Posted by K on May 13, 2003 at 10:07:15:
In Reply to: Re: Non-brass music for practice? posted by Roger Lewis on May 13, 2003 at 07:14:43:
Arban wrote his method in an era, where trumpet playing did not peak like it did during the baroque (Bach, Vivaldi). The cornet was rather considered a small horn, hence the name, as cornetto means little horn.
Arban wrote for a range, which was frontier line in his era. The English orchestral trumpet around 1860 was a natural trumpet with a trombone style slide allowing for a retuning of a minor third down. Later on the valved F-trumpet became the tool in the symphonies. Carl Nielsen and Sibelius wrote their parts for F trumpets (notation in F-soprano, but played on F-alto instruments; hence a lot of ledger lines below the staff).
The British symphonic trumpeters of around 1900 did not earn their fame in their orchestras. Rather the fame (and probably most of their income) was gained by playing Arban-style-variations-on-a-theme solos in park and promenade concert. Of course played on the cornet, which could be tuned in Bb and A, some even furtherly in B natural and C.
Page 348 in my Carl Fischer (Goldman/Smith) edition of the Arban method has a picture of a 1885 cornet, which has re-tuning options in the lead-pipe and by putting inserts between the main tuning slide and the body. Further more it has 2 triggers. The text say for the 1st and 3rd slides, I would rather say for the 1st and main slides. The design aside from the exchangeable lead-pipe is astonishingly similar to modern high class cornets.
I am on strong in the history of the Sousa era US cornet soloists, but at least a trumpet player like Claude Gordon to me appears to have collected the wisdom of the generations up to around 1950. I have the trumpet version of his method, and no single factor in my personal development has benefited my embouchure as much, even if I used this book without the support of a teacher. I never was short on workable range, but the CG legacy added at least an octave to each end of my trombone range and provided me with much more ease within my already conquered range. It must be said, that a somewhat odd tooth-configuration forces me to play with a zero-pressure embouchure, if I don't want my lips cut from the inside.
This not to boast anything, but only to tell, that the US school of high/low range playing is a post-Arban development. I am old enough to remember the Ellington orchestra trumpet screamer Cat Anderson (?). A distant friend of mine is the NY born tenor saxist Bob Rockwell, who now lives in Copenhagen. He told me, that once he should play a gig together with Cat Anderson. While they warmed up off stage, he had expected CA to scream the ears off his surroundings. But CA had surprise everybody by playing low range ppp stuff.
During the 1970-ies rumours went, that trumpet screamers had a max 10 years long career. My experiences with the Claude Gordon method tells me, that high range and low range are too sides of the same coin, technique-wise, mouthpiece-wise, and instrument-wise. Just listen to Dave Bargeron, if any doubt should arise about this also be going for tubas.
Klaus