Author: Jonathan Freeman-Attwood

The repertoire for trumpet and piano – and the conspicuous gaps therein – provides a strong incentive for rediscovering music particularly open to anachronistic re-casting. Exploring new possibilities for this duo has been the motivation behind a series of discs for Linn, La Trompette Retrouvée, Trumpet Masque, Romantic Trumpet Sonatas, A Bach Notebook for Trumpet and a future release, the Neo-Classical Trumpet. Each project challenges the ‘status quo’ in different ways but all the works selected – from Giovanni Gabrieli to Igor Stravinsky – urge the arranger and performer to ‘re-imagine’ pieces written for a significant range of instruments and voice types (and often under-advocated in their original guise) and present them afresh in this surprisingly malleable instrumental duo.

Trumpet and piano music largely remains limited to competition pieces and a very few exceptional recital works. What ‘might have been’ if, all along, the trumpet (with or without piano) had become a vehicle of similarly expressive range to the flute, oboe and clarinet, let alone the violin and cello? What if, in the hearts and minds of great composers, the trumpet had found an occasional place at the high table of duo chamber music?

The purpose of these editions is to provide new recital material for trumpet players whilst also challenging them to think of themselves broadly as solo instrumental artists, not just trumpet players. In this way, each arrangement in this series makes particular interpretative demands as to when the executant projects the timeless qualities of the instrument and when he/she acknowledges the original context by engaging in matters of tradition, style and meaning in the music. Hence, editorial directions are purposely kept to a minimum, with the intention that players will find their own way towards a coherent and convincing vision of these ‘old pieces in new clothes’.

The Re-Imagined Trumpet series is edited by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, with arrangements by Daniel-Ben Pienaar. Initial releases are listed below, with further works in the pipeline:

Bach, J.S. – Prelude & Fugue in G major
Bach, J.S. – Concerto in A major: III. Allegro
Bach, J.S. – English Suite No. 2 – Prelude
Bach, J.S. – O Lamm Gottes, Unschuldig
Bach, J.M. – Ach, wie sehnlich wart ich der Zeit