BOSTON UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS

Dissertation

MERRIFRANQUIN AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO

THE ART OF TRUMPET PLAYING

by

GEOFFREY SHAMU

A.B., Harvard College, 1994

M.M., Boston University, 2004

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Musical Arts

2009
 UMI Number: 3345584

Copyright 2009 by
Shamu, Geoffrey

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© Copyright by
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 Approved by

First Reader t/^fr-*-w~ /^C^>

Thomas Peattie, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Music

Second Reader
©avidKopp,Ph.D.
Kopp, I /
Associate Professor of Music

Third Reader
Teiry Everson, M.M.
Associate Professor of Music
To the memory of Pierre Thibaud

and Roger Voisin

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Completion of this work would not have been possible without the support of my

family and friends—particularly Laura; my parents; Margaret and Caroline; Howard and

Ann; Jonathan and Francoise; Aaron, Catherine, and Caroline; Renaud; les Davids;

Carine, Leeanna, John, Tyler, and Sara. I would also like to thank my

Readers —Professor Peattie for his invaluable direction, patience, and close reading of the

manuscript; Professor Kopp, especially for his advice to consider the method book and its

organization carefully; and Professor Everson for his teaching, support and advocacy

over the years, and encouraging me to write this dissertation. Finally, I would like to

acknowledge the generosity of the Voisin family, who granted interviews, access to the

documents of Rene Voisin, and the use of Roger Voisin's antique Franquin-system C/D

trumpet; Veronique Lavedan and Enoch & Compagnie; and Mme. Courtois, who opened

her archive of Franquin family documents to me.

v
 MERRI FRANQUIN AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO

THE ART OF TRUMPET PLAYING

(Order No. )

GEOFFREY SHAMU

Boston University College of Fine Arts, 2009

Major Professor: Thomas Peattie, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Music

ABSTRACT

Merri Franquin (1848 - 1934) left a significant legacy to the art of trumpet

playing. A student of J.-B. Arban, Franquin authored a substantial method book, wrote

an important historical article, invented an ascending valve system for brass instruments,

and had several contest solos {morceaux de concours) dedicated to him, such as Legende

by Enesco (Enescu). This dissertation represents the first comprehensive study of

Franquin's contribution to the trumpet's pedagogy, history, instrument design,

performance practice, and repertoire.

Research for this document began with examination of Franquin's Methode

complete and the entry he wrote on the trumpet and the cornet in Albert Lavignac's

Encyclopedic de la musique et Dictionnaire du Conservatoire. Investigation continued

with previously untapped archival material associated with his career as a student and

teacher at the Paris Conservatory. A letter to Henri Rabaud in Franquin's faculty file

delineates Franquin's major accomplishments, as he himself saw them—casting light on

the fundamental innovation of his method.

With aid from Enoch & Cie., the author obtained primary material including

vi
manuscripts by Franquin, Enesco, C. Erlanger, G. Pierne, L. de la Laurencie, and C.

Saint-Saens. Roger Voisin and family granted interviews to the author, access to

documents of Rene Voisin, and use of a Franquin-system Thibouville-Lamy trumpet

brought from France during the 1952 Boston Symphony European tour under Charles

Munch. The author obtained and translated copies of patents for the four- and five-valve

trumpets of Franquin's design.

This research reveals Franquin's role in the shift to small trumpets in France at the

end of the nineteenth century. His writings helped shape the scholarly discourse on the

subject and illuminate the reasons for the rise of the cornet in France. His method book,

building on the works of F.G.A. Dauverne, J. Forestier, and Arban, clarifies and develops

their principles, applying them to the modern trumpet. Franquin taught at the Paris

Conservatory from 1894 - 1925, a fecund period for the commission of new contest

solos. Those composed for trumpet bear his mark in their content. Franquin's many

students perpetuated his ideas in France and abroad. Through them, the tradition he

represents has continued.

vii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFATORY PAGES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

ABSTRACT vi

CHAPTERS

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. THE QUEST FOR ACCURACY 4

I. THE TRUMPET IN CRISIS 4

II. THE CORNET TO THE RESCUE? 11

III. THE NEW Music OUTPACES THE CORNET 14

IV. THE RISE OF SMALL TRUMPETS IN THE BELLE EPOQUE 15

V. NEW TRUMPETS, NEW PROBLEMS 17

3. TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN MERRIFRANQUIN' S

METHODE COMPLETE DE TROMPETTE MODERNE,
DE CORNET ETDE BUGLE 20

I. THE LIBRARY OF MERRI FRANQUIN: LESPRINCIPAUX

AUTEURS 21

II. ORGANIZATION OF THE METHOD 29

III. PARTIE THEORIQUE: INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL 32

viii
 IV. PARTIEPRATIQUE: EXERCISES, STUDIES, AND PIECES 50

A. EMISSION STUDIES 51

B. TRANSPOSITION 57

C. RANGE AND ENDURANCE 60

D. ARTICULATION, SOUND, AND "TONGUING IN THE

SOUND" 64

E. HARMONICS AND FLEXIBILITY 67

F. TRUMPET REPERTOIRE 70

V. CONCLUSION 72

4. TOWARD AN IMPROVED TRUMPET 77

I. THE PROBLEM 78

II. ARBAN AND COMPENSATING VALVE SYSTEMS 82

III. MERRI FRANQUIN AND THE ASCENDING VALVE 87

IV. THE FIFTH VALVE 91

V. RECEPTION OF FRANQUIN' S NEW SYSTEMS 95

VI. THE MOBILE VALVE SLIDE 101

VII. THE REBIRTH OF THE MERRI FRANQUIN SYSTEM

IN THE UNITED STATES 106

VIII. THE TOTTLEPHONE 114

IX. CONCLUSION 118

5. TOWARD A NEW LITERATURE 121

IX
 I. FROM SOLOS DU PROFESSEUR TO SOWS DE COMPOSITEUR

II. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NEW CONTEST REPERTOIRE:

OVER AN APERO OR THROUGH A KITCHEN WINDOW? 13 0

III. CONCLUSION 136

6. CONCLUSION 139

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

1908 COPY OF BIRTH CERTIFICATE 144

APPENDIX 2

1913 PATENT 145

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 148

APPENDIX 3

1921 PATENT 150

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 154

APPENDIX 4

c. 1913 CATALOGUE ADVERTISEMENT FOR

FOUR-VALVE C/D TRUMPET 157

BIBLIOGRAPHY 158

VITA 163
Merri Franquin, 1900 (Collection of the Bibliotheque nationale de France, public domain).

XI
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Outside of France, Merri Franquin remains best known to trumpet players as the

dedicatee whose name appears atop Georges Enesco's popular Legende pour trompette

avec accompagnement de piano (1906). That Enesco felt no compunction to specify

"chromatic trumpet" or "trumpet in C" (en Ui) in his work's title—as might have been

the case just a few years earlier—bears testament to the influence of Merri Franquin. As

will be seen in the pages that follow, many of the musical elements present in this piece

and other French solo trumpet works composed for the terminal trumpet competitions at

the Paris Conservatory during the belle epoque represent Franquin's particular

pedagogical, instrumental, and musical preferences. These grew from a continuous

tradition of high brass performance dating at least to the eighteenth century, and shaped

the sound of the trumpet as heard during the twentieth century and beyond.

Merri Jean Baptiste Franquin was born to Jean Baptiste Etienne Franquin, a

farmer in the small Provencal commune of Lancon, in 1848. At the age of fifteen, he

discovered an old cornet at home and began to play. Within four years he made his way

to Marseille, where he started to perform professionally in the Casino Musical, the Palais

Lyrique, and the Theatre Chave until called to military service in 1870.1 Merri Franquin

came to the French capital in 1872 to study at the Paris Conservatory with cornetist Jean-

1
Gaston Andrieu, "Merri Franquin, 1848 - 1934," published obituary of unknown origin,
photocopy in the collection of the author.
1
Baptiste Arban. After two years of study with Arban, three with his temporary

replacement Jacques Hippolyte Maury, and several attempts at the annual terminal

competition, Franquin, aged 28 years, 11 months, received his premier prix de cornet in

1877.3

From these inauspicious beginnings, Franquin rose to become the scion and

standard-bearer of the brass dynasty that can be traced in France to the eighteenth century

and trumpeter David Buhl. 4 Franquin assumed the chair of Principal Trumpet (Premier

trompette solo) in every major Parisian orchestra of his time: Les Concerts Populaires de

Pasdeloup (1876 - 1884), Les Concerts Colonne (1884 - 1892), La Societe des Concerts

du Conservatoire (1892 - 1901), L 'Opera Comique and Le Grand Opera (Theatre

National de L 'Opera, 1880 - 1901).5 Franquin performed as a trumpet soloist (in

Baroque works)—which was uncommon during this period—with such orchestras as the

Concerts Populaires de Pasdeloup (1882) and the Grands Oratorios de St.-Eustache

(1899 - 1901).6 He also championed the trumpet in contemporary chamber music,

frequently performing the septets of Camille Saint-Saens, (Victor) Alphonse Duvernoy,

2
1908 birth certificate (Extrait du Registre des Actes de Naissance) in the collection of the
author, reproduced in Appendix 1; Class Registers (Tableaux des Classes), 1872 - 1873, Paris
Conservatory Archive Collection, No. AJ37 96, French National Archives, Paris, France.
Tableaux des Classes, 1876 - 1877, AJ37 101, French National Archives, Paris, France.
4
Buhl was uncle and teacher to Francois Dauverne, who taught Franquin's teacher Jean-Baptiste
Arban. Francois Dauverne, Methodepour la trompette (1857; repr., Paris: International Music
Diffusion, 1991), 7.
5
Merri Franquin, Curriculum Vitae, c. 1925, original manuscript in the collection of the author;
The dates for his orchestral appointments can be found in Gaston Andrieu, "Merri Franquin :
1848 — 1934," and Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire national de musique et de declamation :
documents historiques et administratifs, recueillis ou reconstitues par Constant PIERRE, Sous-
chef du Secretariat, Laureat de LTnstitut. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1900), 757.
Merri Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," Encyclopedic de la musique et dictionnaire du
Conservatoire Part III, vol. II, ed. Albert Lavignac and Lionel de la Laurencie (Paris: Delagrave,
c. 1925), 1611; Merri Franquin, Curriculum Vitae, c. 1925;
2
Vincent D'Indy, and Gabriel Pierne for concerts held by Parisian societies including the

Cercle Volney and the Cercle Militaire.

As a teacher, Franquin held the post of Professor of Trumpet at the Paris

Conservatory (first occupied by Dauverne, in 1833) for thirty-one years, from 1894 until

1925. During his tenure as Professor, he wrote his Methode complete de trompette

moderne, instructed fifty-nine winners of'thepremierprix de trompette, perfected a new

valve system for the trumpet, and wrote his monumental article on the trumpet and the

cornet for Albert Lavignac's Encyclopedic de la Musique et Dictionnaire du

Conservatoire. Propagated by his students, Franquin's pedagogy, equipment, and

musical concepts have gone on to influence successive generations of trumpeters, both in

France and abroad. His contribution in these domains will be examined in the third

through fifth chapters of this dissertation, which assess the particular contributions of the

method book, trumpet valve systems, and contest repertoire associated with Merri

Franquin. As a historian of the instrument, his encyclopedia article set—from the

viewpoint of an active participant—the scholarly discourse surrounding the rise and fall

of the cornet in the French orchestra during the nineteenth century and its relation to the

evolution of the trumpet from a large natural instrument to the small, valved version

commonly used today. The following chapter, based largely upon Franquin's article,

addresses this topic, and serves as a point of entry into his musical milieu.

7
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1612; Gaston Andrieu, "Merri Franquin : 1848 - 1934";
The composers scored their septets for various mixed ensembles. Saint-Saens' 1880 Septet
(Septuor) in E-flat, op. 65 and Duvernoy's 1906 Serenade, op. 24 were both written for trumpet,
piano, two violins, viola, violoncello, and double bass. DTndy wrote his 1886 Suite dans le style
ancien, op. 24 for two flutes, trumpet, and string quartet. Pierne scored his c. 1893 Pastorale
variee, op. 30 for flute, oboe, clarinet, two bassoons, horn, and trumpet.
3
 CHAPTER 2
THE QUEST FOR ACCURACY

Of all the musical instruments, the trumpet had been, until now, the
most resistant to progress, thanks to the obstinacy of old practitioners and
their opposition to young musicians making use of easier-playing
instruments, thanks above all to the cornetists—trumpet renegades, who at
all costs wanted the cornet to preserve its head start on the trumpet and the
favor it had usurped from the trumpet in orchestras. The best way to
achieve this end was evidently to deny the trumpet all improvement, and
as a result, to leave it the monopoly on cracked notes ("clams").1

I. THE TRUMPET IN CRISIS. Thus Merri Franquin, writing at the turn of the twentieth

century, summed up the situation of the orchestral trumpet as he had witnessed it at the

close of the nineteenth.2 Today, scholars agree that the art of trumpet playing

experienced a general decline during the latter part of the eighteenth century and the first

half of the nineteenth, with the gradual fall from vogue of clarino playing and the

simultaneous increase in the number and pace of key changes, if not yet outright

1
« La trompette avait ete, jusqu'ici, de tous les instruments de musique, le plus refractaire au
progres, grace a l'entetement des anciens professionnels et a leur opposition a ce que les jeunes
fissent usage d'instruments plus avantageux ; grace surtout aux cornettistes, transfuges de la
trompette, qui voulaient a tout prix que le cornet conservat l'avance pris sur elle et la situation
qu'il lui avait ravie dans les orchestres. Le meilleur moyen d'y parvenir etait evidemment de
refuser tout progres au perfectionnement de la trompette, et, par consequent, de lui laisser le
monopole des couacs. » [N.B.: English-speaking brass players commonly use the colloquial
expression "clams" to refer to the particular type of missed notes Franquin calls « couacs. »]
Merri Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," Encyclopedie de la musique et dictionnaire du
Conservatoire Part III, vol. II, ed. Albert Lavignac and Lionel de la Laurencie (Paris: Delagrave,
c. 1925), 1608 - 9; Franquin, frustrated by the slow acceptance of his ascending C/D trumpet
design, notes in a footnote the historical parallel between its reception and that of the first small,
valved trumpets. Ibid., 1608.
2
Merri Franquin submitted his monumental article "La Trompette et le cornet," to Encyclopedie
editor Lionel de la Laurencie (successor to Albert Lavignac) "at the end of 1922" (a la fin de
1922). It did not see publication until sometime after 1924; Lionel de la Laurencie to Merri
Franquin, 16 December 1924, signed manuscript in the collection of the author.
4
chromaticism, in musical style.3 These historical developments outpaced the melodic

limits of the natural trumpet—even when equipped with a complete gamut of different-

keyed crooks—relegating it for the most part to reinforcing the percussion (or the winds

in loud, tonally stable passages) and playing the occasional fanfare.4 Franquin laments

that just when the invention of the valve and a corresponding willingness on the part of

composers to write more involved trumpet parts should have improved its lot

dramatically, the valve was not applied to the trumpet in its most "advantageous" form

for nearly seventy-five years. 5 Instead, only the cornet fully profited from the innovation

during this period.

The application of valves to brass instruments had been accomplished in Germany

around 1816.6 However, valves did not appear on trumpets—in concert music—for over

a decade. When they did, the young Hector Berlioz took to them early on, combining

large valved and natural trumpets in the overtures to Les Francs-juges (1826) and

Waverly (1827-28), both of which he wrote as a student at the Paris Conservatory. 7 Here

the young composer may have had in mind Francois Dauverne, Principal Trumpet of the

Paris Opera at the time (1820-1851), founding member of the Societe des Concerts du

Conservatoire (1828), and future Professor of Trumpet at the Paris Conservatory

3
Clarino playing refers to the historical style of natural (valveless) trumpet writing that exploits
the adjacencies available in the upper (> 7th) harmonics; Edward Tarr, The Trumpet, trans. S.E.
Plank and Edward Tarr (Portland: Amadeus Press, 1988), 145.
4
As Franquin points out in "La Trompette et le cornet," the pre-Lohengrin operatic repertoire
presents this kind of trumpet writing almost exclusively, 1609.
5
To realize their full potential, valves would need to be applied to a small trumpet, one-half the
length of the corresponding natural trumpet in the same key. Ibid.
6
Edward Tarr: 'Trumpet: 4. The Western Trumpet (iii) 1520 - 1820', Grove Music Online ed.
L. Macy (Accessed 5 February 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
7
Ibid.; Hugh MacDonald: 'Berlioz, (Louis-) Hector: 2. 1821 - 1830', Grove Music Online ed.
L. Macy (Accessed 5 February 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
5
(1833-1869). 8 In 1826, Dauverne brought the first large valved trumpet (in F) to Paris. 9

Valved trumpets made their debut at the Opera with Hippolyte Chelard's Parisian flop,

MacBeth, (1827)—with Dauverne at the helm of the section.10 Rossini's Guillaume Tell,

which also received its premiere at the Paris Opera, became in 1829 the first important

work to exploit valved trumpets. 11

After this, (large) trumpets with valves began to take hold, at least at the Opera.

They were soon heard again in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable (1831), Les

Huguenots (1836), and Fromental Halevy's La Juive (1835). Perhaps most importantly

for future developments, Richard Wagner adopted valved trumpets (used alongside

natural trumpets) for his first opera, Rienzi (1842). 12 Although Rienzi received its

premiere in Dresden, Wagner completed it in Paris (1840), while under the patronage of
1^

Meyerbeer. His openness to the new trumpet likely resulted directly from its successes

at the Paris Opera.

Like their natural counterparts, early valved trumpets had tubing comparable in

Constant Pierre, le Conservatoire national de musique et de declamation: documents historiques

et administratifs, recueillis ou reconstitues par Constant Pierre (Paris: Imprimerie nationale,
1900), 441.
9
Sometimes called "low" trumpets, the description "large" has generally been adopted here. This
provides a more logical contrast to the "small" (petit) trumpets ushered in by Franquin and his
contemporaries. Although the early trumpets possessed a fundamental tone in the octave below
that of their modern equivalents, they performed in the same (high) tessitura, as will be discussed
at length below. Thus the word "low," in reference to them, could be particularly deceptive.
10
Brian Primmer: 'Chelard [Chelard], Hippolyte-Andre(-Jean)-Baptiste', Grove Music Online
ed. L. Macy (Accessed 5 February 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com>; Francois Dauverne,
Methodepour la trompette (1857; repr., Paris: International Music Diffusion, 1999), xxii.
11
Act. Ill, Marche. Franquin, "La Trompette et le Cornet," 1608.
Tarr, The Trumpet, 163.
13
Barry Millington: 'Wagner: 1. (Wilhem) Richard Wagner', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy
(Accessed 5 February 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
6
length to organ pipes in the eight-foot rank. They possessed an extended chromatic low

register (prime range for the trombone, thus not particularly useful from the perspective

of orchestration) and unstable upper-middle and high registers. 15 The earliest valved

trumpets in France also suffered from design inadequacies that jeopardized their timbre

and relative intonation. 16 Later designs seem to have resolved these two problems

somewhat, but still presented serious obstacles to accurate performance. Nowadays, the

euphonium and the baritone—both of comparable length to the early valved trumpet, but

played in the low register encompassing their first and second harmonics—generally

come equipped with a compensating valve system. Lacking compensation, the large

valved trumpets were severely out of tune on notes requiring a combination of valves,

especially those requiring the third valve in combination. 17 Although the most out-of-

tune valve combinations largely could be avoided altogether on the large trumpets since

they—like natural trumpets—played almost exclusively above their third harmonic, the

The organist and composer Charles-Marie Widor made this illustrative parallel. Charles-Marie
Widor, Technique de I 'orchestre moderne, faisant suite au Traite d 'instrumentation et
d'orchestration de H. Berlioz, 2ieme ed. (Paris: Henry Lemoine, 1904), 81; By the same logic,
small (modern) trumpets correspond to the four-foot rank, and the piccolo trumpet in B*/A
corresponds to a two-foot.
15
As tessitura rises, the intervals between harmonics become progressively smaller, increasing
the risk of missed notes.
Francois Dauverne, Methode pour la trompette, 21.
17
Non-compensating instruments become sharper as a function of the number of valves
depressed. On modern (small) trumpets and cornets, this can be corrected in performance by
means of adjustable first- and third-valve slides operated by the thumb and ring finger of the left
hand. Finger- and thumb-adjustable valve slides had not yet been adopted at the end of the
nineteenth century. Because of the long lengths of the large trumpets—requiring the addition of
several inches of tubing to fully compensate for the simultaneous use of all three valves—they
would not have been entirely effective anyhow; To a certain extent, out-of-tune notes can be
"lipped" to correct pitch in slow passages. This type of pitch correction, however, becomes
increasingly difficult and inexact with speed. Furthermore, "lipping" not only dulls the tone in
pulling it away from its resonant harmonic center; it increases the risk of missed notes. Franquin,
"La Trompette et le cornet," 1635.
7
problem of instability remained. According to Merri Franquin, the addition of valves to

the eight-foot instruments solved very little:

It was, in appearance, a great advantage to no longer be obliged to

change crooks all the time and to possess the entire chromatic scale; but,
from the point of view of facility of execution, no progress; the trumpet
remained exactly what it had been before, as much in terms of playing
difficulty—its risk of "clams"—as for its unnatural situation of low
1 Q

trumpet played in the high register, of bass playing tenor lines.

The manufacturers of early valved trumpets certainly realized that the invention

might allow them to halve the length of tubing without losing the practicable range of the

instrument. During the same period, the cornet underwent this very change rapidly after

its creation. The first cornets appeared in Paris in 1830.19 Of the same length as natural

trumpet or high horn, they had two valves that allowed them to play an almost-complete

chromatic scale in their middle and upper registers. To accommodate their missing notes

and to mitigate tuning problems in keys remote from their nominal key, they came

equipped with crooks for every key from low T>b to up to high C. ° Cornets soon

acquired an additional (third) valve. This made them fully chromatic over their playable

range. It also allowed them to summarily drop half their length, losing only the unused

notes of their lowest octaves. Most commonly, players performed on them pitched in

18
« C'etait, en apparence, un grand avantage de ne plus etre oblige de changer de tons a chaque
instant et de posseder toute la gamme chromatique ; mais, au point de vue de la facilite
d'execution, nul progres ; la trompette demeurait exactement ce qu'elle etait auparavant, tant pour
la difficulte de son jeu, de ses dangers de couacs, que pour sa situation anormale de trompette
grave jouee dans Paigu, de basse jouant les tenors. » Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1612.
19
Ibid.
20
Baines and Myers, (Accessed 6 February 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
8
high A, B& (their usual modern pitch), and even C.21 Thus by mid-century, cornets had

already assumed their small modern proportions. In his 1864 Grande Methode complete

de cornet a pistons et de saxhorn, Jean-Baptiste Arban noted that the (small) C cornet had

become "indispensable" for orchestral playing as it facilitated transposition. He

recommended C cornet for solo playing, as well, because of its "distinguished" timbre.22

In "Arban's time" and "on his recommendation," many of his contemporaries also

adopted the C cornet "even for the execution of cornet parts written [for instruments

pitched] in the keys of B-flat and A... this in the interest of accuracy of execution."23

Smaller trumpets and cornets have the advantage of improving accuracy and

stability as compared to larger ones. Input impedance peaks at frequencies corresponding

to a brass instrument's harmonics. These impedance peaks dictate the pitches

(frequencies) at which resonant sounds can be produced with ease. They have maximum

amplitude—thus sound production becomes easiest—in the mid-range of the instrument.

It requires significant effort on the part of the player to bend a pitch away from these

natural harmonics.24 In absolute terms, a larger interval separates adjacent harmonics for

any given note for a smaller instrument as compared to the same note on a larger one.

Thus for any given concert pitch, smaller instruments provide a greater intervallic

distance between adjacent targets—which helps to increase note accuracy. At the same

21
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1625.
Jean-Baptiste Arban, Grande Methode complete de cornet a pistons et de saxhorn (1864; repr.,
Paris: International Music Diffusion, 1985), 6.
23
« ...beaucoup de cornettistes, du temps d'Arban, et sur son conseil, l'avaient adopte... meme
pour executer des parties de cornet ecrites pour les tons de sih et la, et cela dans l'interet de la
surete d'execution.... » Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1611.
24
Thomas Moore, "What is Impedance and Why Do We Care?," International Trumpet Guild
Journal 27, no. 1 (October 2002): 70-71.
9
time, because the mid-range of a smaller instrument comes at a higher tessitura than that

of a corresponding larger instrument, it improves stability in the normal playing range.

Although these phenomena have been explained scientifically only recently, any trumpet

or cornet player can immediately sense these differences when playing instruments of

varying lengths.

In his opinionated entry on the trumpet and the cornet in Albert Lavignac's

Encyclopedic de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire, Franquin suggests that the

delay of the trumpet to become equipped with valves and to be adopted in smaller form

resulted mostly from the stubbornness of older trumpeters and composers.25 In his view,

they had simply become used to the old-fashioned instruments: routine and complacency

blinded them to the possibilities for improving them. But in addition to the weight of

tradition, prejudice against the timbre of smaller trumpets also provided a major obstacle

to their acceptance. As Charles-Marie Widor memorably wrote in his Technique de

Vorchestre moderne (1904), "Next to [the] manly and imperious tone [of the large F

trumpet], the small modern trumpet almost resembles a cornet a pistons."26 Franquin,

convinced of the merits of shorter trumpets, gave no credence to this kind of prejudice:

People had become so used to the missed notes of the trumpet and
the horn that, in orchestra, the idea of trumpet was inseparable from that of
clam. Thus, an instrument that produced few or no clams could not be a
true trumpet and deserved only the name piston. This, in general, was the
unconscious drive of the detractors of the modern trumpet....
Nevertheless, the cornet a pistons being a sort of trumpet, it is not
surprising that, in certain circumstances, the true trumpet might have some

Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1608 - 9.

26
« A cote de cette male et imperieuse sonorite, la Petite Trompette moderne ressemble presque a
un Cornet a Pistons ! » Charles-Marie Widor, Technique de Vorchestre moderne, 83.
10
 manner of resemblance to it; but in this case, one must reverse the phrase
and say, "the piston resembles the trumpet." 27

Despite Franquin's witty response to the type of objection raised by Widor, some of the

disinclination toward the sound of the new small trumpets may have been well founded.

Their relatively small bore gave them a significantly brighter sound—much more so than

their equivalents today. 28 This may have made them seem particularly strident to

audiences accustomed to natural and valved trumpets, larger in both length and bore.

