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| The 6th Trumpet Festival in Bad Säckingen, Germany. | February 2, 2002 |
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The festival was also made possible by the Bad Säckingen Municipal Band, the Hochrein Art Society, and the Orchestra of Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Several parts of the festival were broadcast live by SWR4 (Southwest German Radio, Channel 4). Through out the festival, the diverse styles of trumpet music were highlighted from many angles: teaching, celebration, entertainment, competition, manufacturing, and premieres of new commissions. The very roots of our art, namely communication by folk instruments, such as alphorns in the mountains of Europe, and conch shells in the seas of the Caribbean, were impressively demonstrated by two trombone players, Franz Schüssele and Mike Svoboda. This author was covering the ETG conference for the fourth time. What was new this year? Did anything have the potential of prompting the development of trumpet playing? Wolfgang Guggenberger from the Academy in Munich, Germany, is developing a brand new way for his student ensemble on practicing Stamp, Cichowicz, Clarke, and Charles Collins with two voices. "Breath has no register, breath has no rhythm!" said Guggenberger, who has composed a second voice to ease the student's focusing on the horizontal line in the exercises and enhance their musical experience. Humming and mouthpiece buzzing are important parts to sharpen the ear for perfect intonation of the intervals. Guggenberger's works will be published shortly and available to all. James Olcott, trumpet teacher at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA, since 1979, has found out that many aspects of trumpet performance can be taught through being a good model instead of giving complicated instructions. He quietly diagnoses his student's problem, and without a word he shows him how to change it through example. The student accepts the message subconsciously and the problem corrects itself. When Olcott's students play Charlier etudes in their lessons, he inspires musical phrasing by playing a duet part instead of instructing them to "play like this or like that." Improvised in the past, he has now written these duet etudes down in a book, the Charlier Companion. "Some of the Charlier etudes we play all the time, while others we haven't seen before", said Olcott humorously. A number of the duets were then convincingly demonstrated to the European audience by Olcott himself and Vincent DiMartino, Wolfgang Guggenberger, Richard Carson Steuart and Pierre Dutot. The Charlier Companion constitutes a tempting and challenging new way for trumpet teachers of passing on the heritage of Charlier to the next generation. Hearing Tarr's successor in Schola Cantorum, Jean-François Madeuf, perform absolutely perfectly and overwhelmingly beautiful on the long, stylish baroque trumpet without ventholes, was a grand experience. How was this possible? Rumors were whispered that none of his students in the Schola are permitted to play with ventholes any more - so the future looks hard but good to baroque trumpet enthusiasts in Basel. Friedemann Immer gave a very engaging lecture on how Bach expresses spiritual messages musically in his way of composing. In Aria BWV 77/5 Bach used the trumpeter's failing abilities to produce perfect C-sharps (on the natural trumpet without ventholes) to symbolize man's failing ability to fulfill to God's 10 commandments. The text in the aria expresses the human "incapacity" or "inability" to practice divine love. Had Bach ordered the use of a slide trumpet, it would have been easier to play perfect C-sharps. But then the incapacity to love the Lord, could not have been symbolized by the trumpeter failing to play the C-sharps which Bach had placed in the composition 10 times. "Music is an art of communication and expression", said Pierre Dutot. He and his student ensemble Jéricho demonstrated a full trumpet warm up session through different steps of making the body vibrate and resonate with sound. "The body is your instrument, the trumpet is just the amplifier!" said Dutot, "Wake up your body in the morning by taking a hot shower, coughing, and clapping your hands. Then visit the different parts of your body with sound, by humming like Gregorian or Tibetan monks and talking with your mouth closed." Dutot's most impressive demonstration this year was producing tones with the embouchure visualizer. He uses this device to train his ability to focus the air stream directly into the mouthpiece tube. A lecture was given on how one man's dedication to playing the Cornet influenced a whole nation's enthusiasm for brass music. This resulted in the growth of brass bands all over Russia in the last part of the 19th century. Vladimir Koshelev, curator, principal musicologist, and instrument restorer, brought Tsar Alexander III's original instruments from the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, Russia, to tell us the story. Crown Prince Alexander Alexandrovich (later to become Tsar Alexander III) had married the Danish princess and pianist, Dagmar, in 1866. Together they frequently performed the cornet and piano repertoire of their time. Alexander also formed a brass septet with his officers, this was quite ahead of time. Edward Tarr generously demonstrated the marvelous sound of the Cornet made for Crown Prince Alexander by Vaclav Frantisek Cervený in 1876. Wilhelm Wurm (1826-1904) was Alexander's teacher and producer of music for his Cornet-Quartett along with Julius Kosleck (1825-1905). All this information can be studied closer in Tarr's forthcoming book, East Meets West (in preparation for the Pendragon Press in Schenectady, NY, under the auspices of the ITG and the Historic Brass Society, in the series "Bucina"). Gudrun Liebe's love of her late husband and his trumpet playing had urged her to commission a 20 minute thrilling new piece for the trumpet repertoire, Dialogue, by Peter Lawrence, to honor her husband Willi Liebe's memory. The piece is for two trumpets and wind band. "Liebe" in German means "love", and many charming word games have been played with this trumpeter's name in Germany. Willi Liebe was a great trumpet/cornet soloist of the first half of the 20th century. The composition pictures a hypothetical meeting between Willi Liebe and Rafael Méndez. Both musicians were trumpet virtuosos, but in different styles: in Dialogue Liebe is the "Arban"-cornetist while Méndez expresses the Latin-American extrovert. The work is a collage based on Liebe's Zungenbrecher (Tongue Breaker) and Méndez' Jota. It constitutes a formidable challenge to both soloists and orchestra. The premiere was a terrific event provided by two cherished trumpet virtuosos of our time, Vincent DiMartino as Liebe, and Richard Carson Steuart as Méndez. Johannes Brenke led the Municipal Wind Band of Bad Säckingen securely through changing rhythms and styles, uncommon harmonies, and intricate interplay with the dueting soloists. Several of the instrument exhibitors this year were baroque trumpet producers, and we could admire the most enticing, shiny brass bells richly ornamented with angel heads in silver from A. Egger and Markus Raquet. David L. Maller from Chicago on the other hand made simple, authentic, unpolished baroque trumpets by hammering and fitting the different parts carefully together manually, no ventholes or polishing, but very good F-sharps! Josef Monke with his rich and dark sounding, handcrafted rotary valve instruments, and Richard Carson Steuart with his impressive and irresistible LaTromba® trumpets and mouthpieces, completed the circle of exhibitors. Three different baroque trumpets, baroque trumpet with ventholes, without ventholes, and the tirarsi trumpet, (a baroque slide trumpet), were used for different pieces in the Altenburg competition. Guy Ferber became the obvious first prize winner and Jarolav Roucek came on a fine second place with his rich musicality and faithfulness to the baroque style of playing. Three gala concerts presented:
In May, 2002, Richard Carson Steuart will host a conference in Würzburg, Germany. In June, 2003, Pierre Dutot will host a conference in Bordeaux, France. The next Bad Säckingen conference will be arranged by Tarr and Amrein in November 2004.
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