Wednesday, March 6, 2013

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013

QUOTE:
“People compose for many reasons: to become immortal; because the pianoforte happens to be open; because they 
  want to become a millionaire; because of the praise of friends; because they have looked into a pair of beautiful eyes; 
  for no reason whatsoever.”
AUTHOR: Robert Schumann
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
“People create art for varied reasons. For everyone the reason is different.”









COMPOSER
VIVALDI
http://s303.photobucket.com/user/SkipMcGrath/media/Vivaldi.jpg.html
DOUBLE TRUMPET CONCERTO
C MAJOR RV. 537 OPUS 46 NO. 1
Performed by Maurice Andre and Neville Marriner


Baroque Trumpet
Baroque Trumpet and Crooks
http://www.blemf.org/events/educational/brass.html
Natural Trumpet (top) Vs. Modern Valved Trumpet
http://music.yale.edu/2011/04/01/student-viewpoint-master-class-in-natural-trumpet/

ABOUT THE TRUMPET:


Bach to Basics

By Elizabeth Jin
September 1, 2002

http://news.psu.edu/story/140705/2002/09/01/research/bach-basics

Natural trumpets. Trumpets made out of dirt and weeds? Wrong. They're made out of brass like any other trumpet.

"A natural trumpet is essentially a trumpet without valves," Bryan Proksch, a graduate student in musicology, or the study of the history of music, explains. He sits up straight and reaches for his trumpet case. The instrument that comes out of the case looks nothing like a modern trumpet—it is almost twice as long and has no valves.

On a modern trumpet, the three valves are connected to thin pieces of tubing. These little tubes connect to the larger tube that makes up the horn. However, the little tubes remain closed until the player presses a valve, which opens the passageway to a tube, elongating the path that the air travels. The longer the air path, the lower the sound that comes out of the horn. Proksch compares the phenomenon to blowing across a Coke bottle. The less liquid you have in the bottle, the longer the "air path," and the lower the resulting sound, because more air passes through it.

By using a combination of valves, a modern trumpeter can produce every note on a musical scale. The natural trumpet has no valves; instead, through subtle adjustments in lip tension, a natural trumpeter produces the notes of a harmonic scale, a set of selected tones that are "fixed by nature."

Proksch jumps up and grabs the telephone on his desk. He shakes the phone cord, creating a series of waves. "Imagine that one wave is equal to the note created using the smallest amount of lip tension. On a C scale—a series of eight notes beginning and ending with C—that note is C," he explains. He then shakes the cord harder and the waves double in frequency. The next note on the harmonic scale is "double" a C, or the C an octave higher. Shaking the cord even harder—the equivalent of adding more lip tension—creates a wave that is a fifth of the frequency of the original wave.

The natural trumpet evolved from the signaling trumpet, a single, straight tube about 47 inches long with a flared end. Aptly named, the signaling trumpet's splendid sound could be heard at great distances and was useful in military battles and royal fanfares. The natural trumpet performed similar functions as the signaling trumpet; however, instrument makers folded its 88 inches of tubing to make it more convenient to carry on military campaigns and to court functions.

The trumpet's function would have remained military if not for an important event in the trumpet's history: its acceptance into art music in the 17th century. The natural trumpet flourished during this time, with eminent composers such as J. S. Bach and Johann Schelle writing pieces in which trumpets led the melody. Valentine Snow was one such natural trumpeter for whom Handel wrote most of his music; Snow was also a composer, and Proksch recently edited a set of his natural trumpet duets, which was published by Brass Press.

Yet by 1770, composers such as Beethoven and Mozart had ushered in a more complex musical sound with several key changes in one piece. A natural trumpeter must change the instrument's mouthpiece in order to change keys. The impracticality of this requirement reduced the trumpet's role to opening flourishes and climaxes until the valve trumpet was invented around 1815. Unlike the natural trumpet, it can change keys without changing the mouthpiece and is easier to play in tune because it requires less lip tension.

Despite the pleasing, clear tone of the modern valve trumpet, Proksch insists that it is not what Bach and his contemporaries intended their robust and somewhat unrefined trumpet parts to sound like. Proksch's desire to play these pieces properly prompted him to learn how to play the natural trumpet. Better yet, he decided to make one. Even better, he decided to recruit other natural trumpeters in the hopes of creating a natural trumpet ensemble. Last spring, along with two undergraduate music majors, Derek Bittner and Edward Jakuboski, Proksch obtained a grant from the university to build six natural trumpets. Professor Leslie Leupp from the School of Visual Arts, the Department of Metal Arts, and Engineering Services assisted in the project by donating their facilities and materials.

