RESEARCH IN PERFORMANCE:ANALYSIS OF FIVE TRUMPET WORKS

A Capstone Manuscript

Presented by

Frederick A. Sienkiewicz

Submitted May 2005

Guidance Committee Approved:

Professor Eric M. Berlin, Chair, Music

Professor Nikki R. Stoia, Music

ABSTRACT

Title: Research in Performance: Analysis of Five Trumpet WorksAuthor: Frederick A. SienkiewiczResearch Area: MusicGuidance Committee Chair & Dept: Eric M. Berlin, MusicGuidance Committee Member & Dept: Nikki R. Stoia, Music

The academic tools provided by the undergraduate music curriculum here at theUniversity of Massachusetts are not mere academic exercises, separate from the practiceof music-making, but an integral part of the process of preparing and performing. As partof preparing my Senior Recital, I chose to make an in-depth study to experience what thisperspective on musical performance means to me as a performer. For my recital and thisexploration, I chose five of the central works of trumpet repertoire, "The Trumpet ShallSound" (from Messiah) by G. F. Handel, Concerto for Trumpet in E-flat Major by JosephHaydn, Legend by Georges Enesco, Sonata fur Trompete und Klavier by Paul Hindemith,and Variations on The Carnival of Venice by J. B. Arban. In this paper, I discuss my ownexperience of the process of learning, studying, and performing each work, comment onthe diverse tools I used to gain deeper insight, and present the applicable conclusions I'vecome to through my research and experience. These conclusions, where appropriate, takethe form of music-theoretic notes including harmonic, thematic, and formal analyticsketches, historical background, and/or a survey of available recordings. At every step ofpreparing this research, I was surprised at the new depth and interest, as both performerand listener, which I found through the richer understanding of the formal structures andhistorical context of each work. It is now my conviction that this process of detailed andinformed musical preparation is essential to my ability to be an effective performer andcreate great music.

Honors Project (499Y/P)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction, Purpose, Methodology.

Chapter 2: "The trumpet shall sound," G. F. Handel

Chapter 3: Concerto per il clarino, J. Haydn

Chapter 4: Legend, G. Enesco

Chapter 5: Sonata fr Trompete und Klavier, P. Hindemith

Chapter 6: Variations on The Carnival of Venice, J. B. Arban

Chapter 7: Conclusions and Reflections

1

Chapter 1: Introduction, Purpose, Methodology

As a musician and a performer, it was my thesis that higher levels of musical

excellence become accessible when you integrate into the art of performing the many

diverse fields of study, both in academic and applied disciplines, which are included in

the academic music curricula of universities. My present teacher, Mr. Eric Berlin, has

long encouraged me to practice, as a prerequisite for performance, creating a precise and

clear aural concept of the music I wish to perform. Through his teaching, I have come to

believe that it is necessary that this aural conception must be as detailed as possible with

respect to both technical issues, such as intonation and rhythm, and musical

considerations, such as style and phrasing. It has been my goal to undertake research and

study to understand the uses of the conservatory tradition of solfege, academic theoretical

analysis, and historical scholarship in creating a more detailed aural and musical concept.

The study of these techniques is the core of the music curriculum at the University of

Massachusetts; however, the study of their integration and application to the practice of

music-making and performance is not systematically addressed anywhere in the

department's offerings. My goal has been to understand and to put into practice a synergy

of all these disciplines to the end of more detailed, informed, and ultimately effective

musical performances.

The cornerstone of this process has been the presentation of five works of trumpet

literature as a senior recital, performed twice: once at the University of Massachusetts,

Amherst, in the fall and again in my hometown of Westfield, Massachusetts, in the

spring. At both recitals, I presented informal spoken program notes, and written notes as

well at the latter. Three of these works -- the Concerto, the Legend, and the Sonata --

2

were also important works in my audition repertoire for graduate school and summer

orchestra festival auditions during the intervening winter months and also performed on

several other occasions throughout the school year. I began studying these works in the

Summer of 2004 and have been actively and continually engaged in their study

throughout the entire academic year.

With this framework as my medium, I studied the application of each musical

discipline to this process: I had lessons with my teacher's teachers, Mr. Charles Schlueter

and Mr. Vincent Penzarella, to refine my ideas which were the source of the project; I

studied solfege with Mr. Larry Scripp, a teacher of solfege in Boston and applied insights

gained there to my daily practice and preparations of my repertoire; I spent much time in

score study of these works, learning in as much detail as possible how the parts fit

together; I did my own harmonic, thematic, and formal analysis of each work, to the

extent appropriate to my abilities; and lastly, I researched the most prominent secondary

sources for historical details regarding the composers' lives, the circumstances of the

compositions, and the performance practice considerations of the period.

In each chapter of this work, I discuss my experience of applying these varied

techniques to the specific work in question and I present the results of my research.

These results are by no means exhaustive treatments of the subjects; My focus during

this project on the application of techniques to my own performance ability limits the

depth and academic completeness of my findings. This research is presented from

perspective of that which has been useful to myself as an undergraduate performer,

focusing on results and insights which specifically influenced the way I think about the

performing music.

3

Chapter 2: "The trumpet shall sound," from Messiah , by G. F. Handel

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) is one of the most famous Baroque

composers and Messiah is one of his most popular, mature works. For me, this was my

first serious attempt at the performance of a work in Baroque style, an issue about which

there has been much discussion in the musical community in recent decades. My

experiences in attending performances of "period orchestras," such as the The Academy

of Ancient Music, the Bach Collegium Japan, and the Handel and Haydn Society, have

cultivated in me a real passion for the distinctive sound of Baroque music performed on

period instruments. I am now convinced that this music sounds better when performed in

an "authentic" style. Lacking an accessible expert on historical trumpet performance, my

understanding of historical performance is necessarily crude: I draw primarily on my

experiences of these concert and recorded performances, my experiences performing with

Dr. Robert Eisenstein and the Five-College Renaissance Collegium, the working baroque

trumpets available to me, and the readily-accessible historical scholarship.

G. F. Handel

Before I address the important stylistic concerns about Messiah, I wish to consider

the circumstances of Mr. Handel and his Messiah, in order to understand properly the

importance of the work and some factors which governed its composition. Handel, a

German who spent his early years studying opera composition in Italy, began his

illustrious career in England around 1710 when he arrived at the start of a three-decade

affinity between the London public and Italianate opera.1 As a composer of Italian opera,

Handel, who was also a shrewd impresario, did very well for himself. Handel made his

1 Anthony Hicks, "George Frideric Handel," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com,accessed 1 June 2005, 4.

4

way to the center of London's musical and operatic life and cultivated very profitable

associations with the Royal family in the process. Handel was a quick study of the

prevailing music of the English, and absorbed much from Henry Purcell, who was at that

time England's most prominent composer. Handel succeeded Purcell in providing

English choral and orchestral music for Royal Celebrations: the celebrations of King's

victory at both Utrecht [Te Deum and Jubilate, 1713] and Dettingen [Te Deum and

Jubilate, 1743], a Royal publicity cruise down the Thames river [Water Music, 1717], and

the coronation of King George II [four anthems, 1728], among others. By the late 1730's,

Handel had won deep admiration from both the London nobility and public and was

considered a person of figure renown.2

In 1728, after more than a decade of Handel's reign as a successful opera

composer-producer, especially the fruitful years 1720-1729 with the Royal Academy of

Music,3 John Gay composed his "Beggar's Opera," an operatic work in English which

parodied the excesses of London's Italian operas. This marked the beginning of the

decline of London's interest in that genre.4 Throughout the following decade, Handel met

with mounting difficulties composing and producing Italian operas and his interest

steadily shifted toward composing and presenting concerts of organ concerti, concerti

grosso, seranatas, and oratorios. Competition, lack of interest, and a poor 1740-1741

opera season strengthened Handel's interest in the invitation by the Duke of Devonshire to

produce a 1741-1742 concert season of choral music, concerti, and organ music in Dublin

to the benefit of several local charities, which he accepted.5

2 Ibid., 9.3 Ibid., 6.4 Ibid.5 Thomas Forrest Kelly, First Nights: Five Musical Premieres (New Haven: Yale University Press,

2000), 62.

