No Good Trumpet Trios (Part V)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZyeb4tmSzk

The Tomasi Suite for Three Trumpets is a complicated work in three movements. The first movement, the Havanaise takes advantage of the effectiveness of trumpets in close harmony. Really, the whole suite puts the trumpets close together, but it's most apparent in the first movement. The recording, from Paris emphasizes the rhythm, but my first experience with this piece, at ITG 2012 was ponderously slow and spent more time exploring the complicated harmonies of the piece. Either method is perfectly effective, but achieving a sensual dance-like feel in the Havanaise is important in order to draw contrast between the first and second movements. The third movement is a tuning challenge, but because of where each trumpet lands register-wise, it's possible to realize without fighting the horn for pitch on every note. I attribute that to the chromatic movement and sharp tonal center that avoids a lot of typically out-of-tune pitches on the instrument.

So what makes for a good trumpet trio? Well, based on my fairly small sample size I can't say this with a lot of authority, but I can list off a few things that my picks did well.

First, there is a fine balance between division of labor and mercy on the lower part. Each part needs to be interesting and work through the entire range of the horn, but because most of these trumpet trios are academic the composer must assume that the best player will be on the first part and thus able to handle more endurance challenges. Good trios (and I wager quartets as well) may balance this out by keeping the first part on a high tessitura, but giving the lower parts more playing time so that the top voice can rest.

Second, good trios take advantage of the special shimmer of trumpets in close harmony. Because the instrument can adjust timbre very quickly, the players can transition from their ensemble sound to their solo sound and back allowing for complicated harmonic movement while still emphasizing one voice over another.

Third, it seems the best solos only occasionally take advantage of the very shocking timbre of all three trumpets at equal strength. The effect of three trumpets resonating together is exciting, but becomes tiresome very quickly and is more suitable as an exclamation point in a paragraph full of commas and periods. For the most part, the better trios emphasize one trumpet at a time while the other two accompany the "solo" voice. In addition, the trumpets will share the solo line either in fragments or in a call and response fashion. The Havanaise is an excellent example of call and response style texture.

Finally, good trios use multiple short movements rather than long ones. For the most part, good trumpet trios are like a good joke: they can take up a little more time if the punch line is worth it, but once everyone "gets it" then it's time to move on. The Tomasi Suite is about 6-7 minutes and each movement does not overstay its welcome. The Burrill trio is nine minutes and I found myself bored of each movement about 2/3 of the way in. Even if the individual movements are cleverly written with lots of contrasting ideas it's exhausting to the listener to sit through a 9+ minute tour-de-force with only three similarly timbered voices. The little five second break between movements is critical to let the audience's ears relax a bit before the trio presents the next idea.