Background

The first discussions regarding the possibility of a trumpet/guitar CD for the ITG began at the 2000 European Trumpet Guild (ETG) Conference, held in Bad Sackingen, Germany. I had been invited by then president of the ETG, Dr. Edward H. Tarr, to both perform at the conference and give a combined lecture on breathing and lung-function as related to trumpet performance together with my friend Dr. Karl-Otto Steinmetz, a lung specialist and lecturer at Darmstadt University (Germany).

Although in previous years I had recorded two trumpet/guitar CDs, the first in a duo setting and the second with added soloists and a jazz trio, I was asked to offer a program in the “duo-concert” form at this conference. which I glady presented with guitarist Chris Reichert, who had become my ongoing duo partner since our recording together in 1997.

A number of ITG presidents (both past and future), including Steven Chanette, James Olcott, Leonard Candelaria and Vincent DeMartino, came to this “Spanish-Blue” duo-concert performance and afterwards agreed that the trumpet/guitar combination was an exceptional and exciting “new” musical genre well worth hearing again soon at an ITG Conference.

In June of 2008 I was asked by Jens Lindemann to present a trumpet/guitar program at Canada’s first International Trumpet Guild Conference, being held in Banff, Alberta. The concert was highly successful, and several ITG colleagues, including Professor Alan Cox, Professor Kim Dunnick and most especially James and Vera Olcott, were once again very excited about the trumpet and guitar duo concept. Mr. Olcott, now ITG’s CD Project Coordinator, approached me with the concept of a trumpet/guitar CD to be used as an ITG CD project. Mr. Olcott and I together saw such a CD as an opportunity to 1) expose the trumpet world to this genre, 2) encourage the membership to attempt this duo combination and, 3) inspire composers to embrace the genre and begin to write new material for this sensitive and yet very exciting instrumental combination.

When approached in the spring of 2009 by Mr. Olcott with the official request to create and produce the CD for distribution as the 2009-2010 ITG CD Project, he and I agreed that it would be excellent to offer a broad-spectrum repertoire which would include diverse works from my previous recordings.

After sending him a number of preliminary CDs, and upon his further consultation with the ITG Board of Directors during the 2009 Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I was given the go-ahead to select material spanning from the Renaissance to the Modern Era using my recordings, which date back to 1987.
 
Accordingly, all of the tracks on this CD are from previous recordings of mine, recorded and produced in Europe over the last 22 years by La Tromba Music Productions for both CD production and various radio broadcasts. Track 19 is the only exception, recorded at Mr. Olcott's request in July of 2009 and sponsored by the ITG.

The Genre of Trumpet and Classical Guitar

The genre of trumpet and guitar, thought by many to be a relatively new instrumental combination, has actually existed for more than a century, albeit primarily in combination with other instruments. It can be found in various Latin American music idioms, not to mention in traditional Spanish and Mexican folk music, and heard today throughout the entire world as an important part of various kinds of Hispanic cultural festivities. Even in the very popular American instrumental pop music of the 1960s and 1970s, the recordings of the highly successful Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass, for example, one can easily hear the influences of the basic instrumental combination of trumpet and acoustic guitar.

However, the definitive impulse which elevated this traditional folk and popular medium to a form that one can regard as truly “classical” chamber music came, in my opinion, from none other than the great Mexican-American solo trumpeter Rafael Méndez, most notably in Together, produced and released in the late 1970s by Charles Dant for Decca Records.

Despite being extremely ill with debilitating emphysema, Mr. Méndez took the time to record this wonderfully expressive and intimate LP with the famous Brazilian jazz and film music composer, Laurindo Almeida. Both internationally acclaimed arrangers and performers, for the recording the two men adapted and arranged various classical and popular works, including pieces originally for orchestra and several French flute/guitar duets with Spanish influence. The especially inspired work Bossa Romantica was specifically composed for these two artists by the Brazilian pop and jazz musician Radamés Gnatalli and recorded by them on this album.

I have included my version of Bossa Romantica on the ITG CD (recorded live in concert in 2005) in which I attempt to underline the two distinct stylistic sections, namely the Brazilian bossa nova and a Mexican (Mariachi) jota, through a change of instruments: fluegelhorn for the bossa nova, and trumpet for the jota.