5

Oratorios

Unlike his Italian operas, Handel's oratorios were unstaged (no costumes or

scenery), sung in English (rather than Italian), and often had Biblical subjects (which the

Bishops in England forbade to be presented theatrically, i.e. in opera). Oratorios did not

depend on the grand eloquence of the finest continental castrati to execute the

magnificent solo roles; rather, they emphasized choruses which were simple but beautiful

compositions that could be performed satisfactorily by less talented singers.6 Other than

these differences, oratorios are very similar to Handel's Italian operas. As the music

historian Donald Grout noted, "Most of the arias in these works [Handel's oratorios]

differ in no important respects -- neither in form, musical style, nature of musical ideas,

nor technique of expressing effects -- from arias in his operas."7 Like his operas, they

consist of alternations of recitatives, arias, often in da capo form, choruses, and the

occasional duet or trio. These essentially independent pieces are presented in alternation

to create a dramatic narrative in the style of a Baroque opera.

Circumstances of Messiah

Handel composed Messiah in a month's time, late in the Summer of 1741, before

he left for Ireland, not yet knowing what orchestral or vocal performers he would have

available to him there.8 Both the idea of and libretto for Messiah were the work of

Handel's friend and patron Charles Jennens, a wealthy Englishman and serious theologian

who was as committed to the arts as to Protestant Christianity. Jennens compiled the

libretto for Messiah almost entirely of Old Testament texts which, in this context,

6 Ibid., 65-66, 68-69.7 Donald J. Grout, A History of Western Music, revised edition (New York, 1973), p. 442, cited in Max L.

Morley, "The Trumpet Arias in the Oratorios of George Frederic Handel," International Trumpet GuildJournal, Volume 5, October 1980, 14.

8 Kelly, 70.

6

prophesy the coming of the Christian Messiah, with the didactic intent to justify the

doctrine that Jesus Christ is that Messiah. The result is that the story of Christ is "neither

directly narrated nor dramatized."9 Messiah is divided into three sections, the first

dedicated to the Christmas festival, the second to the Easter celebration, and the third is a

celebration of Christian thanksgiving for the triumph of life over death through the

resurrection of the Messiah. It is in this last section where "The trumpet shall sound" is

found.

Handel successfully promoted and presented a season of 15 subscription concerts

in Dublin, with Messiah as the climax of the season.10 The next season, 1742-43, Handel

presented it to the London public to decidedly more mixed reaction, over the controversy

of Biblical texts performed in a theater,11 in a series of Lenten oratorio concerts which

would become his main concert season for the rest of his career. Messiah would be

performed almost every year until and after Handel's death (it was also the last work he

heard performed12), and by 1750 it had attained "iconic status [which it] has never

relinquished."13 Annual Messiah concerts have become a mainstay of many amateur and

professional performing ensembles (including Boston's own Handel and Haydn

Society14). This remarkable work has been in almost continuous performance since its

composition

9 Hicks, 10.10 Kelly, 100-101.11 Hicks, 10.12 Ibid., 12.13 Ibid., 23.14 Handel and Haydn Society, History (accessed 15 June 2005),

.

7

Baroque Style.

The style of the Baroque trumpet is something which has become a field of study

unto itself in the latter half of the 20th century: dozens of craftsman have become

interested in creating authentic reproductions of period trumpets; institutions such as the

New England Conservatory of Music offer a degree program in "Historical

Performance"15; and orchestras like the Academy of Ancient Music or the Handel and

Haydn Society have dedicated themselves to performing and recording old works on

period instruments in a "historically informed" style. As I mentioned previously, my

exploration of this subject is necessarily limited to the sources and elements which

influenced my performances in this, my very first consideration of the issue.

Edward Tarr's excellent book The Trumpet should be read by every serious

trumpet player. It is a well-written volume on the entire history of the trumpet, and it was

extremely helpful in placing my knowledge of history and style in an unbroken

framework of evolution, since medieval times (rather than the isolated and ad-hoc

understanding which I had developed). For sake of brevity, I have omitted here any

review of the natural trumpet and the details of its construction which I focused on in the

spoken notes I presented at each recital for the benefit of those audiences. If the present

reader is unfamiliar with the subject I highly recommend Tarr's book or The New Grove

Dictionary's entry on "trumpet."

In talking about historical trumpet style, I would like to first briefly discuss the

division between and details of the field and clarino styles of playing. Throughout

Medieval times, trumpeters' function was mainly for military, royal, and civil signaling

15 Thomas Handel, Scott Chaurette, and Andrea Rash, "New England Conservatory of Music, AcademicCatalog 2004-2005," (Boston: New England Conservatory, 2004), 104-106.

8

and consequently they played in the low register of the instrument (the first four or five

partials, where pitches are farther apart and therefore more distinct) with a loose

embouchure and a loud, blaring tone which could be easily heard and recognized.16 In the

early Baroque as trumpeters began to be accepted into art music, they were required to

develop a different embouchure so to play in the higher partials of their instrument, play

in tune, and be able to play softly as not to drown out the other instruments.17 The former

style continued to be refined in the trumpet corps which held great prestige in the Holy

Roman Empire18 and were associated with courtly splendor; the latter style as it

developed became the renown clarino trumpet style of the great Baroque works.

On the clarino style of performance, J. E. Altenburg, an 18th century German

trumpet master, wrote "It is well known that the human voice is supposed to serve as the

model for all instruments; thus should the clarino player try to imitate it as much as

possible, and seek to bring forth the so-called cantabile on his instrument,"19 indicating

that a vocal quality was very important in clarino performance. Altenburg also mentions

a system of unequal tonguing which was practiced by all wind players of the Baroque and

early classical eras (also detailed in the treatise by the 18th century German flautist and

writer, Johann Joachim Quantz); this is an area of performance practice which I wish to

study further when the appropriate opportunity and guidance are available.

Circumstances of The Trumpet Shall Sound

"The trumpet shall sound" is clearly a piece in the style and tradition of what has

become known as the "trumpet aria," or an operatic (or oratorio) da capo aria which

16 Edward Tarr, The Trumpet, trans. S.E. Plank and Edward Tarr (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1988),48, 85-86.

17 Ibid., 86.18 Ibid., 94-97.19 Ibid., 91.

9

employs a trumpeter as duettist with a singer. This form had its start when Monteverdi

introduced the trumpet into art-music and Italian opera with L'Orfeo. The trumpet's role

in opera was progressively expanded by other Venetian opera composers who followed

him and found the trumpet suitable for arias expressing a heroic or noble Affekt and

Handel certainly knew of the style from his studies there. When he arrived in England, he

also absorbed the style of Purcell, who had introduced the tradition in England in the

latter part of the 17th century.20

In composing Messiah, Handel had been moving away from the practice of full-

length da capo arias, finding creative ways to through-compose arias yet still give the

feeling of the large repetition of the popular form. In composing Messiah, Handel seems

to have made conscious effort in this direction to avoid excessive length.21 The full-

length da capo form is therefore reserved for only the most important arias, of which the

"The trumpet shall sound" is one. It begins with an introduction, A section (bars 1-156)

in D major, a contrasting B section in minor (sans trumpet, bars 157-end), and concludes

with dal segno repetition of the A section. Handel scholar Friedrich Chrysander (1826-

1901) determined this to be the authentic interpretation22 of the work and my musical

intuition has been satisfied with the results of the contrast. I certainly found it appropriate

in recital context to begin with its paired recitative "Behold, I tell you a mystery." The

recitative, in concert performance as in the oratorio proper, helps prepare the drama of

Handel's music, and as the very first work of my recital it worked particularly well.

20 Max L. Morley, "The Trumpet Arias in the Oratorios of George Frederic Handel," InternationalTrumpet Guild Journal, vol. 5 (October 1980), 17.

21 Kelley, 70-71.22 Cited in a footnote to Morley, 18.

10

It is widely known that in such da capo arias, there is an expectation for

ornamentation in the repeat of the A section. It is my regret, however, that the

circumstances of my performances prohibited Curtis, the singer with whom I was

working, and me from addressing the issue of the "expected" embellishments. Post-

performance, I discovered a paper by Max Morley in the International Trumpet Guild

Journal which asserts that the texture of the "The trumpet shall sound" is similar enough

to that of a Baroque trio sonata so that some of Quantz's comments on trio sonata

ornamentation apply:

The instructions from Quantz that apply to this trumpet aria are: "It[ornamentation] should only be used in passages which consist ofimitation..." As already stated, "The trumpet shall sound" is not imitative.We may infer then that other than the obligatory ornaments, such as trillsat cadences, appogiaturas, mordents, and double-dotting, highly floridornamentation would not have been practiced in this trumpet aria.23

As Morley's assertion of the applicability of Quantz's comments seems tenuous, I am not

inclined to immediately agree with him; however, this issue deserves more detailed

attention and research into available scholarship and precedents, such as the 1966

recording by the London Symphony under Colin Davis referenced by Morley.