"Making a natural trumpet is a lot simpler than you might think," Proksch says. Humming a Bach concerto, he riffles through some sheet music on the piano and finds scrap paper to draw on. "First," he says, "you cut a big sheet of brass." This piece will become the bell of the trumpet. He sketches a pattern of a trumpet bell that is about a yard long and looks as if it has been run over by a truck. He continues, "Next, cut out the pattern and make teeth marks along the two long sides." The two sides will eventually be connected; the interwoven teeth create a stronger fit than if two straight sides were simply welded together. Now, fold the pattern in half lengthwise and open it slightly at one end to fit on a mandrel, a big piece of curved steel. Finally, hammer out the bell into its proper curved shape.

Smaller brass tubes make up the rest of the natural trumpet. The joints are pressure-fitted by tapering the end of one tube slightly and expanding the end of the other. A discovery in tube bending shortly before the 1400s allows the brass to be curved. Brass has a melting point of 1083 degrees C, while lead melts at 327 degrees C. Consequently, lead melts and cools more quickly than brass. Filling a straight piece of brass tubing with liquid lead allows the brass to bend but not melt. After bending the tubing, the cooled lead is melted again and removed. Today, because lead is poisonous, trumpet makers use an alloy made of bismuth, which melts even before water boils.

By making the trumpets and forming an ensemble to play pieces from the 17th century, Proksch hopes to restore the natural trumpet to its rightful role. "The reason we are interested in the natural trumpet is more than purely historical," Proksch insists. "It actually sounds better than the modern trumpet. If you want to hear music the way Bach heard it, you at least have to have the right instrument."

Bryan Proksch is a master's degree student in musicology in the School of Music within the College of Arts and Architecture, 233 Music Bldg. I, University Park, PA 16802; 814-863-4421; bjp176@psu.edu. Derek Bittner and Edward Jakuboski are undergraduate students, both majoring in music. The natural trumpet project is funded by an undergraduate research grant from the College of Arts and Architecture.



LINKS
http://www.trumpetguild.org/_72820_archive/2002journal/0203natural.pdf
GENERAL MUSIC
01.  KEYBOARD WORKSHEETS
02.  RECORDERS
03.  SONGS USING RECORDER FINGERING ALREADY LEARNED
........a.  JAMES' LOT (3/4 METER) USING FINGERS: T1, T12, T123 BY STEP and SKIP
..............1)  EXPLAINED HALF NOTES and DOTED HALF NOTES (RULE OF THE DOT PLACED TO                       THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE NOTE IS ALWAYS WORTH HALF THE VALUE OF THE NOTE                   IT SITS NEXT TO )
..............2)  REVIEWED 3/4 METER (3 BEATS PER MEASURE)
..............3)  EXPLAINED A "MEASURE  OF REST" SYMBOL 

                     and "THE NUMBER OF MEASURES RESTED" SYMBOL

..............4)  EXPLAINED THE NEW MUSICAL ROAD SIGN "D.S." MEANING DAL SEGNO (THE SIGN                      IN ITALIAN)
........b.  HOT CROSS BUNS
........c.  TURKEY TROT
04.  CHANGING FINGER NUMBERS ON THE RECORDER TO MUSICAL ALPHABET LETTER NAMES
........a.  LEARNED WHERE ALL THE FINGERS ARE PLACED ON THE RECORDER BY NAMING                        FINGER NUMBERS
..............1)  MORE FINGERS COVERING THE HOLES CONSECUTIVELY MEANS THE RECORDER                        TUBE ELONGATES and THE SOUND GOES LOWER
.........b.  FINGERING "T1" IS THE NOTE "B" and EVERY TIME A NEW CONSECUTIVE FINGER IS                   ADDED SEALING A HOLE IN ORDER GOING DOWN, THE PITCH LOWERS and THE LETTER NAMES MOVE BACKWARDS
              DOWN THE MUSICAL ALPHABET
..............1)  B= T1
                            A=T12
                            G= T123
                            F= T123/4
                            E= T123/45
                            D= T123/456
                            C= T123/4567
                   BAG/FEDC or to make it easy to remember " I FED the Cat a BAG of Cat food"
..............2)  PLAYING A "BAG" SONG WE JUST PLAYED ON THE KEYBOARD and PLAYING IT ON                      THE RECORDER
.....................a)  KEYBOARD SONG "MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB" USING MUSICAL ALPHABET                                 LETTERS
.....................b)  PLAY SONG ON THE RECORDER USING "B" with T1/ "A" with T12/ "G" with T123
                           RECORDER
.....................c)  SOME STUDENTS PLAY "MARYZ" ON THE KEYBOARD WHILE OTHERS PLAY IT                              ON THE KEYBOARD

ADV. STRINGS
01.  CABALITO
02.  YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME
03.  RIVER FLOWS IN YOU (IN HOMEROOM)

BEG. STRINGS
01.  PARADISE
02.  HOUDINI
03.  ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL
04.  WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL

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