Talkin' To God

I found out today that Mark Gould is a very weird man. He has put up a series of videos on some famous trumpet excerpts (and one commentary on historically informed performances), with "interesting" takes on them. See for yourself.

Lituus Envy

I am listening to the latest podcast of PRI's The World, which features music in the Geo Quiz. Apparently some crazy Scots have recreated a lituus and performed Bach with it! In reading up on this ancient Roman war-trumpet, I discovered that the Romans used different trumpets for different signals (according to Wikipedia):

The late Roman writer Vegetius briefly describes the use of trumpets in the Roman legions in his treatise De Re Militari:

“The legion also has its tubicines, cornicines and buccinatores. The tubicen sounds the charge and the retreat. The cornicines are used only to regulate the motions of the colours; the tubicines serve when the soldiers are ordered out to any work without the colours; but in time of action, the tubicines and cornicines sound together. The classicum, which is a particular signal of the buccinatores or cornicines, is appropriated to the commander-in-chief and is used in the presence of the general, or at the execution of a soldier, as a mark of its being done by his authority. The ordinary guards and outposts are always mounted and relieved by the sound of the tubicen, who also directs the motions of the soldiers on working parties and on field days. The cornicines sound whenever the colours are to be struck or planted. These rules must be punctually observed in all exercises and reviews so that the soldiers may be ready to obey them in action without hesitation according to the general’s orders either to charge or halt, to pursue the enemy or to retire. For reason will convince us that what is necessary to be performed in the heat of action should constantly be practised in the leisure of peace.”^[13] (De Re Militari, Book II.)

Like the Greek salpinx the Roman trumpets were not regarded as musical instruments. Among the tems used to describe the tuba’s tone, for instance, were horribilis (“horrible”), terribilis (“terrible”), raucus (“raucous”), rudis (“coarse”), strepens (“noisy”) and stridulus (“shrieking”). When sounding their instruments, the tubicines sometimes girded their cheeks with the capistrum (“muzzle”) which aulos (“flute”) players used to prevent their cheeks from being puffed out unduly.

This is the type of signal music Daniel meant in his comment to Saturday's post. However, while these trumpets were not intended to produce music themselves during Roman times, they were both reappropriated for musical use by Bach's time, and of course were the inspiration for those crazy trumpet parts in Respighi's Pines of Rome. Here is a video that includes pictures and audio of the litui used in Bach's "O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht":

When would you be?

Chad has spotted a discussion topic that seems ripe for possibility in many fields. It started as a time traveler picking the coolest engineering projects of the 20th century to be involved with, no altering of history allowed. Chad altered the topic to scientific discoveries of the 20th century, though one commenter has broken this rule by invoking Archimedes. So I pose the question this way: what musical performance of the 20th century would you most want to either witness or take part in? Imagine performing in the orchestra for the Rite of Spring premiere in 1913, or being in the crowd at Stalag VIII in 1945 for Messiaen's performance of his Quartet for the End of Time? (Of course, that would mean you were either a Nazi or a POW, so quickly jump in and jump out for that one.) I think one of my wishes would be the Geneva International Music Competition in 1955 when Maurice Andre won and started his international solo career. Or to hear him premiere the Tomasi or Chaynes concerti composed for him.

Start dreaming of your own time travels!

I know that guy!

ANAblog has two tribute posts to James Darling, thanks to the re-release of his Kennan Sonata recording. It took me a second to realize my connection with him, but then it hit me. First, I heard him play with the Cleveland Orchestra for the three years that I regularly attended their concerts (fall of '93- spring '96). The trumpet section was pretty spectacular, especially with Jim and Michael Sachs. Second, my ex-wife studied with him for a year at Cleveland State U., and I got to observe one lesson with him. He wasn't the most dynamic or musical trumpet teacher I experienced, that would be Barbara Butler and Jim Thompson respectively, but he clearly knew his craft and communicated it effectively. I think I'll get the new CD, particularly since I don't have a recording of the Kennan or the Bertold Hummel.

But how does it sound underwater?

I had heard about the tromba marina many times, and even have a picture of one on a t-shirt from the Amherst Early Music Festival. But I had no idea that it actually sounds like a trumpet, (well, an overblown natural trumpet or trombone) nor that it was invented for gender reasons.