Analysis

In searching for a way to understand the formal construction of the "The trumpet

shall sound" in more detail, I am drawn to the text of as a guide. The recitative-aria

combination spans three verses from 1st Corinthians: "Behold, I shew24 you a mystery;

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an

eye, at the last trump25: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised

23 Ibid., 17.24 Sic. "Shew" is an archaic synonym for "show."25 Sic. "Trumpet" is the diminutive form of "Trump."

11

incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and

this mortal must put on immortality."26 The first half of the first sentence forms the

recitative text (through "trump"), the second half is the text of the A section, and the

second sentence is the text of the B section. As to be expected, the form is based around

the expression of this text, which I would now like to consider; for brevity's sake I will

omit consideration of the trumpet-less B section.

The A section is organized, loosely speaking, into an introductory ritornello, six

textual phrases, and a concluding ritornello (see appendix 1-A). The introduction (bars 1-

28) begins with a tutti fanfare theme in French overture style (dotted rhythms), which

recurs throughout on the text "The trumpet shall sound." This is followed by two

imitative motives between the trumpet and orchestra, which recur throughout, and a

cadence in D. The first phrase (bars 29-44) begins with the "The trumpet shall sound"

text accompanied by with the opening fanfare motive. Harmonically, this phrase moves

from D to a cadence on A (bar 40, repeat cadence at 44). In phrase two (bars 45-58) the

"trumpet" text is repeated on the dominant, and the fanfare is adapted to the natural

trumpet's more limited ability to play in that key. Phrase three (bars 59-78) introduces

new text, "we shall be changed," and, appropriately enough, completely new melodic

material: the bass gives out a long melisma starting in E leading to a cadence in A (bar

69). The trumpet and orchestra answer with a 10-bar tutti which repeats the move from E

to A and introduces another new, recurring theme: the ornamented figure in the first

violins (bar 74). This completes a full first presentation of the text of the A section.

Phrase four (bars 79-98) begins with the bass entrance in D, repeats the opening

melody, and starts a second text iteration. All this happens under a sustained trumpet

26 1 Corinthians, 15:51-53.

12

note, a common Handelian gesture, which leads into the expected fanfare tutti, which

returns to accompany the "trumpet shall sound" text (bar 84). The trumpet leads off

phrase five (bars 99-120) with a change of texture in anticipation of the bass' text "we

shall be changed" in A, which is sung to a dotted rhythm version of the melisma in phrase

three. The bass continues singing through to the cadence in D, which last occurred as an

orchestral reprise. The last phrase (bars 121-140), which is also on "we shall be changed"

introduces another new motive and then the previous gesture repeats, with the soloist

continuing to sing, through music which again had previously been an orchestral tutti,

through to the deceptive cadence in B (bar 138) followed by a dramatic closing cadence

in D (bar 140). The last 16 bars of the A section are a concluding ritornello which echoes

the opening, but with the second 12-bar motive omitted.

Earlier, I discussed the difference between the field and clarino styles, the former

being associated with military and courtly signaling and splendor, the latter being a vocal

and musical style that opened the door for the trumpet to enter art-music. I feel here, as in

the Haydn Concerto, both of these styles of playing -- which were both current then and

old-fashioned now -- are invoked in the writing for the trumpet. "The trumpet shall

sound" is a clear reference to the trumpet's signaling function. As we saw previously, this

signaling function is primarily associated with courtly splendor and military might; in

Christian literature, Heaven itself is often described in terms of being the most splendid

of all royal courts, which I feel further strengthens the reference. Handel's oratorio-going

audience would certainly have been familiar with this allusion and the nature of the

fanfare motif seems based in this reference. This association of trumpet signals with

military strength and nobility is not lost on us even today, as our popular culture

13

continues to make associations between these images and the historical use of the

trumpet. With the exception of that fanfare theme, the rest of the trumpet writing is

lyrical and diatonic melody. Altenburg's comments about imitating the voice seem

particularly appropriate in the middle of phrase one (bar 37) where trumpet and voice are

scored beautifully in thirds.

Process

This process of research on form, style, history, and context has been extremely

rewarding for my intellectual understanding of what it means to apply "historically

informed performance" to the practice of music-making. Research into textual sources on

this piece and its period have greatly expanded my understanding of how the historical

scholarship is conducted and has familiarized me with the landscape of primary source

material. I certainly have come to know much more about Mr. Handel and his career and

there is some very interesting scholarship about Valentine Snow, Handel's first trumpeter

throughout most of his later years, which did not find a formal place in this study.

My applied understanding of "authentic performance," however, is still necessarily

rudimentary. While I was very pleased with my performance of this aria on both recitals,

I was unable to give the work more than a preliminary attempt at integrating the

understanding gained through the results of my research on account of the many

challenges of both personal and ensemble preparation presented by opening the recital

with a ten minute work for piccolo trumpet and singer. Furthermore, to perform the work

on a period instrument with strings, continuo, and a Baroque-trained singer is something

that, from my perspective, seems to require the experience of performing in the

conventional fashion first. Baroque trumpet players with whom I have spoken report that

14

the experience of performing period music in a "historically informed style" on the period

instruments meaningfully changes the way they approach the same repertoire on

conventional instruments. I am pleased with the milestone which I have passed and I

consider attempting that "authentic" performance an important step to be undertaken as

part of future research.

15

Chapter 3: Concerto per il clarino , J. Haydn

Joseph Haydn's (1732-1809) Concerto for trumpet is quite possibly the most

widely known and appreciated work for trumpet soloist in the classical genre, and it was

the very first of this type of music I ever heard in concert.27 Its accessible, classical style

seems to readily entertain the casual listener and it has, in recent years, become a central

piece of repertoire for recitals and auditions of all kinds. While it is relatively easy to

present the work as just a showpiece for a trumpet player's technique and talent, I believe

that with an interpretation informed through historical study and detailed knowledge of

the score, you can highlight Haydn's characteristic wit and humor and really bring this

work alive.

Joseph Haydn

The many details of Joseph Haydn's life and works, especially concerti, and how

they relate to this Concerto are beyond the scope of this work. To make such a study

would be richly rewarding and I encourage even casual readers to at least familiarize

themselves with Haydn's biography. The New Grove Dictionary is an excellent resource

for this. In the discussion that follows, I will focus on the details which specifically give

context to this work and generally assume an understanding of Haydn's life and his highly

regarded place in music history.

Haydn had, for most of his life, been sequestered at the court of the noble

Esterhzy family in Austria, composing all his music at the court, for the court. A clever

man, Haydn made his works available to the publishers of Europe and, especially in his

later years there, he was well-known on account of them. In 1790, death and succession

led to a reorganization of the court which brought to an end the long period of strong

27 Mr. David Bilger as soloist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, sometime in the like 1990's.

16

musical patronage and set Haydn loose to travel and compose in the musical communities

of Europe as he pleased.28 Shortly thereafter, he traveled to London, where he was

acclaimed for the symphonies he composed and performed during his visit (The so-called

"London" symphonies, No. 92-104) and where he was impressed by the music at a 1791

Handel Commemoration celebration, which followed on the fervor aroused during the

178429 centenary celebrations of England's "national" composer.30 After his return, he

spent the last few remaining years of active compositional life in Vienna focused on

oratorios inspired by Handel (The Creation, on a libretto originally intended for Handel),

masses, string quartets, and this trumpet Concerto, which is his very last orchestral work

and his most successful instrumental concerto.

Anton Weidinger and his Concerto

Anton Weidinger (1766-1852), the Viennese court trumpeter and the virtuoso for

whom both Haydn and Hummel wrote their trumpet concerti, had been one of several

European trumpeters experimenting with designing a "keyed trumpet" at the end of the

18th century. The keyed trumpet is similar to the natural trumpet of Handel's day but,

like a woodwind instrument, it is fitted with vent-holes and keys to cover them;

uncovering the holes could raise the pitch some amount depending on number and

placement (for Haydn's Concerto, at least a minor third is required).31 Weidinger was not

the first to experiment with this, but probably had the best success and certainly is the

best-remembered by history. Weidinger had befriended Joseph Haydn32 after he returned

28 James Webster and Georg Feder, "Haydn, (Franz) Joseph," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy,http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed 1 June 2005.

29 "the centenary of his birth as erroneously recorded by Mainwaring," cited in Hicks, 23.30 Hicks, 2331 Tarr, The Trumpet, 149-151.32 Edward H. Tarr, "Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and its Origins," International Trumpet Guild Journal,

Vol. 21, No. 1 (September 1996), 32.