II. THE CORNET TO THE RESCUE? With its invention, the cornet—a new instrument, free

of any particular tradition—stood to benefit readily from all available technological

innovation. It began to assume a prominent role in the mid-nineteenth century, both as

welcome member of the orchestra and uninvited guest. What acceptance the cornet

gained in classical music it achieved on the basis of its technical merits, not its sound. At

the time its tone was said to impart "platitude and odious vulgarism" to lighter

melodies. As "the soul of the Quadrille" this may have been the result of its principal

27
« On etait si bien habitue aux accidents de la trompette et du cor que, a l'orchestre, l'idee de
trompette etait inseparable de celle de couac. Done un instrument avec lequel on faisait peu ou
pas de couacs ne pouvait etre une vraie trompette et ne meritait que le nom de piston. Voila, en
general, quel etait le mobile inconscient de l'opinion des detracteurs de la trompette moderne....
Cependant, le cornet a pistons etant une espece de trompette, il n'est pas surprenant que, dans
certaines circonstances, la vraie trompette ait quelques points de ressemblance avec lui; mais
alors, il faut renverser la phrase et dire : 'Le piston ressemble a la trompette.'» Franquin, "La
Trompette et le cornet," 1616.
28
Margaret Sarkissian and Edward H. Tarr. "Trumpet." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music
Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed July 24, 2008).
29
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1626.
3
Hector Berlioz, Grand Traite d'Instrumentation et d 'Orchestration Modernes, Nouvelle
Edition, (1855; repr., Paris: Henry Lemoine, c. 1880), 198; This description of the cornet sound,
and those attributed to Berlioz that follow, appear identically in the earliest texts of his Treatise
11
 O 1

association—with popular music—in the minds of nineteenth-century audiences.

Nevertheless, in France especially, the cornet became an accepted member of the

orchestra, because composers, following the example of Berlioz, began to write for it in

combination with natural trumpets. Berlioz made no secret of his views on the sound of

the cornet. Beyond the description just cited, he characterized it as "without the nobility

of the horn, nor the pride of the trumpet," or worse, "biting, blaring, shameless "

But cornets seemed to him a necessary evil, since they could sound similar to trumpets

and play chromatically throughout their compass with great agility: "employed in

harmony, [the cornet] melds quite well with the other brasses; it serves to complete

chords in the trumpets, and to throw into the orchestra groups of notes—diatonic or

chromatic—that, owing to their rapidity, suit neither trombones nor horns." Certainly

the successes of the famed cornetist Jean-Baptiste Arban, a ready supply of his pupils

from the Gymnase musical militaire and later the Paris Conservatory, and other

prominent French cornetists did nothing to hurt the case of the cornet in France.3 At any

rate, the mixed section, two cornets and two trumpets, became common in French

orchestras (and orchestration) from Berlioz to Debussy.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the cornet also entered the

(1842). Hugh MacDonald, Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise: A Translation and Commentary

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 193-4.
31
Fran9ois Dauvernd, cited in Tarr, The Trumpet, 168.
32
« .. .ni la noblesse des sons du cor, ni la fierte de ceux de la trompette... » Berlioz, Grand
Traite d'Instrumentation, 197; « ...mordant, fanfaron, dehonte... » Ibid., 198.
33
« Employe harmoniquement, il se fond tres bien dans la masse des instruments de cuivre ; il
sert a completer les accords des trompettes ; et a jeter dans l'orchestre des groupes de notes,
diatoniques ou chromatiquies, qui, a cause de leur rapidite, ne conviendraient ni aux trombones,
ni aux cors. » Berlioz, Grand Traite d"Instrumentation, 197.
34
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1611.
12
orchestra surreptitiously, as many players (following Arban's example, according to

Franquin) simply performed trumpet parts on the cornet if they felt they could get away

with it. The case of the Paris Opera seems typical. There, "the cornet, in effect, after the

middle of the nineteenth century, replaced the [large] trumpet for playing the chromatic

parts, and even certain natural trumpet parts, in solos that would have exposed the

would-be trumpeter to missed notes easily avoidable with the high cornet."35

Of course, this could cause problems if someone in a position of authority

happened to notice the substitution. Franquin relates an anecdote from the premiere of

Giuseppe Verdi's Othello at the Paris Opera (1894).36 At that time (and apparently

through at least 1922), cornetists played the second stand trumpet parts in this opera. At

a certain point during the first rehearsal, the composer himself complained about the use

of cornets. For the following rehearsals and performances, the trumpet players and

cornet players would momentarily exchange places for the passage that had piqued the

composer, the trumpeters taking the places of the cornetists and vice versa.37

At the end of the nineteenth century, not only French orchestras, but also those in

Britain, the United States, Belgium, Spain, Italy, etc., commonly used cornets to play
TO

orchestral trumpet parts. Germany (and probably Austria) remained the only significant

« Le cornet, en effet, depuis le milieu du XIXs siecle, remplace la trompette pour jouer les
parties chromatiques, et raeme certaines parties de trompette simple dans les solos qui auraient
expose celle-ci a des accidents facilement evitables avec le cornet aigu. » Franquin, "La
Trompette et le cornet," 1609.
36
Roger Parker, 'Othello (ii)', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 5 February 2008),
<http://www.grovemusic.com>.
37
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1627.
Tarr, The Trumpet, 168; Hermann Pietzsch, The trumpet, an orchestral instrument and its
treatment during the different periods of musical culture, rev. ed., trans. John Bernhoff (1906;
repr., Ann Arbor: University Music Press, c. 1950), 23.
13
holdout against the cornet incursion. This may have been the result of the enormous

influence in those countries of composers such as Brahms and Wagner, who never wrote

for the cornet. More likely, it resulted from a relatively early switch to small trumpets,

spurred by the increasing difficulty of parts by German and Austrian composers during

the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The first German performer to make the change seems to have been Dresden

trumpeter Albert Kuhnert. While not abandoning the large F trumpet altogether, between

1850 and 1860 (just after Wagner left Dresden for Zurich), he began to use the small B6

trumpet.39 This mix of large and small trumpets remained the norm in German trumpet

sections for some time, as Richard Strauss wrote in his revision of Berlioz's Treatise on

Instrumentation, "to the best of my knowledge, trumpet players now [1904] prefer the

following keys: first trumpets-high A, Bb, C; second trumpets-[low] F, D, EA"40

III. THE NEW MUSIC OUTPACES THE CORNET. As the German trumpeter Hermann

Pietzsch pointed out in 1900, with the beginning of the new century, and the adoption of

the high trumpets even in France, "the orchestral days of the cornet-a-pistons [were]

numbered." In the 1855 edition of his Traite, Berlioz stated that cornet achieves its best

sound in its second octave, roughly that encompassed by the treble staff.42 Although the

cornet offers a distinct advantage over the trumpet in that register in terms of accuracy

39
(The tubing of this Bb trumpet would have the same length as its modern equivalent.)
Millington, "Wagner: 1" in Grove Music Online; Tarr, The Trumpet, 170.
Hector Berlioz, ed. Richard Strauss, Treatise on Instrumentation, trans. Theodore Front (New
York: Dover, 1991), 282.
41
Pietzsch, The trumpet, 23.
MacDonald, Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise, 202 - 3.
14
and flexibility, it does not produce high notes as well. Especially when equipped with a

characteristically deep mouthpiece, the cornet produces notes above G5 with progressive

difficulty. In the high register, its diffuse tone lacks projection and tends to sound

muffled. From the point of view of the player, the notes become ever more unstable as

the register ascends. Scenes such as the following, reported by Franquin, must have

become increasingly common as orchestral trumpet parts began to climb into the high

register:

The problem occurred for the first time during a rehearsal for [Ernest]
Reyer's Sigurd at the Paris Opera [c. 1884].43 In this opera, the cornets today still
[c. 1922] play the [valved] trumpet parts. At the work's read-through, in the
orchestra, there was a solo entrance in the [valved] trumpet parts—entrusted to
the cornetists—that climbed up to a sustained B-natural (concert pitch). When the
note was not reached, Monsieur Reyer asked why, affirming that it had been
played successfully elsewhere (he was alluding to the Theatre de la Monnaie in
Brussels where Sigurd had its premiere). So we confessed to him that the cornet
was incapable of replacing the trumpet in that situation. At the next rehearsal, the
passage was transferred to the trumpet desk, by means of a momentary exchange
of parts [where it was played on small C trumpets].44

IV. THE RISE OF SMALL TRUMPETS IN THE BELLE EPOQUE. Contrary to what one might

expect, it was not the demands of new music, but that of the Baroque (undergoing a

revival in France at the time) that first spurred French trumpeters to begin performing

Hugh MacDonald, 'Sigurd', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 5 February 2008),
<http://www.grovemusic.com>.
44
« Le fait s'est produit, pour la premiere fois, a une repetition de Sigurd de REYER a 1'Opera de
Paris. Dans cet opera, les cornets a pistons executent encore actuellement les parties de
trompettes chromatiques. A la lecture de cet ouvrage, a l'orchestre, il y avait au pupitre des
trompettes chromatiques, confie aux pistons, une rentree solo qui monte jusqu'au si-becarre (note
reelle) de valeur longue . Cette note n'ayant pas ete atteinte, M. REYER en demanda la raison en
affirmant qu'elle avait ete rendu ailleurs (II faisait allusion au Theatre de la Monnaie a Bruxelles
ou Sigurd a ete cree). On lui a alors avoue que le cornet etait impuissant a remplacer la trompette
en cette circonstance. A la repetition suivante, le passage etait transfere au pupitre des
trompettes, au moyen d'un echange momentane des parties. » Franquin, "La Trompette et le
cornet," 1627; 1611.
15
regularly on smaller instruments. According to Franquin, Xavier Napoleon Aime Teste

became, in 1874, the first influential player to perform on a small trumpet in France. As

Principal Trumpet of the popular Concerts Lamoureux, he had a small trumpet in D made

for a performance of Handel's Messiah at the Cirque d'Ete.45 This petite trompette en re

has the same size as a modern D trumpet—not a modern piccolo trumpet as might be

assumed. By adding an optional longer tuning slide, Teste's trumpet could be extended

to the size and pitch of a modern orchestral C trumpet. His success with this small

instrument soon brought him appointments as Principal Trumpet at the prestigious

Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire (19 October 1875), then as First Trumpet at the

Opera (where he already held a position as section trumpeter and cornetist). 4 During the

winter 1890-91 Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire season, Xavier Teste performed

the high trumpet part of Bach's B Minor Mass in its entirety, in one of the first complete

performances (with the trumpets playing in the correct octave) since the eighteenth

century. 47 The piece entered the repertoire of the Societe, with whom Teste's successors

D. Kern Holoman, online documentation for The Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire (1828
- 1967) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004, accessed 5 February 2008); available
from <http://hector.ucdavis.edu/sdc/MainRoll/T.htm>; Internet; Franquin, "La trompette et le
cornet," 1611.
46
Holoman, <http://hector.ucdavis.edu/sdc/MainRoll/T.htm>, accessed 5 February 2008; Because
of resistance to modern (i.e., shorter) instruments from the elder members of the trumpet section
(and, it must be supposed, because of a certain macho imperative to prove that they, too, mastered
the old-fashioned instruments), with only rare exceptions, Teste and Franquin continued playing
long trumpets, both natural and chromatic, at the Opera until 1891, when the old-timers left the
section. All the while (after 1874) they played high D trumpets for solo appearances elsewhere,
and (usually extended to the key of C) with the trumpet sections of Societe des Concerts du
Conservatoire and other ensembles. Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1611.
47
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1605; Excerpts from the Credo portion of the B Minor
Mass appear on the Societe's programs as early as 15 & 16 April, 1881. Holoman, programs on
<http://hector.ucdavis.edu/sdc>, accessed 5 February 2008; It had previously been performed (in
16
Franquin and Edouard Jean Lachanaud, respectively, continued to perform the high

trumpet part on the (small) D trumpet. 48 In 1882, Merri Franquin took up the mantle of

soloist from his celebrated colleague. He performed the aria "Let the Bright Seraphim"

from Handel's oratorio Samson with soprano Carlotta Patti for the Concerts Populates

de Pasdeloup to critical acclaim at a time when such a performance still seemed to have

an air of novelty. 49

V. N E W TRUMPETS, N E W PROBLEMS. By 1890, the Paris Opera had become one of the

last bastions of the old technology in Europe. 50 But in 1891, with the Paris premiere of

Lohengrin, the last large trumpet holdouts in the section had retired. Small trumpets

made their definitive appearance in the pit.

Despite their increased accuracy over larger instruments, the new trumpets were

not always ideally suited to their increasingly demanding repertory. Aside from the

considerable difficulty of performing Baroque music for trumpet in the original tessitura,

at the beginning of the twentieth century, orchestral composers began to push the limits

the correct octave) with a combined German/English trumpet section, in England, in 1885. Tarr,
The Trumpet, 191.
48
Holoman, personnel on <http://hector.ucdavis.edu/sdc/MainRoll/L.htm>, accessed 5 February
2008; Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1605.
49
Somewhat amusingly, Franquin includes a critique of his own performance from Le Figaro (15
February 1882) in his encyclopedia entry. After a few lines about Mme. Path's success, the
article reads « II est juste d'associer a ce succes M. Franquin, qui a execute la partie de trompette
avec une etonnante surete et un rare bonheur. » ["It is fair to associate M. Franquin with this
success, who executed the trumpet part with astonishing accuracy and a rare felicity."] Franquin,
"La Trompette et le cornet," 1611.
50
Tarr in 'Trumpet: 4. The Western Trumpet (iii) 1520 - 1820', Grove Music Online (Accessed
5 February 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com>.
51
Natural trumpets appeared onstage in Lohengrin, however, for visual impact, if not for their
characteristic sound. Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1611.
17
of the practical high range, even for smaller instruments. Furthermore, beginning with

Wagner (for example, in the gentle, arching trumpet lines marked sehr zart in Parsifal),

composers increasingly explored the softer, lyrical side of the trumpet. Wagner and his

followers, in particular, tested trumpet players in their scores with the compositional

technique of "inaudible entry," by which the additive (and in principle, inaudible) entries

of subsequent instruments effect an orchestral crescendo.53 Although smaller trumpets

certainly improve accuracy and stability, paradoxically, their construction can actually

make attacks more difficult as compared to a larger instrument.54

With the twentieth century, one can add to the orchestral demands placed upon

the trumpet those of the increasing repertoire of new solo works, exploration of Baroque

repertoire, changes of transposition (pushed to an extreme in the works of Wagner, then

by Mahler and Strauss55), and expectation with regard to accuracy and intonation.56 In

1901, Merri Franquin retired from the orchestras of the Opera and the Societe des

"The trumpet in high C is coming more and more into general use [in Germany], as the
demands on durability [sic], power, fullness and high notes are constantly increasing. To prove
the statement, the dreaded Zarathustra-Motive [pick-up to 3 mm. after fig. 18] by Richard Strauss
has been excelled by a voluntary trumpet-motive in the Symphonia Domesticae [sic]." [2 mm.
before fig. 101]. Pietzsch, The Trumpet, 31.
53
Tarr, The Trumpet, 194.
54
This relative difficulty of attack on modern trumpets as compared to historic large trumpets
seems to result from differences in the geometry of their bore and bells, and can be observed even
in the absence of a valve section. Arthur Benade, "The Problem of Clean Attack," 1973
Manuscript on Trumpet Acoustics, <http://la.trompette.free.fr/Benade/Trumpet73/Attack.htm>
(accessed 29 July 2008).
55
Gunther Schuller muses on the compositional practice and logic—or lack thereof—of frequent
transposition changes in works by these composers by examining five passages from their works
in "Trumpet Transposition and Key Changes in Late 19th-Century Romantic Compositions,"
International Trumpet Guild Journal 13, no. 3 (February 1989): 19 - 24.
56
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1611; Baroque music—and some music written for
large valved trumpet in F—poses a particular equipment problem for trumpeters. Although it
places demands in the high register that would favor execution on a small instrument, being
written for larger instruments, it sometimes requires notes below the practicable range of a small
trumpet.
18
Concerts, in which he had until then served as Principal Trumpet.57 Taking up the legacy

of his first teacher at the Paris Conservatory, Arban (and of Arban's teacher Dauverne),

Franquin assumed the trumpet professorship at the Paris Conservatory on November 1st,

1894, upon the retirement of Dauverne's successor, Jules Cercher. Now having

positioned himself at the head the French School, Franquin would begin to rehabilitate

the Conservatory trumpet class which, since the rise of the cornet with Arban, had been

more or less completely eclipsed. He succeeded by devising new principles of study,

incorporating them into the first modern trumpet method, inventing a new type of high C

trumpet designed to excel at both contemporary and historical repertoire, and overseeing

the creation of a new body of solo literature for his instrument. In the process of

producing the some of the most successful classes of trumpet students the Paris

Conservatory has ever known, Merri Franquin perpetuated a musical dynasty that has

remained one of the most visible and influential in the world for over one hundred

seventy-five years.

57
Michel Laplace, "Les Fondateurs de l'ecole francaise de trompette: Merri Franquin, Eugene
Fouveau et Raymond Sabarich," Brass Bulletin 29 (1980): 67.
58
Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire national, 439, 441, 444.
19
 CHAPTER 3

TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN MERRI FRANQUIN'S

METHODE COMPLETE DE TROMPETTE MODERNE, DE CORNET ET DE BUGLE

After slipping into relative obscurity for most of the latter half of the twentieth

century, Merri Franquin's Methode complete de trompette moderne, de cornet et de bugle

has begun to make a resurgence. Enoch & Compagnie—the original publisher—still

sells the method, reprinting it digitally as recently as 2004. Thus, it cannot rightly be said

to have disappeared completely. Rather, as will be shown, even in active disuse as a

method for study, its principles nonetheless exerted a strong behind-the-scenes influence

on trumpet instruction and performance over the last century.

According to the publisher, much of the current interest in Franquin's Methode

complete resulted directly from public endorsements by Maurice Andre.1 As described in

Andre's memoir, Franquin student Leon Barthelemy became his first major teacher—his

"carrier rocket" (fuseeporteuse). With Barthelemy, Andre worked from Franquin's

method before gaining entrance at the Paris Conservatory.2 Records at the Conservatory

show no evidence that the trumpet classes continued to use the Methode complete as an

official method of instruction after Franquin's retirement in 1925.3 This may well be

because Fraquin's immediate successors, Professors Eugene Foveau and Pierre-Joseph

1
Veronique Lavedan, interview by author, Paris, France, 11 September 2007.
2
Maurice Andre and Thierry Martin, Le Soleil doit pouvoir briller pour tout le monde: Souvenirs
et memoires de la trompette du siecle (Paris: Publibook, 2007), 22 — 23.
3
Similarly, the method of Alexandre Petit, who led the cornet class until Franquin's retirement,
went out of use at the Paris Conservatory after he left. Emmanuel Hondre, "Les methodes
officielles du Conservatoire," Le Conservatoire de Paris, regards sur une institution et son
histoire (Paris: Association du bureau des etudiants du Conservatoire National Superieur de
Musique et de Danse de Paris, 1995), 104 - 106.
20
Vignal, completed their studies at the Conservatory before its publication. Perhaps they

felt that they owed their success to study from the (older) cornet methods of Jean-Baptiste

Arban and Joseph Forestier, which were officially retained as methods of instruction. 4

According to Stephen Burns, currently one of most important proponents of the

Franquin Methode in the United States, Pierre Thibaud (Professor of Trumpet at the Paris

Conservatory from 1975 until 1994) essentially rediscovered it in 1985, bringing home

ten copies which he had rebound for himself and his studio. Thibaud introduced Burns

and his other students (including, eventually, this author) to Franquin's Methode

complete and incorporated its use in his instruction.5

I. T H E LIBRARY OF MERRI FRANQUIN: LES PRINCIPAUXAUTEURS. Merri Franquin's

Methode complete first appeared one hundred years ago. 6 At the time, no major method

4
Hondre, "Les methodes officielles du Conservatoire," 104 - 106; Foveau won a ler prix de
cornet in 1906 (from the class of Joseph Mellet) and a ler prix de trompette (from the class of
Merri Franquin) in 1907. Vignal won a ler prix de cornet (from the class of Joseph Mellet) in
1902. Although both men would have been exposed to Franquin's principles of study by
proximity to colleagues in the trumpet class (and Foveau in the trumpet class—where he probably
also worked on many of the exercises later included in the method), neither would have had the
opportunity to work out of the Methode complete, the publication of which was only initiated (but
not completed) in 1906. Hugon-Roydor, ed., Annuaire Officiel du Conservatoire National de
Musique et de Declamation, (Paris: Maurice Senart, 1919), 195, 275; Photocopy of publication
contract for "Grande methode de trompette moderne'''' between Enoch & Cie. and Monsieur Merri
Franquin, dated 18 December 1906, collection of the author.
5
Thibaud had almost definitely been aware of Franquin's method since much earlier, during
studies with Eugene Foveau and Raymond Sabarich. Burns was present the day Thibaud brought
the copies of the method home. Stephen Burns, e-mail message to author, 3 December 2008.
6
Undocumented in the Library of Congress catalogue and other sources, the publication year of
Merri Franquin's Methode complete de trompette moderne, de cornet et de bugle can now be
firmly established. In a letter discovered by the author during the course of researching this
dissertation, Franquin refers to his book as "my method for trumpet and cornet the first edition of
which dates to the year 1908" (ma methode de trompette et de cornet a pistons dont la premiere
edition remonte a I 'annee 1908). Franquin addressed the letter to his « Maitre et cher directeur.
» Judging by its contents and other correspondence between the two, this refers to Lionel de la
21
book for trumpet had been introduced in France for over fifty years, since the final

version of Francois George Auguste Dauverne's Methode pour la trompette, published in

1857. Specifically, no complete method books existed that addressed the instruction of

the modern trumpet, or developed the techniques essential to the performance of its new

and newly-revived repertoire. Dauverne, founder of the trumpet studio at the Paris

Conservatory (Professor of Trumpet, 1833 - 1869), had conceived his method book for

the instruction of the natural trumpet, the slide trumpet, and the long piston-valved

trumpet. Thus, Dauverne's book presented the last major historical natural trumpet

method, the first valved trumpet method, and the first of a family of influential French

method books for trumpet and cornet associated with professors at the Paris

Conservatory. The recent interest in historically-informed performance on original

instruments has led to a resurgence of interest in Dauverne's work. This has resulted

both in a reprint of the first edition and the inclusion of several of its natural trumpet

exercises in a well-regarded modern method book for baroque trumpet.7

In the time between the publication of the trumpet methods of Dauverne and

Franquin, several French cornetists published complete methods for their instrument.

Jean-Baptiste Arban (lerprix de trompette, 1845), Dauverne's most illustrious student

and the first of Franquin's two cornet teachers at the Paris Conservatory, authored the

Laurencie. De la Laurencie became editor (directeur generate de I'edition) of the Encyclopedie

de musique et Dictionnaire du Conservatoire after the death of Albert Lavignac. As such,
Franquin corresponded with him over a period of several years regarding Franquin's entry on the
trumpet and the cornet. Merri Franquin to [Lionel de la Laurencie], 8 November 1926,
handwritten signed copy, currently in the collection of the author.
7
Francois Dauverne, Methode pour la trompette (1857; repr., Paris: International Music
Diffusion, 1991); Several of Dauverne's natural trumpet exercises have been reproduced by
Edward Tarr in The Art of Baroque Trumpet Playing (Mainz: Schott, 1999), 76 -91.
22
most widely-used brass method book. Arban may be the single most influential brass

performer and pedagogue of the last one hundred and fifty years. He enjoyed

international fame as a traveling cornet soloist during the mid-nineteenth century. As

such, he became the paradigm for the many cornet virtuosi to follow him, whose celebrity

drew audiences to the band and light orchestra concerts they headlined for decades.

Arban also performed as an orchestral conductor, invented a new valve system for the

cornet, taught as Professor of Saxhorn through the Gymnase musical militaire (1857 -

1868), and became the first Professor of Cornet at the Paris Conservatory (1869 - 1874,
o

1880 - 1889). As with Dauverne, Arban's creation of a new studio for his instrument at

the Conservatory—in effect gaining it official approval of the French establishment as an

instrument of art or "concert" music, not merely an instrument of military or popular

music—represents a particular accomplishment in and of itself.9 Arban's Grande

Methode de Cornet a Pistons et de Saxhorn appeared in 1864.10 Today, Arban's Grande

Methode still represents the worldwide standard for brass instruction, used not only by

students of trumpet and cornet, but also of horn, trombone, and tuba.

It should be noted that another Dauverne student, Louis-Antoine Saint-Jacome

(ler prix de trompette, 1858), authored a well-regarded cornet method book around the

Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire national de musique et de declamation: documents

historiques et administratifs, recueillis ou reconstitues par Constant PIERRE, Sous-chef du
Secretariat, LaureatdeL'Institut. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1900), 436, 687.
L Institut de France, specifically L Academie des Beaux-Arts governing the Paris Conservatory,
embodied the French establishment in this case.
10
Edward H. Tarr. "Arban, Jean-Baptiste." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed July 19, 2008).
23
same time as Arban. Saint-Jacome's method book also has many adherents

today—among English speakers, at least. It has been published continuously in the

United States since 1894 by Carl Fisher. American trumpeter Claude Gordon reedited it

shortly before his death in 1996.12 However, Saint-Jacome does not seem to have had

much impact on brass instruction in his native France. Paradoxically, no French

language edition of Saint-Jacome's Grand Method may ever have existed.13 This may

explain why Franquin makes no mention of it or of its author.

