January 13, 2024

The trumpet is truly a familiar sound. The instrument’s ancestry can be traced back thousands of years to many parts of the globe. Early ancestors of the instrument we made from clay, or wood, bone, animal horns and eventually brass. Its abundant tone and strong character led the instrument to take on ceremonial and religious functions as well as simply a form of communication over great distances.
 
It is an instrument largely defined to the general public by its iconic uses…think of a bugle playing taps or reveille, a shofar sounding the commencement of Rosh Hashana, or the call at the start of the Kentucky Derby.
 
There are certainly no shortage of iconic moments for the trumpet within an orchestra too.  How about Rossini’s William Tell Overture, the opening cock crow of Rimsky Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or, or Beethoven’s Leonore Overture calls? Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra comes to mind as does Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. Take a step off the beaten path and we find the unique opening to Janacek’s Sinfonietta with 10 trumpets in solemn, lyrical fanfare.
 
Each of these, however, are really single-dimensional applications of the instrument.  What happens when composers dig a bit deeper, stretch beyond the stereotype? That path leads us to something like the tragic opening of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, Respighi’s evocative off-stage solo in the Pines of Rome or the ballerina’s dance from Stravinsky's Petrouchka and virtually every trumpet moment in his L’histoire du Soldat. Now we are getting somewhere, and we haven’t even touched on the realm of jazz. Consider what Miles Davis did for expanding the instrument’s expressive scope.
 
I dare say the expressive scope of the trumpet took a quantum leap last Friday night with the premiere of David Biedenbender’s concerto for trumpet to which he gave the title River of Time. Dave sought inspiration for this work from many sources, some new, some old, some bright, and some dark. What came forth was a work unlike any other I have heard, certainly in the realm of the trumpet, but also beyond. It takes the listener on a rich and expansive emotional journey in a language that uniquely adapts and molds the trumpet’s extensive possibilities into music that is decidedly of our time--powerful, appealing and immediately engaging to the audience.
 
Without human contact, the trumpet is but a piece cold brass, (yes…elegantly shaped. I’ve seen good table lamps made from them). Add the warmth of human breath, a strong artistic sensibility, years of experience and commitment and the instrument comes to life in ways no other instrument can. LSO’s Principal Trumpet, Neil Mueller brought the breath, experience and artistry to the equation on Friday and delivered a most memorable performance of the work, bringing it into the world for the first time. Dave and Neil are good friends, btw, and I think we could hear that in this music.  As we were performing it, I was wishing it wouldn’t end. It’s one of those pieces.
 
The program also included Mozart’s spirited and graceful Symphony 35 “Haffner” and the Symphony in C of Bizet, his one and only work in the genre and real gem.
 
The overly-hyped winter storm news had a somewhat negative impact on our attendance, but those who were there let us know they enjoyed it. In reality we only had about 2 inches of snow on the ground by the end of the concert, nothing any hardy Michigander can’t handle, but the fear invoked by attention-starved media made it sound like a winter Armageddon was upon us.  What will they do when we have a really bad storm some day?
 
Next for me is something completely different, our fairly new concert offering we call Winterlude, a concert in Lansing’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. This year’s Winterlude is music for organ, brass and percussion. It will be a wonderful burst of warmth to the bleak midwinter.
 
NEXT UP
 
Lansing Symphony Orchestra
WINTERLUDE
Music for Brass, Percussion and Organ
 
February 4, 3:00 p.m.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
 
#LansingSymphony #DavidBiedenbender #NeilMueller
#trumpetconcerto