17

from London and apparently asked him to compose a concerto for him, which Haydn did

in 1796. Around this time, Weidinger was active in the promotion of his new instrument

and in the four years which passed between the composition of this work and its

premiere, Weidinger performed several times, each presenting easier works on what he

called his "organized trumpet."33 When Weidinger had secured both the confidence and

permission needed to present the work, he gave the following announcement:

[Mr. Weidinger will present] to the world for the first time, so that it maybe judged, an organized trumpet which he has invented and brought --after seven years of hard and expensive labour -- to what he believes maybe described as perfection: it contains several keys and will be displayed ina concerto especially written for this instrument by Herr Joseph Haydn,Doctor of Music.34

Weidinger premiered the work in his first solo recital with the new instrument at

the Vienna Burgtheater on the evening of 22 March 1800. Despite Robbins Landon and

Tarr's optimistic speculation about the effect of the evening in the preface to the

Universal edition of the Concerto,35 the evening was in fact poorly attended and not very

successful.36 Through Weidinger's later performances, however, he secured critical

acclaim for himself and was not only well known for his instrument, but for his

musicality as well. Weidinger's instrument itself was short-lived, driven out of service

within four decades by technical limitations which the piston valve, invented around

1813, overcame easily.37. The concerti composed for Weidinger and his instrument by

Haydn and Hummel, however, have survived and after a long period of dis-use the Haydn

33 Tarr, "Haydn's Trumpet Concerto...," 33.34 H. C. Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, vol. 4, Haydn: The Years of 'The Creation', 227-

8, cited in Melissa Willis, "The Trumpet Concertos of Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel: ASenior Honors Projcet," an unpublished paper, 2003, 4.

35 Joseph Haydn, "Concerto," edited by Edward H. Tarr and H. C. Robbins Landon, (Mainz: UniversalEdition A.G., 1982), preface.

36 Tarr, "Haydn's Trumpet Concerto...," 32-3437 Tarr, The Trumpet, 158-160.

18

Concerto was rediscovered by Alphonse Goyens or his students at the Brussels

conservatory around the turn of the (20th) century38 and the work has subsequently

ascended to its canonical standing in the trumpet repertoire today.

Formal Analysis

My analysis of the Concerto was quite helpful to me as a performer; it not only

expanded my understanding of the inner workings of the piece but, surprisingly, it also

continually increased my enjoyment of the work as a listener. The most stunning

example of this is the melody of the second movement: in bar 11, the ties are suspensions

which resolve to beat two and imply a natural phrasing (group together: beats 6-1-2,

break, 3-4-5, break, 6-1-2) whereas my intuitive phrasing had been different (beats 6-1,

break, 2-3-4, break, 5-6-1). Performers on many recordings have made a similar

"mistake," whereas the Rheinhold Friedrich, a performer known for his thoughtful and

informed performances, has recorded a performance39 with proper phrase emphasis on the

resolution of the suspensions. In comparing recordings, I do believe I enjoy Friedrich's

interpretation of this passage best.

The first step I took in analyzing the score was to simply and mechanically

perform a chord-by-chord analysis of the work. This yielded a wealth of minute technical

details about pitch and harmonic rhythm, as in the rondo theme from the third movement

which has a very characteristic I-IV-V-I associated with it or in the main theme which has

an emphasis on subdominant in the third bar. However, this is not a very effective

methodology for addressing large-scale musical concerns; for that, thematic and structural

38 Tarr, "Haydn's Trumpet Concerto...," 30.39 Reinhold Friedrich, "Klassiche Trompeten Konzerte," (Konigsdorf: Delta Music GmbH, 1992), track 7.

19

elements must be considered as well. This last insight is something important which I

had missed in my theory training.

The concerto form, like symphonic form and other larger-scale classical orchestral

forms, is a cohesive structure by which musical ideas are presented, developed, and

conjoined with one another in important and meaningful ways. In performing such a

work, understanding the larger musical phrases and relations is essential in helping to

bring musical depth and contrast to the work. In this case, this means elevating it beyond

a series of pretty or virtuosic passages strung together. Haydn's concept of the three-

movement form of the concerto was: "heavy and intellectual first movement, poetic slow

movement, light-hearted and brilliant finale."40 There are of course there are more

detailed conventions, which, for the present discussion, I will assume the reader has some

familiarity. To the extent of my understanding of them, this work seems to satisfy

convention quite well. A full analysis which explores, in detail, the relationship between

the different thematic and phrase structures, including a study of how this relates to the

conventions of the time, is beyond the scope of this work; I will nonetheless begin my

analysis by looking at the most obvious elements.

The first movement is in Sonata-allegro form with the expected components

(please refer generously to the annotations in appendix 2-A): an orchestral exposition

(bars 1-36) which cadences in E-flat major and presents orchestral and solo themes which

will be used throughout the work (Theme A, the main theme; Theme B, the transition

motives; Theme C, the ending gesture of the second theme area; Theme D, a motive used

at the beginning of the development; and Theme E, which is also used as the movement's

coda); a solo exposition (bars 37-83) with a first theme (bars 37-44) in the tonic,

40 Robbins Landon, 232-233, cited in Willis, 11.

20

transitional material (bars 45-59) which moves from tonic to dominant, a second theme

area (bars 60-77) which cadences in the dominant, and closing material which reiterates

the second theme area's cadence (bars 77-83) -- Alternately, it is very possible that the

true closing cadence of the second theme area is at the trilled whole note (bar 83) and the

material immediately following (bars 84-92) is closing material, moving the beginning of

the development back to the trumpet entrance in C minor (bar 93); a development (bars

83-124) which touches on several diverse key areas (C minor, bars 87-95; A-flat major:

96-101; E-flat major: 102-124) and arrives on a prolonged dominant in the home key

(bars 113-124); a recapitulation in E-flat major (bars 125-169) which has a return of the

main theme (bars 125-132), a transition that remains in the tonic key (bars 133-137), a

different second theme area which remains in the tonic (bars 138-161), and a short bit of

closing material (bar 161-168) which arrives on a tonic 6-4 cadence with accompanying

cadenza to bring the harmony to a dominant 5-3 (bar 168); a perfect authentic cadence

resolves the cadenza into a short coda (bars 169-end).

The simple, cantabile second movement is in ternary form (ABACoda) and the

key of A-flat major. The A theme (bars 1-8, 9-16) is a simple singing melody that is

broken into two phrases of a regular period and is 8 bars long. The simple harmonies are

embellished with the expressive suspensions which I mentioned previously. The B theme

(bars 17-32) has a truly audacious modulation (bars 19-22) to the distant key of C-flat

major (bar 22-26) and a gentle modulation back (bar 27-30) to the dominant of A-flat

(bars 30-32). The second A section (bars 33-40) is a literal repeat with the exception of a

single note ornamenting the climax of the second phrase (bar 38, beat 5). It is worth

noting here that Gerard Schwartz, in a recording this Concerto with the Y Chamber

21

Symphony of New York,41 finds cause to further embellish the repeated material here. I

have not yet found scholarship on the issue although certainly further study is warranted.

The short coda (bars 41-50) begins as an imitation of the B section but cadences in the

familiar manner (bar 46) and relaxes into a prolongation of the final tonic, embellished by

expressive half-step resolutions in the trumpet.

The last movement is a seven-part Sonata-rondo finale (ABACABA). The reader

will recall that the key feature of a Sonata-rondo is that it superimposes on the rondo form

a greater Sonata-allegro schema. Like each of the other movements in this work, there is

an orchestral introduction (bars 1-44) which introduces both the main rondo theme (bars

1-12, 13-25) and the second theme (bars 26-33). The solo exposition begins with the the

rondo theme, which is presented by the soloist twice (bars 45-56 and 57-68), the former

ending with a half cadence and the latter with a full cadence in E-flat major. The

transition (69-77) after the end of the first rondo theme (main theme) is played by the

orchestra alone and when the soloist enters again it is at the start of the first episode

(second theme, bars 78-124) in the dominant key. The episode develops the second

theme freely through several phrases and then cadences clearly on B-flat major (bar 116).

A small amount of closing material (bars 117-124) moves from B-flat as key center to B-

flat as dominant of the home key and the work stops for a short improvisatory episode

"known in those days as an Eingang"42 (bar 124).

It is important to note that an Eingang is not a cadenza, although they share many

traits and in the Universal Edition of the Concerto, it is even marked as "cadenza." An

41 Gerard Schwarz, "The Classic Trumpet Concerti of Haydn/Hummel," (Hollywood: Delos InternationalInc., 1983), tracks 1-3.

42 Michael Brydenfelt, "Works of Telemann, Haydn, Bach, Mozart," Liner notes by Edward H. Tarr,(Netherlands: Channel Classics BV, 1997), 2.

