Vocalise for trumpet and piano

This is a composition for trumpet and piano with many influences, both stylisitic and formal. Conceptually the piece obviously recalls Rachmaninoff's work by the same title for cello and piano, the lyrical character and steady accompanyment of which I wished to emulate. Stylistically I had in mind the Marcello Oboe concerto in C minor second movement, which is beautifully rendered on trumpet (Maurice André), with the monotonous eighth-note rhythms from which the piece evolves and grows. The structure of my piece is a simple progressive period which moves away from tonic (b-minor), cadences in a few keys and then finally moves back to the tonic).

The challenge of this work chiefly lies in ensuring that the relentless eighth-note pulse doesn't get boring. I tried to enrich the texture in the piano to combat this and create interest. I am concerned that the figurations may be technically difficult to execute, as I do not play the piano myself and am worried a bit about the stretch of them (any advice from pianists?) I am fairly confident about the trumpet part in this respect since it is my primary instrument.

Finally, I don't know quite how to label the piece's style. In a certain respect it seems almost neo-baroque/romantic, and it pretty much uses functional harmony throughout. I would like to develop my own compositional voice and I am not sure if this is such an original composition for those reasons, but at least it is a step toward searching for a style of my own. Any comments would be appreciated. I am going to try to have the piece performed soon.

Thanks
Here is a mp3 of it from Finale: http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/...%20trumpet.mp3

Nice stuff. the relentless eight-note diddy is fine with the way you work it harmonically. the biggest problem I have with this piece is measure 16. In measures 14-15 you bring in the first moment of imitation between the trumpet and the piano, which is great, its a momentum builder for measure 17, but for some reason it just dies in measure 16. there is no rhythmic push into measures 17-18 which just suddenly pick up in the piano. I think if you clear up that one measure it'll help this piece tremendously. the only other minor issue I had with this piece were the ornaments in the trumpet in measures 6 and 12, they just seemed to be a little too much. Good job overall, keep at it.

I'd agree with Jazzy Kendall about the ornamentation. However, my personal taste is for almost no ornamentation so listening to me on that point probably wouldn't help you. You seem to be interested in exploring your exploding ornaments. Run with it.

I'm typing this as I listen and follow along in the score, come along if you'd like....


The trumpet's register shift at m. 14 was a really nice touch. It made the piano's new role as imitator that much more special. Really good call there.

The piano part looks totally fine for any competent university level pianist. There was ONE figure I took issue with though. The arpeggiated piano figure at m. 21. Those repeated notes complicate things enormously. That's not to say a competent pianist couldn't do it but you could get almost the exact same effect with something much easier to play. The pianist will know this and will probably curse your name as they practice it. Either that or they won't practice it and will fuck it up at the performance. Your call.


As for the piano part as a whole... the stretches don't seem to bad. I would definitely consider a rewrite of those arpeggios with the repeated notes on top and bottom. I've got a keyboard in front of me and I figured out a fingering that works but why tempt fate? A quick fix would be to just leave the first 32nd note out of each octuplet as that space is already being played by the other hand. That way you still get that nice effect of the repeated top note which seems(To my ears anyway) to be the important part of the figure. It would make it MUCH more intuitive and your pianist will thank you.

I didn't really dig the deceptive resolution of your V7 to flatVI at measure 30. I think what didn't sell for me was the sudden forte in the piano part. If you put a crescendo through that bar(Like in the trumpet) it would probably be a better sell. Another solution would be to use a really special chord there that you hadn't used before and extend the V7 through to the Bminor chord in the next bar. A newer, specialer, bolder chord there would really drive home that moment as THE "IT" MOMENT, which is what I assume you're going for there. Your call though.


Definitely reminded me of Rach's Vocalise. You shouldn't have said anything .

Is that opening chord progression taken right out of the Vocalise? I swear I could hear Rachmaninoff's cello line over top......

Thanks for taking the time to comment guys! It really helps me to get a fresh perspective on this piece because we each hear music in our own unique ways. About the ornaments, I think they seem a bit overburdened in the midi rendition; when I play them on my trumpet I don't think they obstruct so much, they somewhat flow rather freely from the instrument. I simply tried to embellish the line a little so that the piece may be musical but a bit virtuosic at the same time.

About m. 16; I purposely held back here a little bit in order to make the motion into m. 19 more of a climax. I was trying to construct a series of smaller climaxes that would gradually build into the big moment of the piece, which Tumababa pointed out in m. 30. At m. 30, I do like my VI chord with a dissonant 7, but I completely agree that it sucks to have the piano get softer into that measure. Surely I need to have the piano crescendo into it, as does the trumpet. I hope this solves the problem you had with it.

I was also curious about the ending, does it seem too stale with the eighth notes after all the activity of the middle section? I almost feel like we need a quieter, unwinding section of some length in the piano to balance the prior activity. What do you think?

Well.... you could definitely leave some space at the end now that I think about it. I would imagine some kind of chord progession that sort of..... sinks.... perhaps some kind of variation on your opening chords?

This is upteenth glass of wine advice by the way..... take it with a grain of salt.

very good