19 Solo Repertoire after 1900

The development of the trumpet as a prominent solo instrument in the twentieth

century would never have happened without the technical strides of jazz trumpet-
ers and the influence of the cornet virtuosos. Like Anton Weidinger and the great
Baroque soloists before him, the expansion of trumpet solo repertoire in the twen-
tieth century revolved around virtuoso soloists rather than leading composers. As
mentioned in previous chapters, no major composer was a brass player prior to the
twentieth century, and the gap in solo literature during the Romantic era reflects
this fact as well as the cultural divisions of musical styles.
The cornet soloists of the nineteenth century largely created their own reper-
toire. Some of the earliest solos for cornet and piano were composed by cornet
players from the orchestra of the Paris Opera, notably Joseph Forestier, Stanis-
las Verronst, Charles-Alexandre Fessy, and Jean Baptiste Schiltz (the leading cor-
net player in Paris in 1840, according to Wagner).1 Jean-Baptiste Arban included
“Twelve Fantasias and Variations” at the end of his famous Complete Conservatory
Method in 1864, of which the most popular are Fantasie brilliante, Variations on a
Theme from “Norma,” and Variations on “The Carnival of Venice.” Arban also com-
posed several additional “fantasias” on themes from operas, including Verdi’s Aida,
Rigoletto, and La traviata.2 In the United States, Herbert L. Clarke composed more
than thirty cornet solos, including The Bride of the Waves, The Debutante, The
Maid of the Mist, and his own version of Variations on “The Carnival of Venice.”
Musically, cornet solos were vehicles for technical fireworks and popular senti-
mental melodies or operatic arias. Variation technique in cornet solos was, by and
large, merely decorative (and in the same monotonous key, variation after varia-
tion) rather than a manipulation of key, mode, rhythmic structure, or motivic de-
velopment. Many of the Victorian cornet solos featured spectacular displays of
multiple tonguing, astonishing facility, and extreme registers. Bohumir Kryl was
known for his trombonelike pedal tones, and Herbert L. Clarke often ended his
solos on altissimo high Fs (F6). Other cornet soloists who composed their own
repertoire included Hermann Bellstedt, John Hartmann, Theodore Hoch, Jules
Levy, Alessandro Liberati, and Walter B. Rodgers. One of the trademarks of vir-
tuoso cornet technique was the practice of juxtaposing an accented slow-moving
melody with fluttering figuration (like the pedal point technique of a compound
line in Bach cello suites) to create the effect of two different players. Both Arban

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and Clarke ended their variations on “The Carnival of Venice” this way, with Ar-
ban setting the melody in the low register and Clarke in a higher register.
The virtuoso cornet solos of the turn of the twentieth century were long on
dazzling technique and short on musical substance, yet their influence on trumpet
writing was undeniable. Amilcare Ponchielli’s Concerto for Trumpet and Band of
1866 was structured just like a cornet solo with its theme and variations format, and
Oskar Böhme’s Concerto in E Minor of 1899 drew inspiration from Arban’s Char-
acteristic Studies (especially in the third movement) as well as Mendelssohn’s Violin
Concerto (notably in key, melodic contours, and structural design). The composi-
tion of several contest solos (mourceau de concours) at the Paris Conservatory and
similar institutions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provided addi-
tional repertoire but were not considered major additions to the concert stage.
After 1900, smaller trumpets in B-flat and C became more viable solo instru-
ments through the influence of cornet virtuosity and, later, through the advances
of brilliant jazz soloists. Théo Charlier composed his Thirty-Six Transcendental
Etudes around 1905 (they weren’t published worldwide until 1946) for “trumpet,
cornet or flugelhorn.”3 In 1906 the Romanian composer George Enescu penned
his Légende for trumpet and piano, a work of substance and originality. With its
cornetlike triple tonguing, slow ascent to C6 reminiscent of Wagner’s Parsifal pre-
lude, and haunting muted conclusion, Enescu’s work broke new ground in expres-
sive solo literature for the trumpet. Légende was written for Merri Franquin, the
trumpet professor at the Paris Conservatory between 1894 and 1925, who was an
early advocate for the use of the C trumpet in the orchestra as a replacement for
the long F trumpet. Franquin studied cornet with Arban and later taught Georges
Mager, who influenced the adoption of the C trumpet in North American orches-
tras during his tenure as principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony (1919–1950).4
The first sonata for cornet and piano was written by Thorvald Hansen in 1915,
and the first sonata for trumpet and piano was composed by Karl Pilss for the Aus-
trian trumpeter Helmut Wobisch in 1935. Paul Hindemith’s famous Sonata for
Trumpet and Piano—one of the most serious works in the entire trumpet reper-
toire—was written in November 1939 when Hindemith was an exile in Switzer-
land fleeing Nazi persecution. Although not a virtuoso showpiece, the work presents
an endurance test in the final movement, which ends with the chorale tune “Alle
Menschen müßen sterben” (All men must die), at a substantially slower tempo than
the original chorale prelude (BWV 643) from J. S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein. Hindemith
never conclusively stated that his trumpet sonata was designed as protest music or
program music with a subtext, but the case could be made. Whether Hindemith was
anticipating the demise of the Nazi regime by quoting the final chorale is open to de-
bate, but it’s tempting to construe a sardonic reversal of the famous line from Schil-
ler’s Ode to Joy: “Alle Menschen werden Brüder” (All men [will] become brothers).
Following the Second World War and the virtuosic advances in trumpet tech-
nique by the great jazz soloists, a growing number of composers wrote for the
instrument, and more soloists began to appear (table 19.1; the works listed that

