Recital: Max Ignas '24 DMA, Trumpet

Georg Frideric Handel | Suite in D Major, HWV 341

Ouverture
Gigue
Air
Bourrée
Marche

Program note

George Frideric Handel was born in Halle on February 23, 1685. His father encouraged him to study the law. However, he practiced in secrecy on a clavichord in the attic. Handel received training in organ, harpsichord, and composition. His musical journey took him first to Hamburg, then Italy, then Hanover, Düsseldorf, and finally London where he remained until his death on April 14, 1759. Handel’s musical output includes keyboard music, instrumental chamber music, orchestral music, church music, operas, oratorios, and instrumental chamber music. Among his most well-known works are Messiah, Music for the Royal Fireworks, Samson, and Water Music. Water Music was written to accompany a royal water party in June 1717. As part of this party, King George I and his entourage traveled by barge along the River Thames to and from Whitehall and Chelsea.
        The Suite in D major has five movements which explore the many facets of the trumpet. The first movement, Ouverture, draws inspiration from the first movement of Water Music, Suite 2. The first twelve measures feature fanfare passages after which, there is an immediate shift to gestures which display the trumpet’s facility playing florid lines. The second movement, Gigue, features music typical to one of the most popular of Baroque instrumental dances. The third movement, Air, is a minuet that provides a look into the more vocal abilities of the trumpet. The movement’s atmosphere is one of intimacy and tenderness. The fourth movement, Bourrée, offers passages that illustrate the many parts of the social dance of the same name which included leaps, hops and the pas de bourrées. The final movement, Marche, is a rearrangement of a march from Handel’s opera Partenope. It offers regal finality with noble passages at a stately tempo to illustrate a sense of grandeur.

André Jolivet | Air de Bravoure

Program note

André Jolivet was born in Paris on August 8, 1905. His father was a painter and his mother was a pianist. Jolivet showed musical talent early. He was introduced to atonal music in 1927 and among his largest influences is Edgard Varèse. In 1935 Jolivet, with Olivier Messiaen and Daniel-Lesur, founded ‘La spirale’, an avant-garde chamber music society. During World War II, Jolivet simplified his style. He abandoned atonality in favor of lyricism. Jolivet died in Paris on December 20, 1974.
        Air de Bravoure is a piece which can be accompanied or played without accompaniment. It begins with a vivement tempo which juxtaposes rhythms in duple with those in triple. The two measure motifs in the first four measures provide material which will be altered later in the work.
       Following a virtuosic flourish of triple tonguing in two beat sequences, the two measure motifs in the first four measures are used repetitively to ascend then are modulated a half step higher. There is another section of triple-tongued flourishes and the opening motif is again used after ascending another semitone to the apex of the piece in the last measure.

Jean Françaix | Sonatine

Prélude
Sarabande
Gigue

Program note

Jean Françaix was born in Le Mans on May 23, 1912 into a musical family. His mother was a singer and his father was a composer, pianist, and director of the Le Mans Conservatoire. His musical gifts were recognized by Maurice Ravel. In a letter to Françaix’s father, Ravel wrote a letter praising Jean Françaix’s musical curiosity. He studied composition with Nadia Boulanger. Françaix was a prolific composer with an output of more than 200 pieces. He died in Paris on September 25, 1997.
        The Sonatine is a brief work in three movements. It was written in 1952 for the Concours du Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris. The first movement, Prélude, features light and precise technical passages that combine modal lines with chromatic fragments. The second movement, Sarabande, starts true to form as a slow and lyrical courtly dance in triple meter. This follows into lines reminiscent of melismas in vocal music before getting to a highly technical cadenza that foreshadows music in the third and final movement, Gigue. The Gigue is festive movement that juxtaposes duple and triple rhythms. New material emerges that is light and technical with flares of chromaticism which races to an ending that provides a sense of panache.

Astor Piazzolla (arr. Max Ignas) | Oblivion

Program note

Astor Piazzolla was born in Mar de Plata, a resort city on the Atlantic coast of Argentina on March 11, 1921. He and his family emigrated to New York in 1924 where he spent much time in the Italian neighborhoods and learned to play the bandoneón – becoming a child prodigy. Piazzolla returned to Buenos Aires in 1937 where he gave concerts and made tango arrangements. He also studied classical music with Ginastera. In 1954, he won a scholarship to study in Paris with Boulanger, who encouraged him in the composition of tangos. Piazzolla moved back to Argentina in 1955 and formed the Octeto Buenos Aires. He left Argentina in 1974, settling in Paris, where he composed a concerto for bandoneón and a cello sonata. In all, he composed approximately 750 works. He died in Buenos Argentina on July 5, 1992.
        Oblivion was written in 1982 for the Italian film Enrico IV (Henry IV). The bandoneón part (moved to the trumpet in this arrangement) starts with slow descending passages. This emotional musical material turns from sadness to introspective. The middle section provides glimmers of hope before returning back to the opening material down an octave.