For Rafael Méndez's and Lorendo Almeida's inspirational CD and their musical contribution to this new chamber music idiom, I am truly grateful and therefore wish to respectfully dedicate my work on this CD to their memories.

I have attempted in this CD to further extend the musical spectrum originally presented by Msrs Méndez and Almeida via works ranging from the Renaissance, represented by the English composer John Dowland, through the Late-Baroque, represented by the Italian Carlo Tessarini, to diverse classical, romantic, and impressionistic French and Spanish works from the mid 19th century though the mid 20th century. I have also included the quite popular tango compositional style via the Argentinean tango composer, Astor Piazzolla, arranging his very unusual Cafe 1930 from Histoire du Tango, written originally for flute and guitar in 1988.

Mr. Olcott, ITG’s CD Project Director, thought it best to keep the CD in a “classical duo mode” and I therefore agreed not to have on this disk my recordings of the South American and mainstream North-American jazz and jazz-influenced works such as Luis Bonfa's Manha de Carneval (Black Orpheus), Miles Davis' Nardis or Chick Corea's Spain, works that I regularly perform in the second half of my duo concert programs, included on this disk.³

Choices of Instruments

I have attempted to present each work on this CD in a manner that emphasizes the intrinsic character of the music and have therefore often opted to use various types and pitches of instruments. This has both allowed me to be more technically secure with the musical material at hand and yet at the same be as musically descriptive as possible, a perspective I believe to be most important, especially when performing such emotionally intensive and physically demanding works “live” in concert.

I have recorded the music on this CD on the four-valve piccolo trumpet in B-flat and A, three-valve trumpets in E and E-flat, “symphonic” trumpets in C and B-flat, as well as the B-flat cornet and the B-flat fluegelhorn. All of the music presented is printed and available through La Tromba Music Publications, including a score in C, parts for the guitar and trumpet in C and or B-flat, and, in specific cases, added parts for the specific key of the instrument I have personally used for each work. (Resulting from many years of fast changes of instruments during solo concert performance, a word of advice for young colleagues: I always use the same cup-diameter for all mouthpieces, which allows for an effortless a change from one instrument to the next).

Whereas Rafael Méndez used exclusively the trumpet in B-flat for his trumpet/guitar CD (as he did for all of his recordings during his career), I have used that most common of trumpets only once, namely in the “Mariachi” middle part of Gnatalli's Bossa Romantica. The reason for using different pitched instruments when playing with guitar is quite easy to understand: since the classical guitar repertoire is most often written in keys that allow more open strings to resonate and allow the best sound quality for the instrument, such works are, technically, most easily played on trumpets in keys other than B-flat. These guitar keys, (i.e. concert pitches C, E, A, G, etc), require that the B-flat trumpet play in “sharp” keys (i.e. in D, F#, B, and A major). Although the use of a capo (transposing bar) is standard practice by guitarists in pop and folk music, it is seldom applied by classical guitarists because it markedly reduces the full and natural resonance of the instrument and is thus detrimental to both tonal quality and volume. Although the symphonic trumpet in C pragmatically allows a good middle ground from which to transpose much of this repertoire, I nevertheless often choose instruments pitched in E, low A and sometimes even B-natural on which to perform works with the guitar (for example, a piccolo trumpet in B-natural for the Suite in B minor from J. S. Bach). On this CD I have recorded Granados' Spanish Dance on a trumpet in E-natural, which is undoubtedly an exotic instrument for most players. This specific trumpet is one of my own La Tromba-built “combination instruments” which also plays in F, E-flat and D via four sets of valve slides. When combined with its four sets of lead pipes and four screw bells with different flares, complete changes of intonation and tone character are possible, both necessary traits in the performance of the new works presented here and much of existing trumpet repertoire as well.

Also, due to the fact that many flute and violin works I perform have a much more extended range than can be played on the larger and/or lower pitched trumpets that are primarily designed for jazz, concert band and/or symphonic work, I often choose to play instruments with smaller bores and sometimes even a four-valve piccolo trumpet in A and/or G. This allows me both far greater flexibility and control in both range and technique and gives a new tone color to the program of music.

With regular practice, these higher and exotic instruments also allow the progressive development of the added endurance necessary to perform such demanding repertoire, especially in concert.