Solo Repertoire after 1900 159

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TABL E 19.1. Selection of significant solo works written for the trumpet after 1850

Year Composition Written for

1866 Ponchielli: Concerto for Trumpet and Band Banda Nazionale (Cremona)
1899 Böhme: Concerto in E Minor Ferdinand Weinschenk
1906 Ensecu: Légende Merri Franquin
1935 Pilss: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano Helmut Wobisch
1939 Hindemith: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano Unknown
1944 Tomasi: Concerto Ludovic Vaillant
1948 Jolivet: Concertino Morceau de concours
1948 Peskin: Concerto No. 1 in C Minor Timofei Dokschizer
1950 Arutunian: Concerto Haykaz Mesiayan
1950 Françaix: Sonatine Morceau de concours
1954 Zimmermann: “Nobody Knows de Trouble I See” Adolf Scherbaum
1955 Honegger: Intrada Unknown
1955 Davies: Sonata Elgar Howarth
1955 Pakhmutova: Concerto Unknown
1956 Stevens: Sonata Theodore Gresh
1956 Kennan: Sonata J. Frank Elsass
1956 Chaynes: Concerto Maurice André
1972 Tamberg: Concerto No. 1 Timofei Dokshizer
1974 Henze: Sonatine Howard Snell
1979 Schuller: Concerto Gerard Schwarz
1984 Berio: Sequenza X Thomas Stevens
1987 Birtwistle: Endless Parade Håkan Hardenberger
1988 Davies: Trumpet Concerto John Wallace
1988 Husa: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra Adolf Herseth
1994 Pärt: Concerto Piccolo über B-A-C-H Håkan Hardenberger
1996 Williams: Concerto for Trumpet Michael Sachs
1997 Ewazen: Sonata International Trumpet Guild
1997 Tamberg: Concerto No. 2 Matthias Höfs
1999 Gruber: Ariel Håkan Hardenberger
2000 Gruber: Exposed Throat John Wallace
2001 Iberg: Dromo Dance Ole Edvard Antonsen
2001 Stephenson: Sonata Richard Stoelzel
2002 Eötvös: Jet Stream Markus Stockhausen
2004 Turnage: From the Wreckage Håkan Hardenberger
2007 Gruber: Busking Håkan Hardenberger

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were written after the Second World War are only a sampling, but they still tes-
tify to the enormous growth in trumpet virtuosity as well as the artists for whom
they were written). While many soloists started out as orchestral trumpeters, such
as Adolf Scherbaum and Timofei Dokshizer, by the late twentieth century, several
trumpeters, especially Maurice André and Håkan Hardenberger, were able to pur-
sue full-time solo careers. Many factors made this possible: the growth of the re-
cording industry, the active commissioning of new works, the revival of interest in
Baroque music, and the concurrent development of the piccolo trumpet.

The Revival of the Haydn and Hummel Concerti

In addition to these factors, the rediscovery of the Haydn and Hummel concerti
bolstered public perception of the trumpet as a classical solo instrument in the
twentieth century. Alphonse Goeyens had his students at the Brussels Conserva-
tory playing the Haydn concerto around 1907, and he published a piano reduction
of the work in 1929.5 Franz Rossbach performed the Haydn in Vienna in 1908, and
Eduard Seifert performed it in Dresden in 1914.6 In England, Ernest Hall first per-
formed the Haydn during a BBC broadcast on March 30, 1932, to celebrate the
bicentennial of Haydn’s birth. Hall played the concerto from a copy of Haydn’s
original manuscript that was handwritten by Karl Gehringer; the orchestral parts
were copied by BBC trumpeter Horace Hamilton. The same parts were used six
years later for another broadcast performance by George Eskdale on the BCC. The
following year, 1939, Eskdale made the first recording of the Haydn (the second
and third movements) and edited a published version of the concerto.7
Harry Mortimer recorded the complete Haydn concerto on 78 rpm discs shortly
after the Second World War; Helmut Wobisch’s recording was a top-selling LP in
1952. By 1982 more than twenty recordings of the Haydn had appeared.8 It’s hard
to think of another example of a standard repertoire piece by a major composer
being revived by recordings in the twentieth century, but that is exactly what hap-
pened. Every new soloist, as well as commercial trumpeters such as Al Hirt, Rafael
Mendez, and Arturo Sandoval, felt obliged to record the Haydn. Additionally, the
Haydn became required repertoire for orchestral trumpet auditions in Germany
(on a rotary-valve trumpet in B-flat) and a frequent choice of trumpeters every-
where when an audition solo was requested.
Like the Haydn, the Hummel Trumpet Concerto also enjoyed a rebirth in the
twentieth century. The first published edition appeared in 1957 by Fritz Stein in
Leipzig, but not in the original key of E major. Instead, it was transposed down one
half step to the key of E-flat major to facilitate performance on the B-flat trum-
pet. The following year, Merrill Debsky, then a student at Yale University, was de-
termined to get a copy of the concerto’s manuscript from the British Museum to
perform it in recital.9 When the copy of the concerto’s manuscript failed to arrive
in time for Debsky’s recital, he sent it to Armando Ghitalla, who subsequently per-
formed the concerto at a Town Hall recital and released the first recording of the

Solo Repertoire after 1900 161

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