be easy to play!” With the guilt now gone, the composer hurriedly transposes the part into D, and voila! problem solved. Right? Not so fast…

The D trumpet is not a panacea for all that ails our beast of an instrument. That high concert E is still a concert E, no matter if it is played on a Bb, C, D, or Eb trumpet. In fact, for me personally, I’d rather play the high E on my C trumpet than on a D. Hakan Hardenberger mentioned something similar when he told me that he plays the Maxwell Davies Sonata on C trumpet (rather than on D trumpet as indicated in the part). He said that he just doesn’t see any reason to use D. I tend to agree, though the piece is not exactly easy no matter what you play it on. On D trumpets I have tried, the upper register gets a bit tight and tends to be even harder to play above concert D than my C trumpet. I do find that playing on one of the small instruments (G or piccolo) does make it noticeably easier, but it is still certainly no walk in the park. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my D trumpet, and I find many great uses for it, especially in the orchestra; I just don’t tend to use it for extreme high register parts.

You may be curious as to what exactly has driven me to write this article. After all, it’s really not that big of a deal. If the composer has written for D trumpet, then you can still transpose it to piccolo, which is what I almost always do without a fuss. This time, though, the part continues past what is indicated in the image above. It goes a few lines, and then changes key — to Db major — and then it continues for a full page after that. Now, this transposition wouldn’t be too bad, except for the fact that the part is loaded with accidentals. So now, I am doing mental acrobatics while playing outrageously high trumpet parts at the end of an intense festival, at the end of a long concert — a concert which, it just so happens, occurs twice on the last day day. Now that makes me cranky.

You see, if the composer had simply left the part in C, then I could choose for myself what kind of wuss-out tool would be best for the job, and then I could quietly go to said tool when the going gets rough, glady accepting the compliments afterward for nailing the screaming high trumpet part. Of course, the composer too, would then have to suffer the indignity of anyone who is familiar with the normal range for the trumpet looking at the score and saying, “What the hell was this idiot thinking here?” Most composers don’t really like to take the chance of such a thing, so the D Trumpet Disorder bails them out. Meanwhile, I am left to pick way through the minefield. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.

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Each of the past two summers I have been playing the two week new music immersion that is the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. The festival is located in Santa Cruz, California, and it offers a unique musical opportunity to simultaneously expose and be exposed to some of the best new music being written today. Every year the festival brings in the leading composers of our time and they collaborate with music director Marin Alsop and the orchestra to create concerts that focus solely on new music; there is no old musical warhorse being trotted around these grounds. If you want to hear Tchaik 5, or Beethoven 5, or Pictures at an Exhibition, you’ll have to find a different festival.

This year, I am especially excited about the festival because I am performing the U.S. Premier of Desolation Wilderness, a trumpet concerto written by the British composer, Joby Talbot. The concerto was written in 2006 for Alison Balsom and it features driving minimalist-style rhythms, soaring melodic lines, and lightning fast technical passages reminiscent of the great violin concertos; it is a welcome addition to the trumpet repertoire to be sure. If you don’t know Joby’s music, you should definitely check it out. He has done some extraordinary work. You can learn more about him by visiting www.jobytalbot.com.

Joby’s music is a perfect example of new music that bucks the trend of being difficult to listen to and academic. Indeed, my experiences the past couple of summers at the Cabrillo Festival have introduced me to a wide range of composers who write music that is strikingly beautiful and quite easy to listen to, while maintaining important aspects like originality, finely crafted orchestration, and a well organized formal structure. This new direction for modern music is exciting and necessary for the survival of classical music as an art form. Over the last 50-100 years the vast majority of composers have ignored their audiences and written music that most of the population would not choose to listen to. Artistically speaking, I have no problem with that. I truly believe a composer should write the music he/she most believes in, regardless of what people think. The problem comes when we want to be able to make a living writing or performing this type of music. For that, we need to be able to make money, and to make money we need the audience to care about our work; it’s that simple. If classical music is going to continue into the future as a living, thriving art form — and not as just an old museum relic — it will need to have new music that audiences care about, that people are excited to hear. New music is the music of our age; it needs to be the main attraction, and the main attraction has to be good!

For two short weeks in Santa Cruz that is exactly what is on offer, and I am happy to be a part of it. To see what is going on at the festival this year simply visit: www.cabrillomusic.org

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