Goedicke on the Internet

In the autumn of 2005, I performed Concert Etude by Alexander Goedicke with a brass band. Since I work with computers as a profession and use the Internet all the time, I decided to use the World Wide Web to assist me in preparing for this performance. I had three questions at the beginning the project that I hoped could be answered online:

1.  Who was Goedicke?
2.  What recordings of the Concert Etude are available?
3.  Where can I find a “virtual pianist” to accompany me when practicing the solo?

About the Composer:

Since Goedicke was a Russian, I knew that his name could be spelled several ways; Goedicke, Goedike, Gedicke, and Gedike. Although I ran searches on all these names, the spelling “Gedike” returned the most information:

Aleksandr Fyodorovich Gedike was born on February 20, 1877, into a musical family of German descent. His more than eighty compositions include four operas on his own libretti, three symphonies, several overtures, and symphonic poems, concertos for various instruments, including of course, the organ and the piano. In later years Gedike wrote several cantatas and overtures with titles that refer to heroic feats of the Soviet people. He also wrote numerous exercises and transcriptions for piano and organ. He died in Moscow, July 9, 1957.

One of the most useful online resources dedicated to classical composers is the Classical Composers Database web site.

Recordings

When preparing a solo piece like the Concert Etude, it is always a good idea to listen to different recordings.

As a member of ITG, I already had one great version from the Philip Smith/Joseph Turrin CD, Contest Solos for Young Trumpeters given to ITG members as the complimentary CD in 2002 (you can acquire this recording by clicking here. On the Internet I also found recordings by Timofei Dokshizer, Allen Vizzutti, James Watson, and cornet virtuosi like James Shepherd, Leonard B. Smith, and Roger Webster. A special recording, possibly the first ever recorded, is by Sergey N. Yeriomin (c. 1936). This is also on an ITG two CD set from 2005 entitled European Cornet and Trumpet Soloists 1899 – 1950, and is available from the ITG Web Site.

Music Minus One offered three different versions of the Concert Etude:

1.  Richard Steuart, trumpet; State Wind-Orchestra of the Ukraine
2.  Alfred Lang, trumpet; Virginia Mitchell, piano
3.  Gerard Schwarz, trumpet; Harriet Wingreen, piano

The Music Minus One CD has tracks that present only the accompaniment. This is a great tool to use when working on the solo. However, if you want to work with the accompaniment at a different tempo than recorded, you have a problem. Also if you want to practice just a part of the solo, it can be a bit difficult to use a play-along CD.

The “Virtual Pianist”

Since I have used different types of musical software on my computer, I knew that if I could find a MIDI file of the piano accompaniment, I would have an even greater tool than the Minus One CDs. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a computer format that enables electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, sampler, sequencer, and drum machine from any manufacturer to communicate with one another and with computers.

I did a search and ended up on Jay Lichtmann’s excellent web site. Lichtmann, trumpet professor at the University of Hartford, has made available for free download a great number of arrangements and music for trumpet, trombone, and brass ensembles. This repertoire comes with MIDI accompaniments. Under the section called “Trumpet & MIDI,” I found a PDF file of the Goedicke trumpet part and a MIDI file of the piano accompaniment. There are several computer programs (NoteWorthy, Finale, etc.) in which you can load a MIDI file and then do things like change the tempo, transpose lines, etc., and then play it back. This gives you a “virtual pianist” that never gets tired, can play accurately in any tempo or key, and is available all the time.

Band-in-a Box. To try some of the things mentioned above, I used a program called Band-in-a-Box (also called BiaB for short). BiaB is a tool that many of my jazz friends use. The way I used it here is not the most common. Usually you type in the chords for a song using standard chord symbols like C, Fm7, etc. Then you choose the style you’d like, and BiaB automatically generates a complete professional quality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings. You can choose from a wide variety of styles—Jazz, Pop, Country, Classical, and more. After having loaded the MIDI file into BiaB, I chose the instrument called “acoustic piano.” The sound card on my new laptop is good and the playback sounded quite close to a real piano. Now I was ready to start working on the solo with my “virtual pianist.”

At first, when working on the details of the solo, I used a loop-function in BiaB allowing me to practice one section over and over. I marked a starting bar and an ending bar and set the number of repeats I wanted. Starting slowly is always a good idea, so I set the tempo to mm=80. Then I played the whole solo at this slow tempo. After practicing the solo at that tempo to my satisfaction, I increased the tempo by 5 clicks to 85 and repeated the procedure.

Of the recordings that I listened to, the one I liked most was Phil Smith’s version, so I settled on his tempo (mm=140). With BiaB, however, I was able to work it up to the speed of mm=160. Dokshizer had the fastest version (mm=172, a speed that gave his pianist some problems). By working the tempo up to mm=160, I created a good “comfort zone” for my performance tempo (mm=140).

The idea of using a MIDI file as a practice accompaniment is not restricted to Goedicke’s solo. There are many MIDI file accompaniments on the Internet. For instance, if you have programmed the Haydn Trumpet Concerto on an upcoming recital, you can find all three movements as MIDI files on Jay Lichtmann’s web site.

To find answers to the other two questions (about the composer and list of recordings) you just use a good search engine like Google. For example, if you are looking for information about Haydn’s Concerto for the keyed trumpet, you simply type “haydn keyed trumpet” in Google or another search engine. By the way, this specific search could possibly lead you to my own personal trumpet page, O.J’s Trumpet Page. Michael Anderson lists this site as one of his Top 25 Internet Trumpet Resources. If you need information about recordings of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, I have a long list (91 recordings at present) at that site. You will find this information under a section called “Resources.”

About the author: Ole J. Utnes works at the Information Technology Department of Vestfold University College, Norway. In the early 1980s he changed profession from music (teacher) to computing, but he kept music as his main hobby. He is a member of the Vestfold Symphony Orchestra (a semi pro orchestra) where he plays both horn and trumpet. Ole is a board member of the Norwegian Trumpet Forum (NTF) and also serves as that organization’s editor and webmaster.