Joseph Forestier wrote the third influential French cornet method book to emerge

in the nineteenth century. Forestier also studied at the Paris Conservatory, although

neither the trumpet nor the cornet. Ten years Arban's senior, he began his studies there

before classes in either instrument existed.14 In fact, he studied in the horn studio of

Louis-Francois Dauprat. Thus, Forestier received his prize on natural horn (lerprix de

cor, 1834). Forestier performed as a member of the trumpet section with the orchestra of

the Paris Opera (1844 - 1868), and as a cornetist, notably of the Musard concert series

11
The seemingly inexplicable absence, historically, of Saint-Jacome's method from the
curriculum of the Paris Conservatory and other music schools in France has led some to speculate
that he may have been Belgian. He was in fact French, born in Paris on 13 May 1830. Pierre, Le
Conservatoire national, 846.
12
Louis Saint-Jacome, Grand Method for Trumpet or Cornet, ed. Claude Gordon (New York:
Carl Fisher, 2002).
13
Saint-Jacome traveled to London not long after winning his prize at the Paris Conservatory, to
play as a member of the Alhambra orchestra and as a soloist. In 1870 he began to work as an
arranger for the English branch of the Messrs. Lafleur Musical Publishing Company (in London),
where he published his New and Modern Grand Methodfor the cornet-a-pistons, soprano
saxhorn or bariton (London: J.R. Lafleur, 1870), apparently only in English. He continued to
live and work in London for the rest of his life. From the 1890's until his death in 1898 he served
as the principal cornet tester and tuner for the manufacturer Besson. Glenn Bridges, Pioneers in
Brass (Detroit: Sherwoood, 1965) 80.
14
Although Dauverne started the trumpet class at the Paris Conservatory in 1833, his first
students to participate in the terminal competition did so in 1835. Pierre, Le Conservatoire
national, 649.
24
{Concerts Musard). During roughly the same period that Arban taught saxhorn to the

military students of the Gymnase musical militaire, Forestier taught a similar class for

military cornetists (1856 - 1870). This program, Classes speciales annexees au

conservatoire pour les musiciens militaires, budgeted by the French Ministry of War,

ended abruptly in 1870.16 Its demise presumably resulted from bureaucratic and

budgetary changes that came about with the end of the Second French Empire.

The first edition of Forestier's method book (1844) appeared before that of

Dauverne or Arban.17 However, he modified and expanded it several times over the

course of the latter half of the nineteenth century, apparently in response to improvements

in instrument design, and to accommodate the increasing level of technique demanded of

cornetists:

As the instrument evolved and new requirements arose, I revised

my method little by little or wrote others—with the aim of comprehensive
instruction; but the method, thus completed, finds itself today
disseminated in four different works, perforce loaded with redundancies
and extraneous information. This can only impact the clarity and the
regular pace of progress negatively, and it is to obviate these obstacles that
I undertook to combine the necessary lessons, the quintessence—if I may
so speak—of these four methods into one. I added new etudes, examples,
exercises, duets, etc., that appeared indispensable to form the most
complete work and, I dare say, the most rational of cornet pedagogy.18

Pierre, Le Conservatoire national, 755.

Pierre, Le Conservatoire national, 679.
17
Anthony C. Baines and Arnold Myers, "Cornet (i)." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music
Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed June 16, 2008); Although the first book of
Forestier's method may have appeared in 1844, the Grande Methode in its present form first
appeared in 1932, edited by E. Guilbaut and published in Paris by Gaudet. M. Gillian MacKay,
"Trumpet and Cornet Concours Music at the Paris Conservatoire, 1835 - 1925: the Development
of Styles and Roles," (D.M.A. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1996), 218; Joseph
Forestier, Grande Methode de cornet a pistons, rev. E. Guilbaut, Vol. 1, (1932; repr., Paris:
International Music Diffusion, 2004).
18
« Au fur et a mesure des progres de 1'instrument et ses besoins nouveaux, je retouchai ma
methode ou j'en composai d'autres afin de completer mon enseignement; mais cet enseignement
25
 One cannot help noticing in this last sentence a certain acerbity, seemingly

directed at the rival method of Arban. Forestier updated his method several times, at

least in part to accommodate the extension of cornet multiple tonguing technique

pioneered by Arban.19 He apparently felt compelled to try writing a better—or at least

more "rational"—method book. Aside from the organization of his book by progressive

lessons (explained below under ORGANIZATION OF THE METHOD), this so-called "rational"

aspect may refer to Forestier's instructive comments, particularly thorough and abundant

as compared to those of Arban.20 Franquin refers to a post-Arban edition of Forestier's

method in his own. This can be inferred from Franquin's citation of Forestier's

explanation on multiple tonguing extended passages of rapid, unrepeated notes—the

technique first exploited by Arban in 1848—identical to those found in the complete,

three-volume edition of Forestier's Grande Methode de cornet a pistons currently in

ainsi complete se trouve aujourd'hui dissemine dans quatre ouvrages differents, forcement
surcharges de redites et de longeurs. Cela ne peut que nuire a la clarte et a la marche reguliere
des progres, et c'est pour obvier a ces inconvenients que j'ai entrepris de renunir les lecons
necessaires, la quintessence, si je puis m'exprimer ainsi, de ces quatre methodes en une seule. J'y
ai joint des etudes nouvelles, des exemples, exercices, duos, etc., qui m'ont paru indispensables
pour former l'ouvrage le plus complet et, j'ose le dire, le plus rationnel de la scolastique du cornet
a pistons. » Forestier, Grande Methode 1:1.
19
Prior to Arban's monumental solo cornet performance in 1848 of a flute piece by Theobald
Boehm in concert with the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, multiple tonguing had been
confined on brass instruments to short bursts of notes, usually on the same pitch. He became the
first to extend the technique to long scalar passages and intervallic leaps. Jean-Baptiste Arban,
Arban's Complete Conservatory Methodfor Trumpet (New York: Carl Fisher, 1936), 3
(footnote); Merri Franquin, Methode complete de trompette moderne, de cornet et de bugle
(Paris: Enoch, 1908), 229.
20
Arban purposely kept his written explanations to a minimum for the sake of clarity. Jean-
Baptiste Arban, Grande Methode complete de cornet a pistons et de saxhorn (1864; repr., Paris:
International Music Diffusion, 1985), 192.
21
Franquin must have referred to the edition entitled Cows complet de cornet a pistons published
in Paris by Gerard et Cie. in 1882. M. Gillian MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours Music at
the Paris Conservatoire, 1835 - 1925: the Development of Styles and Roles," (D.M.A.
dissertation, Northwestern University, 1996), 218.
26
print.

Dauverne, Arban, and Forestier, whom Merri Franquin collectively calls "the

principal authors" (les principaux auteurs), represent his pedagogical heritage. He

refers only to their works as bearing on his understanding of trumpet and cornet

performance and study. Evidently, this selection betrays a certain French chauvinism,

specifically one attached to the nineteenth-century school of brass instruction associated

with the Paris Conservatory and Gymnase musical militaire. But that all three of the

method books by Franquin's Principal Authors still have currency today—over one

hundred and fifty years later—supports the notion that such chauvinism might be, in this

case, well-justified. Aside from shedding light on the genesis of Franquin's Methode

complete in particular, familiarity with all of the books in this great family of methods by

teachers, students and colleagues at the Paris Conservatory is helpful in coming to terms

with the individual books. The authors tend to explain similar concepts with different

emphases and varying degrees of thoroughness. Sometimes, they contradict each other

outright. What the teacher spells out explicitly might be taken for granted in the method

of the student, and vice-versa. As a result, important explanations sometimes do not

appear in one or the other of their respective methods.

In some cases, a pedagogical evolution reveals itself. For example, in his first

exercises on sound production, Dauverne states that the ">" signs marking each note

indicate that the tones must be strongly attacked, then gradually (insensiblement)

22
Joseph Forestier, Grande Methode de cornet a pistons, rev. E. Guilbaut (1932; repr., Paris:
International Music Diffusion, Vol. 1, 2004; Vol. 2, 1990; Vol. 3, 1994).
23
Merri Franquin, Methode complete, 229.
27
diminished—the effect being nearly the same as a drawn-out bell tone. Forestier includes

comparable exercises, with the same markings and similar instructions, at the beginning

of his second lesson. He calls them "attacked and diminished tones" (Sons attaques et

diminues). Neither of these authors offers an explanation as to why this dynamic shape

might be desirable in learning sound production. The same signs appear over the notes of

the first exercises in Arban's Grande Methode. In this case the exercises come with the

contradictory instruction that the sound be "attacked... and well-sustained giving it all

possible brilliance and power."24 Thus Arban modifies his teacher Dauverne's approach

while retaining the same nuance marking, but without any explanation. In Franquin's

Methode complete, the author explains the pedagogical reasoning behind both

approaches, "To avoid the bad habit of forcing the tone [denoted by a little crescendo,

accompanied with the syllable "doua"], it is not necessary to contract the contrary habit,

which consists of attacking each note forcefully, hammering and then immediately

diminishing the sound [little diminuendo, marked "tan"]."25 Thus it can be seen that

Dauverne and Forestier recommended the ">" shape (not just an accent in this context,

but one accompanied by a decrescendo) simply to avoid the development of the bad habit

of swelling the sound. In his first exercises, Arban maintained the ">" notation, but

altered the instructions, apparently convinced of the risk of developing the "contrary

habit" explained by Franquin's text.

« Attaquez le son... et soutenez-le bien en lui donnant tout Peclat et toute la force possibles. »
Arban, Grande Methode, 9.
Franquin, Methode complete, 16.
28
II. ORGANIZATION OF THE METHOD. In the French tradition of brass method books, there

exist two basic organizing principles. The first kind can be described as organization by

lesson; the second, by series. When organizing by lesson, the author attempts to create

lessons that, when studied progressively, each stand on their own. Each lesson contains

the correct variety of practice material appropriate to the development of the student at a

given point, builds on the lessons before it, and can be worked on independently without

having to return to the preceding lessons. Mastery of the material in a given lesson

allows the student to progress to the next until—in principle—the student masters the

entire method (and the instrument). The author, in essence, directly assumes the role of

instructor in determining what the student should practice, leaving it up to the teacher

only to determine when the student should progress to the following lesson. Forestier

uses this type of organization in his Grande Methode de Cornet a Pistons, organized into

forty-five lessons, some of which have accompanying supplemental exercise series.

Saint-Jacome employs a similar approach in the first part of his method book.

The organizational approach favored by Dauverne, Arban, and Franquin consists

of grouping similar exercises together in series, rather than meting them out over the

course of numerous heterogeneous lessons. In his 1807 method for horn, Heinrich

Domnich (Professor of horn at the Paris Conservatory, 1795 - 1817), refers to these series

as "classes." He explains:

To proceed methodically in the manner of presenting the exercises, I have

distributed them in several classes, and I have assembled in the same class
all the exercises of a given nature. But as this system of classification
could only have a tangential relation to the progress of the student, I have
re-established the lessons in order of increasing difficulty, by means of the
two series of [exercise] numbers below [one set for the study of "first
29
 horn," the other for the study of "second horn"]. It is thus according to
these two series that the student must direct the progress of his studies, and
not following the order of the numbers printed before each exercise on the
page. 26

With the opening words of his method, Franquin clearly states his adoption of this

organizational approach, also favored by his teacher and his teacher's teacher (neither of

whom—Arban or Dauverne—actually explain the system in their methods):

The principle adopted in this method consists of assembling [each

of] the various genres of exercises in complete and graduated series,
instead of disseminating them by small doses in mixed groups, each
representing a session of daily practice.
The goal of this grouping is to oblige the students, in the course of
their studies, to observe and to find out themselves—or with the help of
their teacher—where their technical weak points lie, so that they can
concentrate their efforts accordingly; to dose, so to speak, each type of
exercise. Thus, in evaluating the results obtained, they can vary the
regimen of daily studies accordingly. 27

Like Dauverne, Franquin divided the Practical Part of his method into three

subsidiary parts. However, Dauverne's divisions consisted of 1) natural trumpet

technique, 2) duets, trios and quartets for natural trumpet, to develop musicality, and 3)

technique for the contemporary chromatic trumpets (the long, valved trumpet and the

slide trumpet). Franquin marketed his method for the modern trumpet, cornet, and

26
« Pour proceder methodiquement dans la maniere de presenter les exercises, je les ai distribues
en plusieurs classes, et j'ai rassemble dans la meme classe toutes les etudes de meme nature.
Mais comme ce systeme de classification ne pouvait avoir qu'une relation fort indirecte avec les
progres de l'eleve, j'ai retabli les lecons dans l'ordre de difficulte graduelle, au moyen des deux
series de numeros ci-dessous. C'est done seulement d'apres ces deux series que l'eleve doit
diriger la marche de ses etudes, et non d'apres la suite naturelle des numeros places en tete de
chaque lecon. » Heinrich Domnich, Methode de Premier et de Second Cor (1807; repr., Geneva:
Minkoff, 1974), 31; Domnich's dates are listed in Pierre, Le Conservatoire national, 641.
27
Franquin, Methode complete, 9.
30
flugelhorn. Theoretically, these instruments share the same basic range and fingering.

Therefore he differentiated the three subsidiary divisions (which he simply called

"Parts") in the Practical Part of the Methode complete by level. Some of the longer series

of exercises within each part further subdivide by degree of difficulty (degre).

Franquin designed the first part (pp. 60 - 95) of the Practical Part of his method

for the ambitious beginner, one already possessing a good working knowledge of pitch,

musical notation and theory—i.e. one who has already studied solfege. It progresses

quickly through all the fundamentals of trumpet playing. After some supplementary

review material, a collection of seventeen "Recreational Pieces" (Recreations

melodiques) by such composers as Gretry, Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert

complete the first part. At one time, Enoch & Compagnie published this first part

separately, along with introductory material, as the Methode Elementaire?9 The second,

intermediate part of the Methode Complete elaborates the technique of the first, in

preparation for the advanced material of the third. It contains several series of exercises

and etudes that progress in difficulty, then concludes with six slow melodies serving as

lyrical studies. The third and final part of the method's Practical Part, delving into

extremes of technique and range, targets the most advanced player. It begins with a

typical warm-up routine (programme moyen de preparation), followed by several

possible variants. Myriad series of exercises follow these: scales, arpeggios, and other

drills and etudes of varying types, both reinforcing and expanding upon the technique of

28
In French, "bugle" means flugelhorn.
29
Although Enoch & Compagnie no longer publishes the Methode Elementaire, an advertisement
describing it can be found on the back cover of Alexandre Georges' trumpet solo Legende de
Larmor, currently available from the same publisher.
31
the first two parts, and developing advanced techniques such as high register playing,

multiple tonguing, and the use of alternate fingerings and ornaments. The book then

presents a collection of melodies by Cherubini and Bordogni, followed by fifteen original

"Miscellaneous Etudes" (Etudes diverses). Georges Enesco composed the last of these,

on sight transposition. The method comes to a close with several entire pieces and long

excerpts from the modern trumpet solo repertoire. Mostly these consist of the

competition pieces from the Paris Conservatory commissioned during Franquin's tenure.

At the very end of the Methode complete, Franquin appends the first trumpet part to J.S.

Bach's B-Minor Mass.

III. PARTIETHEORIQUE: INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL. Franquin's Methode begins with

fifty-nine pages of introductory material, denoted in the table of contents as the book's

Theoretical Part (Partie Theorique). This section contains, by far, more exhaustive

explanatory material than any previous brass method book. Its comprehensive nature can

be taken as a testament to the importance in Franquin's method of adhering to the

specific practice procedures spelled out therein. In addition to reflecting his penchant for

thoroughness, Franquin's Methode provides insight into the complexity of the numerous

kinds of trumpets and cornets in use around 1900. By comparison, Dauverne's

introduction is only ten pages long, Arban's is around eight pages (depending on the

edition and translation), and Forestier's nearly sixteen. The unprecedented size of

Franquin's introduction can be attributed in part to the many photographs that accompany

the explanatory text. They demonstrate the correct way to hold the trumpet, cornet, and

32
flugelhorn, correct playing posture, and the placement of the instrument on the lips. Also

included here are ten pages of photographs of trumpets and cornets equipped with shanks

(tons), crooks (coulisses d'accord), tuning slide extensions (rallonges), and/or quick-

change rotary valves (barillets) in various combinations, tuning them to the keys of A,

Bb, B, C, Db, and D. 30 That French trumpet players and cornetists circa 1908 might need

to draw on such an extensive battery of different-keyed (although nominally chromatic)

instruments does not betray poor or unused transposition skills. Rather, composers still

felt it necessary to write for trumpets in a variety of keys in order to accommodate

intonation and response inconsistencies in the trumpets of the time. It must be noted

that sometimes, even if the performer has a trumpet in the "correct key" available, the

preferred instrument for performance does not always correspond to the key of the

instrument written in the score. This reality may result in otherwise unnecessary sight

transposition, for example when an orchestral trumpet player chooses to perform a part

written for B-flat on a trumpet in C, because the higher-pitched instrument affords more

Perhaps not surprisingly, given his views on the old-fashioned, large instruments expressed in
the previous chapter, Franquin did not include photographs of the large F trumpet, even though it
had not yet become completely obsolete by 1908. However, in the section of his introduction
immediately following the instrument photographs, he does chart its fingerings. As if to retain a
degree of historical distance, he labels it "the antique trumpet, called in F' (la trompette
ancienne, dite en fa). He specifies "called in F' because the trumpet—although most frequently
used in F—was actually pitched in G without its extension shank or crooks. Franquin, Methode
complete, 39, 43.
31
Although modern instruments have still not been perfected in this respect, the instruments
available at the time of the publication of Franquin's method had even greater limitations in this
area, which may explain why trumpets (or extension shanks and crooks) in keys such as A, B, and
Db, as well as the quick-change valve itself, have become obsolete. That being said, trumpets
adjusted into the keys of B and Db probably never saw much use. They came as the collateral
result of the use of a single half-tone quick-change valve on C and D trumpets—without the use
of the accompanying one-halftone extensions or quick-change valves that lower such trumpets
by a complete (whole) tone, to the more useful keys of Bb and C, respectively.
33
accuracy. But in such cases the benefits gained from using an instrument suited to

playing the part accurately more than make up for the inconvenience of transposition. As

will be seen in later chapters, Franquin himself tried to remedy this need for a plethora of

instruments complicated by shanks, crooks, extensions, and quick-change valves. He

designed a "perfected" C trumpet. By means of additional piston valves, Franquin's

trumpets played—in principle—equally well in all keys, eliminating inherently out-of-

tune notes and problems such as awkward whole-tone trills over the entire range

demanded by the repertoire at the time.

To have instructive photographs, not just drawings (as in the earlier horn method

books of Heinrich Kling [1865] and Oskar Franz [1880]) appears unique to the series of

instrumental method books initiated by Franquin's publisher, Enoch & Compagnie,

around 1910/" But even with their photographs, the introductions to the other

instrumental method books in the Enoch series do not match Franquin's in

comprehensiveness or sheer length. Prosper Mimart, author of the contemporaneous

Enoch clarinet method, limits himself to eight pages, including an attached pullout

fingering chart for the Boehm system. Louis Bas, author of the Enoch oboe method,

has eighteen pages of introductory material, including photographs on holding the

instrument and posture, numerous musical examples, a fingering chart, and six pages of

Horn method authors apparently pioneered the inclusion of instructive illustrations for brass
instruments out of a need to clearly describe the placement of the hand inserted into the bell for
holding the instrument and stopping.
Prosper Mimart, Methode nouvelle de clarinette : Theorique et pratique, Contenant des
photographies explicatives, de nombreux exercises, et des leqons melodiques (Paris: Enoch,
1911), 5 — 11.
34
photographs detailing the tools and processes of reed making.

The members of the modern trumpet family, refined over the centuries for

musical use, still retain some of the crude, signal-instrument tendencies of their military

predecessors. As Franquin notes in his discussion of full-volume attacks, "the brutal,

violent attack needs but little practice."35 On the other hand, delicate sound

production—particularly that of the very first note of a phrase, passage, or piece—tends

to pose considerable difficulty on brass instruments, especially the trumpet. The relative

degree of relaxation required to play gently can only result in a missed note, if not

precisely coordinated, timed, and calibrated for sound production at the desired pitch and

dynamic level. However, once the player overcomes this initial reticence, when the ear

and physical means of production have engaged harmoniously, continued dolce playing

presents relatively less difficulty. Referring to this problem of initial note response,

Roger Voisin, former Principal Trumpet of Boston Symphony Orchestra, succinctly

explained (in the context of the trumpet section's quest to make entrances gentle enough

to satisfy the demands of conductor Serge Koussevitzky), "we had to learn to play the

second note first." In light of Franquin's observation that "certain exercises appear

useless or ridiculous to the eyes of those who have never been part of a large orchestra

and are unacquainted with all its requirements.. ,"37 one can well imagine that a similar

34
Louis Bas, Methode nouvelle de hautbois : Theorique etpratique, Contenant desphotographies
explicatives, de nombreux exercises, et des lecons melodiques et une description complete de la
fabrication des anches (Paris: Enoch, c. 1910), 3 - 20.
35
« L'attaque brutale et violente n'a besoin que d'un peu de pratique. » Franquin, Methode
complete, 16.
36
Roger Voisin, interview by author, Boston, MA, February 8, 2007.
37
Principe d'Etude N° 21 in Franquin, Methode complete, 24.
35
exigency drove Franquin to first devise his response exercises, or as he would have them

called, exercises on "emission." As will be shown, his response studies present, in

effect, a series of isolated "first notes"—in the sense alluded to by Voisin—to be

practiced in such a way as to develop "second note" facility in their production. Franquin

also realized that the practice of response exercises could provide much more than just a

means to obtain attack accuracy. This type of practice represents the crux of Franquin's

thirty Principles of Study, discussed below. Over one-fifth of them hinge on its

implementation in various contexts. Accordingly, response exercises begin the first part

of Franquin's method book, preceded by additional instructive notes on their correct

practice. He elaborates this explanation as he introduces response exercises over a larger

range at the end of the first part, and again at the beginning of the advanced third part,

where they encompass the range from high C to pedal C.39

Certainly, brass players and teachers before Merri Franquin practiced the musical

emission of sounds in the context of a particular trouble spot in preparation for

performance, with the goal of gaining reliability, control, and quality of attack. However,

Franquin became the first to recognize it as a skill demanding regular study in and of

itself, and to devise exercises and write a method meeting this need. Before him, no one

considered response and sound production on brass instruments so carefully, and made of

38
"Emission," has largely the same meaning and connotation in French as in English, although it
comes across as (slightly) less unwieldy. The word "response" seems to present a fitting
substitution in contemporary English for discussion of Franquin's exercises on sound production.
It well conveys the passive nature of the process as cultivated in the emission exercises. Also, the
word "response" has already gained currency in English-speaking brass circles, in reference to the
lips' ability to respond mechanically to the airstream by vibrating. Therefore, "response" will
often be employed here as a translation for Franquin's "emission.'"
39
In trumpet parlance, high C sits on the second ledger line above the treble staff, and pedal C
lies in the second space of the bass staff.
36
it a practice—indeed, a discipline. For him, careful practice of note emissions not only

provided a means to achieve accuracy and reliability: it served as a warm-up

(preparation), a daily exercise, a warning sign to stop practicing should emissions

become difficult as the result of tired lips, and a "warm-down" in case of overexertion.

Although Franquin sometimes refers to it in the method simply as a "lip warm-

up" (preparation des levres), the diligent student soon realizes that this type of practice

serves to warm-up—and over time, to develop and coordinate—all of the mechanisms

involved in sound production. Franquin urged that this type of practice be the first of the

day, even if one "cannot do any other."40 His disciple Francisque "Francis" Bodet (ler

prix de cornet, 1914) takes the practice even further, recommending in the instructions to

his own book of Franquin-inspired response, flexibility, and long-tone exercises,

".. .doing these exercises preferably in the morning, if possible before [ablution], so that

the lips should be in the least favourable state, thus necessitating a greater degree of

[assiduity] than if this work were done at any other moment of the day."41

Both Forestier and Dauverne used the expression "sound emission" (emission du

son). But they employed the term only in passing, in their explanatory notes on sound

production.42 With Franquin, the expression not only took on much greater significance,

it took on a particular definition. For him (as for many authors of brass methods) the

word "attack," commonly employed in French as in English to describe the beginning of

a sound, necessarily signified a certain violence. This could be limiting or potentially

0
Franquin, Methode complete, 114.
Francis Bodet, La Technique des levres : 250 Exercises progressifs pour trompette, cornet,
bugle et tous instruments a embouchure (Macon, France: Robert Martin, 1982), xv.
42
Forestier, Grande Methode, 1:20; Dauverne Methode, 61.
37
confusing in brass instruction especially in the case of the oxymoronic "gentle attack."

Thus Franquin appropriated the term "emission" generally, to cover all types of note

beginnings—whether quiet or loud, percussive or gentle. He used the word "attaque"

specifically to refer to emissions (quiet as well as loud) defined by the brusque,

percussive action of the tongue releasing the air.43 Franquin adopted the descriptive

"sound placement" (pose du son) to refer specifically to emissions at the other end of the

spectrum—in which the tongue plays a subsidiary role in starting the note. In making

these distinctions, Franquin became the first to clearly formulate what has come to be

held universally as a fundamental truth in brass playing, that "it is... not the action of the

tongue that produces the sound, but rather the breath" ("Ce n 'est... pas I'action de la

langue quiproduit le son, mais bien le souffle. ") With the means of sound production,

specifically the initiation of tone, thus theoretically liberated from the stroke of the

tongue, it then became possible to conceive of app note with a percussive attack, as well

as the converse, ajfnote with a gentle attack.44 This realization would have far-reaching

consequences on the variety of note attacks written for and performed upon the trumpet.

It freed the palette of possible note beginnings from dynamic context. Likewise the idea

of the pose du son, taken to the extreme of starting notes without any aid from the tongue

whatsoever, has had a broad impact on modern techniques of embouchure training, from

the "pu" or "poo" attacks of Richard Shuebruk and James Stamp, to the breath attacks of

Carmine Caruso and his disciple Laurie Frink.