22

Eingang usually begins on a dominant triad or seventh chord, rather than the tonic 6-4

chord from which cadenzi begin, and serves not as an embellishment of the final cadence

of the preceding phrase, but as an introduction to the fixed thematic material which

follows it and is often shorter than a cadenza.43 I was unfortunately not aware of this until

after performing both recitals, and in my performance treated it as a cadenza despite a

colleague of mine pointing the spot out as being rather awkward. The Eingang resolves

into the last rondo theme of the exposition (bars 125-136), this time only one 12-bar

phrase again ending on dominant.

The development, or next episode, (bars 137-180) starts as many Sonata

developments do, with a reference or repeat of the main theme, but that quickly changes

course and develops thematically through several diverse key areas (A-flat major, bars

142-148; F minor, bars 149-167; G major, bars 168-176). The tonal ambiguity at the end

of the section (bars 177-178) masks a clever direct modulation to the dominant of E-flat

major which brings back the next rondo theme and the recapitulation section of the

Sonata-rondo.

As expected, the main (rondo) theme (bars 181-192), transition (193-198), and

second theme (third episode, 199-204) of the recapitulation are all re-arranged to remain

in the tonic key. The third episode begins by recalling the first episode (199-209) and

then continues on as the first did in free development of the themes (bars 210-238)

coming to a decisive cadence in the tonic key (bar 220). The closing material theme

returns (bars 221-235) and the harmony moves to a prolonged dominant (bars 232-237)

which then cadences into a return of the rondo theme (bar 238). The last rondo theme

43 April Nash Greenan, "Eingang," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed28 June 2005.

23

comes as a very abbreviated reference (bars 238-241) before Haydn develops the thematic

material in another free episode or closing material (bars 242-279). This section ends

with a dramatic dominant and grand pause which seems to suggest a cadence, although

Haydn did not intend there to be one44 (albeit modern soloists have performed and

recorded it otherwise). This is clearly supported by the resolution in the orchestra of the

tonic 6-4 to dominant 5-3 before the grand pause. The coda that follows starts with an

unsettled reference to the main theme (over a dominant of sub-dominant harmony) which

leads to a vigorous and martial closing tonic prolongation.

Motivic Analysis

When considering this work in its context, I feel that there are three compositional

gestures that deserve comment because of their characteristic nature and the sense of

thematic integration they bring to the three movements of the work. In the previous

chapter, I discussed the distinction between clarino and field styles of playing which had

existed side-by-side in Europe for more than a hundred years and were still directly

meaningful to audiences of Handel's day. Haydn's audience still lived with these styles,

although clarino playing was, by this time, considered a markedly "old style" and the

courts which sported the trumpet corps were in rapid decline.

The first gesture of note is the frequent reference to the traditionally martial

character of the instrument and its characteristic "sol-do" signal: the fanfare in the

orchestral exposition of the first movement (I:13-16, more on these later), the short

exclamation in the first movement transitions (I: 49-50 and 141-142), and several

separate places in the third movement (III: 117-120, 155-164, 168, 170, 204-209, 225-

228, 276-279, and 290-end). To make matters more interesting, in the third movement's

44 Brydenfelt, 2.

24

development, Haydn takes this characteristic gesture which would have only been

performable in one key at a time on a natural trumpet and now weaves it into the

developing texture calling for the keyed trumpet to successively play it in F, B-flat, and

A-flat. Lastly, the descending "natural" arpeggio in the first movement, second theme

(bars 147-149) also has the feel of a martial signal.

The second gesture is the use of the full diatonic scale in the low register of the

instrument. The first movement's main theme may have been a delightful treat for the

audiences in Vienna who had never before heard a trumpet play a full scale in its third

octave (between e-flat' and e-flat''). In fact, it is noticeable that the first movement is

mostly composed in conjunct motion, both diatonic and chromatic, in varying speeds and

registers of the instrument. Willis suggests that this is partly because of weakness of

Weidinger as a performer and limitations of his instrument, and that Haydn was avoiding

the more difficult to perform leaps to keyed notes.45 The second movement's simple lyric

melody is in the low register of the instrument and in keys quite "distant" from the

instrument's E-flat base: the main melody is in A-flat major (A-flat itself being a "keyed

note" on Weidinger's instrument) and the development is in the remote key of C-flat

major.

Thirdly, natural trumpets do not possess any half-step interval between partials

until the third octave (e''-f'' on a trumpet pitched in C). Throughout this Concerto, Haydn

seems to bring special emphasis on the trumpet now playing chromatic half-steps

throughout the middle of its compass. In the first movement's exposition, the melodic

line several times emphasizes a chromatic neighbor motion (I: 55-59, 66-71) and

throughout the entire Concerto, Haydn finds ways to insert ascending and descending

45 Willis, 24-25.

25

chromatic scales (I:47, 101, II: 21-22, III: 227-299) which specially demonstrate the new

instrument's chromatic abilities. The most noticeable instance of this idea, however, is a

characteristic "sighing" motif which appears in every movement (I: 115-117, II: 25-26

and 47-48, III: 151-154).

The first opening notes of the solo trumpet in this Concerto seem out of place: in a

classical concerto, the soloist is not expected to play until the solo exposition. So what is

the trumpet soloist doing playing during the orchestral exposition? One suggestion,

made by Willis expresses a popular sentiment that these are "warm-up" notes for

Weidinger, who needed them because of his weak playing abilities.46 I like to think that

this is Haydn's special brand of musical humor at work. Much of the composition of this

piece seems to play the expectations of form and the traditional role of the trumpet

against the newfound abilities of Weidinger's instrument. The first of these exclamations

is but a single note, the tonic of the new instrument, and merely punctuates the first

cadence. The second alternates (in the orchestral setting) with the tutti trumpets in

fanfares which lie entirely within the harmonic series. If you have come to see and judge

for yourself the advertised "perfection" of Mr. Weidinger's "organized trumpet," then

there is a certain reaction when the first notes you hear from this new instrument are these

fanfares, which you have always heard any trumpets play. In a certain sense, Haydn

teases his audience along before he gives them the what they have been waiting for: a

new, fully chromatic trumpet. I am aware that this position is not backed up by any

scholarship and it remains an open question to find a more scholarly opinion on the

matter.

46 Willis, 23.

26

Process

My performances of the Haydn Concerto were wonderful learning experiences.

The detailed score study was a huge help in being able to bring out the sense of line in

some of the phrases. While sometimes my sense of phrase became "heady" and the

attempt to emphasize theoretical concepts obstructs musical intuition, the way in which

score study (and to a lesser degree, analysis) helped bring the music alive to me as a

performer was amazing. More than the other works on the recital, this concerto has both

great depth and is readily accessible to my skills in analysis and score study. The

harmonic and thematic syntax is very familiar and so it allows me to to ask the higher-

level questions about form and structure earlier. Unfortunately, the benefits which my

detailed chordal and harmonic understanding brought to my intonation did not find

expression during either recital: technical issues involving tension and my playing

sabotaged my attempts at good intonation.

For all the exploration which I have done, there is room for much more research in

both analysis and performance of this piece: Other authors have certainly addressed the

issue of analysis of this work, and I am eager to see what details or analytic concepts I

have missed; the way in which this Concerto relates to other Haydn works and other

concerti of the time is another study to be done; issues of ornamentation which I

mentioned regarding the second movement and correct performance of the turns indicated

in the third movement are still open questions; uncritical sources have suggested to me

that in this time period there were two senses of the adagio tempo marking in the second

movement, a topic about which I have heard no scholarly opinion; I look forward to

finding a better way to treat the Eingang in the third movement in my next performance

27

of the work; all of my studies in this project were from the piano reduction of the

Concerto and it has been suggested to me that to truly know the work means to study the

orchestral score and get a sense too for Haydn's orchestration; this last point also implies

performance of the work with a Chamber Orchestra, which would be another milestone

experience to understanding the nature of the piece to be sought; and, for all my textbook

research on Weidinger and his instrument, I have not heard any of the several modern

performances of the piece on replicas of his instrument, which I consider essential to

further understanding the style of the work.

I have come to feel, through this project, that both the questions which I have

answered in the course of this discussion and the ones for which I will continue to search

for answers are the issues that performers must address when they propose to present a

piece of solo literature. It is simply not enough to know the notes on the page and be able

to play them all, although that is certainly a prerequisite. It has to mean something to me

as a performer and so it is my job to search for what that meaning is, and the process of

that search is something I believe I should undertake every time I perform a work; it is a

never-ending process.

28

Chapter 4: Legend by Georges Enesco

I have been fond of Legend, by Georges Enesco (1881-1955), since my first

exposure to it my freshman year (2000) at a performance by Tom Bergeron for our studio

class. My formal study of the work, however, did not begin until I prepared it for my jury

last spring. It is unique among the trumpet repertoire with which I am familiar as an

arguably late-Romantic work for trumpet (albeit heavily influenced by Impressionism).

