Trumpet Concerto in C

This is my first attempt (excluding some best-forgotten teenage stuff) at writing a concerto.  The style is my own blend of Classical and some early Romanticism and perhaps a dash of Baroque, but I wrote for the modern valve trumpet.  Admittedly, the tessitura may be a bit high, frequently going up to the 8th and occasionally the 9th harmonic.

Any comments or feedback would be most appreciated!

So far it is very lovely in its Mozartian/early Beethoven ways. 

Perhaps the first movement I would not have made as long but tell that to the Eroica Symphony!. 

I'm also a sucker for lightweight farewell finales, it lifts the spirit.

Hi @Aiwendil!

Surely, an accomplished classical Trumpet Concerto!  It's both melodically satisfactory while providing the soloist an ample challenge and virtuosity.  The cadenzas are well written as well!  Not to mention they sound humanized rather than mechanical and metronomic.  Cadenza writing is its own beast and getting a good rendering of a cadenza from a computer program is all-the-more difficult, but I think you accomplished it!  Perhaps your 2nd movement could have been more challenging for the soloist, but that might have detracted from its great, stately solemnity.  I think the 3rd movement is probably my favorite.  It makes for a really great finale to the whole concerto.

On 12/16/2025 at 6:03 PM, Aiwendil said:

Admittedly, the tessitura may be a bit high, frequently going up to the 8th and occasionally the 9th harmonic.

I played Trumpet for a short time before switching to French Horn and for me those high concert C's would definitely be too demanding.  But the instrument is a higher C Trumpet so it possibly might be more feasible than on a Bb Trumpet.  Also, it seems you do not exceed the high concert C anywhere, so it seems all-the-more practical.  A professional virtuoso should definitely be able to play it, as I'm sure you well know.

Great job and thanks for sharing!

Thanks very much to both of you for listening!  I think overall I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

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The cadenzas are well written as well!  Not to mention they sound humanized rather than mechanical and metronomic.  Cadenza writing is its own beast and getting a good rendering of a cadenza from a computer program is all-the-more difficult, but I think you accomplished it! 

I'm especially pleased to see you say this, because I spent a fair bit of time not just writing the cadenzas but trying to get Finale to play them in a way that sounded human.

It is a very enjoyable and coherent concerto. Discussing its style is complicated, even if we use it as a point of reference. For me, it evokes certain Baroque memories, but that is due to the solo instrument: the trumpet, given that there are hardly any concertos for it in the Classical period (aside from Haydn and Hummel) and even fewer in the Romantic era. I find the first movement to be more in line with a Classical approach, while the Adagio feels more Romantic. In any case, it is a great piece of work in terms of composition, orchestration, and editing.

4 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

It is a very enjoyable and coherent concerto. Discussing its style is complicated, even if we use it as a point of reference. For me, it evokes certain Baroque memories, but that is due to the solo instrument: the trumpet, given that there are hardly any concertos for it in the Classical period (aside from Haydn and Hummel) and even fewer in the Romantic era. I find the first movement to be more in line with a Classical approach, while the Adagio feels more Romantic. In any case, it is a great piece of work in terms of composition, orchestration, and editing.

 

Thanks for listening!  I do think there's some Baroque influence in it, though the Hummel concerto was probably the model most present in my head.  As I was writing the second movement, I did worry the style was veering too far toward Romanticism, but I liked the movement and didn't want to change it.