43
Authors since at least the time of Dauverne and the horn professor Dauprat have realized that
the retrograde motion of the tongue, not the forward stroke, corresponds to the beginning of the
sound.
44
Franquin, Methode complete, 16.
38
 In his discussion of sound production, Franquin establishes three motions required

to engage the muscles of the embouchure for playing. 45 His predecessors already

understood the first two of these:

1st Motion. - Placement of the mouthpiece on the lips, which are

closed and in a position of total relaxation. 46
2 nd Motion. - Pulling back of the lips to take position and to leave in the
mouthpiece—by means of its contact with them—only the portion necessary for
their desired tension and [vibration]. (Instinct is the best guide to this end.) The
plenitude of this portion, so far as it is not excessive, has a very positive effect on
flexibility, endurance, and high range facility.47

The third describes for the first time a key element of the ideal brass embouchure

as generally understood today:

3 rd Motion. - Contraction of all the muscles forward, in the

direction of the mouthpiece, at the moment of sound emission. (Relative
contraction according to the pitch of the sounds to be obtained.) All
without stiffness.
It is this third motion that, bringing the muscles toward the
mouthpiece, brings the pressure of the lips to bear against it, instead of the
mouthpiece pushing against the lips. This provides the means of obtaining
rich sounds and of developing their fullness.48

The French word embouchure, seemingly identical to the English, presents a potentially
confusing false cognate. Embouchure, in French, simply means "mouthpiece." In French it does
not commonly refer to the disposition of the lips and muscles of the face used in playing a brass
instrument.
46
« l er Mouvement. - Placement de 1'embouchure sur les levres fermees et dans 1'attitude du
repos absolu. » Franquin, Methode complete, 17.
47
« 2e Mouvement. - Recul des levres pour prendre position et ne laisser dans l'interieur de
l'embouchure, au moyen de son contact avec elles, que la fraction necessaire a leur tension
facultative et a leur action. (L'instinct est le meilleur guide a cet effet.) L'abondance de cette
fraction, tant qu'elle n'est pas excessive, a une influence considerablement avantageuse sur la
souplesse, la resistance et la facilite a atteindre l'aigu. » Ibid.
48
« 3 e Mouvement. - Tension de tous les muscles en avant, dans la direction de l'embouchure, au
moment de remission du son. (Tension relative selon le degre des sons a obtenir.) Le tout sans
raideur. C'est ce troisieme mouvement qui, amenant les muscles sur l'embouchure, fait operer
l'appui des levres sur elle, au lieu que ce soit l'embouchure qui appuie sur les levres Ce moyen
permet d'obtenir des sons gras et d'en developper l'ampleur. » Franquin, Methode complete, 17.
39
This observation directly contradicts the corresponding advice in Arban's method book,

that "one must never bring the lips forward; one must, on the contrary, pull the corners of

the mouth: by this means, one obtains a much more open sound." 49

With respect to range and endurance, time has born out the validity of Franquin's

approach, particularly concerning the second half of the first motion and the third motion.

Many trumpet players today routinely play in the vicinity of double-high C, a full octave

above the top notes in Arban's method. Likewise, students in high school—and

younger—now regularly play the characteristic studies that Arban had designed to push

the limits of the most advanced trumpet students of his time. Brass players today

generally understand that mouthpiece pressure against the face, inevitable to some degree

especially in the high range, will tend to hinder blood flow to the lips—and thus limit

endurance and range. Stretching the lips taut across the teeth only aggravates this

tendency.

The current state of the art, in terms of describing the brass embouchure, received

its formulation by Philip Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing. He explains it as an

« II ne faut jamais ramener les levres en avant; il faut, au contraire, tirer les coins de la bouche
: par ce moyen, on obtient un son beaucoup plus ouvert, » Arban, Grande Methode, 4; In the Carl
Fisher edition of the Arban method, « ramener... en avant» is incorrectly translated as
"protruded." The same translation mysteriously renders "tirer"—which simply means to pull or
draw (in this case "pull back" or "draw back" since it appears in contrast to "bring forward")—as
"[draw] down". These instructions have been mistranslated either through carelessness, or
perhaps with the intent to mask Arban's retrograde thinking on this particular point. Jean-
Baptiste Arban, Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, ed. Edwin Goldman and
Walter Smith (New York, 1936), 7; During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries,
many noted brass pedagogues in addition to Arban endorsed this so-called "smile" description of
the brass embouchure. See for example, that of Franquin's colleague on the faculty of the Paris
Conservatory Alexandre Petit, Grande methode complete de cornet a pistons, bugle, trompette &
d'instruments a pistons, 3rd ed. (Paris: E. Gaudet, 1921), 22; or the end of the Introductory Notes
to the Max Schlossberg Daily Drills and Technical Studies for Trumpet (New York: M. Baron,
1941).
40
isometric balance of the facial position used for whistling with that for smiling: the

"puckered smile." The smile allows the lips to maintain the degree of tension necessary

for optimal vibration, and the pucker serves to maintain a cushion of tissue between the

mouthpiece and the teeth that improves the sound, increases endurance, and helps

prevents injury of the lip tissue.5

The Principles of Study (Principes d 'etude) represent one of the most important

and innovative parts of Merri Franquin's Methode complete. He himself saw them as

central to his life's work, and to his teaching method. Upon his retirement from the Paris

Conservatory, he wrote to its director, "I will bring... to my retirement the great

satisfaction... of having created principles of study theretofore inexistent, of having

inserted them into a method book... which all brass instrument professionals draw

inspiration from and practice today... ."51 Franquin expresses a guiding tenet behind

these principles in their subtitle:

WORK MUCH, TIRE LITTLE; IN OTHER WORDS, ALWAYS REST BEFORE

THE LIPS ARE TIRED. I N THE SUM TOTAL OF DAILY PRACTICE, AVOID
OVERWORK. 52

Dauverne made a similar observation two generations earlier, but addresses this advice to

beginners only, stating, "The student, at the beginning of his studies, must not prolong his

Philip Farkas, The Art of French Horn Playing (Evanston: Summy-Birchard, 1956), 20.
51
« J'emporterai... dans ma retraite la grande satisfaction... d'avoir creer des principes d'etude
inexistants j usque la, de les avoir inseres dans une methode, et dont tout les professionnels des
instruments de cuivre s'inspirent et pratique aujourd'hui.... » Merri Franquin to the Director of
the Paris Conservatory (Henri Rabaud), 12 July 1925, letter in the faculty file {dossier de
professeur) of Merri Franquin, Paris Conservatory Archive Collection, No. AJ37 69 51, French
National Archives, Paris.
52
« Travailler beaucoup, se fatiguer peu; en d'autres termes, se reposer toujours avant que les
levres soient fatiguees. Dans la somme d'etude quotidienne, eviter le surmenage. » Franquin,
Methode complete, 20.
41
practice to the point of fatigue, but come back to it assiduously, alternating work on low

notes and high notes, pieces of different tempo and character, in all keys or crooks." 53

Franquin seems to have been the first—and so far, the only—pedagogue to define at

precisely what point the lips should be considered sufficiently tired to warrant rest. He

defined this point of diminishing returns as being when response (emission) becomes

jeopardized. 54

By the time Merri Franquin wrote his method book, the extreme physical

demands of both Baroque and early-twentieth-century music regularly confronted

professional trumpet players in performance. As demonstrated in the Principles of Study

and elsewhere in the method, Franquin became the first brass pedagogue to grasp the full

implications, to study, of the athletic nature of brass performance. He recognized the

kinds and quantity of work—and more importantly, of rest—required by players to

overcome its demands. In the previous generation, Arban, with the lengthy and

demanding characteristic studies included in his method, had sought to "inculcate in

students an invincible force of will." He realized that "they will tire themselves out,

above all in the beginning," but that "study and experience will teach them to triumph

over this difficulty and to discover ways to reach the end of their task without incident."5"

« L'eleve, au debut de ses etudes, ne doit point prolonger ses exercises jusqu'a la fatigue, mais
y revenir assidiiment, en travaillant tour a tour les sons graves et les sons aigus, les morceaux de
mouvement et de caractere differents, sur tous les tons ou corps de rechange. » Dauverne,
Methode, 62.
54
Franquin, Methode complete, 23 (Principle of study no. 18), 87, 114, 119, 122.
55
« J'ai compose les quatorze etudes suivantes dans le but d'inculquer aux eleves une invincible
force de volonte. lis se fatiguront sans nul doute, surtout dans l'orgine, en jouant des morceaux
d'aussi longue haleine ; l'etude, l'experience leur apprendront a triompher de cette difficulte et a
decouvrir des ressources pour arriver sans encombre au bout de leur tache. » Arban, Grande
Methode, 192.
42
Franquin realized that this stoic approach no longer sufficed. With time,

overwork—especially in the high register—can lead to chronic fatigue, injury, and a

gradual degradation of tone and technique. To develop endurance and range, a special

regimen of practice must be instituted that balances work in the high and low registers, as

well as measured periods of rest and exertion. 56

Franquin asserts at the beginning of his Principles of Study,

I do not pretend—in writing this article—to have the last word on

how to study trumpet, cornet, and flugelhorn. Rather, one could say that it
is the first word; as until now, methods as well as teachers in general have
not discussed it, per se. They have confined themselves, for the most part,
to advice on sound production, articulation, fixing style, common faults to
avoid, etc.... But regarding the principles behind directing the daily
practice of technique, they have tended toward generalities without
specifying anything, if only the vague recommendation to play long
tones—excellent advice, but insufficient.57

He aimed to systematically identify the "essential principles of study"—the

quantities and types of exercises necessary for progress on the instrument, and to

establish "rules to observe in the order of the main types of exercises, and the manner to

proceed to use time and physical resources to greatest advantage." Franquin realized that

no set approach or routine of study could work perfectly for all students. He urged those

Franquin, Methode complete, 18-19; This theme has been revisited several times in the United
States during the twentieth century, notably in the works of Claude Gordon, Carmine Caruso,
Roger Spaulding, and Louis Maggio's student Carlton MacBeth.
57
« Nous n'avons pas la pretension, en ecrivant cet article, de dire le dernier mot sur la maniere
d'etudier la Trompette, le Cornet, et le Bugle. On pourrait plutot dire que c'est le premier mot,
car jusqu'ici, les methodes, de meme que les professeurs en general, n'en ont, pour ainsi dire, pas
parle. On s'est bourne, a peu pres, a donner des conseils sur la formation des sons, sur les
articulations, la correction du style, sur les defauts a eviter, etc..., mais en fait de principes sur la
maniere de diriger l'etude quotidienne du mecanisme, on s'en est tenu aux generalites sans rien
preciser, si ce n'est la recommandation vague de filer des sons, conseil excellent mas
insuffisant. » Franquin, Methode complete, 2 1 - 2 2 .
43
studying his method to take the Principles of Study as a point of departure, to apply them

critically, and to modify them if necessary.

In all, Franquin gives thirty Principles of Study. Most of them (nos. 1,2, 4, 6, 7,

13, 15 - 19, 23, and 2 5 - 3 0 ) present common sense, practical advice about how to

practice, and what aspects of playing should be attended to in each type of exercise. For

example:

13. - All that poses difficulties must first be practiced in moderate or even
slow tempo, and not sped up until its execution is perfect, this is the best
way to avoid mistakes. In the moderate or slow tempo, inequalities in the
fullness and dynamics of the notes, their defects in cleanness of attack, of
intonation, all imperfections are much more easily distinguished and can
more easily be remedied. But above all, one should not forget that the
manner of execution in the moderate or slow tempo must be exactly the
same as in the fast, that is to say, that if the execution demands portato
articulation and flexibility, one must practice accordingly in the slow
tempo, or else the passage will remain heavy and hard.
In other words, the attacks must be just as light in the slow or
moderate practice tempo as in execution at speed; not more martele, and
just as connected one to the other, that is to say, without more separation.59

29. - Avoid overworking the lips with the approach of a major

performance. The day of the performance, confine practice to pp a n d /

58
Franquin, Mithode complete, 21.
59
« 13. - Tout ce qui est difficultueux doit etre travaille d'abord dans un movement modere ou
meme lent, et n'augmenter la vitesse que lorsque l'execution est parfaite, c'est le meilleur moyen
d'eviter les accidents. Dans le mouvement modere ou lent, les inegalites d'ampleur de sons et de
leur nuance, leurs defauts de nettete d'emission, de justesse, toutes les imperfections se
distinguent beaucoup mieux et Ton peut plus aisement y remedier. Mais surtout, il ne faut pas
Foublier, la maniere d'executer doit etre exactement la meme dans le movement modere ou lent
que dans le mouvement vif, c'est-a-dire que si l'execution demande des detaches dans le son et de
la souplesse, il faut agir de meme pendant l'etude en mouvement lent, sinon le trait restera lourd
et dur.
En d'autres termes, il faut que les emissions des sons soient aussi legeres dans l'etude en
mouvement lent ou modere qu'elles doivent l'etre dans l'execution en mouvement vif; pas plus
martelees et aussi allongees les unes vers les autres, c'est-a-dire sans plus de separation. » Ibid.,
23.
44
 exercises on sound production. This all without excess. Reserve stamina
practice for days without any heavy performance responsibilities. 60

The iconic American orchestral trumpeter Adolph Herseth has frequently repeated this

very same tenet—to carefully balance one's practice workload and performance

responsibilities—in master classes and lessons. Herseth credits his former teacher

Georges Mager (lerprix de cornet, 1906, class of Jean-Joseph Mellet) as passing on the

advice, which helped him to maintain his position as Principal Trumpet of the Chicago

Symphony Orchestra for over fifty years. 61

The remaining Principles of Study contain observations of common stylistic and

rhythmic faults (nos. 8 - 12), and some of a more philosophical nature (nos. 2, 3, 5, 14,

20 - 22, 24). For example:

9. - When a dotted quarter note is followed by an eighth note, one must

pay special attention to give the eighth note its full value. The same goes
for a sixteenth note preceded by a dotted eighth. The inexactitude is all
the more shocking when such a sixteenth note is followed by other
sixteenth notes. The regularity of the successive notes calls attention to
the incorrect value of the first.
In certain cases, the sixteenth note preceded by a dotted eighth can
be executed as a thirty-second note, or even allowed some liberty to its
duration, but rarely in classical music. When a group of two or four
sixteenth notes occurs in a slow, lyrical melody, do not give in to the
instinctive temptation to play them too quickly. 62

« 29. - Eviter le surmenage des levres a l'approche d'une epreuve. Le jour de l'epreuve, se
borner a l'exercice des emissions/?/? etf. Le tout sans exces. On reserve l'etude de la resistance
pour les jours ou l'on n'a pas une trop grande responsabilite en public. » Franquin, Methode
complete, 25.
61
John Hagstrom, "Interview with Adolph Herseth," International Trumpet Guild Journal 28, no.
2 (January 2004): 7.
62
« 9. - Quand on a une noire pointee suivie d'une croche, il faut s'appliquer a donner a la croche
toute sa valeur. De meme pour la double croche precede d'une croche pointee. L'inexactitude
est encore plus choquante quand cette double croche est suivie d'autres doubles croches. La
succession etant faite en mesure met plus en evidence le defaut de valeur de la premiere. II y a
des cas ou la double croche precede d'une croche pointee peut s'executer comme une triple
45
 21. - Certain exercises appear useless or ridiculous to the eyes of those
who have never been part of large orchestra and are unacquainted with all
its requirements; who do not know that the things which appear most
simple are often in reality the most difficult and perilous.

The inclusion of sample practice regimens in the introduction to the Methode

complete comes as another apparent pedagogical innovation—at least to brass

methods—by Merri Franquin. A short list summarizing the various disciplines to be

covered in the course of daily practice follows the Principles of Study in the introduction.

Several related observations accompany this list, followed by detailed discussions of the

practice of long tones {sons files) and the importance of rest (repos) to successful study.

Model practice routines {Quelques Programmes d'etude quotidienne) follow, in

single and multiple daily sessions. Each routine outlines specific amounts of time to be

dedicated to the various disciplines or type of practice, and prescribes precise durations

and distributions of rest throughout the day's work. Franquin suggests that regardless of

the total duration of daily practice, one should divide it—time permitting—into two

sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

For example, he gives the following program for two hours of practice (along

with different plans for one, three, and four hours):

croche ou bien lui donner une valeur fantaisiste, mais rarement dans la musique classique. »
Franquin, Methode complete, 22.
63
« 21. - Certains exercices paraissent inutiles ou ridicules aux yeux de ceux qui n'ont jamais fait
partie d'un grand orchestre et n'en connaissent pas toutes les exigences; qui ne savent pas que les
choses les plus simples en apparence sont souvent les plus difficiles et les plus dangereuses en
realite. »Ibid., 24.
46
 FOR TWO HOURS

Emissions, pp 20 minutes.
- / 5 -
Rest 10 —
Long tones 15 —
Rest 15 —
Miscellaneous exercises 20 —
Rest 15 —
Etudes, melodies, or pieces 20 —
TOTAL 120 minutes.64

Characteristically thorough, Franquin cautions that he gives such practice regimens

merely as suggestions and that they should not be taken as hard and fast rules.65

The revolutionary nature of this type of structured practice regimen in brass

pedagogy can hardly be overemphasized. Before Franquin no one realized the

importance of balancing physical exertion with rest in brass study at all levels.

Numerous offshoots (or subsequent re-discoveries) of these principles can be seen in

brass methods that appeared over the course of twentieth century. Notable examples

came with the practice checklists of hornist Philip Farkas,66 the musical calisthenics of

Carmine Caruso,67 and even in the myriad books of daily practice routines such the

Setting Up Drills of Herbert L. Clarke.68 The prescription for types of exercises rather

than just a collection of specific exercises sets apart Franquin's Principes d'etude, as

applied in his daily practice routines, from these others (with the exception of Farkas).

64
Franquin, Methode complete, 26.
65
Ibid., 27.
66
Philip Farkas, The Art of French Horn Playing, 44.
67
Carmine Caruso, Musical Calisthenics for Brass (Miami: Belwin, 1979).
68
Herbert Clarke, Setting Up Drills (Calisthenic Exercises) for the Trumpet, (New York: Carl
Fisher, 1935).
47
The latter type of routine, after a certain period of improvement, can offer only

diminishing returns (and increasing tediousness) with daily repetition.

The balance of the introduction to Franquin's Methode complete addresses in

depth the other areas of special concern to the student of trumpet (cornet, and flugelhorn),

as well as subjects of general musical-pedagogical interest. The trumpet-specific subjects

include such topics as breathing, support {tension), high range, different keys of trumpets

in use, and transposition by means of movable C- and F-clefs. Franquin also gives tables

on transposition, harmonics and fingering, and instructions on how to tune the

instrument's slides. The general music subjects include lists of Italian musical terms with

French translation, and signs in conventional music notation with explanation of how to

play them, as well as discussions of style, staccato, and the use of dynamics.

One notable omission in the introduction is the absence of any significant

instruction on the use of vibrato. 69 In Franquin's day, the traditional French brass sound

concept in the performance of classical music did not include continuous vibrato. Early

recordings of French trumpeters and cornetists bear this out.70 The tight, incessant

Arban speaks to the subject in his discussion of "Faults to be Avoided" (Defauts a eviter):
"The oscillation of sound [vibrato] is obtained on the cornet in the same manner as on the violin,
by slight movement of the right hand. This type of effect produces great sensitivity, but one must
take care to avoid its abuse, as its overuse would become a serious fault." « L'oscillation du son
s'obtient sur le cornet, de la meme maniere que sur le violon, par un leger mouvement de la main
droite ; ce genre d'effet produit une grande sensibilite, mais il faut se garder d'en faire l'abus, car
son emploi trop frequent deviendrait un grave defaut. » Arban, Grande Methode, 8.
70
For example, in early recordings by Eugene Foveau and Georges Mager, one can hear no
vibrato—although both artists were known to use it regularly later in their careers. One can
detect no vibrato in the sustained notes of Foveau's performance with Narcisse Bizet (f prix de
trompette, 1902) and the Musique de la Garde Republicaine in the duet Les deux cousins
(recorded in 1908). Mager maintains a remarkably steady tone in the cornet solo Sij 'ai reve
(recorded in 1910). European Cornet and Trumpet Soloists, 1899 - 1950, various performers,
International Trumpet Guild CD 114-1, 2005; Even the trumpets on several later orchestral
48
vibrato that has sometimes come to be associated with French trumpet playing in the

twentieth century came as a later accretion. As suggested by Julien Porret, the

widespread adoption of vibrato among French instrumentalists probably resulted from the

influence of American jazz and popular artists.71 In his discussion of musical style (Du

Style) Franquin leaves little doubt as to his opinion on the subject, in explaining the

nature of the "health," "life," and "generosity" that should be present in the sound:

This does not mean to cultivate that bleat by which certain artists
believe they can evoke emotion that they themselves do not feel, and
which makes of this technique mere artifice. It can be employed in certain
cases, but without excess, in popular music—never in classical music. 72

With his method, Franquin became the first modern author to compare and

reference specific sources for his ideas on trumpet/cornet technique, to evaluate them,

and to synthesize them, often reaching novel conclusions about some of the more

contested points of brass pedagogy. His formulations of the basic principles of brass

recordings play with virtually no vibrato, as heard in the CD collection Maurice Ravel:
Orchestral Works, such as the 1930 recordings of Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No. 2 by the Orchestre
des Concerts Straram conducted by Philippe Gaubert and Bolero by the Orchestre des Concerts
Lamoureux conducted by the composer. Maurice Ravel: Orchestral Works, various performers,
Andante 1978 (CD), 2002.
71
Later in his career, Eugene Foveau played with "a vibrato which is the mark of his time."
Julien Porret traces the use of continuous vibrato in France by wind instrumentalists directly to
the influence of Jazz, citing is use by the oboist [Myrtile-Gilbert-Gontran] Morel as early as 1920,
the horn player Jean Devemy, the flutist [Marcel-Joseph] Moyse, and the saxophonist Marcel
Mule "who was known to be inspired by the Paul Whiteman saxophonists." Michel Laplace,
"Les Fondateurs de l'ecole francaise," 73 - 74.
72
« Cela ne veut pas dire de rechercher ce chevrotement par lequel certains artistes croient
provoquer une emotion qu'ils n'eprouvent pas eux-memes, et qui font de ce moyen un procede
factice. On peut l'employer dans certains cas, mas sans exageration, dans la musique de fantaisie
; jamais dans la musique classique. » Franquin, Methode complete, 28.
73
Michel Laplace mentions two such comparisons: those of the different (multiple) tonguing
techniques (discussed below) and mouthpiece positions. Michel Laplace, "Les fondateurs de
l'ecole francaise de trompette: Merri Franquin, Eugene Foveau et Raymond Sabarich," Brass
Bulletin 29 (1980): 6 8 - 6 9 .
49
study and performance have withstood the test of time. He provides precise and thorough

explanations. But despite this penchant for precision and detail, he seems to proffer

detailed descriptions of the most fundamental physical procedures only grudgingly. In

this, too, he foreshadows another twentieth-century trend in brass pedagogy, the

avoidance of what has come to be called "paralysis through analysis." This idea holds

that since the coordination of all the parts of the body implicated in playing offers such

complexity, any conscious attempt to control the various elements involved can only hurt

the process. Franquin states this same philosophy, in various formulations, in the

introduction and elsewhere in the method. He writes that one should ".. .think only of the

goal without worrying about the means...." He gives this advice particularly with respect

to the fundamentals of breathing, sound production, and attack.74

IV. PARTIE PRATIQUE: EXERCISES, STUDIES, AND PIECES. With the Practical Part of his

Methode, Merri Franquin creates and assembles an extensive collection of exercises,

etudes, and melodies. He accompanies these with comprehensive explanatory material

and notes, thereby reinforcing and supplementing the concepts expounded in the

Theoretical Part. He develops all his exercise series progressively and with great rigor.

For the most part, he presents the kinds of exercises found in the method books of the

Principal Authors. He places surprising emphasis on arpeggio exercises resembling—in

some cases, duplicating—those in the natural trumpet method of Dauverne. In the

discussion that follows, particular attention will be given to the innovative pedagogical

7
« ...ne pens[er] qu'au but sans [s'Joccuper des moyens... » Franquin, Methode complete, 19.
50
techniques and exercises introduced by Franquin. These, in combination with other

procedures and types of exercises that distinguish it from cornet methods, make his

method book the first modern trumpet method in the French tradition.

A. EMISSION STUDIES. Franquin's response exercises (Exercices de remission) follow a

simple formula. The student sets a metronome to "very moderate" speed, usually quarter

note = 76, then plays a series of/?/? half notes on different pitches, each without change of

dynamic shape, each separated by six beats of rest (to be counted "scrupulously"). The

accompanying instructions describe the process clearly, outlining a number of distinct

procedures to follow—chief among these that the mouthpiece be removed from the face

of the player during the rests, immediately after the sound has ended, and not replaced

until the moment the next note is sounded. Insisting on the removal of the mouthpiece

from the face between each attack—seemingly a minor detail—represents the primary

innovation by Franquin in his exercises. This way every note becomes a "first note" in

the sense referred to above by Roger Voisin.

Each note should be cleanly produced, pianissimo to the degree possible, or

attempted again (after counting six beats of rest with the instrument removed from the

lips) until attaining noticeable improvement (amelioration sensible). Thus, each note to

respond poorly should be repeated as many times as necessary before moving to the next

pitch. To discourage the overly conscientious student from obsessively repeating the

same "imperfect" note ad nauseam, Franquin notes that the improvement (perfection)

51
sought will be realized a little every day (and not in the course of one sitting). Franquin

offers a final, Zen-like touch with this instruction, "The syllable ta must be pronounced

cleanly and with gentleness, without any stiffness, in the most simple manner (without

the voice, naturally) as if one did not want to obtain the sound. After several tries in this

vein, separated by the measured rest indicated, it ends up being produced, so to speak, in

spite of itself."76

After completing a series of quiet response exercises, he directs the player to

perform a second set, this time progressively approaching ff note by note. As "the brutal

attack requires but little practice... it comes after the 'pose du son\ to 'reestablish the

equilibrium'.... The lips having been contracted during the pp exercise will lack

flexibility for the development of the sound and for accuracy in^attacks without this

precaution." Thus one proceeds by progressive crescendo over a number of notes

(poses du son en crescendo deforce), until reaching the "attaque violente." The exercise

ceases as soon as "the goal is reached, that is to say, as soon as the attack is full, ample,

brilliant, precise and accurate in the three registers: low, medium, and high, but
-TO

principally on [G# and A above the treble staff]."

Similar exercises on sound production such as those by Dauverne and Arban

Franquin, Methode complete, 114-115.

7
« 11 faut prononcer la syllabe ta avec nettete et douceur, sans aucune raideur, de la facon la plus
simple (moins la voix naturellement) comme si Ton ne voulait pas obtenir le son. Apres quelques
tentatives de ce genre, separes par les repos ecrits et mesures, il finit par se produire, pour ainsi
dire, malgre soi. » Franquin, Methode complete, 114.
77
Ibid., 16.
78
Franquin regards the notes G# and A above the treble staff as being the most difficult on the
trumpet, in terms of obtaining clean, accurate attacks. Merri Franquin, "La Trompette et le
cornet," Encyclopedie de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire Part III, vol. II, ed. Albert
Lavignac and Lionel de la Laurencie (Paris: Deleagrave, c. 1925), 1637.
52
advised the student only to breathe between each note without any measured rest or

instruction to remove the mouthpiece from the lips. Also, as discussed above,

Dauverne's bore the instruction to diminuendo after striking each note, whereas

Franquin's instructions indicate that the note should be held at a steady dynamic.

