Distances for Trumpet Octet is a piece which entertains concepts of distances in various musical ways. Throughout the piece the listener will notice spatial changes within the ensemble, so that parts which compliment one another are sometimes heard close together, and at other times from across the ensemble. Spatial considerations are used to enhance rhythmic figures broken up among the 8 players. Another obvious distance is found in the pitch immaterial of the piece. Distances played a large role in the formation and crafting of the piece itself. For example, when I first began, I charted out all of the possible valve combinations on the trumpet from E4 to C6, numbering them 1-53 (making Eb4 to F#3 0 to -9). I then applied 5 recursive sets of integers to my chart of valve combinations, giving me 5 individual series of notes with specific valve combinations. I assigned one set to each trumpet (set 1 to trumpet 1/5, set 2 to trumpet 2/6 etc.) and leaving set 5 for use among all 8 trumpets. This informed my writing in terms of voicing, and disbursement of alternative fingerings throughout the ensemble – one instance of this is the very beginning of the piece. Ultimately, this is a “trumpetey” piece, which plays off of the tradition of trumpets being used to call across great distances; signaling victory or defeat, a call for help or a dire warning. For many throughout history, who fought in the countless wars of a time long past, the sound of the trumpet foreshadowed whether they were to live or to die. So if this piece seems at times dissonant – perhaps uncomfortably so, ask yourself one question: was it a beautiful sound which brought down the walls of Jericho?
All parts performed by Professor Leonard Ott, Lecturer in Trumpet at University of the Pacific
Recorded in the Owen Hall Recording Studio
Produced by Kevin Swenson
Engineered by Chris Sacha