for trumpet players

A The first book Short Long Steps is dedicated to the optimisation of the embouchure, a decisive way for the success.

In the following volumes solutions are proposed to fine-tune the crucial step of sound production, introduced a training on strengthening, on control and on a reactive acceleration of the air flow.

The evolution of the brass technique in recent decades, while not abandoning the primordial schemes, has focused on some areas, including breathing and the use of air. These features are now routine and indispensable support to cope the current musical demands.

X
sound production
S
speedy wind
B
stream boost
C
calibrate breath
G
air gain
F
flow clapper
T
tongue management
P
blow profusely
WU
wake up
GU
go up
MU
make up
TC
tunes consort

©2022

Girolamo Fantini al Palazzo Pitti di Firenze

Il contesto storico, e non da meno la somiglianza, ci inducono a identificare in un affresco dipinto in una delle sale del Tesoro dei Granduchi, all’interno del complesso museale di Palazzo Pitti, un ritratto di Girolamo Fantini, famoso trombettista, nato a Spoleto nel 1600.

Le pitture, realizzate dagli artisti bolognesi Angelo Michele Colonna e Agostino Mitelli, e iniziate nel 1637, furono completate nel 1641 con la terza e ultima sala degli appartamenti dove si trova la raffigurazione del “trombettiere”.

Ripercorrendo le principali tappe della carriera di Fantini, nel 1626 lo ritroviamo nei libri contabili del cardinale Scipione Borghese a Roma, dove il musicista rimase in servizio fino all’ottobre 1630, per poi trasferirsi definitivamente a Firenze. L’evento che tuttavia ne consacrerà la fama è il famoso concerto tenuto con Girolamo Frescobaldi presso il cardinale Borghese a Roma, presumibilmente nel 1634.

A conferma della raggiunta notorietà, nel 1637 le cronache del matrimonio del granduca Ferdinando II descrivono la “maestria della tromba di Girolamo, famoso trombetta di S. A.”. Seguirà la pubblicazione del Modo per imparare a sonare di tromba, dato alle stampe da Fantini nel 1638.

The historical context, and not least the resemblance, allow us to identify a portrait of Girolamo Fantini, a famous trumpeter, born in Spoleto in 1600, in a fresco painted in one of the rooms of the Treasury of the Grand Dukes in the museum complex of Pitti Palace.

The paintings, created by the Bolognese artists Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli, started in 1637, were completed in 1641 with the third and final room of the apartments where the depiction of the ‘trumpeter’ can be found.

Retracing the main stages of Fantini’s career, in 1626 we can find him in the financial books of Cardinal Scipione Borghese in Rome, where the musician remained in service until October 1630, before moving permanently to Florence.

However, the event that would consolidate his fame was the famous concert he gave with Girolamo Frescobaldi at Cardinal Borghese’s in Rome, presumably in 1634. Confirming this fame, in 1637 the chronicles of the marriage of Grand Duke Ferdinand II described the ‘mastery of the trumpet of Girolamo, famous trumpet of H.H.’.

This was followed by the publication of Modo per imparare a sonare di tromba, printed by Fantini in 1638.

Article in italian

https://www.uffizi.it/en/magazine-imagines/imagines-9-en

Volume di tutta l’arte della trombetta, Verona 1614 [I-VEaf, Mus. 238; A-Wn, codex 10819]

Trumpet Anton Schnitzer, 1585, donated by Bendinelli in 1614 to the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona

for trumpet players

A The first book Short Long Steps is dedicated to the optimisation of the embouchure, a decisive way for the success.

In the following volumes solutions are proposed to fine-tune the crucial step of sound production, introduced a training on strengthening, on control and on a reactive acceleration of the air flow.

The evolution of the brass technique in recent decades, while not abandoning the primordial schemes, has focused on some areas, including breathing and the use of air. These features are now routine and indispensable support to cope the current musical demands.

Mould the material of this volume for a balanced training, let yourself be led by your genuine musical feeling.

Focus your attention on your posture, give importance to your body and develop the ability to listen to yourself.

Pay close attention to learning the concepts “buzz to sound”, “flutter-lips to sound”, “buzz to flutter-lips to sound”, “flutter-lips to buzz to sound”, “pooh>waah”, “pooh>waah + flutter” without which the exercises lose their efficacy.

Plan the sequence of the exercises, adapt them to your needs, the step  “sound production” can complement your warm-up, use the mouthpiece wherever.

In every phrase try to expend all the air without reserve.

Develop the exercises by adding and combining unusual fingerings, keys, intervals, scales, arpeggios, pedals but not at the expense of the basic concepts indicated above.

You can alternate sections P, WU, GU, RU with the traditional practice of pedals, warm-up and warm-down.

Go on the high notes effortlessly, otherwise come out the exercise.

Make even a few notes fascinating, with musicality and perseverance you will reach your goal.

©2022

for trumpet players

A The first book Short Long Steps is dedicated to the optimisation of the embouchure, a decisive way for the success.

In the following volumes solutions are proposed to fine-tune the crucial step of sound production, introduced a training on strengthening, on control and on a reactive acceleration of the air flow.

The evolution of the brass technique in recent decades, while not abandoning the primordial schemes, has focused on some areas, including breathing and the use of air. These features are now routine and indispensable support to cope the current musical demands.

©2022

see also: 100 buzzing exercises, SHORT LONG STEPS, SHORT LONG STEPS II

for trumpet players

A The first book Short Long Steps is dedicated to the optimisation of the embouchure, a decisive way for the success.

In the following volumes solutions are proposed to fine-tune the crucial step of sound production, introduced a training on strengthening, on control and on a reactive acceleration of the air flow.