Forestier's exercises on "straight tones" {sons droits) come closest to anticipating

Franquin in this regard. The "straight tones"—so named because they do not diminuendo

or crescendo—appear at the beginning of Forestier's method. They consist of whole

notes tied to quarter notes (five beats on the same pitch), unique among the exercises of

the other Principal Authors because of their inclusion of written rests (three beats)

between each note. However, they do not come with the instruction (central to

Franquin's response studies) to remove the mouthpiece from the lips. Referring to the

respective discussions of Dauverne, Forestier, and Arban on breathing confirms that all of

Franquin's predecessors agreed on the point that the mouthpiece should not be removed

from the face during the breath.79 So it can be inferred from the absence of specific

instructions to do so that none of the Principal Authors—Forestier included—advocated

the removal of the mouthpiece from the face between attacks for their sound production

exercises. And whereas Franquin unquestionably considered response practice over the

full range of the instrument to be essential to all levels of study, for the beginner as for
79
Franquin, too, maintained this point of view for playing in general; just not in the context of his
response exercises. Franquin, Methode complete, 19.
80
Beginning students normally exhibit the tendency to stop playing and remove the instrument
from their face excessively, regardless of any printed instruction to do so (and often despite
repeated verbal instructions to the contrary). It may be for this reason that none of the Principal
Authors felt such an instruction to be necessary. If this were the case, Franquin's response
exercises might be slightly less innovative than supposed here. However, it would further support
the notion that he alone intended his sound production and response exercises for practice by
advanced players.
53
the seasoned performer, Forestier clearly reserves his straight tone exercises for

beginners. They never ascend above third-space C, and, after the first several exercises

of his first lesson, he abandons them altogether.

Franquin also suggests modifying his basic exercise from time to time to precede

each half note with (an) additional pick up note(s), either single- or multiple-tongued.

The addition of a pick-up figure of triplet sixteenth notes on the same pitch represents

one such modification of the study suggested by Franquin.

Another transformation of the response exercises extends them to short vocalises

by the addition of a chain of notes following the first. In these studies, slurred passages

alternate with legato-tongued passages and occasional isolated single notes. Each group

of notes (or isolated note) remains separated from the next by six counts of rest.

Franquin puts such exercises under the heading "Warm-up alternating slurred tones and

detaches in the sound" {Preparation en son lies et detaches dans le son alter nativement).

He instructs that these exercises can be substituted for the classic single-note response

study, or used as a complement to it. As in the basic exercise, clean production of the

first note of each sequence receives special attention, but in this case it should open the

door to smooth production of subsequent tones. Of particular interest to trumpet players

(as will be discussed below), these exercises emphasize patterns based on the harmonics

available with the seven positions or fingerings—making them what have come to be

known as flexibility exercises.81

Since the publication of Franquin's method, a number of authors have

81
Franquin, Methode complete, 86, 116-119.
54
appropriated his procedure for working on response through sound production and attack

exercises. According to Michel Laplace, Julien Porret and Francis Bodet fall among his

most prominent (early) pedagogical disciples in Europe.82 Each wrote a book

incorporating Franquin-inspired response exercises. Porret points out in the conclusion

of his method that both he and Bodet attained their ler prix de cornet from the class of

Alexandre Petit the very same year as Marcel Lafosse (lerprix de cornet, 1914; Second

Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1930 - 1956).83 Porret received an

additional lerprix, in trumpet (1920), from the class of Merri Franquin.84

An American, Richard Shuebruk, became the first trumpet player after Franquin

to publish similar attack exercises. Shuebruk performed in Boston during the 1880's with

the Handel and Haydn Society and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. After one year as

Second Trumpet of the Boston Symphony, he served as Principal Trumpet during its

1886 - 1887 season. He taught at the New England Conservatory, then later, from 1910

until 1933, in New York City.85 There, in 1923, he published three graded pamphlets of

"Lip Trainers," each about fifteen pages in length. Shuebruk devoted the first third of

each pamphlet to attack exercises nearly identical in form and procedure to Franquin's

response exercises. The instructions and explanatory notes for the pamphlets present

more or less match those in Franquin's method, containing most of the same salient

82
Michel Laplace, "Les fondateurs de l'ecole francaise," 69.
83
Julien Porret, Methode progressive de cornet a pistons, trompette, bugle (Charnay-les-Macon:
Robert Martin, 1964), 57; Hugon-Roydor, ed., Annuaire Officiel du Conservatoire National de
Musique et de Declamation, (Paris: Maurice Senart, 1919), 95, 155, 217.
84
M. Gillian MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours Music at the Paris Conservatoire, 1835 -
1925: the Development of Styles and Roles," (doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University,
1996), 256.
85
Douglas Yeo, "Trumpet Players of the Boston Symphony, 1881- 1990: A Pictorial History,"
International Trumpet Guild Journal 15, no. 2, (December 1990): 16.
55
points—including a short list of "General Rules for Practice."

Shuebruk also elaborates his exercises as suggested by Franquin, by the addition

of pick up figures to the main notes. Unlike Franquin, he varies the dynamics between

successive attacks within each exercise, in essence combining Franquin's "pp emissions'"

and "poses du son en crescendo deforce" Shuebruk innovated the practice of "poo" or

"pu" attacks, articulated by the lips without the aid of the tongue. This expedient—more

suited to practice than to performance for reasons of reliability—ensures the result of

bringing the lips forward, in much the manner explained by Franquin in his description of

the "3 rd Motion" involved in sound production.

The horn, to borrow Merri Franquin's comments regarding the large, valved

trumpets of the past, still has the dubious honor of being "exactly what it was before [the

addition of valves], as much in terms of playing difficulty—its risk of couacs—as for its

unnatural situation of low instrument played in the high register, of bass playing tenor

lines."87 As such, the horn presents an obvious candidate for accuracy exercises. Not

surprisingly, in the last half-century, Franquin-style response exercises came to be

adopted for that instrument as well. In The Art of French Horn Playing (1956), Philip

Farkas includes a page-long accuracy exercise, virtually identical in format, content, and

Richard Shuebruk, Graded Lip Trainers: Grade 1. Teachers and Pupils, Grade 2. Business
Players, Grade 3. First Chair Men, (New York: Carl Fisher, 1923). This author's research has
revealed little information on the background and training of Richard Shuebruk. As will be
discussed further in the conclusion to this chapter, the means of transmission of Franquin's
influence on Shuebruk—if any—remains unclear.
87
On its F side, the modern horn has the same length as the F tuba. Thus Merri Franquin's
sentiments regarding the long trumpet in F have even more validity in the context of the horn,
which has twice its length. Merri Franquin, "La Trompette et le Cornet," Encyclopedie de la
musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire Part III, vol. II, ed. Albert Lavignac and Lionel de la
Laurencie (Paris: Delagrave, c. 1924), 1612.
56
procedure to the attack exercises of Shuebruk. Gunther Schuller includes similar attack

exercises in his book Horn Technique (1962); however these present multiple attacks on

the same note (for a series of several different pitches). He credits as his inspiration the

warm-up procedures of Richard Moore, former first horn at the Metropolitan Opera. Mr.

Moore in turn had "assembled this exercise from a variety of sources, including primarily

the warm-up procedures of Bruno Jaenicke [Principal Horn of the New York

Philharmonic for some twenty-five years toward the beginning of the twentieth century]

and Mr. Moore's teacher, Xavier Franzl."88

B. TRANSPOSITION. Developing proficiency in transposition at sight became an essential

skill to trumpet players by the close of the nineteenth century for several reasons.

Baroque trumpet parts written with no key signature, for a natural instrument pitched in

the key of the piece, often need to be played on modern trumpets pitched in keys other

than the supposed original. Also, late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century orchestral

compositions require trumpeters to change transposition frequently, often several times

on the same page. Finally, certain passages—usually as the result of excessive

enharmonic/alternate fingering possibilities, tuning peculiarities of certain notes, or

simply because of awkward fingerings—can sometimes be more easily executed on a

trumpet pitched in a key other than that indicated in the score. Rigorous solfege training

88
Gunther Schuller, Horn Technique (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 34 - 35.
89
For example, the third trumpet part to Strauss's Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche changes
from trumpet in F to trumpet in E after rehearsal no. 22, moves back to trumpet in F after no. 24,
and then to trumpet in C after no. 27, before returning to trumpet in F (written in bass clef) after
no. 29. Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel's lustige Streiche, Op. 28, Trompete III, (New York:
Kalmus, no date), 2.
57
(which, in France, includes elements of music theory in addition to the aural skills the

term implies in the United States) has traditionally been available in the French

conservatory system, and would permit most musicians brought up in that system to

understand transposition through movable C- and F-clefs. Among modern

instrumentalists, trumpet players are most routinely called upon to transpose at sight, in

real time, at a large variety of intervals. Even if all trumpet parts were to be standardized

in concert pitch, trumpet players would still find it necessary to transpose when using

different-keyed instruments to facilitate execution.

Creating a method that leaves it to the student to effect transpositions of the

exercises can be pedagogically risky. If the author does not write out transpositions

explicitly, most students do not bother to transpose them.90 On one hand, Dauverne

could well give students the directive to practice his exercises in all of the keys available

to the natural trumpet. This could be achieved simply—in terms of mental effort—by

means of different-keyed tuning crooks. However, obliging the student of valved trumpet

to transpose difficult exercises at sight—hundreds of them, each requiring unintuitive (as

compared to keyboard, stringed, or woodwind instruments) changes of fingering and

mental gymnastics—risks putting-off all but the most ambitious from even trying. With

Dauverne's book, where almost all of the exercises—even those for valve- and slide-

trumpet—appear only in C major, the danger exists that most modern-trumpet students

90
Pierre Thibaud advanced this opinion (expressed frequently during lessons with the author,
1994 - 1998), citing the success of the books of Arban and Herbert L. Clarke, the latter of whom
based his influential technical studies for cornet on just seven basic patterns, transposing them
into all keys over the range of the instrument. See for example, Pierre Thibaud, Methodfor the
Advanced Trumpeter (Montrose, CA: Balquhidder, 2002), 115 - 133.
58
using his method will become proficient in only a limited number of major keys. At

worst, they would just learn in C major, if they neglected to transpose his exercises at all.

By writing their exercises in all different keys, Arban and Forestier guarantee the diligent

student a chromatic familiarity with their instrument. But in so doing, they eliminate the

need to practice transposition in order to acquire this familiarity.91

To familiarize even those for whom transposition would "take too long or be too

tedious"92 to a wide variety of keys, while at the same time promoting the development of

solid transposition skills in more ambitious students, Franquin combines the approaches

of his predecessors. Like Forestier and Arban, he writes different exercises in a large

variety of keys. However, beginning with the scale exercises of the first part of his

method, "second degree," he includes suggested transpositions for most exercises;

including those on arpeggios, finger coordination, large intervals, slurs, speed, and

multiple tonguing. The written exercise serves as the model for transposition. Franquin

indicates the suggested transpositions by means of additional clef/key signature

combinations placed after it. For example, an exercise written in C major might be

followed by a tenor clef and key signature of two flats. When applied to the written (C

major) version of the exercise, these transform the model into B-flat major. This same

exercise could then be followed by an alto clef accompanied by two sharps, which would,

accordingly, place it in D major. In the first part of the book, he suggests only a few

transpositions for model exercises, but with the second part of the method, he regularly

91
Saint-Jacome alone, among French authors of nineteenth-century cornet method books,
suggests different transpositions for (many of) his exercises.
« .. .serait un travail trop longue ou trop penible... » Franquin, Methode complete, 10.
59
indicates transpositions in all twelve keys, progressing through a circle of fifths or a

circle of fourths.

To develop sight transposition skills as much as possible, Franquin routinely

suggests half-step transpositions in instances where a simple change of key signature

would have the same (enharmonic) effect. For example, his sixth scale exercise on page

149 appears in the key of B-flat major. He suggests (among other transpositions) reading

the model pattern in the key of C-flat major—indicated by the substitution of an alto clef

and a key signature of seven flats. Clearly, it would be easier for most people to simply

read the exercise in the enharmonic B major, without change of clef, by (mentally)

substituting a key signature of five sharps for the two flats printed in the model.

Evidently, Franquin believed that acclimating the student to unnecessarily difficult

transposition in practice would facilitate that required in actual performance.

C. RANGE AND ENDURANCE. The suggested transpositions adhere to a reasonable limit

in the high range, appropriate to the difficulty level (degre) of the exercise, and do not

extend down into the pedal register. Should an exercise encompass a particularly large

range, only the transpositions meeting these requirements will be suggested. Since it may

be possible to transpose a given exercise at different octaves in the key indicated,

Franquin indicates the specific octaves to be studied by means of a starting note (or notes,

if the exercise should be practiced in multiple octaves) in treble clef placed just after the

substitute clef/key signature. As a further aid to the instructor and student, Franquin

places a numerical difficulty rating, from one to three, over each transposition suggested,

60
based on the upper limit of the resulting range. Thus, just by quickly scanning the

numbers (and without effecting the transposition) one can determine which transpositions

fall within the range appropriate to the level of the student. According to Franquin's

system, " 1 " corresponds to exercises extending up to G on top of the treble staff, "2" up

to high B-flat, and "3" for those exceeding high B-flat.

Theoretically, the cornet can play as high as the trumpet, although in practice it

offers very little in terms of resonance or stability above high C.94 Exercises in the cornet

methods of Forestier and Arban methods generally do not exceed high A. Infrequently,

their range extends to high C. On the other hand, the trumpet, as demonstrated in many

of the clarino parts of Baroque literature and in the "lead" trumpet parts of big band

literature, can play well into the octave above high C retaining its characteristic brilliance

and power, limited only by the physical means of the player. When Dauverne's trumpet

method appeared, the high clarino parts of the Baroque had yet to be revived in

performance (and it would be another century before trumpeters attempted them once

again on natural instruments). Therefore, his exercises generally stop at written G on top

of the treble staff.95 However, Dauverne does include a series of thirty exercises on "high

notes" {notes sur-aigues), but only as a challenge for practice—extreme training to

' Franquin, Methode complete, 11.

94
Saint-Jacome includes in his method six measures of high notes "not to be abused," extending
up to (written) F above high C. Saint-Jacome, Grand Method, 87); Herbert L. Clarke lists the
theoretical range of the cornet as extending up to written double high C. Herbert Clarke,
Elementary Studies (New York: Carl Fisher, 1936), 53.
95
It should be reiterated here that Dauverne suggests practicing his exercises with all different
keyed tuning crooks, several of which would sound above concert pitch. For example, in playing
his exercises on E-flat trumpet, the written G would yield a concert B-flat.
61
facilitate performance in the ordinary range of the instrument. At any rate, a large gap

remained between the technique developed in the classic cornet texts and that expected of

a professional trumpet player by the beginning of the twentieth century. As Walter M.

Smith wrote in the Preface to his Top Tones for the Trumpeter: 30 Modern Etudes,

It is a fact that the average player, even after attaining a splendid degree of
efficiency with Arban's, St. Jacome's, and other methods and studies, is
nevertheless completely exhausted by the demands made upon him when
he first enters the field of professional playing—and particularly so by the
somewhat appalling use of the upper register of the instrument, and not, I
may add, simply the upper register as found in most of the methods, but
the notes from high C up, which are found in modern orchestral
compositions scattered about with the greatest freedom.

With Franquin's method, a novel emphasis on high range development becomes

integral to the instruction. Exercises of all types regularly ascend to written high C

beginning with the second (intermediate) part. By its third part, the warm-up

(preparation) sequences and virtually all of the exercises (when transposed as suggested)

extend at least to high C. Like the trumpet method of Dauverne, Franquin includes a

special series of exercises designed to develop the high range, which he suggests be

practiced on C trumpet as well as trumpet in B-flat or A. Whereas Dauverne's high range

exercises, after a few lines of long tones, merely extend the range of his usual scale and

arpeggio patterns in moving eighth and sixteenth notes, Franquin's favor longer note

values (mostly quarters) for the high notes—especially those above high C. This may be

Dauverne's exercises "For familiarity with the extreme high notes of the Trumpet" (Pour se
familiariser avec les notes sur-aigues de la Trompette) extend to written high C, to be practiced
only on natural trumpet with low (Ab to B) and medium (C to Eb) crooks. Dauverne, Methode,
132.
97
Walter Smith, Top Tones for the Trumpeter: 30 Modern Etudes, (New York: Carl Fischer,
1936), 3.
62
a reflection of the goals of their respective exercises. Dauverne, as mentioned above,

gives such exercises only as extreme training to facilitate execution in the ordinary

playing range. Franquin, on the other hand, develops this type of high register agility and

familiarity with nearly all the exercises of the advanced, third part of his Methode

complete—not just those in the specially-dedicated series. This special series aims to

develop stamina and accuracy sufficient to meet the demands of actual performance in
OS

the high range, in accordance with his Principles of Study. To this end, he also includes

a set of long tones for D trumpet, specifying rests within the set of "several measures,"

"several minutes," and "five or ten minutes."9

Even more fundamental than the development of endurance exercises specifically

pertaining to the high range, Franquin seems to have pioneered the application of

uninterrupted strings of long tones {sons files) toward improving endurance. As with the

study of emissions, he took a concept developed by the Principal Authors in their

beginning exercises, and applied it to advanced players as well.100 Practice of isolated

long tones has traditionally been associated with developing beauty of sound and

increasing dynamic range and control. Franquin's innovation in this type of

exercise—later expanded and systematized by Francis Bodet, Carmine Caruso, and others
98
Franquin intersperses pedal tones (notes below the practical range of the instrument) among his
high range exercises, foreshadowing the many American range development systems of the late-
twentieth century to do so, such as James Stamp's well-known Warm-ups and Studies (Bulle,
Switzerland: B.I.M., 1981). However, Franquin includes them merely to promote and maintain
lip flexibility, as a counterbalance to the strength building work in the high register. He does not
accord them—in themselves—any special powers toward development of the high register.
Similarly, Franquin introduces the practice of "bending" (exercise consisting of lipping a note
down to the pitch one semitone lower), but only in the context of learning to play low C# in tune.
Franquin, Methode complete, 19.
99
Ibid., 20.
100
Franquin, Methode complete, 122.
63
in physically-oriented methods—comes with the removal of breath marks or rests

between the notes, and the simple instruction in the case of "imprecise, impure, or

imperfect [note] emissions," to "breathe without separating the mouthpiece from the

lips." This type of practice accustoms the muscles of the face and lips to bearing the load

of mouthpiece pressure for progressively longer periods without ceasing to vibrate.

Franquin cautions, "a substantial period of rest should be taken, sufficient for the lips to

recover completely from their preceding effort, anytime the lips cease to respond

directly." He also warns, "the lips should never be bruised (meurtries) or even pressed

strongly."101 Essentially, Franquin transformed the study of long tones into "musical

calisthenics."102

D. ARTICULATION, SOUND, AND "TONGUING IN THE SOUND." Dauverne, Forestier,

Arban, and Saint-Jacome all conceive of the attack as an (unvoiced) utterance of the

syllable "tu". This syllable appears in their discussions of sound production, indicated

above or below the notes of their first exercises. In French, the vowel in this case has the

same sound as the German "u"—namely that produced with the tongue arched high in the

back, as if pronouncing "tea" while the lips come forward to form an "o," as in

pronouncing "oh". In his method, however, Franquin suggests use of the syllable "ta."

As in English, the pronunciation of the "ah" sound in "ta" has the effect of relaxing the

back of the tongue and opening up the oral cavity. When applied to the trumpet, this has

101
Ibid., 122.
102
The author borrowed this descriptive phrase from the title of Carmine Caruso's Musical
Calisthenics for Brass (Miami: Belwin, 1979).
64
the effect of darkening the sound. That the earlier authors preferred a brighter utterance

for historical trumpets and the cornet makes perfect sense since it helps to focus the

sound, compensating for these instruments' natural tendency toward diffuseness.103 The

modern piston-valved trumpet, on the other hand, tends to sound bright (especially, as

will be discussed in the following chapter, the early modern French trumpets), a tendency

that can be mitigated by adopting "ta" as the basic articulation. Similarly, for multiple

tonguing, Franquin recommends "ta ka ta ka..." (double tonguing) and "ta ta ka ta ta

ka..." (triple tonguing) whereas his Principal Authors suggest "tu ku tu ku..." and "tu tu

ku tu tu ku...," respectively.

Regarding articulation, the notion of "tonguing in the sound" {coup de langue

dans le son) represents one of the defining elements of the modern French School of

classical trumpet pedagogy and performance. All of the Principal Authors, with the

exception of Dauverne, refer to it by name in their method books. 105 The elegance of

delivery it permits came as a great revelation to trumpet players outside of France, as

Relative to the modern trumpet, the early valved trumpets (and natural trumpets) for which
Dauverne created his method, being more or less twice as long as the modern trumpet, possess a
relatively less "clear" or "bright" sound. Similarly, the cornet, owing to its conical bore, different
bends, and proportions, sounds more diffuse than the trumpet even though of the same overall
length.
104
With respect to multiple tonguing, Franquin, like Dauverne and Forestier, allows for the
possibility of replacing "t" and "k" with the softer consonants "d" and "g," respectively.
Franquin suggests this substitution only in the case of extremely fast articulation, where speed
makes the clearer, "correct" articulation impossible. Arban, alone among the Principal Authors,
categorically forbids the use of the consonants "d" and "g" (because they articulate notes
relatively poorly). Franquin theorizes that Arban had this luxury—to always use the clearer "t"
and "k"—because, as a soloist, he alone set the tempo in performance, and never had to "bend to
circumstances" as the member of an orchestra. Franquin, Methode complete, 235.
105
Arban's appends this illustrative name to his explanation of the articulation notated by "dots,
over which there is a slur." The designation has been omitted in the English translations currently
published. Arban, Grande Methode, 5; Saint-Jacome calls the technique "portato or tongueing
[sic] on the sound." Saint-Jacome, Grand Method, 110.
65
recordings of Maurice Andre, one of the technique's greatest practitioners, first began to

circulate widely. The basic concept, that of fusing tongued notes together without any

(glottal or diaphragmatic) interruption in the sound or airstream, has been present in the

French tradition of brass pedagogy at least since the publication of Heinrich Domnich's

1807 Methode de premier et de second cor.106

Franquin devotes a page of explanation and exercises in the first part of his

method to this technique, which he calls "Detaches in the sound or detache slurs"

(Detaches dans le son ou lies detaches)}®1 He explains the concept in a similar manner

to his predecessors, but substitutes the syllable "ta" for their "du".108 After this

introduction to the concept, he includes this articulation in his subsequent sets of response

exercises. But Franquin also makes—for the first time in the literature—the critical

association of this technique with speed and agility rather than just lyrical playing. For

example, an exercise on "Detache in the sound or tonguing in the sound" (Detache dans

le son ou coup de langue dans le son) later in the book consists exclusively of flowing

sixteenth notes (in an Andante 9/8) tracing out two voices separated by large intervallic

leaps.109 Similarly, exercises featuring long strings of rapid sixteenth notes appear

marked "Well articulated but without dryness" (Bien attaque mais sans secheresse) or

"Single tongued, not too dry" (En coup de langue simple, pas trop sec) as a reminder that

Domnich, Methode, 3 - 4 .
07
Franquin, Methode complete, 84.
08
For this type of tonguing—and only this type of tonguing—does Arban permit the syllable
;
du" instead of "tu." Arban, Grande Methode, 5.
9
Franquin, Methode complete, 211.
66
fast notes should be connected. 110 Although not essential to comet playing, the modern

trumpet demands this technique for the articulation of rapidly moving notes with any

degree of accuracy, lightness, and elegance: the natural trumpet, even more so. 111

In the text preceding his exercises on multiple tonguing, Franquin stresses the

necessity, for rapid articulation, of tonguing gently and connecting the notes together. He

goes on write that multiple tonguing "is a kind of tonguing in the sound."112 For this

reason, unlike Arban or Saint-Jacome, Franquin allows for the replacement of the

consonants "ta" and "ka" with the less cumbersome "da" and "ga" in tempos "so fast that

the correct pronunciation would be impossible to achieve." 113 One of the members of the

legendary trumpet section of the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner, Rudolph

Nashan, credits his having had the "fastest tongue in the Midwest" to this very concept of

"tonguing on the tone." His teacher at the New England Conservatory, Georges Mager,

taught him the technique—including use of the substitute syllables "da" and "ga" as first

elaborated in the Franquin Methode complete in the context of speed.114

E. HARMONICS AND FLEXIBILITY. A S compared with the trumpet, the conical bore of the

cornet better masks the reality that the player holds in hand not one chromatic instrument,

Franquin, Methode complete, 213, 219.

111
In this respect, with the natural trumpet, the instrument itself teaches "tonguing on the sound"
by sheer force of necessity. The modern trumpet deceptively presents some of the facility of the
cornet with respect to tonguing at slower speeds in the middle register, but as tempo
increases—especially in extremes of register—the difficulty reveals itself.
112
« C'est une maniere de coup de langue dans le son. » Franquin, Methode complete, 229.
113
« tellement vifs que la prononciation correcte soit impossible a realiser. » Ibid., 235; Forestier
also permits this substitution, but with no recognition that it helps to facilitate maximum speed for
multiple tonguing—only that it can be useful "when desiring to render it more gently." Forestier
Grande Methode, 3:166.
114
Rudolph Nashan, telephone interview by author, February 13, 2008.
67
but several natural instruments, soldered together, and accessible by depressing the

valves in seven combinations (positions). Practically speaking, the cornet presents little

danger in performance of notes accidentally slipping or cracking to an undesired

harmonic. This remains true except at the very top of its range, which, as discussed

above, receives little use. At the same time, the conical bore of the cornet naturally

facilitates flexibility (the ease with which one can pass from note to note over an interval)

as compared to the cylindrical bore of the trumpet.

This being the case, the authors of nineteenth-century cornet methods devote

relatively little space to exercises on harmonics—the variation of harmonics without

recourse to the valves. The fact that the authors of the first cornet methods all began their

studies on other (natural, valveless) brass instruments may also come to bear here. As

students, they would have mastered negotiating harmonics without valves early on, and

probably would have associated the value of this skill more with the learning and

performance of the old-fashioned, natural instruments than with modern, valved

instruments. For example, Arban's (cornet) method presents six pages of harmonic

flexibility exercises (pages 42 - 47), for the most part written-out transpositions of a few

distinct melodic formulas. These are generally confined to movement between adjacent

harmonics over the interval of a third—their goal being the rapid alteration between two

adjacent harmonics commonly referred to as the "lip trill".115 Coordination of the

115
As explained by pedagogue Earl Irons and others, the misnomer "lip trill" confuses cause with
effect. The up-and-down movement of the back of the tongue—akin to changing vowel
sounds—actually drives the change of pitch. (The size of the opening between the lips varies
minutely in sympathy with this change.) Earl Irons, Twenty-Seven Groups of Exercises for
Cornet and Trumpet, (San Antonio: Southern Music, 1966), 3.
68
fingers, tongue, (and ear) seems to have been of more importance to the authors of these

cornet methods. Accordingly, they emphasize this type of practice in their many

tonguing and arpeggio exercises.