Mark Tipton '25 DMA | Kaleidoscopic Odyssey

Program note

Mark Tipton was born in Michigan in 1980. He attended Interlochen Arts Academy before going to Oberlin to study trumpet performance. He did his master’s degree at Mannes College of Music in the New School in New York. He is currently working on his Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a concentration in Jazz Studies at New England Conservatory.
        Kaleidoscopic Odyssey opens with a rubato hexatonic scale. It quickly moves to a section of alternating valve combinations in sixteenth notes that outline chords of all natures. There is a sense of tempo crescendo when the rhythms move to sextuplet sixteenth notes before settling into a slower section consisting of eighth notes. Following the slower section, the speed of the passages picks up greatly and suddenly before entering a section marked “Molto rubato”. There is a final speed acceleration into the ending which is reminiscent of the opening.
 

Johann Baptist Georg Neruda | Concerto in E-flat Major

Allegro
Largo
Vivace

Program note

Johann Baptist Georg Neruda was born circa 1711 in Rosice, a town in the South Moravian Region (Bohemia) of what is now the Czech Republic. An accomplished composer, violinist, and cellist, he worked in a theater orchestra in Prague until becoming a member of the court orchestra in Dresden in 1750. Neruda remained in Dresden until his death on October 11, 1776. He composed ninety-seven works to include eighteen symphonies, fourteen concertos, thirty trios, six violin pieces, and an opera.
        The Concerto in E-flat was originally intended for the corno da caccia (hunting horn or chase horn), a valveless member of the horn family. The corno da caccia possessed a shallow cup-shaped mouthpiece quite similar to that of a trumpet which greatly differed to the mouthpiece of the horn at the time. Trumpeters or high horn players were asked to play the instrument. It is in three movements. All three movements of this concerto are in the key of E-flat Major due in large part to the valveless structure of the corna da caccia. In the first movement, a long orchestral introduction precedes the entrance of the trumpet in the opening Allegro, and the solo trumpet’s entrance restates the principal theme. The form is a double exposition. Much of the writing in this concerto is set high in the trumpet’s range, demanding great agility and the ability to sustain a long lyrical line. At the conclusion of the first movement, the composer suggests an improvised cadenza. The second movement offers an opportunity to play operatic lines with ornamentation typical of the era. The tempo is marked Largo with passages that soar to notes not previously reached in the first movement. There are also some juxtapositions between duple and triple rhythms. The final movement, Vivace, is in a triple meter in rondo form. Like the second movement, there are moments of juxtaposition of duple and triple rhythms. The movement ends with a rhythmic crescendo from eighth notes, to triplet notes, to finally sixteenth notes.
 

Claude Debussy | La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair)

Program note

Claude Debussy was born in Germain-en-Laye on August 22, 1862. A very prolific and innovative composer, his works were highly influential. Among his most famous works are Clair de Lune, La Mer, Jeux, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’), and Pelléas et Mélisande. Debussy’s most long-lasting education came from his contacts with the symbolists. The French symbolist movement was characterized by rejection of naturalism, realism, and clearcut forms. He died in Paris on March 25, 1918.
        La fille aux cheveux de lin, or ‘The Girl with the Flaxen Hair’ comes from Debussy’s two books of solo piano preludes; the first written in 1909-1910 and the second in 1912-1913. With a performance marking meaning ‘very calm and sweetly expressive’, it’s a short and simple work that illustrates the innocence and naivety that is often associated with golden hair in art. The piece is named after the eponymous poem by Leconte de Lisle. Its musical simplicity is a divergence from Debussy's style at the time.

Herbert L. Clarke | From the Shores of the Mighty Pacific

Program note

Herbert Lincoln Clarke was born on September 12, 1867 in Woburn, Massachusetts. He was the best-known cornetist of his time and was the solo cornetist with John Philip Sousa’s Band from 1893 to 1917. Although Clarke was self-taught as a cornetist, his reputation as a teacher was formidable. He developed his own method of diaphragmatic breathing, revised the Arban method, and created his Technical Studies for the Cornet in 1912 which focused on breath control and finger–tongue coordination. 110 years later, his methods are still widely used and practice. Clarke died in Long Beach, California on January 30, 1945.
        From the Shores of the Mighty Pacific was described by Clarke as a Rondo Caprice, meaning a free and lively style. The introduction features two small solo passages before arriving at a longer and more substantial cadenza that uses three descending passages that outline diminished chords before arriving at a passage marked “Agitato”. The section immediately after is marked “Rondo” and provides the repeated musical material. In between each instance of the Rondo are quicker passages marked “Vivace” and “Brillante”, respectively. During the end of the last Rondo passage, there is an accelerando that leads into the final cadenza. As any cornet solo showcase should end, Clarke made sure to end on a high note.

Thank you to Naomi Ignas, Daniel Ignas, Larry Ignas,
Zhelah Kayce, Jacob and Jolie Stewart, Karl Sievers,
Mark Minasian, and Steve Emery.