Chronologically, Legend is one of the very next works we have after the Haydn and

Hummel concerti, despite the intervening century. In the time since I began with this

project, I have performed this work more than any other and I enjoy its musical

effectiveness greatly.

Score study

When I first approached the work, I was overwhelmed: the trumpet part seemed

very complicated and technical, the French terms in the score and part were foreign to

me, and the piano score was so dense with notes that I could not begin to imagine how

the parts fit together. In this regard, this work has been one of the clearest experiences in

the importance of score study. Larry Scripp, the solfege teacher with whom I studied this

past year, put it like this: "On one level, music is an inquiry. This is the implicit question

we're asking every time we perform a piece of music: How does it go? How should it

go? How am I going to interpret it?"47 Some of my first performances of the Enesco were

not very effective, musically, because my answer to some of these questions was, in

effect, "I don't really know, but I'll do something that I think approximates what the music

should be." Especially in the fast sections, the musical line becomes muddied and unclear

if it is not accurate and precise.

47 Larry Scripp, private conversation, 09 October 2004.

29

One of the tools I now use when I approach a new work is to ask these questions,

starting with the broadest sense and getting progressively more detailed: First, do I

understand each of the printed musical directions in the score? In this case, since I do not

speak any French, this required some time with both a musical and a common dictionary,

and I have included the results in a glossary table (see appendix 3-C). Next, do I

understand the rhythms and pitches that appear in my part? Do I understand the notes and

rhythms of all the parts? Is there a form? There is no end to this line of questioning.

With the Legend, I experienced strongly that it was not until I knew the answers to many

of these questions, and not until after I had spent the time in deep study of my part and the

score to really understand what was there, that the work became transparent to me as a

performer and listener. Once this started to open up, it became accessible to me to

perform more accurately and with more musical flexibility and effectiveness.

Circumstances of Legend

It is not too much of a stretch, then, to think of the historical research I have

advocated as an ancillary line of questioning to the one I have suggested above. I found

my research in the historical aspects of this work to be engaging. Georges Enesco is

Romania's most famous composer and was a talented and active violinist. He was known

in France under the French interpretation of his name, Georges Enesco, but later in life

published under the traditional Romanian spelling of George Enescu. Reportedly a

prodigy from a very young age, he attended the Vienna Konservatorium starting at age 7,

the Paris Conservatoire at age 14, had a prodigious memory, and commanded a wide

variety of compositional styles throughout his career.48 Personally, Enesco is also

48 Noel Malcolm, "Enescu, George," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed02 April 2005, 1.

30

remembered as being a very humble, self-effacing, and sincere musician,49 and I feel that

his personality is part of his Legend.

I was only able to find a limited amount of information on the circumstances

around the composition of the work. A few short years after he graduated from the Paris

Conservatoire (1899), Enesco composed this work for a competition there in 190650 and

dedicated it to the current trumpet teacher, Merri Franquin (1848-1934). Franquin was an

active proponent of the 4-valved, small-bore C/D trumpet and he actively encouraged

composers to write for it and performers to perform on it.51 Enesco was apparently

convinced and his work is one of the few works of that time published for C trumpet.

The tradition of using the C trumpet became popular in the early part of the twentieth

century in French orchestras, crossed the oceans, and is prevalent in American orchestras

today (albeit with a very different, large-bore C trumpet).

Formal and Thematic Analyses

When you take the aforementioned process of inquiry a still further, the question

becomes "What does this given musical gesture mean in relationship to the whole of the

work?" Formal analysis becomes the next step in understanding the work better. In

Legend, what seems like dense complexity at first boils down to a fairly basic harmonic

framework onto which a generous amount of dissonance and harmonic color is added.

Enesco, who was very familiar with the lush Romantic compositional style of Wagner52

and also apparently influenced by the Impressionistic style of Debussy, composed this

work in a manner which blends the two styles. Common Practice Period harmonic

49 Ibid., 2.50 Ole J. Utnes, "Merri Franquin," http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/franquin/. Accessed 29 March, 2005.51 Edward Tarr, "Franquin, Merri," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed

01 April 2005.52 Malcolm, 1.

31

structures and an almost Wagnerian weaving of motifs coexists with use of

Impressionistic techniques such as chord planing. While the piece is divided into clear

sections by tempo and character, neither the late-Romantic nor Impressionistic syntaxes

facilitate making those divisions clear and rigid, allowing the music to integrate into a

free-floating, rhapsodic work spun out from a small amount of thematic material.

There are five of these sections, easily recognizable by two contrasting tempi and

styles (A and B), in alternation: slow, fast, slow, fast, slow or ABA'B'A'' (see appendix 3-

A; bars 1-19, 20-30, 31-43, 44-68, and 67-77, respectively). This schema is an expansion

of ternary form, where the form is the traditional tripartite ABA but with the BA grouping

repeated again, as in the scherzo of Beethoven's 7th symphony53. The A sections are in

the tempo-style "Lent et Grave" and both notated in 6/4 meter whereas the B sections

both have the same musical double-time relationship to the A section, although B is

written out in double-speed note values and B' is written out in double-speed meter (2/4).

The only difference I can perceive is that the B' seems to have more of a hypermetric

emphasis on two (i.e. bars are grouped in twos) rather than the three which you would

expect from an imitation of the B section's 3/4 notation (because one bar of B' equals one

beat of B).

53 W. Deansutcliffe, and Tilmouth, Michael, "Ternary Form," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy,http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed 7 July 2005.

32

These sections are also, to some degree, thematically delineated. On a coarse

level, the theme given in figure 4.1 forms the basis of the material in the A sections and

the gesture of the excerpt given in figure 4.2 is the germ for the B sections. This level of

study can be very fruitful, and is the level on which the listener will probably perceive the

piece with the first hearing. I feel, however, that there is a deeper structural unity which

goes beyond this division. Enesco treats the first four notes of figure 4.1 as a rhythmic

and melodic motive out of which much of the melodic material is somehow derived,

including that of figure 4.2, above (in Appendix 3-A, I have indicated with a circled star

many of the places I consider to be somehow derived from this motive). A few subtler

instances of this relationship include: in bar 13, taken without octave displacement, the E-

flat, C, B-flat, A-flat gesture in the trumpet is the retrograde of the interval structure of

the principal motive; in the buildup to the climax (bars 56-59) the melodic gesture is three

instances of that four-note motive, doubled in octaves, and in stretto; lastly, the interval

structure of the arpeggios after Plus Lent (bar 73) is the four-note interval pattern which

has been developed from the beginning (in movable do: do-me-fa-sol) to here (do-me-fi-

sol).

33

Harmonic Analysis

Harmonically, this work was a challenge to analyze (appendix 3-A contains my

rough analysis). Some portions of the work resist my analysis by use of impressionistic

chordal techniques which I understand only superficially. Others are parsable by the

techniques I understand well through the simplification of the harmonies down to the

basic structural tones (i.e. ignoring the copious dissonances). While expanding my

language of analysis sufficiently to explain all the notes in detail was beyond the scope of

this project, the challenges in my work on the simplified analysis broadened and

expanded my understanding of theory and analysis technique. The chords themselves do

not easily yield up their function and it required a lot of contextual study to make sense of

the different sections. What follows is a terse discussion of the harmonic structure that I

found.

The work begins with a long expansion on the tonic C minor. There is free use of

dissonance within this, and frequent use of neighboring chords, but there is very little

actual harmonic motion. In the bar before the first 3/4 (bar 5), the upward melodic line is

accompanied by a series of complex and dissonant chords which end with a supertonic-

tonic resolution. I feel the entire harmonic gesture here is one of an intense neighbor

dissonance to the tonic. The first substantive harmonic motion of this first phrase (bars 1-

16) is a harmonic progression to A-flat major (bar 12). Despite my use the symbols of

modulation, the progression is not one of modulation but merely of expansion over three

measures (bars 11-14). Even though there are moments of dominant-tonic resolution in

A-flat, they are downplayed very cleverly: at the first resolution of dominant-tonic in A-

flat major (bar 12) rests on beats 4 to 5, which is very weak metrically; in the next

34

measure (bar 13), dominant-tonic similarly comes on beats five to six and over the barline

the "tonic" A-flat harmony shifts into an upper neighbor D-flat 6-4 chord. Functionally,

this A-flat area serves as an expanded upper neighbor harmony and resolves to G (bar 15)

which in turn is a brief but unequivocal dominant resolving in the very first cadence of

the piece (bar 16). When I discovered that the trumpet's G-C gesture (bars 15-16) was the

goal of the whole first 16 measures of harmonic motion, my perception of those two

lonely notes changed from being a throwaway gesture of sorts to something much more

significant and dramatic, musically.

