Spielen
Ich bin sehr dankbar, dass verschiedene Organisationen mir die Gelegenheit geschenkt haben, meine musikalische Reise auf die Beine zu Stellen. Innerhalb von sechs Jahren konnte ich vom ersten Unterricht zur Royal Academy of Music steigen. Danach, blieb ich in London wovon ich manchen Jahren als freischaffender Musiker und Lehrer arbeitete. Dann bin ich nach Basel umgezogen, um beim Studium meines Lieblings-Instruments - die historische Naturtrompete - Gas zu geben. Wo sonst?
Seitdem, ist mein haupt-Hauptfach als Musiker das Spiel von historischen Blechblasinstrumenten wie die Naturtrompete, Tromba da Tirarsi, Corno da Tirarsi, Naturhörner und die alte Altposaune.
Nebst der historischen Korrektheit der Naturtrompete, brauche ich deren geistige Herausforderung. Obwohl andere Trompeter mehr talentiert sind als ich und ich keinen grossen kommerziellen Erfolg gesucht oder genossen habe, bin ich trotzdem gelangweilt worden, dass ich schon alles mit Ventilen und Löcher spielen konnte. Und dann? Ich wollte nicht das Gleiche bis zum Tod immer stumpfsinnig wiederholen. Es sind schon viele die diesem Pfad folgen wollen. Naturtrompetenspiel braucht eine Konzentration die Wohlbehagen inhibiert; zumindest wenn man sie spielt.
Playing
Thanks to the Kent Music School, my first one-to-one music lesson was followed two years later by my first tour playing with a band (KSSWB). I played at the Royal Albert Hall the following year. Three years after that, I was studying at the Royal Academy of Music, where I was apparently the first student to get a DipRAM playing the un-natural trumpet alongside the modern one. Whoopie doo! And I was the humblest student there!
The opportunities provided by of the Kent County Youth Orchestra, KSSWB, KJMS, Medway Music Centre, Medway Towns’ Band, AKZO Kemie Brass Band (Gillingham), Maidstone Symphony Orchestra and the Kent Sinfonia (these may be obsolete names) were very important in the process of gaining experience on the way to college.
I remained based in London after leaving the RAM, whilst teaching and working as a freelance player in various fields, before moving to Basel in 2005 to study the historical natural trumpet with JF Madeuf at the SCB. Since then my main playing activity has been as a specialist playing the natural trumpet and other historical brass instruments such as tromba da tirarsi, corno da tirarsi, natural horns and the alto trombone, plus the odd gig on timpani, Baroque viola and modern trumpet.
Leaving aside historical correctness, I need the challenge of the natural trumpet. There are many players out there with more natural playing ability than me and I’ve never really had, or pursued, any great commercial success as a trumpeter. However, I was usually busy enough in my scenes but, after a few years, got bored with being able to play everything with valves and holes.
Then what: Spend the next few decades repeating it all mindlessly for ever fewer peanuts? No thanks! There are plenty of others willing to follow that path. Playing the natural trumpet demands intense concentration and a commitment that inhibits complacency. It’s difficult to get bored, at least while playing it.
I’ve had the honour of playing quite a few original instruments at Museums in the UK and throughout Europe.
The boasty bit:
A few personal firsts (and a couple of UK & world-firsts) playing the (historical) natural trumpet:
Manche eigene Prämieren meines historischen Trompetenspiels, davon ein paar auch GB- oder Welt- Rekorde sind.
ca 1989. My first “no-holes” performance at the RAM in London. A “spurious” Haydn symphony conducted by that polite oboe bloke in a stripy shirt. That’s it, Paul Goodwin. Teammate: Traugott Forschner.
June 2000. First Messiah (Händel) including the aria, St John’s Wood, London. Teammate: Dominic Cotton. Certainly not the first ever in the UK! (See Burney).
May 2004. (Telemann triple concerto (TWV 54:D3) in Greenwich (UK) with Linden Baroque, directed by Steven Devine. Fundraising concert for the victims of torture. Not something you would have liked to experience. Mitleider: Katie Hodges & Dominic Cotton
1st Jan 2005. B-minor mass, Elsworth (Cambs). Apparently the first ever B-Minor Mass on natural trumpets in the UK. With Katie and Dom, I think. August 2005 again at Dartington International Summer School – (Dom again and Ross Brown). (In June 2005, Barokensemble De Swaen performed it with David Kyar on 1st trumpet on a strainer with taped-up holes; if only we’d been in touch back then!)
December 2005, Germany: “THE” Telemann “trumpet” concerto (TWV D7:51) on the natural trumpet. BWV 51 in the same programme.
April 2006. Fasch (trumpet) “concerto a 8” FWV L:D1, SCB Basel, CH.
June 2007, first concert with Barokensemble de Swaen.
Summer 2008, invited to direct Barokensemble de Swaen. Renounced the strainer.
December 2008. Christmas Oratorio, parts 1, 5 & 6 (plus BWV 191). Neimegen, NL. Teammates: Katie Hodges & Graham Nicholson.
June 2009. 2nd Brandenburg Concerto (BWV 1047) on the natural trumpet, in Hilversum & Amsterdam.
September 2010. Amsterdam. World premiere of Telemann Cantata “Grossmächtiger König der Britten“ TWV 12:11. Teammate: Katie Hodges. Julian Zimmermann also played in this concert in BWV 149.
December 2012. Poznan, Poland. Church Sonatas in C and Eb by Zebrowski. Apparently a world premiere, according to the local musicologists. Teammate: Jean-Charles Dennis.
January 2016. 1st recording of “The” Telemann trumpet concerto (TWV D7:51) on the natural trumpet. Unreleased.
September 2016. First B-minor mass playing horn (and 1st trumpet). Natural (i.e. unstopped and unvented) horn in left hand, trumpet in the right hand, making a simple changeover from Quoniam to Cum Sancto Spirito without needing to miss a note.
Last few bars of the Quoniam from the B-Minor Mass, Zürich, Sept 2015