Franquin offers flexibility exercises similar to those found in Arban's method

book, under the heading "Slurs for lip flexibility" {Lies pour la souplesse des levres).116

But unlike Arban, Forestier or Saint-Jacome, many of Franquin's arpeggio exercises

force the student to navigate among harmonics over a broad range, without—or with

minimal—recourse to the valves. In this way, Franquin specifically promotes facility on

each of the seven "natural trumpets" contained within the modern trumpet, not just

mastery of intervals and fingerings. In the third, advanced part of the method, the seven

series on arpeggios contain hundreds of such exercises (if the player transposes the

dozens of models to all the keys indicated). About half of the twenty exercises in

Franquin's first series on arpeggios actually come directly from the natural trumpet

method of Dauverne.117 Franquin develops additional harmonic permutations in many of

the remaining arpeggio exercises. Often, he indicates the use of alternate enharmonic

fingerings, even when ordinary fingerings would facilitate execution (at least in terms of

intonation and accuracy, if not speed). These exercises explore not only the narrowly-

placed adjacent harmonics of the middle and upper registers, but also patterns of

harmonics spreading into the low range, and non-adjacent harmonics. As such, these

exercises develop proficiency in the manipulation of the harmonics available with each

116
Franquin, Methode complete, 139.
117
Dauverne's method book includes roughly two hundred exercises based on musical
permutations of the harmonic series. Dauverne, Methode, 8 4 - 9 1 , 102 - 1 1 1 , 123 - 126.
69
fingering over the entire range of the instrument. Mastery of this skill has proven

essential in gaining the accuracy and agility that can be elusive on the trumpet. Perhaps

as a result of the relative scarcity of the Franquin method book in this country—and to

address this shortcoming in the ubiquitous Arban method—numerous books of

"flexibility studies" emphasizing various patterns on the harmonic series, came to exist
110

outside of France during the course of the twentieth century.

F. TRUMPET REPERTOIRE. If any further proof were needed that Franquin designed his

method book primarily with the trumpeter in mind, it comes at the end of the book.

Franquin included several entire pieces (those also published by Enoch & Compagnie)

and long excerpts (those published by other houses) from the modern trumpet solo

repertoire. He represented all but one of the competition pieces from the Paris

Conservatory commissioned for trumpet during his tenure (up to the time of the method's

publication).119 With their inclusion, Franquin clearly hoped to demonstrate the musical

capabilities of the modern trumpet. He also gave the ambitious student the means to

prepare for entry (and eventual success) at the Conservatory. The versions of the works

as printed in the Methode complete have special interest to modern trumpeters. Some of

The standard books of flexibility studies include those by Max Schlossberg, Charles Colin,
and Earl Irons, to name a few; Forestier's method contains several harmonic exercises
(approximately the same quantity as Arban), but unlike Arban's, some of his contain large leaps
and byzantine patterns as well. The end of Forestier's twenty-first study has as its goal "tongue
independence" (I 'independence de la langue, 103), and several series of exercises in the last third
of his method develop similar technique, under the heading "Exercises for the fingers and
tongue." Forestier, Grande Methode, 3:191.
119
He also includes excerpts from two of the cornet contest pieces from this period. Franquin,
Methode complete, 320, 322.
70
these works have entered the standard repertoire. Those that have not stand as

interesting discoveries. They all appear with Franquin's suggestions for alternate

fingerings, and in some cases (in particular, the Legende de Larmor of Alexandre

Georges) with minor corrections and additions to the musical text. These additions or

corrections cannot be found in any other extant source.

When one looks closely at the Practical Part of the Methode complete de

trompette moderne, de cornet a pistons et de bugle, it becomes clear that—full title not
191

withstanding—at its heart this book is a modern trumpet method. As such, it

represents the first of its kind, tailored specifically to the demands of the small, valved

trumpet. The exercises, like the advice and instruction in the Theoretical Part, certainly

can be applied to the cornet and the flugelhorn, and have great relevance to their study.

However, the method book as a whole, and the Practical Part in particular, displays a

trumpet-specific quality absent from the French school since the publication of the

Dauverne method. For example, the practice of response exercises can be useful for the

cornet and flugelhorn, but because these instruments tend to perform within a limited

tessitura, and because of advantages afforded by their conical bore, they demand much

less work in this domain.122 Similarly, Franquin's Methode complete places great

Such pieces as the Georges Alary Morceau de Concours, the Joseph-Guy Ropartz Andante et
Allegro, and the Georges Enesco Legende still feature prominently in contests, recitals and
recordings.
121
Edward Tarr first advanced this notion in his entry on Franquin in the New Grove
Encyclopedia. He follows his assertion by noting that Franquin's method "[places] great
emphasis on tone production." Edward H. Tarr. "Franquin, Merri." In Grove Music Online.
Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed July 15, 2008).
122
Franquin attributes the relative difficulty ofpp sound production {emission) on the trumpet to
the clarity (clarte) and brilliance {eclat) of its timbre—a result of its tubing, which has a
71
emphasis on the development of sight transposition skills, up to the interval of a tritone,

which cornet and flugelhorn literature calls for very infrequently. By the late nineteenth

century these instruments had been adopted, for the most part, in the standard key of B-

flat.123 The development of the high register, primarily the domain of the trumpet, has

little place in a method conceived for the cornet and flugelhorn. The same can be said of

Franquin's conceptions of syllables for articulation, tonguing on the sound for increased

speed and agility, and harmonic series practice for overall technical development—not to

mention his choices of sample repertoire. These elements of the Practical Part betray the

book's bias as a modern trumpet method. They merit special acknowledgement for their

innovation, and make Franquin's Methode complete particularly relevant to trumpet study

today. More importantly, recognizing them can help the modern trumpet player and

teacher to put the many excellent technique and method books originally conceived for

cornet to more effective use.

V. CONCLUSION. At the time of its publication, Merri Franquin's Methode complete de

trompette moderne, de cornet a pistons et de bugle represented the culmination of a

centuries-long tradition of successful trumpet pedagogy and performance.124 In

cylindrical bore as opposed to the conical bore of the cornet. Franquin, "La Trompette et le
cornet," 1637.
123
French composers continued to write a small amount of literature for cornets pitched in A and
C (concert pitch) into the early twentieth century. It may be assumed that performers generally
played these works on instruments pitched in these keys—or on properly-equipped cornets
converted to A or C by means of quick-change valves and/or extendable crooks or
shanks—therefore precluding the need to transpose.
124
This tradition can be traced back at least as far as the eighteenth century, if one takes into
account Dauverne's grandfather, who played the trumpet (the sounds of which "roused him from
72
composing his method, Franquin drew on the three best methods for trumpet and cornet

available to him, all of which arose in the fertile milieu of the Paris Conservatory during

the nineteenth century. In addition to its many intrinsic merits, Franquin's book can thus

serve as a user's manual for these earlier methods as well, thanks to its detailed

explanations. Many of his novel ideas can be applied to their exercises, as well,

expanding their utility. Franquin also added novel pedagogical approaches, created and

developed exercises, and generally updated the material in these methods to meet the

demands of early twentieth-century trumpet performance. This makes his work uniquely

comprehensive among the many books available for modern trumpet study. Above all,

Franquin's Methode acknowledged for the first time the importance of continued daily

practice of the very most fundamental aspects of playing—particularly response and

sound production—at all levels of achievement, for the beginning student and the

seasoned professional. Its Principles of Study present the first—and arguably, most

complete—written formulation of the basic tenets of modern brass playing and pedagogy.

Merri Franquin's students soon spread his Methode complete across Europe, and his

method throughout the world. The book may never be adopted as widely as the more

generally accessible Arban Grande Methode because of the demands it places on range,

technique, and sight transposition skills. But this does nothing to diminish its value to the

ambitious student or professional for whom Franquin intended it.

Delineating the historical influence of Franquin's Methode complete in the United

States, beyond acting as a sort of beneficent eminence grise of trumpet pedagogy, could

the crib"), and uncle andfirstteacher, David Buhl, the "trumpeter par excellence" of his time.
Dauverne, Methode, 7.
73
be more problematic. Along with the response exercises, propagated in print by the

similar attack exercises of Shuebruk and Farkas, most of the ideas contained in its

Principles of Study seem to have gained currency in this country. The striking similarity

of many of the fundamental tenets of the American orchestral school of trumpet

performance, in particular, to those first propagated by Merri Franquin, would appear to

be more than just coincidence. Yet the origins of these precepts in the United States may

or may not actually be traceable to Franquin himself.

It would be natural to suppose that Franquin's ideas spread in this country via the

teachings of the many notable French trumpet players to perform as members of the

Boston Symphony Orchestra. The tenure of George Mager, who served on the faculty of

the New England Conservatory, could be particularly relevant in this respect. The

performance and teaching of his illustrious students—in particular Adolph Herseth and

Roger Voisin over the course of their long careers—has had an immeasurable impact on

trumpet performance in this country. But when such students came to study with Mager,

they had largely progressed beyond working out of method books in their lessons.

Instead, they prepared etudes (notably, those of Theo Charlier) and orchestral excerpts.126

And of the Paris Conservatory graduates who came to dominate the trumpet section of

the Boston Symphony Orchestra under conductors Pierre Monteux and Serge

Koussevitzky, only Gustave Perret (ler prix de trompette, 1908) actually received his

Particularly, if Richard Shuebruk indeed gained inspiration from Franquin as it would seem,
the exact mechanism of transmission—when, where, and how he became familiar with
Franquin's ideas—remains open to question.
126
Rudolf Nashan, telephone interview.
74
prize from the trumpet class of Merri Franquin. The rest obtained their prizes on cornet,

from the studios of Joseph Mellet or his successor Alexandre Petit.

However, before coming to Boston they each remained active in Paris for roughly

a decade after obtaining their prizes. 127 In addition to their time spent as students at the

Paris Conservatory, this would certainly have provided ample opportunity for the

reception of Franquin's method. They had the time and the exposure necessary to absorb

his Principles of Study. If not through direct study from his Methode complete, this could

have transpired either through private lessons with the master himself or professional

association with his many successful students. 128 For example, in the years before the

First World War, Georges Mager played Principal Cornet in the Touche Concert Series

{Concerts Touche) "and often played at the Grand Palais sitting next to [Franquin's star

former pupil and eventual successor] Eugene Foveau." Another possible conduit for

Franquin's basic ideas into mainstream of American trumpet playing comes with Vincent

Cichowicz. His teacher Renold Schilke studied in Paris with Foveau. 130 Even if the

Douglas Yeo conveniently charts the chronology of their entry into the BSO. Douglas Yeo,
"Trumpet Players of the Boston Symphony," 20.
128
According to Roger Vosin, his father (and first teacher) knew Franquin (Rene Voisin, lerprix
d'excellence, cornet, 1916). Roger Voisin owned a copy of Franquin's Methode complete. Roger
Voisin, Interview; Rene Voisin and Marcel Lafosse, who both graduated about a decade later than
George Mager and Eugene Foveau, may have had occasion to study with privately with Foveau.
They almost definitely performed with him.
129
Harry Herforth, "A Tribute to Georges Mager (1885 - 1930)," International Trumpet Guild
Journal 10, no. 2 (December, 1985): 14; Foveau and Mager had previously studied cornet
together as classmates at the Paris Conservatory. The year prior to receiving his lerprix de
trompette, Eugene Foveau received lerprix de cornet (1906), the very same year that Georges
Mager received his. Both studied in the cornet class under Joseph Mellet.
130
H.M. Lewis, "Renold Schilke: Master Player, Craftsman, and Teacher," International
Trumpet Guild Newsletter 6, no. 3 (May 1980): 7; Closing this intriguing loop, Cichowicz's
well-known set of "flow studies" came to be highly regarded by (Foveau student) Pierre Thibaud,
75
impact of Franquin's method has been limited in this country so far mainly to the

propagation of the precepts in his Principles of Study by former students and their

colleagues, with the entry of the work into the public domain and its imminent

republication and translation into English, the method as a whole soon stands to emerge

from behind the scenes, gaining the wider currency that it has merited now for a century.

who incorporated them into his books Daily Routine and Vocalises for the Advanced Trumpeter
and Methodfor the Advanced Trumpeter, (Montrose, CA: Balquhidder, 2002).
76
 CHAPTER 4
TOWARD AN IMPROVED TRUMPET

Throughout history, musicians and instrument manufactures have sought to

improve the musical instruments that serve as the tools of the trade. Some of these

changes responded to changing aesthetic demands, such as equipping instruments with

steel strings to allow them to generate greater carrying power for performance in large

formations and large venues. Other changes, such as the progressive addition of holes

and keys to woodwind instruments—and the introduction of valves to brass

instruments—although certainly related to changes in musical aesthetics, resulted from

more purely technical concerns. Such changes rendered these instruments easier to play

and improved their technical capabilities, but did little to change their sound. In adding

supplemental valves to the standard three-valve system on brass instruments, Merri

Franquin sought to effect this type of fundamental technological advance in the

manufacture of brass instruments.

Brass instruments require at least seven distinct positions—total lengths of

vibrating air column—in order to play chromatically throughout their range. Each

position permits the production of a harmonic series comparable to that of a natural

instrument of corresponding length. Theoretically, their fundamental tonalities

descending by half-steps through a tritone from first to seventh position, the harmonic

series produced by each position possesses identical intervallic content. The largest

interval between adjacent playable harmonics of the natural instrument (as well as each

77
of the seven positions) spans a perfect fifth.1 Thus the seven positions provide all six

semitones necessary to bridge this interval in half-step increments. Ascending in register,

the remaining—increasingly smaller—intervals between successive harmonics can be

similarly subdivided by half step. But an entire tritone of descending half-steps can be

produced with the seven positions beginning with any "open" (first position) harmonic.

As a result, an increasing number of redundant (alternate) fingerings duplicating notes

otherwise playable by higher harmonics of lower positions occur with ascending range.

I. THE PROBLEM. Standard three-valve brass instruments play sharp when the player

uses the valves in combination. 2 If the nominal tonalities associated with successive

positions are to be separated by equal semitones, the total length of the air column,

descending progressively, should increase each time by a factor of V2. This means that

the additional length of tubing required to achieve a drop of one equal semitone becomes

progressively greater with each successive position. 3

1
In practice, the fundamental tends to be difficult to produce in tune, and sounds dull in timbre.
The nominal pitch of a brass instrument therefore comes from its lowest practicable first-position
note: the second harmonic, one octave above the (theoretical) fundamental. The next higher,
third, harmonic comes a perfect fifth above the second. This pattern holds for any given position.
2
As will be discussed below in connection with Theo Charlier, since the advent of the mobile
valve slide in 1900, manufacturers generally cut the third valve slide to be longer than its
theoretically correct length, permitting notes played with the combination of the second and third
valves to be played in tune without adjustment of the slide. This advancement appears to date to
1900, and Theo Charlier's collaboration with the Belgian manufacturer Mahillon. Theo Charlier,
36 Etudes trancendantes pour trompette, cornet a pistons ou bugle Sib (Paris: Buffet-Crampon,
1926), 13, 15.
3
To lower the pitch of a resonating body such as a brass instrument by one octave, its length must
increase by a factor of two. Therefore to lower the pitch by one semitone (defined in equal
temperament as one-twelfth of an octave), the length must increase by a factor that, if multiplied
by itself twelve times in succession, would produce this same doubling in length: 21/12. An
obvious solution to the inherent tuning difficulties of brass instruments might be to manufacture
78
 On a trombone, the slide mechanism easily allows the distance between adjacent

positions to become progressively larger as the player descends. The problem arises on a

non-compensating valved instrument. A proportional lengthening of the tubing between

successive positions cannot be produced, because the length of tubing associated with

each valve remains fixed, when used singly or in combination. To a certain extent, the

pitch of a trumpet or cornet can be raised (or lowered) for a given tone by narrowing (or

widening) its bore at a nodal point corresponding to the end of a standing wave at that

particular harmonic. But this type of harmonic manipulation can be incorporated in

instrument manufacture only very judiciously, since it tends to affect the tone color

adversely.

As a result, a well-made instrument plays most "open" notes (those that require no

valves to be depressed—first position) very well in tune, as well as most of those whose

fingering requires the use of only one valve. Depressing the second valve alone (second

position) lowers the nominal pitch of the instrument by exactly one semitone. Depressing

the first valve alone (third position) lowers the pitch of the instrument by exactly one

whole tone. But used in conjunction, the combination of the first and second valves

(fourth position) does not add quite enough tubing to lower the pitch one and one-half

brass instruments with six valves, each corresponding to a different position, so that the use of
valve combinations could be avoided altogether. Adolphe Sax experimented with this solution of
"independent valves," as early as 1852. He applied it with some success to the (valved)
trombone. But generally, the system proved impractical. The additional weight of the extra valve
sections and the necessity for players to adapt to the six-valve system to play the instrument
probably prevented it from ever being widely adopted. (Philip Bate and Edward H. Tarr. "Valve
(i)." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed
September 18,2008).
4
Martin Lessen and Andre Smith, "A New Compensating Valve System for Brass Instruments"
International Trumpet Guild Journal 19, no. 4 (May 1995): 50.
79
steps. To allow fourth position to sound in tune solely by virtue of the valves, the length

of tubing added by the first and/or the second valve would have to be longer—making all

the notes played with these valves singly (second and third positions) sound flat. Modern

manufacturers ordinarily cut the third valve slide to be slightly longer than its

theoretically correct length, to permit in-tune production of the notes produced by a

combination of the second and third valves (fifth position). Therefore, in this system,

positions one through five can produce their respective nominal pitches perfectly in tune,

with the exception of the fourth, which must be lowered slightly by some other means.

However, the notes produced by the combination of the first and third valves (sixth

position) and all the valves together (seventh position) sound exceedingly sharp. The

sixth, and particularly seventh, positions can be brought into tune by lipping, but only at

great expense with respect to tone quality and facility.

Intonation aside, there exist a few other major problems with the three-valve

system. These can be remedied to varying degrees by training, but not completely

overcome. The first stems from the physiology of the human hand. Fingerings involving

the third piston (fifth, sixth, and seventh positions), operated by the fourth (ring) finger,

can be awkward, especially since the pistons of valved instruments require a relatively

long "throw" (range of motion) as compared to the pivoting keys of woodwind or

keyboard instruments. So-called "forked fingerings," moving between the positions

using the third finger and one or both of the first two, can be particularly unwieldy. This

mechanical awkwardness, especially in the low register, can be debilitating when added

to a problem common to many notes on three-valved brass instruments: bad whole tone

80
trills.5 Franquin, who categorized all the semitone and whole tone trills throughout the

normal playing range in his method book, put these particular trills under his third

category, "defective and difficult in terms of fingering (defectueux et difficiles au point de

vue du doigte)'* Also, he characterized whole tone trills in the high range, beginning

from E5 as the first note and continuing chromatically upwards, as "all difficult (tous

difficiles)."7 These same difficulties can extend to any rapid passage involving these

problematic intervals. Finally, the positions involving combinations of valves, generally

avoidable in the high register as the result of the converging upper harmonics of the first

few positions, have been associated with difficult response. Franquin grouped the notes

A5 and G#/Ab5 in this category.8

This basic problem with the three-piston valve system—that of its inability to

provide adequate additional lengths of tubing to the vibrating air column for notes

requiring a combination of valves—and the attendant difficulties of execution, largely

determine what key of trumpet a performer will choose to play a given work. These

Many authors have recognized the difficulty of whole tone trills on the trumpet and cornet,
including Arban, "The only trill which is really [tolerable] (supportable) is that in halftones;" and
Herbert L. Clarke, "On account of the difficulty of producing the whole tone trill on the cornet it
is often played in an irregular and clumsy manner." Jean-Baptiste Arban, Arban's Complete
Conservatory Method for Trumpet (New York: Carl Fisher, 1936), 90; Herbert Clarke, Technical
Studies (New York: Carl Fisher, 1934), 14.
6
Merri Franquin, Methode complete de trompette moderne, de cornet et de bugle (Paris: Enoch,
1908), 276.
7
Ibid., 275.
8
Merri Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," Encyclopedic de la musique et dictionnaire du
Conservatoire Part III, vol. II, ed. Albert Lavignac and Lionel de la Laurencie (Paris: Delagrave,
c. 1925), 1637; Although Franquin offered this opinion with respect to earlier instruments, that
these two high notes feature prominently in standard orchestral audition excerpts (commonly
played on C trumpet) such as the opening to Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, the posthorn solo
from Mahler's Third Symphony, Claude Debussy's Fetes (Nocturnes), and the Ballerina's dance
from Petrouchka, the opening of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, etc. would seem to support
Franquin's judgment with respect to modern instruments as well.
81
types of issues often result in trumpeters choosing to perform pieces on instruments in

keys other than that for which they were written. As a first consideration, players choose

the instrument by range—i.e., which instrument can play all the notes of the work. For

this reason, tone color often becomes the secondary consideration. Beyond this, players

further narrow their choice of instrument by determining which one best balances these

concerns while avoiding, to the degree possible, use of the fifth through seventh

positions. Thus, even to the present day, the trumpeter must employ instruments in a

variety of keys. In comparison to the largest modern trumpets, in C and B-flat, most of

these present inferior intonation, timbre, and projection, possessing only the particular

advantage of facility of execution.

II. ARBAN AND COMPENSATING VALVE SYSTEMS. As early as 1848, Jean-Baptiste Arban

demonstrated a new cornet valve configuration devised by Adolphe Sax in an attempt to

compensate for the tuning problems inherent in the standard, three-valve system. During

the 1880's he entered a fruitful collaboration with the engineer L. Bouvet. Together,

Arban and Bouvet pioneered a three-valve double instrument.9 Today, hornists often

play double instruments pitched in F and B-flat. For horns, the double system does not

address intonation issues, in particular, but rather it serves to aid accuracy in the upper

register.10 Arban conceived his system, however, expressly to improve his instrument's

9
Edward H. Tarr. "Arban, Jean-Baptiste." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed September 18, 2008).
10
The modern "double horn" comes with a double valve section, though both "horns" share the
same mouthpipe, finger keys, and bell. The basic three valve fingering system remains. An
additional (fourth) valve serves as a switch between the two instruments. Players generally use
82
intonation. In fact, a three-valve instrument, lacking a fourth "change valve" could not

function independently in both C and A. Thus the C side of the instrument produced the

first four positions; the A side the remaining three.

The first two pistons of the C/A instrument each came equipped with double sets

of channels and valve slides. When depressed singly, they routed the air through an

upper set of slides identical to those on a standard three-valve system. The third piston

acted as a master valve that, when depressed, rerouted the air column through a

completely new and separate path along the bottom portion of the first two valves—the A

instrument. When depressed, the double valves diverted the air running through this

lower path through an additional set of valve slides, of appropriate length to produce fifth

and sixth positions perfectly in tune.11 Conveniently, this meant that third valve alone, as

on the standard system, could serve as an alternate fourth position—but perfectly in

tune—and that the remainder of the positions retained their conventional fingerings. The

problem still remained, however, that seventh position (played with all three valves

depressed) would sound slightly sharp—the length of the secondary valve slides on the

first and second pistons, as well that of the tubing of the third valve, being fixed to the

appropriate length for fifth and sixth positions. In practice, even partly corrected, seventh

position would no longer pose a significant obstacle to good intonation. The deviation

(sharpness) of its nominal tonality from the equal-tempered scale would be reduced from

the F horn for the low and lower-middle registers, reserving the (smaller) B-flat side of the
instrument for upper-middle and higher notes.
11
Lessen and Smith, "A New Compensating Valve System," 52.
83
one-half a semitone (uncorrected) to one-tenth a semitone. Furthermore, only F#/GM

and C#/DM require deployment of seventh position, making it the least used on the

instrument. Arban felt confident enough about his improved system that he implemented

it in his cornet class at the Paris Conservatory. Nevertheless, he felt compelled to

1^

continue his quest for "perfect intonation" (lajustesse absolue).

Still collaborating with Bouvet, Arban manufactured a four-valve double cornet in

1887, and another version, designed to simplify the fingering, the following year. 14

These late instruments were true double cornets in C/A, their fourth valve serving as a

change valve to switch between the smaller and larger sides of the cornet. As such,

Arban's cornets should not be considered compensating instruments, strictly speaking,

since the correction factor did not add itself automatically with the conventional

fingerings. Nevertheless, this type of instrument could provide exactly the correct length

of tubing necessary for each of the seven positions. Additionally, it would provide

alternate fingerings to correct out-of-tune harmonics, extend the low range of the
Lessen and Smith, "A New Compensating Valve System," 55.
13
Deeming his system successful and worthy of being brought to the attention of French
composers and the musical establishment in general, Arban sent a letter to the Minister of Public
Instruction and Fine Arts recommending the empanelment of a committee of experts to evaluate it
and publicize their supposed endorsement. The approximate date of the letter can be established
by the short tenure of its addressee, (Clement) Armand Fallieres, as Minister of Public Instruction
and Fine Arts. Fallieres served as Minster of Public Instruction and Fine Arts from 1883 - 1885
(and as President of the French Republic from 1906 - 1913). Since Arban writes of the "nouvel
Cornet Arban," the letter apparently refers to his compensating system of 1884, designed with
Bouvet and described above. In the postscript to the letter, Arban explains that he has
altruistically chosen to forgo taking out a patent on his new system, to allow all manufacturers to
profit freely from the invention. Arban in an undated letter to Monsieur [(Clement) Armand]
Fallieres, Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, in the faculty file (dossier de professeur)
of Jean-Baptiste Arban, Paris Conservatory Archive Collection, No. AJ37 84, 7f, French National
Archives, Paris, France.
14
Philip Bate and Edward H. Tarr. "Valve (i)." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed September 18, 2008).
84
instrument to concert D#/Eb3, and present new possibilities for "scordatura" tunings,

produced by lengthening the valve slides of the A instrument, that could further extend its

low range or facilitate transposition. Arban's death in April of 1889 ruined whatever

chances for success and widespread adoption this instrument may have had. Between the

fall of 1887 and the spring of 1889, only one premier prix emerged from the cornet class

at the Paris conservatory—the only Arban student who likely would have mastered the

four-valve system.15 Under Arban's successor, the cornet class reverted to playing the

standard three-valve system.16

In 1874, David Blaikley, an engineer and production manager at the English firm

Boosey and Hawkes, developed the only compensating system still widespread today.17

It has been applied with success to tenor brass instruments. Unlike the three-valve

Arban-Bouvet system, the Blaikley system maintains the path of the vibrating air column

through the customary slides on the first two valves even when the player depresses the

third valve. However, the third valve slide itself channels through the bottom of the first

two pistons, in such a way that when used alone, the path of its slide passes straight

through them. But when used in conjunction with one or more of the first two pistons, its

path diverts through small corrective slides that add the necessary lengths of

compensating tubing. In its three-valve form, the Blaikley system presents the same

shortcoming as the three-valve Arban-Bouvet system: it cannot fully compensate seventh

15
Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire de musique et de declamation: documents historiques et
administratifs, recueillis ou reconstitues par Constant PIERRE, Sous-chef du Secretariat, Laureat
de L Institut (Paris: Imperimerie Nationale, 1900), 648.
16
Bate and Tarr. "Valve (i)."
17
E.D. Mackerness. "Blaikley, David James." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed September 19, 2008).
85
position, since fifth and sixth positions necessarily determine the maximum lengths of the

corrective loops. In the four-valve Blaikley system, popular on euphoniums, the

additional (fourth) valve lowers the nominal pitch of the instrument by two-and-one-half

tones. Its slide (not that of the third valve) travels through the bottoms of the other

pistons where it becomes diverted through corrective addenda as they lower. This way,

the problematic sixth and seventh positions can be played with fourth valve alone and

with a combination of the second and fourth valves, respectively.18 The four-valve

Blaikley system, as applied to the euphonium, brings the additional advantage of

providing an extended low range descending, in tune, chromatically down to its pedal C

(C2). Despite its popularity, this system has been associated with excessive "stuffiness"

or air resistance as compared to non-compensating instruments, even on tenor and bass

instruments.19 Thus one would expect Blaikley system trumpets or cornets—on which

the corrective tubing would be particularly small and tightly bent relative to the bore
20
size—to present even greater resistance.

