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International Trumpet Guild Journal

to promote communications among trumpet players around the world and to improve the artistic level of performance, teaching,
and literature associated with the trumpet

RepeRtoiRe CoRneR
BRyan pRoksCh, Column editoR

exCavating the tRumpets

eaRliest RepeRtoiRe
By BRyan pRoksCh

March 2011 Page 64

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 RepeRtoiRe CoRneR
BRyan pRoksCh, Column editoR

The Repertoire Corner examines historic, analytic, and performance issues in the trumpets solo literature. Ideas, suggestions,
and submissions should be directed to Bryan Proksch, Department of Performing Arts, McNeese State University, Box 92175,
Lake Charles, LA 70609; repertoire@trumpetguild.org

exCavating the tRumpets

eaRliest RepeRtoiRe
By BRyan pRoksCh
n many ways, the starting point of the trumpets reper- that at least two notes had been added to the trumpets range

I toire dates to only as early as the late sixteenth century.1

This period saw the first music for trumpet written down
into collections by Magnus Thomsen (1596 1612), Cesare
Bendinelli (1614), and Girolamo Fantini (1638). Prior to this,
trumpeters had either passed down their music orally or had
improvised it, leaving us with little in the way of a recorded
history. By the same token, references to the trumpet in music
treatises, literature, iconography, and elsewhere discuss various
uses of the instrument in Medieval and Renaissance life, but
provide hardly anything in the way of clues as to what was
actually being played.2 All of this means that the music played
by the trumpet prior to c. 1600 must be inferred through sec-
ondary sources.
Much archival work remains to be done, of course, and
hopefully some trumpet music from before Thomsen awaits
discovery, but until that time the best we can do to get closer
to the trumpets earliest sounds is to examine the trumpet-like
features employed in non-trumpet pieces. The most enlighten-
ing examples in the literature are Guillaume Dufays Gloria
ad modum tubae and two chansons by Clment Janequin
(Escoutez tous gentilz, also known as La bataille de Marignan
and Chantons sonnons trompetes). None of these works is
securely dated, but Dufay likely wrote his in the first half of
the fifteenth century while Janequin composed his in the first
half of the sixteenth century. While scarcely a sliver of what
was surely a vibrant repertoire over a two-century span, the
three pieces offer a glimpse into the trumpets repertoire in the
1400s and 1500s.
Based on an annoying but informative ostinato, Dufays
Gloria contains a number of gestures associated with the trum-
pet, hence the works subtitle in the manner of the trumpet.
The lower voices sing the ostinato in canon using notes exclu-
sively from harmonic series up to the 6th partial, establishing
in the century following Grocheos 1300 treatise. Further-
more, Dufays trumpet part works in much the same way as
a circa 1600 principal part, with large sections of repeated
ideas over which the other trumpeters would improvise
(Example 1).
More tantalizing, if more problematic, are possible refer-
ences to the trumpet in the upper parts of Dufays piece. The
motif of scale degree two falling to scale degree five became a
clich for trumpets playing half cadences in later centuries, as
did open fifths based on the 3rd partial (the modern dominant
chord), mostly due to the limitations of the harmonic series.3
Both appear in the Dufay work (Example 2). Furthermore, the
voice-cross in the upper two parts hints at the sound of a trum-
pet ensemble in which the top voices improvised. Dufays
piece offers a clue that the upper parts of a trumpet ensemble
were playing as high as the 10th partial in 1420.4
Clment Janequins Escoutez tous gentilz offers what may be
the earliest notated trumpet ensemble fragment. The work fea-
tures colorful text-painting throughout, including the words
Sonnez trompettes et clairon (Sound trumpets and clari-
ons, see Example 3), where the fragment appears. As with
Dufay, the voice crossings in the top two parts would have
been typical for trumpets improvising in the upper register
between the 8th and 12th partials, while the pedal point dif-
fers little from the sustained pedals expected of an ensemble.
This hints that by c. 1525 the trumpets range perhaps
increased slightly from Dufays time, while the general stylistic
traits remained relatively unchanged.
As part of his effort to depict events musically through text-
painting, Janequin also embeds various military signals in
chanson, many of which resemble known trumpet signals
from nearly a century later. His Mount signal (to the words
Boutez selle) has close similarities with Bendinellis Mount

Example 1: The lowest (principal) trumpet part in Dufays Gloria ad modum tubae
64 ITG Journal / March 2011 2011 International Trumpet Guild
 Example 2: Possible trumpet motifs in Dufays Gloria

Example 3: Janequins imitation of a trumpet ensemble in Escoutez tous gentilz

Example 4: Comparison of trumpet signals from Janequin and Bendinelli

and Bring up the Saddle signals (see Example 4). It seems
plausible that the call recorded by Janequin split into the two
distinct calls rendered by Bendinelli, which together served
essentially the same militaristic function. The similarities
among these calls indicate a continuity of tradition over the
course of the century and span both the French and Italian
areas of Europe.
Both the Janequin and Dufay examples provide glimpses
into the lost world of the trumpets repertoire from a time that
2011 International Trumpet Guild
predates music written expressly for the instrument. Hopeful-
ly, further research and digging through other Medieval and
Renaissance vocal music will provide similar opportunities to
peek into the oral transmission portion of our instruments
history.
About the author: Bryan Proksch is assistant professor of
music at McNeese State University. He has published articles
Continued on Page 77
March 2011 / ITG Journal 65
 Repertoire Corner continued from page 65

on trumpet history for ITG, the Historic Brass Society, and

the Brass Bulletin. A musicologist by trade, he has also pub-
lished on the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Schoenberg.

Endnotes
1 On the Medieval and Renaissance trumpet generally, see
Edward H. Tarr, The Trumpet, 3rd Rev. Ed. (Chandler
AZ: Hickman Music Editions, 2008). For a more exten-
sive treatment of earlier music for the instrument, see
James Raymond Wheat, The Tuba/Trompetta Repertoire of
the Fifteenth Century (DMA diss., University of Wisconsin,
1994).
2 Johannes de Grocheo, for instance, recorded the range of
the trumpet as limited to the four lowest harmonics in
1300 but did not include any music (c.f. Tarr, 42). Two
hundred years later Bendinelli recorded that the 13th par-
tial was possible, while Fantini used the 18th partial.
3 For instance, Schmelzer uses this motif in the Sarabande
of his 1667 trumpet ensemble suite. Later, Speer also uses
it in some of the example pieces in his 1697 treatise.
4 Depending on how one interprets Dufays rendition, a
case could be made for the 12th partial as a high point in
the instruments range. The second parts re-mi-fa-fa-sol,
would be playable as the 9th 12th partials. However the
do-re-mi of the first part in the upper octave makes me
suspect that the 10th partial is a high point and that the
second part is just embellishing an inner non-trumpet
part.
2011 International Trumpet Guild March 2011 / ITG Journal 77