The evolution of the brass technique in recent decades, while not abandoning the primordial schemes, has focused on some areas, including breathing and the use of air. These features are now routine and indispensable support to cope the current musical demands.

©2022

see also: 100 buzzing exercises, Short Long Steps, SHORT LONG STEPS III

The ensemble TIBICINES performs on instruments that resemble their 17th and 18th century counterparts down to the minutest detail.

The Renaissance trumpet, which remained virtually unchanged throughout the baroque and classical era, produced sound via the natural overtone series, an acoustic phenomenon occurring in Nature.

In the 1960’s it was deemed impossible to recreate this forgotten technique and so German acousticians developed a system of vent-holes which allows the modern player access to the repertoire of the baroque trumpet but it changes the quality of the sound.

Around a dozen recordings exist today which make use of the originally intended baroque trumpets not involving vent-holes. The level of difficulty of the pieces in this programme would have been deemed unplayable only a few years ago.

Today they astonish the specialists of early music: it is no coincidence that leading ensembles and orchestras are increasingly recruiting instrumentalists prepared to perform on the originally intended instrument rather than the vent-holed version, TIBICINES gathers the best of them.

The performers involved here are professionals regularly engaged by the most important European baroque orchestras (La Petite Bande, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Les Arts Florissants, La Grande Ecurie, Le Concert Spirituel, etc).

This natural instrument has a strong impact, the listener is bewitched, how is it possible to produce such variety and quality of sound from a tube held in one hand?

Initial novelty is transformed by the natural seductivity, the charm and elegant beauty of the sound, mirroring how the composer’s intentions and the performance practice of the day.

This is how the music was, this is how it sounded.

In many cases both the trumpets and the fifes also cross the portals of the churches to play inside them on special occasions. This is the house of Das Kindl-Woegen auf Weinacht, composed by Bartholomäus Riedl.

Compositions that – together with other copious examples – bring news of the participation for the Christmas holiday of this formation.

Aufzug mit 6. Trompeten

REcens FAbricatus LAbor, Oder Neugebachene Taffel-Schnitz Von Mancherley lustigen Rencken und Schwencken zusammengestickt mit Noten außgespickt und under fröliche Compagnien geschickt damit ihnen Essen und Trincken und denen darbey aufwartenden Musicanten die Spendage desto besser zu statten kommen möge […], of the composer, well-read man and theorist Daniel Speer, was published in Frankfurt am Main in 1685.

Entertaining the people during meal services was one of the duties of the court trumpeters and the Aufzuge present in this work belonged to these occasions.

We should emphasize the use of the acute dominant, fifth over the tonica, in March oder gemeine Schläg auf der Heerpaucken and in Würbel, as Speer himself indicates in the chapter dedicated to the Herrpauken.

Another peculiarity picked up in the present recording is the use of the sottobasso, never used in modern times.

The Sottobasso or Flattergrob (which played the first harmonic), was a complement to the fixed parts of Basso or Grob (second partial) and Vulgano, Volgan or Faul-Stimm (third partial), and therefore as a part ad libitum.

The two Aufzuge of 1685 were republished with light variations in Grundrichtiger Unterricht der musikalischen Kunst oder Vierfaches musikalisches Kleeblatt, at Ulm in 1687 and in the second edition in 1697.

Here the title quotes:

Jetz folgen ein paar Aufzüge mit 6. Trompeten darzu die siebende auch noch kommen kan nemlich im Flatter-Grob [… ],

and although Mersenne back in 1636 lets us know that the sottobasso fell into disuse, Speer testifies a practical still in vogue at the end of the century.

The ensemble TIBICINES performs on instruments that resemble their 17th and 18th century counterparts down to the minutest detail.

The Renaissance trumpet, which remained virtually unchanged throughout the baroque and classical era, produced sound via the natural overtone series, an acoustic phenomenon occurring in Nature. In the 1960’s it was deemed impossible to recreate this forgotten technique and so German acousticians developed a system of vent-holes which allows the modern player access to the repertoire of the baroque trumpet but it changes the quality of the sound. Around a dozen recordings exist today which make use of the originally intended baroque trumpets not involving vent-holes. The level of difficulty of the pieces in this programme would have been deemed unplayable only a few years ago.

Today they astonish the specialists of early music: it is no coincidence that leading ensembles and orchestras are increasingly recruiting instrumentalists prepared to perform on the originally intended instrument rather than the vent-holed version, TIBICINES gathers the best of them.

The performers involved here are professionals regularly engaged by the most important European baroque orchestras (La Petite Bande, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Les Arts Florissants, La Grande Ecurie, Le Concert Spirituel, etc).

This natural instrument has a strong impact, the listener is bewitched, how is it possible to produce such variety and quality of sound from a tube held in one hand?

Initial novelty is transformed by the natural seductivity, the charm and elegant beauty of the sound, mirroring how the composer’s intentions and the performance practice of the day.

This is how the music was, this is how it sounded.

In many cases both the trumpets and the fifes also cross the portals of the churches to play inside them on special occasions. This is the house of Das Kindl-Woegen auf Weinacht, composed by Bartholomäus Riedl.

Compositions that – together with other copious examples – bring news of the participation for the Christmas holiday of this formation.

Embouchure Development for Brass Players

A perfect positioning of the lips facilitates results.

In the family of the brass instruments, the enhancement and optimization of the embouchure are crucial.

Sometimes, it is actually the regenerative aspect of the facial mask which creates the adjustment of the positioning.

Combining study with muscle support can lead to benefits over a relatively short period of time.

©2020

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