As attractive as the idea of a fully compensating instrument may be in theory, in

practice it may not work, and may not be necessary. Trumpets and cornets present a

complex interior geometry that combines elements of cylindrical and conical tubing, with

18
Lessen and Smith, "A New Compensating Valve System," 52 - 53.
19
The resistance to airflow probably results from the extra bends in the tubing diverted through
the supplementary corrective slides. E.D. Mackerness. "Blaikley, David James." In Grove Music
Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed September 19,
2008).
20
A recent innovation by mechanical engineer and amateur trumpeter Martin Lessen, patented in
1991, may improve these problems by incorporating the corrective addenda internally within the
first two pistons, by virtue of convoluted valve channels. Such trumpets, to date, have not gone
into production commercially. Lessen and Smith, "A New Compensating Valve System," 54 -
55.
86
further discontinuities added by their various joints, the mouthpiece, and the bell. As a

result, their harmonics do not correspond exactly to those of either a cylindrical or

conical bore tube, and therefore do not align precisely with the regular intervallic pattern

theoretically produced by a conical tube with a closed end. Thus, even if a compensating

instrument brings the nominal pitches of each position perfectly into tune relative to one

another, the higher harmonics each position produces could still be out of tune. And

paradoxically—particularly in the case of the trumpet—a compensating system might

cause the lowest notes played with fifth and sixth positions (G3 and F#/GM) to sound

flat. Even on non-compensating instruments, these notes tend to lie slightly low, the

degree of flatness depending on the particular combination of player, instrument, and

mouthpiece. Thus on the trumpet, a compensating system would in practice only serve to

improve the pitch of D4 (sixth position) and C#/Db4 (seventh position). And while a

compensating system that preserves the conventional fingerings for all positions requires

no reeducation period for the player, it does nothing to address the physical awkwardness

of the positions requiring the fourth finger. Finally, a system that relies on a double

instrument in a lower key, while addressing all these problems, does nothing to improve

facility in upper register, and may in practice be detrimental to it.

III. MERRI FRANQUIN AND THE ASCENDING VALVE. Merri Franquin used the novel

expedient of a single ascending piston valve added to the conventional three-valve

configuration to invent a partially-double system that, contrary to Arban's, exploited a

higher tonality. Just as a valve can be constructed to reroute the air column through an

87
additional length of tubing when depressed, the connection can be reversed. A valve can

be assembled in such a way that the ordinary course of the airway it controls includes a

length of tubing that the valve removes from the airway when depressed. Ascending

systems—if not ascending valves—had been widely used prior to Franquin's invention.

The first chromatic trumpets and bugles, mentioned in the Precis historiques of

Dauverne's method (and later, in Franquin's Encyclopedic article), relied on an ascending

system of keys not unlike those of a woodwind instrument, in which depressing keys

raised the nominal pitch of the instrument.21 Also, the "independent valve" system

devised by Adolphe Sax in 1852 relied exclusively on (six) ascending piston valves.22

Franquin undertook his first attempt at an ascending fourth valve trumpet around

1888—the year that Arban produced his improved four-valve cornet—in conjunction

with the French manufacturer Millereau. "Although constituting a great

advancement...," (un grandprogres, in Franquin's words), this prototype remained

"incomplete." He performed on the new trumpet in his Principal posts with both the

Colonne Concert Series {Concerts Colonne) and the orchestra of the Paris Opera.

Apparently pleased with its intonation, he eventually abandoned it because it did not

"entirely satisfy him in terms of tone (sonorite), a defect common to all new systems

when first produced."23 In his encyclopedia article Franquin chronicles, "towards 1912,

the idea came to him to make a new attempt and to suggest its fabrication to the company

21
Francois Dauverne, Methode pour la trompette (1857; repr., Paris: International Music
Diffusion, 1991), 21, 26 (fig. 8, 9); Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1625.
Philip Bate, The Trumpet and Trombone: An Outline of their History, Development and
Construction (London: Ernest Benn, 1966), 1 7 2 - 3 .
23
Franquin, "La trompette et le comet," 1613.
88
Jerome Thibouville-Lamy, which succeeded in giving complete satisfaction."24 With the

aid of the patent counsel and engineering firm of M. Armengaud, Jr., Thibouville-Lamy

et Compagnie requested a French patent for the invention of the ascending valve,

applicable to all brass instruments, on January 2, 1913/ 5 The French National Office of

Industrial Property issued the patent on March 19 of the same year. The same office

published patent number 452.822 for the "Additional ascending piston intended to raise

the fundamental key of a piston-valve instrument," on May 23, 1913. (Reproduced with

English translation in Appendix 2.)

As stated in the patent, the additional valve not only served to raise the key of the

instrument by one step (thus bringing the advantages in the high range of a smaller

instrument with respect to note accuracy), it also provided the following benefits:

Easy production of two rather thankless high notes—the A, which

is played with the first and second pistons, and the A-flat, with the second
and third pistons. Thanks to this fourth piston, the A is played open [none
of the three main valves depressed—only the fourth] and the A-flat is
played with the second and fourth pistons; the fourth replacing the third.

24
Franquin, "La trompette et le cornet," 1613; Other sources put the beginning of the
collaboration between Franquin and Thibouville-Lamy and Cie at 1905. Most likely, the
collaboration beginning 1905, in which Franquin began to work with the eighteen-year-old
technician (and future owner of the company) A.E. Acoulon, resulted first in the standard three-
valve Thibouville-Lamy C trumpet that enjoyed the monopoly on sales to the Paris Conservatory
and became the preferred instrument of French trumpeters for [nearly] thirty years. The four-
valve trumpet used the same bell. Melvyn Broiles: "The Acoulon Letters", Trumpets through
Time (unpublished typescript, 1964), 16; Roger Voisin and Earl Gaar, A Users Manual for the
Four Valve C/D Trumpet (unpublished typescript, c. 1994), 1-2.
25
As worded in the descriptive title, the patent targeted all "piston [valve] musical instruments."
The first four lines of the patent specifically list "trumpets, cornets, trombones, saxhorns, etc...."
French Patent No. 452.822
89
 On three piston instruments, the low C-sharp and D are always too
high, however with the fourth piston they can be played absolutely in
tune.26

To these benefits, one might add that the whole tone ascending fourth valve

eliminates having to use the awkward sixth and seventh positions for all but the lowest

two notes of the instrument: G3, and F#/Gb3. It reduces the need for fifth position as

well, rendering it necessary only in the cases of G#/Ab3 and low D#/E64. This system

also facilitates some of the most difficult whole tone trills by allowing the player to enjoy

the relative ease associated with playing them a whole tone lower. Like Arban, Franquin

did not intend the fourth piston of his system to serve primarily as a quick-change valve

(in this case, to D). He designed the instrument as pictured in the patent to be a C

trumpet—a concert pitch instrument. But equipped with his ascending valve system, it

overcame the tuning difficulties, awkward trills and fingerings normally associated with

that instrument. As produced, this instrument used the very same bell as the popular

Thibouville-Lamy three-valve C trumpets. It maintained the characteristic beauty of

sound, and easy response, associated with those instruments. Despite being primarily a

C trumpet, by shortening the length of the valve slides appropriately and keeping the

fourth valve depressed continuously, it could also serve as a D trumpet for pieces written

for that instrument, or for extended passages in D.

Franquin's system presented the special advantage that a trumpet so-equipped

French National Office of Industrial Property, XVII.—Industrial Arts, 4.—Music, Patent No.
452.822, Piston supplementaire ascendant destine a remonter la tonalite fondamentale des
instruments de musique a piston (23 May 1913), 2, lines 17 — 27.
27
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 1; Thibouville-Lamy
catalogue description (Appendix 4).
90
could still be played as a conventional C trumpet by only using the three traditional

valves. Use of the extra ascending valve remained optional. This might allow a player to

adopt the new system gradually, full exploitation of which (like any new fingering

system) might take a player adept at the conventional system six months to master.

With time and practice a player might go on to develop fluency with the myriad new

possibilities for alternate fingerings such an instrument offers, applying them to difficult

technical passages for greater facility.

IV. THE FIFTH VALVE. Like Arban after the creation of his three-valve double

instrument, Franquin seemed almost obsessively determined not only to improve, but to

perfect his new invention. Defying advice from his technical collaborator at Thibouville-

Lamy, A.E. Acoulon, that "he was foolish to break his neck" for such minor

improvement, Franquin decided to further elaborate his system. His wish to further

improve his new system grew in particular from his desire to offer "backward

compatibility" with respect to the literature of the older trumpets, to borrow a concept

from twenty-first century technological parlance.30 Franquin sought to bridge the void

created with the adoption of small trumpets between their lowest playable note (written

F#/GM) and the low notes called for by older literature, especially that of turn-of-the-

century composers who wrote for large, valved trumpets in F and Eb. In particular, the

28
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 5.
29
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 15.
30
That within fifty years trumpet players would once again begin to take up the natural trumpet,
as part of the burgeoning early music movement in whose formative stages he participated in the
1880's, would no doubt have come as quite a shock to Franquin.
91
small trumpet's inability to play the low Eb (Eb3) of Victor Alphonse Duvernoy's

Serenade (1906), and to a lesser degree that of Camille Saint-Saens' Septuour (1880),
•51 on

frustrated Franquin. "Thus this progress had to be completed." He took advantage of

the "regrettable leisure" caused by the outbreak of the First World War to research and
"IT

develop a new prototype.

The fruit of his labor came in 1916, with the production of a five-valve trumpet.

Thibouville-Lamy & C ie applied for the patent, again with the help of counsel-engineer

Armengaud, Jr., on January 17, 1916, and again covering all "piston [valve] musical

instruments." 34 Evidently delayed by the war and its aftermath, the French government

did not issue the patent until March 14, 1921. Patent number 521.761 was published on

July 19, 1921, this time formally crediting "M.J.B. Franquin" as the source of the

invention. (Reproduced with English translation in Appendix 3.)

The new patent encompassed and superseded the patent for Franquin's earlier

31
Franquin admits the possibility of transposing the low Eb of the Saint-Saens up one octave. To
do so in the Duvernoy would produce a "disastrous effect." Merri Franquin, "La Trompette et le
cornet," 1614; Franquin performed these works frequently, along with the septets by Vincent
DTndy (Third Suite in D, 1886) and Gabriel Pierne (Pastorale variee, c.1893), in concerts
throughout Paris such as those for the literary and artistic societies Cercle Volney and Cercle
Militaire, and across Europe. Gaston Andrieu, "Merri Franquin, 1848 - 1934," published
obituary of unknown origin, photocopy in the collection of the author.
32
« II fallait done completer ce progres. » Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1614.
33
Ibid.; The leisure to which he refers must have been the result principally in a slackening of
performance obligations (remarkable, as he would have been in his mid-sixties), and possibly in
private instruction, since teaching continued uninterrupted at the Paris Conservatory—despite the
departure of many students following the start of the war. Hugon-Roydor, ed., Annuaire Officiel
du Conservatoire National de Musique et de Declamation, (Paris: Maurice Senart, 1919), 281.
34
This time, the first lines of the patent mention "piston [valve] musical instruments in general,
and particularly... trumpets or cornets." French National Office of Industrial Property,
XVII.—Industrial Arts, 4.—Music, Patent No. 521.761, Perfectionnement dans les instruments
de musique a pistons (19 July 1921), 1, lines 1 - 5 .
35
Patent No. 521.761, 1, lines 1-2.
92
four-valve system. The improvement it describes consisted "in part of the addition of one

or preferably of two extra pistons... and in part in the particular disposition of this or of

these extra pistons...." Immediately discernable on the patent's attached diagram, this

new arrangement placed the supplementary piston(s) in a direction perpendicular to the

three ordinary pistons. This move aimed to "to divert the air column as little as possible

from its normal course," and—questionably—to render "their operation easy by allowing

use of the thumbs." 36 As might be expected, one of these supplementary pistons, now

operated by the right thumb, could behave identically to the ascending fourth valve of the

1912 design. The second additional piston, normally set to lower the pitch of the

instrument by one and one-halftones and operated with the thumb of the left hand,

accomplished Franquin's goal of bridging the gap between the lowest note available with

the conventional three-valve system and the lowest notes in the trumpet repertoire. In the

hands of a player able to play "open" pedal C on both the C and D sides of the trumpet,

this instrument, fully equipped with the ascending fourth valve and the descending fifth

valve, could descend chromatically down to that note (C3). The complete five-valve

system presents an even greater number of potential alternate fingerings than the four-

valve. 37

ib
Patent No. 521.761, 1, lines 6 - 19.
37
Three valve instruments offer 23 = 8 possible valve combinations, four-valve instruments offer
2 = 16, and five-valve 25 = 32. Thirty-two possible combinations, on an instrument basically
4

only requiring seven distinct positions, presents a dizzying variety of options, particularly in the
high range where the positions become increasingly redundant. In attempting to promote this
instrument, Franquin and Thibouville-Lamy made the error of including fingering charts that list
not only the useful fingerings, but an overwhelming number of possible alternate fingerings.
Although most of these alternate fingerings would be of no practical use, some might be helpful
to varying the pitch, response, or timbre of a particular note, or to facilitate fingering in the
93
 Used as though equipped with quick-change mechanisms (by depressing one or

more of the extra pistons continuously, with the lengths of the valve slides adjusted

accordingly) the five-valve instrument could be played:

1. in C, initial key, all the pistons raised;

2. in D, the 4th piston depressed;
3. in B, the 4th and 5th pistons depressed;
4. in Bb, the 4th and 5* piston [depressed], the slide of the
5th lowered to two tones by means of a crook.
5. in A, the 5th [piston depressed], its slide not lengthened.
6. in Ab, the 5 l [piston depressed], its slide pulled to two
tones.38

Close examination of the patent (lines 41 - 66) reveals an interesting provision

intended for trumpets of military ensembles, and cornets: the addition of a solitary

(perpendicular) fourth valve instead of the full system combining of ascending fourth

valve with a descending fifth valve. When applied to trumpets or cornets pitched in B-

flat, the proposed 1916 four-valve system would be ascending by whole tone, exactly like

the fourth valve of the 1913 patent—but now operable with the right thumb. However, as

conceived by Franquin for application to military trumpets or cornets in the key of C, the

fourth valve would now be made descending by whole tone, with an extendable slide

allowing an optional length of up to two whole tones. Still virtually unheard of today,

applied to C trumpets such a modification would present many of the same advantages as

the ascending fourth valve. By permitting the player to use fingerings conventionally

associated with notes one whole step higher, the use of the sixth and seventh positions

context of a difficult run. This theme will be revisited, below, in a discussion of a later five-valve
system used by trumpeter Armando Ghitalla.
3
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1613.
94
becomes completely unnecessary over the normal playing range of the instrument. Fifth

position would still be required as a substitute for seventh position, in combination with

the fourth valve, to produce F#/GZ>3 and low C#/Db4. The descending whole tone fourth

valve would simplify difficult trills in the low and middle registers—however it would

offer no improvement in upper register trills. To a slightly lesser degree than with the

ascending system, the descending fourth valve would also permit relatively easy emission

of the high A and high A-flat, regarded by Franquin as particularly troublesome. These

notes could be played with the second valve and first valve, respectively, each used

singly in conjunction with the fourth valve. One of the most important advantages of an

additional descending valve would be the ability to play the low notes sometimes

encountered in literature written for larger, antique valved trumpets. Of particular

advantage to the modern trumpet player, low F, appearing in the low trumpet parts of

works by composers such as Richard Strauss who wrote for large trumpets in F, and often

included as a trial in the excerpts of modern orchestral auditions, would be easily

produced (on a C trumpet) with the tuning slide of the fourth valve set at its usual (whole

tone) length. For such pieces as those by Duvernoy and Saint-Saens mentioned above, or

for Bizet's Carmen, the slide of the fourth valve could be tuned to a length one and one-

half or two steps to allow easy production of Eb3 with seventh or sixth position.

V. RECEPTION OF FRANQUIN'S NEW SYSTEMS. With all of its apparent advantages, one

might well wonder why Franquin's ascending-valve system has not permanently replaced

the traditional three-valve system. Applied to the trumpet, an instrument whose destiny

95
Franquin still seemed well-positioned to influence around 1916—at least in France—his

improvements showed initial promise of taking hold. In his article "La Trompette et le

cornet," Franquin reports, "the five-piston trumpet system... was inaugurated at the

public competition of the Paris Conservatory in 1917,1918,1919, [and] 1920 with great

success." All of his students who adopted the instrument won a premier prix "in two or

three years of study." The Conservatory chose the 1920 prize winner, Jacques Biscarat,

to perform the competition piece for the public award ceremony, accompanied by the

piece's composer and former director of the Paris Conservatory, Theodore Dubois.39

This became the first time in the history of the Conservatory that this honor of publicly

representing the prize winners of the Conservatory had been granted to a trumpet player.

Roger Voisin has observed that trumpet players in France's leading military ensemble,

the Orchestre de la garde republicaine, adopted Franquin's four-valve trumpets at around

this time.40

However, just when it seemed that Franquin's ascending-valve trumpets had

begun to take their place in the French musical world, they began to fall from favor

among trumpet players in the capital:

Then, in 1920, with demobilization and the return of veterans into civil
life, a formidable wave of opposition stopped the development of its
expansion and intimidated youth who made use of this trumpet to the
satisfaction of all—composers, orchestra conductors, and the public. The
young people were afraid of being blacklisted, of which they felt
threatened from the quarter of their elders, who were not equipped with
this instrument.

Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet,"1612.

40
Roger Voisin, interview by author, Boston, MA, February 8, 2007.
41
« Puis, en 1920, lors de la demobilization et du retour des anciens dans la vie civile, une vague
formidable d'opposition a arrete le developpement de son expansion et intimide les jeunes qui
96
 Roger Voisin, whose father Rene received his premier prix d'excellence on cornet

from the Paris Conservatory in 1916 and remained in the Paris area as a freelance trumpet

and cornet player for another decade before coming to Boston, confirmed this situation,

pointing out "there were no 'steady gigs' in Paris at this time, everyone freelanced."42

The more established players returning from war, trained and equipped only with the

standard, three-valve instrument, must have felt professionally threatened by the younger

players with more sophisticated equipment. According to Franquin's collaborator

Acoulon, they jealously referred to the Franquin system trumpet as a "... .'bathroom

pipe,' ....'piston trombone'..[.] etc." 43 Voisin explains:

.. .the people who came back from the 1914 war blackballed those
trumpets, believe it or not, because, something absolutely unheard of—the
year[s] that these trumpets were used at the Conservatoire—they took
eight first prizes. They were thought to be a secret weapon, and the other
people blackballed them. When these young people came out after the
Conservatoire class and got to be in the business in Paris, they wouldn't
play with them. And so these trumpets absolutely went out of existence. 44

Although not mentioned by contemporary sources, or by Voisin, one must also

faisaient usuage de cette trompette a la satisfaction de tous, compositeurs, chefs d'orchestre et

public. Les jeunes ont eu peur de la mise a l'index dont ils se sont sentis menaces de la part de
leurs aines qui n'etaient pas munis de cet instrument. » Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet,"
1613; When interviewed, Roger Voisin reiterated that many of Franquin's students who received
theirpremierprix around the First World War faced being blacklisted (« mis a l'index ») for use
of the ascending valve system. Voisin, however, knew Franquin's Encyclopedie article on the
trumpet and the cornet very well, so the possibility exists that he simply recalled the story from
this source. Roger Voisin, interview by author, Boston, MA, February 8, 2007.
42
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 2; It seems unlikely that
there "no 'steady gigs'" existed and that "everyone freelanced." Certainly organizations such as
the orchestra of Paris Opera and the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire had steady
membership. It might be a more accurate description of the situation to say that since salaried
positions were few, most musicians worked (and received pay) per service.
43
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 15.
44
H.M. Lewis, "Roger Voisin: An Orchestral Legend," International Trumpet Guild Newsletter
6, no. 2 (February 1980): 6.
97
assume that the machismo often associated with the trumpet playing had a role in the

backlash against these instruments. The physicality of trumpet performance lends it an

unquestionably athletic nature.45 Especially in the competitive fraternity of French

trumpeters after the First World War, an improved trumpet designed to facilitate

execution could have been seen as a crutch. Its use by a young player could have been

taken as an attempt to mask deficiencies such as poor endurance or other faulty

technique. Since any perceived weakness could be reason enough to hire another

performer, trumpet players will go to great lengths in order to maintain an aura of

physical superiority. For similar reasons, in the 1880's, Xavier Teste—after becoming

Principal Trumpet at the Paris Opera as the direct result of his successes elsewhere with

the small piston-valve C trumpet—felt obliged to take up playing old-fashioned natural

and large chromatic trumpets to "prove that he, too, could continue to play the antique

trumpet" in response to hostility from the older members of the section.46

The notion of conformity also presents itself in the idea that the use of Franquin's

ascending-valve trumpets by young trumpeters may have threatened older players. One's

choice of instrument, though merely a practical consideration on the surface, has artistic

implications and, therefore, can present professional ramifications. The manufacture of

an instrument helps to determine in no small part the nature of its sound. Seen this way,

choice of instrument becomes an artistic choice on a par with such musical elements as

intonation, dynamics, phrasing, and articulation. Failure to conform to such nuances

45
Like competitive sport, a large number or players vie for a very limited number of spots.
Robert Osmun, interview by author, Arlington, MA, September 18, 2008.
46
Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1611.
98
when performing with a section would be grounds for dismissal in favor of a player

willing to do so. Similarly, failure to conform to a certain prevailing brand loyalty could

bring the same result. And sound apart, the very choice of "different" equipment could in

itself be seen by a more established player as an affront to that player's artistic judgment.

This could also result in hiring of a more amenable player, particularly in a freelance

environment with no system of tenure or job security.

In their "Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet," Roger Voisin and Earl

Gaar suggest that the death of "most of the prize winners" proficient on Franquin's new

system in the First World War presented another factor preventing Franquin's instrument

from being widely adopted. The Conservatory yearbook from 1919 contains a list of

students who died serving the country, but only the names of those students whose

families formally notified the Conservatory of their passing. Among those listed, only

two (one cornetist and one trumpet player) might have been far enough along in their

studies to become proficient on Franquin's new instrument—but neither had obtained

their prize.48 Voisin and Gaar, therefore, may have been referring to older conservatory

alumni who had adopted Franquin's system as professionals. Although difficult to verify,

that Rene Voisin obtained his (cornet) prize in 1916 would have made him a classmate,

rough contemporary, or colleague of most all the war dead who had been adept at

Franquin's system. It should be noted that not only older (pre-1912) trumpet alumni, but

also some students who had received their prize on cornet from the classes of Mellet and

Petit, came to adopt Thibouville-Lamy C trumpets with Merri Franquin's ascending four-

47
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 2.
48
Hugon-Roydor, Annuaire du Conservatoire 1919, 281 - 2.
99
valve system. This lends particular weight to Voisin and Gaar's assertions.

Even the best-designed instruments tend to gain widespread acceptance by

professionals and amateurs alike only when championed by the most prominent players.

In the United States, this can be seen in the twentieth century with the predominance of C

trumpets manufactured by Vincent Bach. Although imperfect in terms of intonation,

George Mager and the trumpet section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra endorsed them

in the 1930's, as did Adolph Herseth and the trumpet section of the Chicago Symphony.

