The fourth Charlier etude has become the seemingly forlorn sibling of the three venerable “Du Style” etudes, often overlooked in favor the popular #6 and the dominant and ubiquitous #2. And that is an unfortunate state of affairs, because this etude is an absolute delight to play and hear. It has taken me a while to carve out enough time to record this etude — the latest installment in my YouTube Charlier Project — but I am glad to have been delayed while preparing this etude, because it gave me some extra time to prise open the hood and see in greater detail what is inside. I found some interesting things.

Whenever I start preparing one of these etudes for this project I always go back to the book and take a close look at exactly what’s on the page, wanting to make sure that I am not playing anything out of habit that is inconsistent with the score. One of the first steps in that process is to check the marked tempo to see how it compares to how I normally play it. In this case I was shocked. The marked tempo (quarter note = 66) is slow. And when I say slow, I mean strap-on-your-turtle-shoes-this-is-going-to-take-a-while slow. This tempo is, in my opinion, simply unworkable; the music just dies at that tempo (sorry Thèo!). So if 66 is too slow, you might ask, then what is a good tempo? The quick answer is 72-76, but to really determine the best tempo, you need to take a look at the Poco piu mosso section in bar 25, decide how fast you want that section to go, and then play the opening a little slower than that. Determining the tempo in this manner will yield a much more compelling result than simply clicking the metronome onto 66 and heading on your way. If you do that, it will be a long trip indeed.

Another critical element in this etude is the pair of “poco a poco stringendo e crescendo” markings towards the end of the piu mosso section. Charlier has gone to the trouble to notate very specifically what he wants here, and I think it is important that we acknowledge this (especially since I have already rebuffed his request to play this thing too slow!). In this case his markings make perfect sense, and it is up to us to make sure that we achieve the kind of two terrace stringendo that he is asking for; making sure that the first stringendo ends in bar 38, followed by 4 bars at the arrival tempo, before beginning the second stringendo. This is a subtle technique, to be sure, but I do feel like it is much more interesting than simply writing one long stringendo that spans the entire 12 bar section. That is a long time for a gradual accelerando, and even if done well, I don’t think it would be very satisfying musically.

The Stesso Tempo section that follows is a resumption of the “Poco piu mosso” tempo, but make sure to notice the dolce marking. This section may look like a technicians toy box — with the double tongued 32nd notes, sextuplets, and copious 16ths — but this music must still retain the dolce style that is indicated. Charlier is reminding us that this is still a member of the “Du Style” family after all.

Looking further ahead, another critical detail that is often overlooked in performances of this etude is the placement of the “Forte” marking on page 2, lines 2 and 3. This dynamic marking is not placed on the downbeat, but rather under the 16th triplet, indicating that this figure begins with the 16th triplet/eighth and not on the downbeat. In both instances the downbeat is the conclusion of the previous phrase, not the beginning of a new one, nor an elided phrase. This makes a very distinct difference in the character of this section and Charlier has marked it with great care and precision. We owe it to him to not overlook it.

That about sums it up. It has been a real pleasure to prepare this etude again. Hopefully my exploration of it (and the resulting performance) will offer some help when you go about preparing this etude yourself. Perhaps it will even lead to some much deserved attention for this often forgotten member of the “Du Style” family. Let’s share a little love shall we? This etude richly deserves it.

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Théo Charlier: 36 Etudes Transcendantes. I remember the first time I saw those words scrawled on a piece of paper by my college trumpet professor, Ray Crisara. I had no real idea at the time what kind of journey I was undertaking or how many hours of my time would be poured into the music in those pages. I simply took the note and placed my order for what I assumed was just the next etude book. Studying those etudes, though, was a seminal experience for me. I was forced to re-evaluate my playing — new weaknesses were exposed, old weaknesses were laid bare. These etudes cover essentially every aspect of trumpet technique, and they do so within a musically challenging and rewarding context. Given that, I suppose it is no mystery why this etude book has become a long-standing rite of passage for most trumpet players. But unlike most rites of passage, these seem to keep coming back to haunt you, to test your improvement (or lack thereof) to challenge you again in many old ways and also to offer up new challenges that perhaps you hadn’t experienced before. This etude book is not the “Trumpet Player’s Bible” like the Arban Method, but its role in the development of serious trumpet students is unparalleled. Virtually every college level trumpet player works from the book, and if there is an etude book that is universally revered, studied, and debated within the trumpet community, it’s this one. And now I have undertaken a project to record these etudes with no editing or effects of any kind and upload the results to YouTube (CraigMorrisTrumpet ) for the entire world to see. This is how you know that I am clinically insane.

Besides the obvious insanity, however, there are some good reasons to take on this project. In this day and age there is so much editing and processing that goes into recordings that it is difficult to know what a top professional trumpet player actually sounds like, what his/her abilities truly are. You can decide for yourself if I actually belong in that category, but whatever your opinion, these etudes will give you a very real idea of how I actually play. My hope is that this knowledge will be useful for players who are trying to ascertain where they stand in their progress on the instrument, at least as it pertains to these etudes. Sometimes we are too hard on ourselves for playing that we should really be proud of, worried that we just don’t measure up to the players we hear on recordings, especially so called “live recordings”. At other times we aren’t demanding enough, thinking that perhaps top players have perfect recordings simply because of the editing, not knowing how well those people actually played. In this project, however, there is no doubt. For better or worse, this is how I sound. I simply start recording takes until I have one that I am reasonably happy with, and then I continue on, hoping to improve on that. After I’m done, I listen through my top takes and select my favorite to post to YouTube. Simple, honest, and hopefully not horribly painful as the etudes get more difficult (this is where that insanity comes into play).

Beyond those lofty goals, however, there are some personal motives driving this project as well. It was a little over 20 years ago when Ray Crisara introduced these etudes to me and proceeded to shape my playing and musicality with them and through them. I remember so clearly — sitting in his studio and carefully listening as he would point out one problem or another, suggest some different musical ideas and approaches, and demonstrate with his pristine and beautiful playing how he felt they should really be played. For me, revisiting these etudes in a serious manner is a walk down memory lane, a study in my progress as a trumpet player and musician, and a test to see if I can actually come close to how I believe they should go, all rolled into one. For this reason, I am recording the etudes in the order that I first went through them with my teacher. Inside my old Charlier book (a well-worn, large size edition with a missing cover) the dates that I had these etudes assigned to me is written at the top of each etude. My plan is to follow that order throughout, perhaps recounting some of my experiences from when I first learned them along the way.

It will be an interesting journey, as I plow ahead through these transcendent etudes by Théo Charlier. I don’t know that there will be anything transcendent happening, but hopefully this project will give people studying these etudes some kind of real benchmark to shoot for and even surpass. I make no claims to greatness, no assertion that these recordings will be definitive in any way. No, they simply show what is real: just a guy with trumpet, a macbook pro, a USB microphone, and a tattered old etude book, doing the best that he can. I’m glad I have some great teaching and invaluable memories to help light the way.