The music which comes after the cadence (bars 16-19) serves as transition toward

the next section. The harmonic motion from B-flat to E-flat in bar 17 appears to set up a

cadence in A-flat major but instead there is a direct modulation to the distant F-sharp

minor (bar 18). F-sharp gives way to A major and the bar before Mouvt (bar 19) lingers

on the minor dominant (i.e. E minor) resolving properly across the barline to the

beginning of the B section. In contrast to the A section's almost harmonic monotony,

the B section is much less stable. There is a sense of A as a home key, although the

tonality moves through the distant key areas of C (bar 22), B-flat (bar 23), D-flat (bars 24-

25), and F-flat (bars 26-27). When we reach the tonally-ambiguous end of the B section

(bars 29-30), I feel the melodic contours link the diminished harmony back to "tonic" A.

Given this context, the last two notes in the trumpet (bar 30) set up a kind of dominant

feeling: the D-sharp as a leading tone to the dominant E which follows. This "cadence"

does not resolve to A across the barline as we might expect, but rather the tonality of E

slides in beneath it and becomes the starting tonality of the next A' section.

35

A series of chordal motions, one to a bar, leads back to the dramatic return of

tonic C minor with the entrance of the trumpet (bar 35). The melodic line, which has

been building since the beginning of A', climaxes at the trumpet's high C which also

articulates a shift to the minor dominant. This dominant is emphasized in the a volont

section that follows and all of the motion from here to the Vif (bar 43) is an expansion of

this weighty dominant. The last chord before Vif (bar 43) is a clear dominant seventh,

emphasized by its strong penultimate aggogic emphasis, which resolves in an authentic

cadence into the next bar. Since this piece is in an ABA plus BA form, this cadence

marks the end of the regular ABA form; The rest of the work (BA) can be understood as a

coda of sorts, and this is supported by the conspicuous lack of any sense of dominant-

tonic resolution from here to the end of the work.

The repose of the Vif cadence is quickly overridden by the explosion of rhythmic

energy. The 16th note triplets articulate the upper triad of a C-seventh chord (E, G, and

B-flat), changing this tonic to an applied dominant of F (which arrives four bars later) and

robbing the cadence of its sense of harmonic repose and sending us off through the next

whirlwind section. The series of alternating scales seems to be based on a sense of scalar

harmonic motion (both diatonic, bars 48-51, and chromatic, bars 53-54) which leads to

D-flat or C-sharp major. As a key area, D-flat is also never confirmed by cadence but

seems to act as a prolonged precursor to the final tonic; the rhythmic and thematic fervor

builds to a climax at Furieusement and then a brief transitional episode relaxes away from

the climax and resolves D-flat downward back to C minor. The final A section is in the

style of the first A section and the major motion to D-flat (bar 73) and B-flat (bar 74)

seems to be a harmonic double-neighbor embellishment of the final tonic.

36

In this work more than the others, knowing the chordal structure of each bar (as a

result of my harmonic sketches and score study) yielded great insight in terms of

intonation and phrasing: For instance, each time the theme in figure 4.2 occurs, it is

outlining the upper triad of a seventh-chord (in bar 20, A-seventh, in bar 22, D-flat

seventh, and in bar 44, C-seventh), yet in each of these cases I had previously been

thinking diminished chords (C-sharp, F, and E diminished); the exclamation at bar 27

starts as F-half-diminished but the top note of the line is marked with a change to F-flat-

major, not A-flat minor which I had thought it was; the G-F appogiatura in bar 23 makes

more sense knowing it is over a B-flat chord; most importantly, however, the 32nd note

run starting in measure 60 outlines the prevailing tonality of D-flat minor, and being

aware of this helped tremendously by to 'locking in' to a pitch center. I previously

mentioned the importance of the G-C gesture in bars 15-16, and this pattern of musical

emphasis repeats at each "cadence": the F-sharp-E at the end of bar 19 as dominant of A,

the D-sharp-E at the end of bar 30, and the G as dominant in bar 37.

Process

Going beyond the chord-by-chord emphasis, the understanding of the larger

harmonic motions which I find in the work has influenced my sense of musical phrase in

very positive ways, most of which I alluded to in the body of my analysis. It is still very

powerful for me to think back to when I began performing the work and was "guessing"

at what the phrasing should be for lack of understanding and to contrast that with the

understanding which I present in the present discussion. It was also very useful to listen

in detail to several other major recordings of the work. It was very insightful to compare

37

their senses of style and phrasing, and I have included a brief annotated discography in

appendix 3-D.

In terms of the actual performances of the work, I am very pleased with my

experiences. The inquiry into each area of the piece, much of which happened between

my first and second recitals, is perceivable in the quality of each successive performance.

In addition to all the benefits of this research which I have discussed above, the detailed

knowledge of the score quite simply helps tremendously in putting this work together

with the pianist. As the work I performed most this year, it was repeatedly amazing to

come together with my pianist after months and with only minimal rehearsal prepare a

performance which fit together much easier than the last; I felt like a large part of this

phenomenon was my expanded comfort with the score. Even though there were still

issues of execution in my last performance of Legend, it was one of the works that I feel I

performed most musically. Its Romantic-Impressionistic Affekt is one that many modern

listeners, even those unfamiliar with classical art-music, can tap into readily and it is a

piece that I will continue to keep in my solo repertoire for auditions and future recitals.

38

Chapter 5: Sonata f r Trompete und Klavier , P. Hindemith

Paul Hindemith's (1895-1955) Sonata is the first major work of 20th century

literature for solo trumpet and is another piece which I had been exposed to repeatedly

but had not learned prior to this project. Hindemith's work had always been opaque to

me, but through this study and the performance of his work, I have begun to learn and

appreciate his compositional techniques and harmonic language. In studying the details, I

have come to deeply appreciate and love Hindemith's work; study and performance of

this Sonata was the most enjoyable of the five works in this project.

Paul Hindemith

As a composer, Hindemith was remarkable; "one of the most prolific and

frequently played composers of his generation."54 He studied violin and composition at

the Hochsche Konservatorium in Frankfurt (1908-1914),55 where he absorbed much from

both then-conservative 19th century and modernist compositional influences.56 As a

performer he was a member of the Frankfurt Opera orchestra (and soon its

concertmaster), and performed with several of the most prominent string quartets of the

1910's and 1920's. During World War I, Hindemith was impressed into the armed service

where he served as a bass drummer and experienced the power of music to cross political

boundaries.57 On his return, he switched from violin to viola and unleashed his creative

powers, creating a large quantity of new works in a style known as Neue Sachlichkeit (or

"New Objectivity"). Hindemith quickly established himself as a formidable new-music

54 Giselher Schubert, "Hindemith, Paul," grovemusic.com, ed. L. Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com,accessed 28 October 2004, 2.

55 "Biographie: Paul Hindemith, 1895-1963," Lebendiges Museum Online,http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/HindemithPaul/, accessed 13 July 2005.

56 Ibid, 1.57 Ibid.,2.

39

composer.58 While his active career as a performer helped secure performances of his

own works, he gained further influence as chair of a major new music festival (the

Donaueschingen Festival) and was invited to teach at the Berliner Hochschule fr Musik

(in Berlin).

In adopting the Neue Sachlichkeit style, Hindemith left behind the language of

Romanticism which he had absorbed at the conservatory. This new style is described in

some detail an the article by Giselher Schubert:

the Neue Sachlichkeit was thus identified stylistically with the dissertationsof a fundamentally linear, polyphonic musical idiom that seemed new inthe context of the time. Formal coherence was no longer supported andarticulated by motivic-thematic developmental processes, tonal functionalharmony, or regular syntax, but rather by a rhythmically and metricallyuniform structure or a sometimes supple, sometimes strict continuity ofmusical movement. In this continuity, musical procedures were reduced totheir primary elements, such as a pulsing meter, often made markedlydissonant in these works, to allow the often extremely individualizedvoices in the musical texture to stand out against one another.59

Whereas the Romantic style was woven around the subjective experience of the listener

reacting to the music on stage, the "New Objectivists" specifically placed themselves

against subjectivism. To give you a taste of the Zeitgeist of the Neue Sachlichkeit

movement, Hindemith's Concerto for Orchestra (1925) was judged to have "struck the

mist-clouds of late Romantic emotional doodling like a bolt of lightening."60

By this time, too, Hindemith had formulated some of his fundamental socio-

musical ideas: he believed firmly that music needed to assume a practical role in society

and he rejected the Romantic ideal of the inspired artist composing for the sake of

composing to bring enlightenment to society in some vague, undefined way; he

58 Ibid, 2.59 Ibid.60 Ibid, 3.

40

encouraged amateur music-makers to take an interest in serious composers and vice

versa; he discussed music in film at the Musikhochschule; he encouraged music on the

radio; and he used his influence through articles and festivals to encourage practical

musical compositions. At the Musikhochschule, he also found himself ill-supplied to

teach composition by the materials of the day. Unhappy, he set out to author his own

texts on composition; to this end, he studied mathematics, acoustics, and music theory in

depth which would later manifest in his published treatises.61

The rise to power of the National Socialists (Nazi Party, 1933) in Germany

repulsed Hindemith; the feeling was mutual and many of his works were banned from

performance. His beliefs forced him to react to the situation in his art, which he did in

several works of the period, especially his opera Mathis der Maler (1933-35), to which he

composed his own libretto which addresses the relationship between politics, art, power,

and personal responsibility.62 Hindemith's work continued to be curtailed until in 1936,

when the popularity of his Violin Sonata in E was seen as a political threat; performance

of his works was then completely forbidden by the Nazis. He had been preparing to

emigrate for several years, and finally did so, to Switzerland, in 1938.

