Joseph Turrin (b.1947) is a composer, orchestrator, conductor, pianist, and teacher whose wide-ranging activities have contributed greatly to many aspects of contemporary American musical life. His numerous ASCAP awards (1981-20050, as well as his many other awards, document his professional success. His many commissions by various orchestras around the world, bands, brass ensembles, soloists, theatre groups and film scores show his popularity. He is also in high demand as a pianist for orchestras, in theatre productions, in commercials and studio recordings as well as serving as personal accompanist for Jerome Hines, Phil Smith, Joseph Alessi and others. Mr. Turrin's compositions for trumpet and piano have been particularly popular among college and professional players as seen by their frequent performance in those venues as evidenced by the International Trumpet Guild's Trumpet and Brass Programs for the years 1995-2002. The three works selected for the present study include: Elegy for Trumpet and String Orchestra (1971, rev. 1993, piano reduction, 1993), Caprice for Trumpet and Piano (1972), and Intrada for Trumpet and Piano (1988). In this in-depth study, special attention is given to those characteristics which create unity of form, and those traits that seem to be idiomatic of Mr. Turrin's style of writing. A comparison of the three pieces allows for the extrapolation of common style traits, which include certain traditional fanfare-style motifs as well as jazz-style elements. Conclusions are drawn with detailed explanation of what I consider the appropriate application of the knowledge from the analyses to quality performances of the pieces studied. Careful instruction is given concerning the various aspects of performance style which are supported by the study done on each piece. Finally, an interview by internet with the composer answers some of the questions created by the analyses. Several of the composer's comments justify many of the conclusions drawn by this study.

An historical overview of the ITG commission project is presented, as well an analysis of formal organization and significant features for two of the commissioned works: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Norman Dello Joio and Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Eric Ewazen. Complete histories of all works and information concerning their premieres is chronicled. The degree of difficulty of each composition is assessed through an investigation of tessitura, range, melodic contour, endurance factors, articulation, fingerings, and technical features of the accompaniment (when applicable). Analysis of tempi and dynamics, articulation and phrasing, and timbral considerations provides additional points of study. The thirteen commissioned solo works from 1978 to 1993 are: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Norman Dello Joio, Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Orchestra by Bernhard Heiden, Laude by Stan Friedman, Concerto for Trumpet and Strings by Raymond Premru, Chamber Music VII: Ceremonies and Chamber Music VIII by Robert Suderburg, Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Fisher Tull, Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by William Schmidt, Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Ensemble by Jan Bach, Arioso for Trumpet and Woodwind Quintet by Jerzy Sapieyevsky, Invocation of Orpheus by Robert X. Rodriguez, Triptych by David Sampson, and Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Eric Ewazen. The importance of these works and their impact on the trumpet repertoire is assessed. Possible reasons for the acceptance of some of these works by trumpeters versus the lack of acceptance of the others are proposed. Through interviews with some of the composers, analyses of the compositions and a comparative survey of performance programs by members of the International Trumpet Guild, conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the commissioning project and its future are drawn.

The career of prolific Armenian pianist and composer Alexander Arutiunian [Alek’sandr Harut’unyan] spanned the Soviet age in Armenia (1920–1991), and his Trumpet Concerto (1950) achieved worldwide recognition and acclaim. Despite the importance of this work to trumpeters internationally, the information and context necessary for performers and scholars to understand Arutiunian’s Concerto and other works has not been previously available in English. Prior to this study, the composer’s biography, compositional style, and works have not been the subject of any significant published research by English-language scholars. This dissertation demonstrates that Arutiunian’s early compositional style was nurtured and influenced by the antecedents of Armenian folk music and early Armenian nationalist composers. To establish the nature of these influences, this discussion begins by exploring Armenian peasant song and professional folk-singer (ashugh) traditions, and traces the development of early Armenian nationalist composers including Komitas, Romanos Melik’yan, Aleksandr Spendiaryan, Sargis Barkhudaryan, and Aram Khachaturian. During his early schooling in the 1930s, Arutiunian studied both Armenian folk music and the music of these Armenian nationalist composers and developed a style which incorporated, emulated, and expanded on those precedents. During the 1940s, Arutiunian’s advanced training in Yerevan and Moscow led to a broadening of scope and internationalization of his style. He drew new influence from the distinct motives of Khachaturian, the Neo-Classical and modernist influence of Prokofiev, and the contrapuntal approach of Genrikh Litinsky. Following the Stalinist denunciations of 1948 (Zhdanov decree or Zhdanovshchina), Arutiunian’s Big Soviet style emerged, and is so-called because it blended his early style with the grand, dramatic, and Romantic tradition of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. His first composition in this vein, Cantata About the Motherland (1948), was considerably more conservative than his other works but it so successfully fit the political requirements of Socialist Realism that it earned him the Soviet Union’s highest artistic honor, the Stalin Prize. In the wake of this achievement, Arutiunian’s Big Soviet style rapidly developed, producing major successes in his Festive Overture (1949) and Trumpet Concerto (1950). This study is based primarily on the examination of rare Soviet-era scores and recordings and the new translation of Russian- and Armenian-language primary and secondary sources, including Arutiunian’s own Memoirs (2000). The resulting descriptive and contextual analysis establishes the nature of Arutiunian’s compositional output up to 1950 and the influences that Armenian and Soviet antecedents had upon his music. It lays the foundation of background, context, and connections for performers and scholars to understand the idioms and stylistic conventions found in Arutiunian’s early works, culminating with a detailed examination of his Trumpet Concerto (1950).

The link between trumpet playing and emulation of the human voice has been acknowledged by a number of prominent teachers, authors, and composers since the inception of the trumpet as a melodic instrument. This dissertation is a pedagogical guide to lyrical trumpet performance based on the verismo style of singing consistent with the authentic interpretations of operatic soprano arias by Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Giacomo Puccini. Included are chapters that examine various aspects of the verismo style, as well as comparison and application of late 19th-century voice pedagogy to trumpet practice and performance. This resource examines six recordings of sopranos who created or popularized operatic roles during the verismo period. Included are transcriptions of the six arias for trumpet and piano, with performance notes based on dramatic and textual contexts, as well as interpretive aspects, namely tempo, dynamics, and vibrato.

Concerto for Trumpet and Chamber Ensemble is a three-movement work for solo trumpet and ten instruments, one player to a part, of approximately fourteen minutes in length. It is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet in B-flat, bassoon, piano, percussion, trumpet (solo) in C, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The principal percussion instrument is xylophone with lesser parts for suspended cymbal and triangle.

The popularity of the miscellaneous wind bands in Italian society through the centuries, and the prominent use of the trumpet within these ensembles and as a solo instrument, become evident in the examination of the development of the banda sul palco (the band on stage) in Italian opera. Gioachino Rossini was the first to use the banda sul palco (stage band) with any regularity. Giovanni Paisiello, Giuseppe Gazzaniga, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart must be considered earlier contributors to the growing movement of using instrumental ensembles on stage.

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