I find myself playing not only unusual instruments, but performing with them in quite unusual keys as well. Using the E-flat trumpet for Albeniz's Sevilla in E Major is an example of this. On the other hand, playing in F major or D minor on the piccolo trumpet in A, as for the Dowland and Tessarini works, is quite common among professional trumpeters, especially by those who regularly perform Bach and Handel cantatas and oratorios. Using such instruments makes these works much easier to perform and is a very practical solution compared to playing them on a C or D or even a piccolo trumpet in B-flat.

Since both of the first two works on this CD were written for the recorder and/or violin there is also no need to discuss what the trumpet traditionally should sound like, but with all of the other works, all doors are open with regards to the question of tonal tastes.

The more I perform with guitar and continue to develop a repertoire for this combination, the more I tend to use exotically pitched instruments in other instrumental combinations as well. For example, in preparation for a recent organ and trumpet concert, I experimented with performing portions of the Suite in B-minor by J. S. Bach, including the famous Badinerie, on several differently pitched trumpets, ultimately choosing to use a piccolo trumpet in B-natural. Changing instruments often seems difficult at first, but, with practice, I can report that it becomes very natural and is very practical if applied intelligently.

There are, nevertheless, very definite limits to the selections of works on which one can perform on a high brass instrument, especially in such a sensitive combination as acoustic guitar and trumpet. I am finding that works written for the oboe, flute and/or violin sound best on these originally designated instruments and not on trumpet. I therefore earnestly recommend to any young student and/or colleague who, upon hearing this CD, chooses to embrace this trumpet/guitar duo concept, that the sight of the composer's original intention and the essence of the music remains the primary goal.

It is, in the end, up the performer to decide what works musically on which trumpet in combination with guitar and in what key the work is most realistically performable. The concept of adapting works written originally for other instruments and/or the voice should never be done to a show off or taken to a “circus act” level, reducing the performance to simple demonstrations of extreme technical virtuosity, high range prowess, circular breathing abilities, etc, for its own sake. Rather, it is my sincere hope that this CD will instead inspire talented composers of today to write new pieces specifically for the trumpet/classical guitar medium that are descriptive, lyrical, and well suited to these instruments and their complimentary characters, so that the works are readily playable by many trumpeters and not only for the virtuosic few.

Creating the Recordings

The oldest of my trumpet/guitar duo recordings (tracks 7, 8 and 10), done together with Johannes Tappert, date from May, 1987, and were produced primarily for broadcasts by the German Evangelistic Church in Stuttgart. Although I later included these recording in my solo CD “La Tromba” (1989), these original works for flute and guitar by Ibert, Fauré and Ravel were primarily used as short musical interludes during broadcasts to the former Warsaw Pact countries, especially targeting East Germany. We recorded these pieces in one short three-hour afternoon session in a rather small and acoustically dead studio in Stuttgart, virtually without any natural resonance. Such an environment, of course, made it very simple to separate and isolate the trumpet and guitar sounds. For me, however, it created a difficult recording situation in physical and musical perspectives because of the dry acoustic properties of the room. Fortunately, the session was short and Mr. Tappert played consistently very well, making the whole session much easier for me than might otherwise have been the case.

The Dowland Three Dances and Tessarini’s concerto were also recorded with Johannes Tappert, but were done not in a studio, but in St. Achtius Chapel, a 13th century church located in the small historical village of Grünsfeld-Hausen near the city of Tauber-Bischofsheim. This chapel is a small stone structure built just after the involvement of, among others, the barons of Rieneck and Boxberg and the Bishop of Würzburg in the Holy Crusades, all of whom were lead to battle by none other than the Emperor Barberosa. The chapel has a three to four second delay and was designed to commemorate the fallen knights of this region during the Crusades. It is a replica of the "Grab Christi" (Grave of Jesus Christ) to be found in Jerusalem and was built in a double octagon form, with the larger of the two measuring approximately 10 meters in cross-sectional diameter and while the smaller octagon spanning approximately four meters in diameter. Both octagons have wooden roofs and are connected by an ascending staircase approximately two meters long which progresses to the smaller room of a height of around two meters above the larger room. This staircase itself is crowned with a bell tower with a wooden roof reaching a total height of 20 meters. Here I was faced with a completely different acoustical challenge: how to control and balance the dynamics between the guitar and trumpet in this extremely resonant acoustic.

