Exposition of Aims
I have chosen to explore the two trumpet concerti by Joseph Haydn and Alexander Arutiunian because having played the trumpet for over nine years now I have discovered a particular interest in Russian brass music. I have seen John Wallace play the Arutiunian Trumpet concerto, accompanied by the Williams Fairey Brass Band in an arrangement by Roger Harvey at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester last year. However, the Haydn trumpet concerto was my introduction to brass concertos and it was the first concerto I performed (2nd movement in 1998). I also intend to play the Arutiunian concerto for my A-level practical examination. The Haydn trumpet concerto is the most famous trumpet concerto written and is Haydn’s most well known concerto for any instrument so it serves as benchmark to contrast against the relatively modern and obscure Arutiunian concerto.
I have studied Russian music as part of the Music A-level history syllabus and I enjoy the music of Oskar Bohme, Alexander Goedicke, Vassily Brandt, Alexandria Pakhmutova, and of course, Alexander Arutiunian. These are all Russian composers who made a significant contribution to the solo trumpet repertoire in the twentieth century.
I was excited to discover that Mr Arutiunian still lives in his native town of Erevan. Through the use of the Internet I have been fortunate enough to be able to converse with him with the use of a translator.
After analysing the two concerti I thought that the best way to produce a report was to compare them by using the most interesting musical elements that I discovered in my analysis. The basic important elements I chose that stood out from both concerti are rhythm, melody, texture and timbre, and form. These will help draw out the contrasts and similarities in the two works. By looking at these concertos I should be able to comment on how similar, but also how different these concertos are, even though they were written over 150 years apart.
Having analysed both the Joseph Haydn and Alexander Arutiunian trumpet concerti I have decided to present this report as a comparison.
I have included the full solo trumpet parts in the project as some of the comparisons contain references to rehearsal figures in the Arutiunian (e.g. bold letters, A, B, C etc…) and bar numbers in the Haydn (e.g. b.100).
They are referred to because they illustrate the relevant points I have made more clearly. There is an audio tape which runs along side the project and should be played on cue. The audio extracts come from ‘The World of the Trumpet’ (the Haydn) and ‘Trumpet Rhapsody’ (the Arutiunian). Also see the discography at the end.