AUSTRO-BOHEMIAN TRUMPET MUSIC IN THE LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: COMPOSITIONAL AND PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE PRINCE-BISHOP’S COURT OF KROM ĚŘ ÍŽ by JUSTIN BLAND Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts Department of Music CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May 2010 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of ________________Justin Bland ______________________ candidate for the __________Master of Arts ____________________degree *. (signed)______Lewis P. Bennett _____________________________________ (chair of the committee) Daniel Goldmark_________________________________ David Rothenberg____________________________________________ (date) ___May 7, 2010 ____________________ *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. 1 Table of Contents List of Examples………………………………………… 3 Abstract……………………………….………………… 7 Text…………………………………………………..….. 8 Bibliography……………………………………………… 26 2 Examples Ex. 1. Lower Harmonic Series Ex. 2. Upper Harmonic Series Ex. 3. Trumpet Ensemble Ranges Ex. 4. Trumpet Ensemble Example Ex. 5. Biber Sonata a 6 (m. 22) 3 Ex. 6. Biber Sonata IV (m. 5) Ex. 7. Biber Sonata IV (m. 75) Ex. 8. Biber Sonata X (m. 105) Ex. 9. Vejvanovský Sonata (opening) Ex. 10. Biber Sonata X (m. 34) Ex. 11. Vejvanovský Sonata (m.53) Ex. 12. Vejvanovský (m. 125) 4 Ex. 13 Ritter Sonata a 18 (opening) 5 Ex. 14 Ritter Sonata a 17 (opening) 6 Austro-Bohemian Trumpet Music in the Late Seventeenth Century: Compositional and Performance Techniques Associated with the Prince-Bishop’s Court of Krom ěř íž Abstract by JUSTIN BLAND The focus on trumpet music during the high baroque often leads to some neglect of seventeenth trumpet music, music of the Austro-Bohemian Empire in particularDespite the fact that clarino technique was not yet fully developed, the music of this period still exhibit virtuosity. Through an examination of a number of compositions, I hope to show how certain composers were not only able to draw on music from the past for inspiration in some of their works, but were also able to advance the technical demands required of trumpets. With these advancements, it will become clear how trumpets were able to be more skillfully integrated within ensembles of strings and other instruments. 7 Text When it comes to trumpet music of the baroque, a number of scholars have focused attention on seventeenth-century Italian music, especially music from Bologna. While it may be true that no other European city can boast of the singular distinction of so large a repertoire and so many sinfonias, sonatas, and concertos with trumpet by nearly a dozen gifted composers, we now realize that the there is a considerable amount of trumpet music from this period that comes from outside of Italy: certainly, over the past few decades, several trumpet pieces by non-Italian composers of the period have been discovered in the libraries and archives of Darmstadt, Krom ěř íž, London, Oxford, Uppsala, and Vienna. One area that has not received much scholarly attention in comparison to others is the Austro-Bohemian Empire. This region includes the south- eastern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire, what we now call Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The Austro-Bohemian Empire played an important part in the cultural evolution of Europe, particularly in music making. After all, seventeenth-century court and ecclesiastical records show that the region was home to an active tradition of trumpet composition and performance.1 While there is a large amount of surviving trumpet music from this area, it is also interesting to note that there were a large number of composers of different nationalities who worked in the region, and trumpet music by those composers represented a significant amount of their total output. As Smithers notes, the fact that so much music was written for baroque trumpet shows how important of a role the instrument played in nearly all aspects of musical life. Krom ěř íž, a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic, is particularly noteworthy because a larger number of 1 Don L. Smithers, The Music and History of the Baroque Trumpet Before 1721 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1973), 164-165. 