Since I had recorded the Mozart Oboe Concerto in C major on a B-flat piccolo trumpet and Neruda's Concerto in E-flat on a B-flat corno da caccia with the I Virtuosi di Praga Chamber Orchestra earlier that week in this chapel⁴, I had already gathered substantial experience regarding the special recording idiosyncrasies of the building. Still, after rehearsing for an few hours in various locations within the chapel and trying unsuccessfully to compensate for the enormous dynamic imbalance due to the dominating resonance of the trumpet by, for example, trying extreme microphone positioning and/or maximum separation of the two instruments, I suddenly had the idea of going in the complete opposite direction: by placing guitar and trumpet directly side by side but having the two instrumentalists face in opposite directions to one and other, it was possible to allow the trumpet to project into the larger room and the guitar up the a stairs and into the smaller one. This placement created two separate yet semi-attached resonances. Placing the individual microphones accordingly and adding extra microphones at various distances (one directly in front of the trumpet, one at a two-meter distance and the third at a five-meter distance), we were able to maximize the musical communication allowed by sitting next to one and other. At the same time, I, especially, was afforded the luxury of the relative dynamic freedom necessary to play without constantly having to “hold back” so as not to cover up the guitar. The results are not always optimal, but I believe these recordings are nevertheless quite musical and are certainly interesting examples of what is possible to accomplish in terms of dynamic and balance using purely acoustical recording methods.

The recordings of the Albeniz, Rodrigo² and Piazolla works were done in 1997 in the Reineck-Saal, located in the renovated 13th century Grünsfeld Castle in Grünsfeld. This hall is approximately 25 meters long and 10 meters wide and is made of wood and stone. Its ceiling is approximately four meters high and it has a row of four wooden supports running down it's mid-section. The hall has a seating capacity of 200 persons and has a very pleasant acoustic even when full.

Spanish Blue. These recordings of the works of Rodrigo and Albeniz were a part of the first “Spanish Blue” CD recordings in 1987, which also involved recordings with added musicians, including a jazz rhythm section. I felt a personal need to take the trumpet/guitar concept to yet another musical level, namely the incorporation of works from the Latin American, modern classical, and jazz idioms. For these recordings I chose as my duo counterpart guitarist Christian Reichert, a former student of Johannes Tappert, who at the time was also interested in concepts similar to my own. He and his wife, flutist Katherzina Bury, had developed an extensive broad-spectrum and modern repertoire for flute and guitar, including several original works by Astor Piazzolla. Mr. Reichert thought that some of these same pieces might work well for trumpet and guitar and was quite willing to attempt the adaptation of these and other popular bossa nova, samba, and tango works that he enjoyed playing, as well as being open to my suggestions regarding completely new pieces with combo accompaniment. Although improvisation is, by his own admission, not his greatest forte (nor is it, in fact, mine), we chose to incorporate selected jazz works that we thought would fit the general concept of "Spanish- Blue" and that we could learn to interpret well and upon which we could improvise. I had even rough-sketched a composition of my own for the CD, later entitled Spanish Blue, which used both modern mainstream pop-jazz and Spanish “gypsy blues” elements. The idea was to round off the production and give it a more personal touch. Therefore, after booking a standard jazz rhythm section and adding two extra soloists for a few rehearsals and the recording session, we began work on the new program.

I had asked a saxophonist and a rhythm guitarist to be part of this session. The guitarist had a girlfriend, Spanish dancer Mercedes Arguinselas, who, upon a whim, I engaged to dance a set with us at the concert premiere of this new “Spanish-Blue” formation. This all sounds very chancy and not very professional, I know, but it worked! The concept caught on right away, mostly because the concert was a real “happening” (as the hippies used to say) and where each member of the ensemble had the opportunity for spontaneous creative input.

Since then, in various combinations, this musical concept has been a repeated success, both in expanded versions as well as in various duo-plus-one combinations, i.e. duo with dancer, duo with singer, etc. Over the ensuing years this success has prompted me to repeatedly entitle the concert evening “Spanish Blue” so as to describe the essence of it's various forms of music.

The “Spanish Blue” concerts created the necessity of electronic amplification for the classical guitar. After being satisfied that it was possible for the guitar sound to be electronically enhanced and still not become electric in nature, we began in subsequent recordings and concert situations to cautiously amplify it more and more.