Theory of Hindemith's works

During these years of restricted performing, teaching, and composing under the

Nazi regime and in Switzerland, Hindemith took the time to focus on the theoretical

research he had begun at the Musikhochschule. His compositional treatise, Unterweisung

im Tonsatz (or "The Craft of Musical Composition") was begun in 1935, the first part

completed in 1937, and the second part in 1940. In it, he presents new theoretical

61 Ibid., 4.62 Ibid., 5.

41

principles governing the harmonic and melodic relationships of pitches. This work both

grew out of his compositions and influenced them, and he substantiated his new theories

in his sonatas, which he composed for nearly every orchestral instrument, including this

Sonata (1939).63 Among composers, Hindemith is particularly verbose about what

exactly he is thinking about as he composes. He even provides analyses of several of his

works.

In order to begin an analysis of this work, I needed to understand something about

Hindemith's compositional practices, for which I surveyed J. Kent Williams' treatment of

the subject in his "Theories and Analyses of Twentieth-Century Music."64 I will begin

with a very brief discussion of Hindemith's compositional ideas before analyzing the

trumpet Sonata. A fundamental idea presented in Unterweisung im Tonsatz is a new

ordering of relationships between pitches which he called "Series I" (see figure 5.1,

below). Series I is based on the acoustical properties of the overtone series, and read left

to right the pitches' relationships are ordered from "closest" to "most distant," relative to a

constant tonal center (in this case, C). Hindemith also presented a "Series II" of interval

classes which is arranged based on the acoustic phenomenon of "resultant tones" in order

63 Ibid., 6.64 Except where noted, the following discussion comes entirely from J. Kent Williams, "Theories and

Analyses of Twentieth-Century Music," (Orlando: Harcort Brace & Co., 1995), 216-233.

42

of increasing tension or dissonance (also left to right). Note here that interval classes are

grouped together by barlines and are equivalent across inversions. Hindemith theorized

that tense melodic intervals have more melodic "force" than did consonant ones;

inversely, consonant harmonic intervals have more harmonic "force" or stability. This

latter concept was the basis of a new system of chord classification which is itself quite

complex and not directly relevant to this discussion. The point here is that while

Hindemith's music is very dissonant, especially works composed after 1935, he is still

fundamentally a tonal composer. He has written his own rules on tonality and until a

listener becomes accustomed to his tonal language the expression in his music is difficult

to grasp.

Hindemith's compositional style is firmly rooted in counterpoint. Since his Neue

Sachlichkeit period, he experimented with works where he "stripped the musical fabric

down to unadorned two-part textures"65 and in Unterweisung im Tonsatz he maintains

"that the bass line and the next most important line form an immediately understandable

two-part texture."66 A clear example of this in the Sonata is the Wie am Anfang section at

the end of the third movement: the piano's parallel octaves reduce to one voice and the

music is unadorned two-voice counterpoint up until bar 58. It is also significant that in

his theories on counterpoint he does not draw a hard line, as traditional counterpoint does,

between "dissonant" and "consonant" intervals. Rather, according to his "Series II," he

saw resolutions of intervals as a relative process: a very tense interval may resolve to a

less tense interval, even if the latter would be considered dissonant under traditional rules

(i.e. a minor second resolving to a major second).

65 Schubert, 2.66 Ibid.

43

Analysis

When I began this project, I had hoped to conduct an in-depth analysis of each

work on the program, and through the process learn what I needed in order to accomplish

this. Hindemith's language of melodic and harmonic consonance and dissonance was,

academically speaking, foreign to me at the outset of this project. Study of the

aforementioned Unterweisung im Tonsatz and application of analysis techniques to all

three movements of the Sonata is a task that is beyond the scope of this study, although

one which I leave to myself as an open project. For now I must content myself instead to

discuss briefly the formal and thematic elements of the work, ignoring all but the most

obvious or intuitive of "harmonic" details. The reader should keep in mind the

limitations and problems of this study from lack of scholarly understanding of the

"harmonic" fabric of the work when adopting any of the ideas presented herein.

The form of these works seems fairly clear, even without careful study of

Hindemith's writings. The first movement is in Sonata-allegro form, as expected from a

piece entitled Sonata. Marked Mit Kraft (see appendix 5-B for translations of German

terms found in the score), the first melody heard (bars 1-9) is the main theme which is

divided into the two motives shown in figures 5.3 and 5.4. Both are the subject of

imitative treatment throughout the opening section. Rehearsal 3 (bar 27) marks the

beginning of the transition. The trumpet calls (bars 28-29) announce the basic motive

(see figure 5.5) of the next section, which Hindemith crafts into a rhythmic fabric and

builds toward a dramatic statement of it between the trumpet and piano at rehearsal 5 (bar

44 with pickup). The second theme is the lyric melody presented before rehearsal 6 (bar

44

47-54). Like the main theme, Hindemith then treats it imitatively (bars 54-62) as the

music builds toward a section that seems to be closing material for the exposition.

The dramatic Breit section (bars 67-84) repeats the opening theme but now

seeming around a tonal center of D and pushes ever forward toward a resolution on D

after rehearsal 9 (bar 84). This section could signal the beginning of the development

(Sonatas, as we have seen with the Haydn, often begin their development with a citation

from the main theme somehow treated differently); however, the structural weight of that

concluding resolution (bar 84) and the sense of direction throughout the second theme

toward the Breit section lead me to group it in with the exposition. I am convinced that

this part of my analysis requires more study.

Given that the Breit section is part of the exposition, then the Wie vorher section

(bars 85-107) begins the development with almost an exact quotation of the second

theme, modulated up a whole step to a tonic of B. Again using imitation of the theme, he

sets it against a duple accompaniment (clearly a developmental gesture at this point) and

45

on several other tonics. The next section in 12/8 is very similar to the transition from the

exposition and has the same sense of a building tension which continues all the way to the

9/8 before rehearsal 14 (bar 124), which I interpret as a kind of "dominant arrival." The

change from driving forward melodic motion (bars 119-122) to the more static repetition

of the pitches B-C-D (bars 124-126) has a feeling that gives the impression of some kind

of arrival.

The half-step (and thus strongest possible) melodic resolution to the return of the

main theme at rehearsal 14 (bar 127) is clearly the beginning of the recapitulation (bars

127-142), although the recapitulation then lacks what I identified as the second theme

which figured so prominently in the development. An interesting alternate assessment

comes to mind where the transition of the exposition (bars 30-45) is actually the second

theme (the theme being the motive of figure 5.5), and then the recapitulation would be

presentation of the main and secondary themes simultaneously. Again, this is a question

left open to further study. The main theme keeps building in an upward motion through

to 137 and the powerful melodic half-step resolution downwards to F-natural (bar 138) is

the final resolution of the piece. The remainder of the movement (138-142) is a short

coda.

The second movement is in a clear ternary form with 5 distinct themes (labeled 1-

5 in Appendix 4-A, subsequent occurrences also notated) whose repetition and imitation

are the markers I use to think about the structure of the movement. The A section begins

with a presentation of three thematic ideas (the latter possessing two distinct phrases; bars

1-12). Next, theme one is imitated at the interval of a fourth (bars 16-18), and then a

46

repetition of theme one (bars 23-26) concludes the section. These these small sections

are divided from one another by the fanfare motif of theme two.

The B section (bars 26-58) has a related treatment of themes, but is divided into

two parts. The first part (bars 16-48) presents the material labeled as themes four and

five