8 instrumental works were composed there that featured one or more trumpets than in any other place. Despite the fact that clarino technique was not nearly as developed as it would become in the eighteenth century, the unique music from this area still exhibits virtuosity, both in its manner of composition and its technical demands. This paper will focus on the trumpet music of three composers who worked in Krom ěř íž: Heinrich Ignatz Franz Biber, Pavel Vejvanovský, and Philipp Jakob Rittler. Through an examination of a number of works by these composers, and through the consideration of two theoretical treatises from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, I hope to show how they were not only able to draw on music from the past for inspiration in some of their works, but were also able to advance the technical demands required of trumpets, despite the limitations of the instrument of that time. With these advancements, it will become clear how trumpets were able to be more skillfully integrated within ensembles of strings and other instruments. The register in which trumpeters performed during the seventeenth century was an important consideration to the composition of trumpet music, and performers generally focused on either high (clarino) or low (principale) trumpet playing. One of the most important sources on early trumpet technique, Johann Ernst Altenburg’s treatise Trumpeters’ and Kettledrummers’ Art of 1795, devotes two chapters to registers, one on principale playing and one on clarino playing. (While Altenburg’s treatise of 1795 seems a bit late as a reference for trumpet playing in the seventeenth century, his inclusion of an altered duet by Biber from the Sonatae, tam aris, quam aulis servientes of 1676 demonstrates a striking continuity in the tradition of trumpet playing from at least the 9 middle to the late baroque. 2) Low principale playing required a larger mouthpiece because the player was responsible for playing the pitches in example 1, which represent the second to the eighth harmonics. High clarino playing required a smaller mouthpiece than principale playing because the player was required to play mainly from the eighth harmonic up to the sixteenth harmonic and sometimes higher (only the eighth to the sixteenth harmonic are shown in example 2). Clarino playing was clearly more demanding than principale playing, both from a technical and musical standpoint. According to Altenenburg: The proper embouchure for the formation of this sound is extraordinarily difficult to attain, and cannot be described accurately with rules. Practice should perform the best service hereby, although much depends also on the structure of the lips…he who has attained a particular proficiency at playing tastefully in the afore-mentioned high register is usually called a Clarinist .3 Endurance was also required for this type of playing, and even though Altenburg says that a player needs to develop strong lips though frequent practice, he also claims that a 2 Biber’s Sonatae, tam aris, quam aulis servientes contains not only twelve sonatas, but an appendix of twelve trumpet duets. The first ten are in C major, but the last two are both in G minor (played on C trumpets). These G minor duets are the hardest to play with pure intonation because of their key. All of the duets are charming, but the eleventh duet is particularly interesting because it appears in Altenburg’s treatise with no attribution to Biber. This is not only indicative of the continuality of the tradition of trumpet playing, but also makes it difficult to know if other pieces in Altenburg’s treatise were his own works. In any case, Altenburg’s made revisions to Biber’s duet (in much the same way Dauverné transformed one of Biber’s duets). Altenburg’s changes include the substitution of the note E b for E ª except in measures 9 and 10, the changing of voice leading at the A section’s final cadence in order to avoid a high C in the second trumpet part, and the addition of an ascending appoggiatura, or retardation, on the last note that is uncharacteristic of music from Biber’s time. Altenburg says “Little pieces of this kind can be written not only in the key of C, but also in G minor”. The E b is not a note on the harmonic series and is not an easy not to produce. It is however possible with a technique known as lipping. Lipping was often used by trumpeters to correct the intonation of notes on the in the harmonic series that were naturally not in tune. Altenburg mentions this in his section “Improving the Sounds which are Out of Tune” in which he references the 7 th , 11 th , 13 th , and 14 th harmonics. However, producing notes outside of the harmonic series is much more virtuosic. The E b is produced by lipping down the 10 th harmonic. These notes were acceptable as non harmonic tones and Altenburg even notes “Although E b is not a natural note on the trumpet, it can still serve in the key of G minor as a passing note.” 3 Johann Ernst Altenburg, Trumpeters' and Kettledrummers' Art, trans. Edward H. Tarr (Nashville: Brass Press, 1974), 94-95. 10 great deal depends on the natural structure of the player’s mouth. To deal with issues of fatigue, composers also had to allow sections of rest for players who were playing clarino parts. Altenburg also makes clear the musical attributes required of trumpeters and says, “But one hardly needs to be reminded that a great [many skills] make up clarino playing, and that the effect is very different depending on whether a musical composition is performed better or not so well.” 4 With a better understanding of the registers of the trumpet, it is now useful to look at how they were used by seventeenth century composers in the Austro-Bohemian Empire.