In 2005 I decided to do a live recording of a Spanish-Blue evening, booking yet another historical hall, this time the Toscana Saal in the Residence of the Prince Bishop of Würzburg. It is a palace structure similar in pomp and grandeur of the French Palace of Versailles, but somewhat smaller. The concert hall, located in the west wing of the building, is in oval form approximately 15 meters deep and 20 meters wide. It has a five-meter high ceiling and a balcony that extends the full circumference of the room. The hall comfortably seats 250 to 300 persons and sounds much bigger than it really is, giving a grand concert hall sound to all the recordings done there.

The recordings of both Méndez works and those of the Gnatalli, Granados, Sarasate and Lara pieces are taken from the recording of this concert.⁵ The guitar was once again electronically amplified and recorded both with both multiple microphones and directly through the guitar pick-up.

The last work on the ITG CD, Michaela's Aria from Bizet's Carmen, is a bonus track and was recorded at the special request of Mr. Olcott. I engaged soprano Carmen Fuggiss, with whom, along with guitarist Klaus Jäckle, I had done a benefit concert earlier in the year. Among the wide variety of compositions we had prepared for that special concert was the Bizet work, which I felt was the most unusually sensitive and beautiful of the pieces we had arranged and performed that evening.

For this final recording, and upon the suggestion of recording engineer Martin Hopfengart, I booked a very special hall with truly extraordinary acoustics for singing: a newly renovated Jewish synagogue located in the city of Kitzingen, about 30 kilometers from Würzburg. The building has been converted to function as a concert hall with a two-meter high stage and is approximately 20 meters wide and 30 meters in depth with a 10 meter ceiling. It has a seating capacity of approximately 450. Ms. Fuggiss and I stood approximately five meters apart, projecting into the hall, with Mr. Jäckle seated behind us at a distance of three to four meters.

Since a single trio work, especially with solo voice, placed on an exclusively trumpet and guitar duo CD seemed a bit out of place, I thought that, as a bonus track, it might be quite an enjoyable change for the listener. Once again, my hope is that this, too, will be yet another inspiration for trumpeters and composers to become involved with this sensitive and musically rewarding combination.
 
Richard Carson Steuart  
Würzburg, Germany
September 2009

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The Recordings:
Technical information

Microphones used by Martin Hopfengart for the 2005 and 2009 recordings were the following:

For the trumpet:
1) Brauner VM-1 tube microphone: used as the “front/direct” microphone and placed at a distance of 30 to 50 cm from the bell. Because of its built-in tube, the VM1 gives a rich and warm sound. Mr. Hopfengart recommends this microphone as “one of the best microphones money can buy.”
2) Audio Technica 4050, used as the “side” microphone, placed directly to the side of the trumpet and a distance of approximately 30 cm). This is a large diaphragm condenser microphone that is able to work well at very high sound pressure levels.

For the acoustic classical guitar:
1) Neumann M147: This tube-microphone allows the sound of acoustic guitar to maintain both its brilliance/clarity and depth of sound.
2) Sennheiser MD 421: placed at the guitar amplifier. This dynamic microphone is the usual choice as a “classical” microphone and has been used for over 20 years. It allows a powerful and intensive sound from all amplifiers.

Preamplifiers:
1) SSL FX G 384 (transistor preamp) for the trumpet front microphone and guitar microphone;
2) SPL Gold Mike (tube preamp) for the trumpet side microphone and the guitar amplifier.

Data regarding the equipment used for the 1987 and 1989 recordings is unavailable.

Footnotes

1	West End Music Studios, Buchbruun, Germany
2	En Aranjuez con tu Amor is based on the second movement of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.
3	These recordings can be heard in on the CDs Spanish-Blue (1997) and Spanish-Blue Duo plus 3 Live in Germany (2005), available from La Tromba Music Productions
4	These recordings can be heard on Richard Carson Steuart Performs and Conducts II, also from La Tromba Music Productions
5	Spanish-Blue Duo plus 3, Live in Germany is a CD recording of this concert in its entirety. Works performed range from Rodrigo to Miles Davis, ending with Sabado Sombrero, originally written by Ron Carter and recorded by flutist Hubert Laws on CTI Records.