Around 1900, Thibouville-Lamy brass instruments became the most prestigious brand of

trumpet in France, benefiting from a monopoly on sales to the Paris Conservatory and the

French military. 50 Surely Franquin's choice of this manufacturer, and his dominance in

French trumpet performance and pedagogy at the time played a major role in this. But

Franquin's pupil Eugene Fouveau became the (cornet) professor at the Paris

Conservatory in 1925, after Franquin's retirement. 51 Fouveau "was attached to" the

For example, Arthur Raoul Bailleul {lerprix de trompette, 1902), Henri Marie Joseph Harscoat,
(l prix de cornet, 1902), Auguste Pierre Louis Meriguet (le> prix de cornet, 1912). H.M. Lewis,
er

Jr., "Roger Voisin: An Orchestral Legend," International Trumpet Guild Newsletter 6, no. 2
(February 1980): 6; M. Hugon-Roydor, Annuaire Officieldu Conservatoire 1919, 146, 207, 234.
50
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 1.
51
As noted above in the chapter entitled "The Quest for Accuracy," the trumpet had begun to
reassume its dominant position over the cornet in the classical repertoire by this time. It seems
likely that students studied trumpet alongside the cornet in Foveau's class, since by this time he
mainly performed on trumpet. Eventually, during Foveau's tenure at the Paris Conservatory, the
classes became formally reorganized. Instead of one cornet class and one trumpet class, each of
the two professors taught a mixed class combining trumpets and cornet students. By the time the
author studied in Paris in the 1990's, the prize offered in cornet had become little more than a
means of allowing younger trumpet students—who had already earned a premier prix de
trompette, but who desired to stay at the conservatory for further study—to remain enrolled while
working toward a cornet prize. At the beginning of the twentieth century, when the trumpet had
only recently begun to "reassume its place in the orchestra," the situation may have been
somewhat reversed. Such young recipients of t\iQ premier prix de cornet as Foveau (20 years
100
larger manufacturer Couesnon, and promoted the use of their trumpets among his

students. 52 Around 1928, the Conservatory monopoly passed from Thibouville-Lamy to

Couesnon. This corresponds roughly to the end of the period of Thibouville-Lamy C

trumpet dominance as "the only trumpet played" in French "orchestras, symphonies,

operas, etc." 54 According to Acoulon, the five-valve trumpet faced another marketing

problem in that Franquin and Thibouville-Lamy introduced it to the public too soon after

the four-valve version. 55 Mechanically, the five-piston system had the additional

disadvantage of potentially disrupting the embouchure—pulling the instrument away

from the face slightly—with the use of the fourth and fifth pistons, owing to their

horizontal configuration.56

VI. THE MOBILE VALVE SLIDE. Perhaps the biggest blow to the widespread success of

Franquin's system came from just beyond France's border. One of the most fundamental

advancements in trumpet design in the past century came with the adoption of mobile

valve slides. 57 With this system, the player can extend a valve slide with one of the digits

old), Bodet (20 years old), and Porret (18 years old) remained at the Conservatory for additional
study, receiving prix de trompette before going on to pursue professional careers.
52
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 17; Foveau also used a Franquin system ascending four valve
trumpet, currently in the collection of Edward Tarr. Edward Tarr, "Historical Instrument
Window," International Trumpet Guild Journal 25, no. 1 (October 2000): 61.
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 2.
54
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 16.
55
Ibid.
56
For this reason, Thibouville-Lamy experimented, apparently after Franquin's death, with a
version of the five-valve using pistons placed after and below the conventional third valve, not
unlike the four-valve version. Melvyn Broiles obtained this type of revised five-valve trumpet for
use with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1963. Ibid., 13.
57
The importance of this advancement has never been fully appreciated in the literature on the
instrument. Prior to the First World War, most of the leading manufacturers of piston-valve
101
of the left hand while playing, by means of a ring soldered to the sleeve of the valve slide.

This allows for real-time compensation of (sharp) notes played using the sixth and

seventh positions. Today, players take this expedient for granted.

Yet, however apparent it may now seem, the advantages afforded by this solution

would have been much less evident to trumpet players and manufacturers one hundred

years ago. One must keep in mind that around 1900, large trumpets in E-flat and F had

only recently begun to face obsolescence. Whatever their limitations in terms of note

accuracy, because of their low fundamentals, all of the notes on these instruments above

F3 concert (large E-flat trumpet) or G3 concert (large F trumpet)—i.e., the entire useful

range—could be played without using sixth or seventh positions. Thus, mobile valve

slides would have done little to improve these instruments, whose main

shortcoming—poor accuracy—lay elsewhere.

Mobile valve slides probably seemed impractical at first on small trumpets, too.

Because virtually all of these instruments were still designed to play in a variety of

tonalities by means of different shanks, crooks, tuning slide extensions, and quick-change

valves, their valve slides needed to be adjustable, to accommodate each configuration.

But to be adjustable (like the main tuning slide of a modern trumpet) these valve slides

could not be mobile (like the valve slides of a modern trumpet); otherwise their lengths

could not be fixed to correspond to the different tonalities of the instrument.58 The design

trumpets and comets experimented with compensating systems. That this experimentation ceased
suddenly—and why—seems to have gone largely unnoticed until now.
58
To resolve this same issue today, modem trumpets that play in a variety of keys—such as
tunable-bell D/E-flat trumpets—come equipped with multiple sets of (mobile) valve slides; one
for each tonality.
102
of small trumpets at this point had reached an impasse. They were not yet truly

chromatic, and so needed to be made adjustable to play in a variety of tonalities. But in

order to be made adjustable, their valve slides could not be manipulated to produce the

correct length of tubing for each position—which in turn limited their ability to play

chromatically.

The basic structure of the first and third valve slides on early small trumpets

differed from those on modern (2008) trumpets. On the instruments photographed for

Franquin's 1908 Methode complete—none of which possess third-valve-slide finger rings

or first-valve-slide thumb saddles—the sleeve (female) component of the slides attached

directly to the valve casing. The sleeve, immobile, spanned nearly the full length of the

slide. Only the U-shaped (male) component at the very end of the slide could be adjusted

to tune the slide.59 This would be difficult to do while playing, without a system of

levers. In 1910, Franquin's colleague at the Paris Conservatory, cornet professor

Alexandre Petit, patented just such a system for the cornet—which apparently no longer

needed to accommodate multiple tonalities—that he called the slide "regulator." In his

system, a ring moved by the index finger of the left hand extended the cornet's first valve

slide by means of a lever.60

The innovation had actually come ten years earlier when Belgian trumpeter,

composer, and pedagogue Theo Charlier patented his own, much simpler system.

59
On today's trumpets, the male component of the upper branches of the first and third valve
slides attach to the valve casing. This frees the external (female) component to slide, rendering
the addition of a ring to control its movement trivial.
Alexandre Petit, Grand Methode complete de cornet a pistons, de bugle, trompette et
d 'instruments a pistons (Paris: Gaudet, 1921), 18; Today, single "regulator" systems normally
operate by means of a trigger pulled with the left thumb.
103
Though now more commonly associated with the third valve slide, if used singly, or both

the first and third valve slides, in dual configuration, the mobile valve slide widely used

on today's piston valve trumpets closely resembles that described in his 36 Etudes

Transcendantes:

To obviate this problem [the failure of slides to compensate in

length for the simultaneous use of multiple pistons], in 1900, the
[manufacturing] house of Mahillon of Brussels, acceding to my request,
produced the first mobile [valve] slide (this functioned with the aid of the
thumb of the left hand). It moves as freely as the pistons and like them
conforms to the finger movements in such a way that one can add to it, as
needed, an appropriate length.
It thus regulates all the notes played with the combination of the 1st
and 2 , 1 st 2 nd 3 r d , 1st and 3 r d pistons, and is useful, moreover, to modify
nd

other out of tune notes as needed.

In addition, the [slide of] the 3 r piston has undergone a
modification such that all [notes played with the] combination of the 2 nd
and 3 r d pistons are rendered viable; for example: [AZ>3, EM, A M , and
A65]. Thanks to these two ideas, the trumpet, which would have
remained irremediably out of tune, has become a perfect instrument, with
impeccable intonation. l

61
« Pour obvier a cette inconvenient, l'an 1900, la maison Mahillon de Bruxelles, accedant a ma
demande, a rendu la premiere coulisse mobile (celle-ci fonctionne a l'aide du pouce de la main
gauche). Elle est aussi docile que les pistons et obeit comme eux aux mouvements du doigt de
telle sort qu'on peut lui donner, au fur et a mesure des besoins, un allongement approprie. Elle
regie done tons les sons formes par les combinaison des ler et 2d, ler 2d 3e, ler et 3 e pistons et est
encore utile a modifier, selon les besoins d'autres sons defectueux. D'autre part, le 3 e piston a
subi une modification telle que toutes les combinaisons sont rendues possibles entre les 2d et 3 e
pistons ; par exemple : [laZ> grave, mib grave, lab, lab aigue] grace a ces deux arguments, la
trompette qui serait restee irremediablement fausse est devenue un instrument parfait, a la justesse
impeccable. » Theo Charlier, 36 Etudes trancendantes pour trompette, cornet a pistons ou bugle
Si b (Paris: Buffet-Crampon, 1926), 15; In the first edition of his book, Charlier placed this text
under the heading « La coulisse mobile du ler piston ». In the edition currently available
(published about two years after Charlier's death), this passage, re-titled « Theorie de
P instrument, » has been edited and reduced substantially from the original, reflecting an apparent
bias on the part of the editor against the use of the mobile first valve slides, now explaining, "all
of these bad notes are corrected most often by means of the lips.... There exist instruments with a
mobile first valve slide, rather rare now it is true. The mobile third valve slide is more frequently
encountered today and gives satisfaction." The title of Etude no. 22, « Du Fonctionnement de la
premiere coulisse mobile pour I 'accord des harmoniques» has been changed to « Etude Sur Le
Coule » in the newer edition. Such alterations present a travesty of one of the major aims of the
collection, which, not unlike Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, intended to exploit the full
104
 Franquin knew of the mobile valve slide—and undoubtedly of the lever-activated

system of his colleague Petit—before the patent of his first ascending-valve instrument.

In his 1908 Methode complete, he mentions the ring-controlled mobile valve slide in his

instructions on tuning standard-configuration slides (which could not be fine-tuned while

playing the instrument, and therefore needed to be tuned in advance along with the main

tuning slide):

As for the low Db, it is useless to try to tune it by means of the

slides, only a strong effort by the lips can do this, or the use of a ring
permitting the lengthening of the 3 r d slide.62

However, he remained unconvinced of the merits of the ring-controlled mobile

valve slide, writing (c. 1925):

People adopted, several years ago, a ring on the slide of the third
piston. One places, in this ring, the little [sic] finger of the left hand, by
which one can lengthen said slide without ceasing to play, and thus obtain
low Db in tune. But this means can be employed but very rarely, when the
note is isolated, or in slow tempos, or also when this note is the first or the
last of a series.

capabilities of a new chromatic system—in this case an improved instrument. As explained in the
Foreward, the specific aim of the 36 Etudes was to accustom the trumpeter to playing in a variety
of keys—"as laden with sharps or flats as they may be"—on a single chromatic instrument while
obtaining the same results expected of other chromatic instruments such as "the flute, the piano,
or the violin."
62
« Quant au re b grave, il est inutile de chercher a l'accorder par les coulisses, une forte action
des levres seule peut y arriver, ou l'emploi d'un anneau permettant l'allongement de la coulisse
3. » Franquin, Methode complete, 59.
63
« On a adopte, il y a quelques annees, un anneau a la coulisse du troisieme piston. On
introduit, dans cet anneau, le petit doigt de la main gauche au moyen duquel on peut allonger la
dite coulisse sans cesser de jouer, et obtenir ainsi la justesse du re b grave. Mais ce moyen ne
peut s'employer que tres rarement, lorsque la note est isolee, ou dans les mouvements lents, ou
encore quand cette note est la premiere ou la derniere d'une serie. » Franquin, "La Trompette et le
comet," 1629; Franquin writes uncharitably about the mobile tuning slide. It has been the
experience of the author that with some practice, the valve slides can be used frequently, and
successfully in the midst of passages of moving eighth notes, in most situations. With respect to
more rapid passages, one would have to concur with Franquin's verdict.
105
In this assessment, Franquin could be accused of a certain amount of hypocrisy, or at

least narrow-mindedness, for his own adherence to the status quo and failure to

appreciate a fundamental advance in trumpet design. It could have been that on some

level, he felt jealous of the simple and elegant solution presented with the mobile valve

slide. He and others before him had labored long and hard only to arrive at much more

complicated solutions. Thus he may have been compelled to see only the defects of this

simple system, and the advantages of his own.

The invention of the mobile valve slide did solve, by and large, the trumpet's

tuning problems, at least in passages allowing its use; however, it did nothing to address

many of the more subtle flaws of the three-valve system—points Franquin's system

corrected. As evidence, one need merely observe that modern orchestral players and

soloists still, in the twenty-first century, feel compelled to use instruments in a variety of

keys to perform the standard repertoire, despite the prevalence of mobile valve slides. In

particular, Franquin's ascending valve system remains the only viable one to eliminate

the need to use the problematic fifth, sixth, and seventh positions (at least in the middle

and upper registers), while preserving the option to do so. Likewise, no other system to

date permits such facility on trills and other figures incorporating whole tones, or serves

to improve accuracy in the high range.

VII. THE REBIRTH OF THE MERRI FRANQUIN SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES.

As the son of a prominent French trumpet player, Roger Voisin became

accustomed from a young age to playing whatever equipment his father "put in [his]

106
hand." He "grew up with that, so naturally... [his] material was... all French."

Apparently, Rene always "had it in the back of his mind to get [Roger] some of those

four-valve trumpets that he had seen in Paris in 1920 that were developed by...

Franquin." 64 In May, 1952, Charles Munch took the Boston Symphony Orchestra on a

tour of Europe. 65 While in France on this tour, Roger Voisin obtained two of these four-

valve trumpets from the widows of men Rene had known when with the Orchestre de la

garde republicaine who played these trumpets. At some point, Voisin also acquired a

trumpet equipped with Franquin's five-valve system, but unimpressed with its playing

characteristics, deemed it a "museum piece." 67 Soon after obtaining the four-valve

instruments, Roger Voisin passed one on to his homologue in the Philadelphia Orchestra,

Samuel Krauss. Krauss in turn presented the instrument to Vincent Bach, then the

predominant American manufacturer of orchestral brass instruments, for examination. 68

Apparently, both Voisin and Krauss hoped to induce Bach to construct a modern Bach

C/D trumpet based on the Thibouville-Lamy original, but this never came to pass. The

younger Voisin started to "bring out" his antique Thibouville-Lamy Franquin system

H.M. Lewis, Jr., "Roger Voisin: An Orchestral Legend," 6.

65
Bridget Carr, Archivist, Boston Symphony Orchestra, e-mail message to author, October 7,
2008.
66
Roger Voisin, interview by author, Boston, MA, February 8, 2007. These men may possibly
have been [Auguste] Meriguet, [Henri] Harscoat, and [Arthur] Bailleul, whom Voisin mentioned
in a published interview as "three people who had those trumpets... trumpet players during my
father's time, during 1914 - 1918." Lewis, "Roger Voisin: An Orchestral Legend," 6; The
author used one of these four-valve trumpets, serial number 18307, for demonstration in the
lecture/recital associated with this document. The other four-valve trumpet, serial number 18305
(generally regarded as having superior intonation), is referred to below.
67
Lewis, "Roger Voisin: An Orchestral Legend," 6.
68
Wilfredo Cardoso, Ascending Trumpets (Trumpets with Ascending Valves): The Use of
Trumpets With Ascending Valves in Symphonic Music, Opera and Ballet (Buenos Aires:
Reprografias JMA, 1978), 13.
107
four-valve trumpet with the Boston Symphony in 1956. Although Voisin preferred the

sound of his main C trumpet, a modern Couesnon, he kept the Thibouville-Lamy four-

valve for use on pieces in which he could benefit from the increased accuracy and facility

it afforded.70 In 1994, Voisin and his former student Earl Gaar induced Los Angeles-

based manufacturer Zigmund Kanstul to produce two replicas of Thibouville-Lamy four-

valve trumpet serial number 18305.71

Melvyn Broiles, Principal Trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and a

personal friend of Roger Voisin, evidently impressed with his colleague's ascending-

valve trumpet, set about trying to acquire one of his own. In June of 1963, he sent a

telegram to the Thibouville-Lamy company, expressing a desire to purchase an

instrument like the trumpet bearing serial number 11941—a 1912 ascending 4-

valve—and apparently inquiring about the five-valve model. A.E. Acoulon, now

seventy-six years old and owner of the company, responded to Broiles on the 5th of June,

in the first of a series of correspondence collectively known as "The Acoulon Letters,"

that Broiles assembled in his unpublished typescript Trumpets Through Time. There

remained one four-valve instrument, in E, on the premises. Acoulon also kept a 1916

five-valve C/D trumpet that he had re-purchased from the widow of the artist that used it,

Lewis, "Roger Voisin: An Orchestral Legend," 6.

7
Copies of trumpet parts marked-up (probably in Earl Gaar's hand) with fingerings for the four-
valve instrument, with the User's Manual include first trumpet parts to Tchaikovsky's Fourth
Symphony, Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on themes by Weber, and Sibelius's
Symphony No. 2, among others. Roger Voisin used another "secret weapon," a small bore
(approximately 0.450 inches) Couesnon C trumpet, #6147, with a particularly small bell (4 inches
in diameter), currently in the possession of former Voisin student, trumpeter Joseph Foley, whom
Voisin told, "Go ahead! Try to miss a High C on this!" Joseph Foley, e-mail message to the
author, 4 October 2008.
71
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 4.
108
as a memento of his youthful collaboration with Franquin. The company had long since

"abandoned manufacture of this instrument." The five-valve, as it turned out, had been

built—or rebuilt—differently from Franquin's first drawing. Its supplemental valves no

longer sat perpendicular to the three main valves, but next to the third valve and lower, as

in the original four-valve design, so that they could be operated by the index and middle

fingers of the left hand. According to Acoulon, this new setup served to avoid an

"inconvenient" tendency of the perpendicular system to pull the instrument away from

the lips with use of the valves.73 The four-valve E trumpet had a "very small bore," and

required a special mouthpiece. Wrote Acoulon, "no doubt you will easily find [a suitable

mouthpiece] made by Vincent Bach, whom I know."74

Although the modified five-valve he acquired played with "great beauty and

intonation," Broiles found the "timbre of the tone" to be "below that of the accepted

sound." He explained:

The problem that exists right now, is that the standard B fiat trumpet has
such a firm hold on the ears of all players and audiences, it is difficult to
convince them of the advantages of the smaller bore tube and bells of the
small high C trpt or D trpt.... My theory, is that Prof. Franquin's theory is
correct, but must be tried on a larger instrument with a larger bell.75

Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 12-14.

73
Ibid., 13; Cardoso, Ascending Trumpets, 11.
74
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 13.
75
Melvyn Broiles, November 4, 1963, letter to Jane Franquin (daughter of Merri), collection of
the author; This notion of the changed aesthetic of the trumpet sound that rendered the old
Thibouville-Lamy instruments inappropriate in the American orchestras of the 1960's can be
assumed to be the same that brought Roger Voisin, despite playing with an orchestra still noted at
the time for its "French" sound under Munch, to rely on a modern Couesnon C trumpet as his
main instrument.
109
Despite apparent doubts about the instrument's timbre, or perhaps hoping to find a better

example of the instrument, Broiles contacted Merri Franquin's daughter Jane in

November of 1963, to attempt to purchase Franquin's own five-valve instrument of the

original, unaltered, 1916 design from her. She would not sell it for a price that Broiles

could afford to spend on a trumpet at the time.76 Roger Voisin also discussed Franquin's

ascending four-valve system with William Vacchiano, Principal Trumpet of the New

York Philharmonic. Vacchiano may have been interested by the potential advantages of

Franquin's system, but the thought of having to relearn fingerings put him off the idea

completely.77 Even for an artist (and skilled transposer) on the order of Vacchiano, short

of completely internalizing the fingerings for the four-valve system, the player would be

obliged to transpose for D trumpet whenever using the fourth valve. This in and of itself

presents no particular problem for a trumpet player adept at transposition. But having to

move between this transposition and concert pitch, while simultaneously transposing at

sight a part written for trumpet in B-flat, E-flat, or F (for example) would be particularly

confusing for anyone.

No modern manufacturers have tried to reproduce Franquin's system on a large

scale. The existing Thibouville-Lamy instruments could not be used as prototypes. With

their relatively small bell and small bore, their sound—as noted by Broiles in 1964—no

longer suits the demands of today's large ensembles, leaving only a very small market for

such instruments. Applying Franquin's idea to equipment of modern dimensions would

76
Broiles, November 4, 1963, letter to Jane Franquin.
77
As recalled by Voisin, the notion elicited an expletive from Vacchiano. Roger Voisin,
interview by author, Boston, MA, February 8, 2007.
110
require extensive research and development, and might not prove cost-effective, since

little demand currently exists for such instruments. Franquin required nearly twenty

years of research and development in conjunction with the top French manufacturers of

his day to create a satisfactory prototype. Honing the system doubtless required

numerous reworkings of the basic plans, components, and tools. For example, for the

successful 1912 version, Thibouville-Lamy designed the fourth piston to be shorter than

those of the standard valves, so that it could be placed low enough on the instrument to

allow operation—under the bell—with the index finger of the left hand, which holds the

instrument, while not protruding below the other valves.78 No manufacturers currently

produce such short piston valves. Also, the internal taper of the mouthpipe continues

through the main tuning slide, which has a tapered bow. The upper leg of the main

tuning slide of Thibouville-Lamy number 18307 has an internal diameter of 0.398 inches,

while the lower leg has an internal diameter of 0.438 inches.79 Modern C trumpets

customarily have the same internal diameter at both ends of the tuning slide.

In 1925, Vincent Bach purchased a four-piston bass trombone, designed in 1925,

directly from Thibouville-Lamy. Therefore, Acoulon suggested that Broiles have Bach

build him a replica of the Franquin system trumpet, writing, "he may have made some [of

Cardoso, Ascending Trumpets, 12; Even with the shortened piston, it has been the experience of
the author that very little room exists (between the trumpet bell and the fourth valve cap) for the
insertion of the left index finger to operate it. On a larger bore instrument (with a proportionally
larger bell), this piston configuration would not be viable.
79
Approximate measurements taken by James Becker, Osmun Music, Inc., Arlington, MA, 26
November, 2008; The bow connecting the upper and lower legs of the tuning slide tapers
gradually to accommodate their different diameters.
80
Modern, large-bore, piston-valved orchestral C trumpets normally have a 0.462-inch bore
(measured at the second valve slide).
81
This would seem to indicate that Bach knew of Franquin's ascending valve system long before
approached by Voisin and Krauss in the 1950's. Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 14.
Ill
the four-piston trombones] himself, and certainly he is able to build a ' 5 ' piston

trumpet."82 From what can be inferred of Broiles' side of the subsequent correspondence

in "The Acoulon Letters," it would seem that Broiles did indeed ask Vincent Bach to

manufacture a modern, large-bore version of the Franquin-system trumpet for him, but

that Bach could not—probably since he had already sold his company "lock, stock, and

barrel" to H. & A. Selmer in Elkhart, Indiana (1961).83 In response, Acoulon wrote, "I

fear that the Selmer company will not invest money in a prototype, where Vincent Bach

might have done it. Therefore nobody wants to take the risk either, and I am afraid that

the idea of 'mass production' has crept in the minds of big fellow citizens."84 With the

success of modern, large bore instruments, he doubted any company would undertake the

task:

.. .And now the big idea is; why make an effort of this kind if current
models and big bores are selling well?? The artists [viewjpoint is
completely obsolete in this case. I am sorry Vincent Bach cannot do what
he'd like to do, .. .but I am convinced, that by himself, say when alone, he
would have done it, ... .and successfully, as I know him.85

Acoulon's assessment of the commercial viability of marketing a Franquin-

system trumpet seems correct. In Franquin's day, French manufacturers custom-built

their instruments for professional players, who went into the shop and tried various

combinations of components. As Voisin described the process, before the Second World

War, (in France) professional players did not buy their instruments ready-made, but

82
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 14.
83
Ibid., 17; Andre Smith, "The Life and Work of Vincent Bach (1890 - 1976): 1941-1976
(And Beyond)," International Trumpet Guild Journal 19, no. 3 (February 1995): 25.
84
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 16.
85
Ibid., 17.
112
would visit the manufacturer to "assemble a trumpet" {monter une trompette).

Acoulon, explaining how this worked at the Thibouville-Lamy factory, notes, "The

structures of trumpeters [are] not standard, so we always had various sets of lead-pipes to

fit each player. The bell,... master part of the instrument, was never changed, and it took

us days and days to perform the right one!"87

This being the case, the marginal cost associated with further customizing

instruments to include a fourth (or fourth and fifth) piston would be relatively small

compared to the cost of assembling the basic instrument. In a mass-production situation,

this model no longer holds. In fact, it probably costs less for the modern player to

purchase two mass-produced, professional model instruments in different keys than to

have a new double instrument custom built—which in any case (unless one happens to be

Principal Trumpet of a major orchestra) no prominent manufacturer would be willing to

do for an individual player. At the same time, modern manufacturers have no particular

incentive to revive and update Franquin's system for mass production. The extremely

small demand existing for such instruments would not offset the costs of research and

development, unless the instruments were priced well above standard C and D trumpets.

But this would tend to reinforce the prevailing tendency of players to continue to use

separate (less expensive) trumpets pitched in C and D. Therefore, since Thibouville-

Lamy stopped producing them following the First World War, players desiring

ascending-valve trumpets have had to custom-assemble them from parts of existing

instruments.

86
Roger Voisin, interview by author, Boston, MA, February 8, 2007.
87
Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 15.
113
VIII. THE TOTTLEPHONE. Voisin's successor as Principal Trumpet of the Boston

Symphony, Armando Ghitalla, became the first major performer to take up Franquin's

ascending valve system after Voisin's retirement as Principal Trumpet. Having

appreciated the benefits of this system firsthand while playing third trumpet to Voisin

during the 1950's and early 1960's, Ghitalla adopted it quite naturally. Ghitalla,

however, could not play such an instrument as the vintage Thibouville-Lamy instrument

used by Voisin. The characteristically bright timbre of the small bore French instrument,

although acceptable—arguably one of the signature elements of the Boston Symphony's

"French" sound—under the direction of Charles Munch, no longer seemed appropriate

(as pointed out by Broiles, above) by the mid-1960's.88 Therefore, Ghitalla decided to

apply Franquin's system to modern, larger bore equipment.

Ghitalla, who played Vincent Bach trumpets at the time, decided to use his

current setup as the basis for a new C/D ascending four-valve trumpet. He took his idea

to the brass instrument and mouthpiece craftsman William Tottle, of the shop Tottle &

Son, a few blocks from Symphony Hall in Boston.89 "After a suitable amount of

grumbling, he built one... ."90 As recalled by craftsman Robert Osmun, who worked at

Tottle's shop from about 1967 - 1975 (Ghitalla served as Principal Trumpet of the

88
Franquin's Thibouville-Lamy C trumpets possess a bore size of 11.2mm (0.441in). Modern
large bore C trumpets typically come with a bore size of 11.74mm (0.462in). Margaret Sarkissian
and Edward H. Tarr. "Trumpet." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed October 7, 2008).
89
William Tottle kept his shop in the basement of the old Musicians' Union Hall at 56 St.
Botolph Street. Robert Osmun, interview by author, Arlington, MA, September 18, 2008.
90
Michael Tunnel, "Armando Ghitalla—Master Trumpeter, Master Teacher, Master Musician"
International Trumpet Guild Journal 21, no. 4 (May 1997): 11.
114
Boston Symphony from 1965 - 1978), Ghitalla played a Bach 238 bell—one of the

largest bells available for Bach C trumpets. They used this bell on a Bach medium large

bore C trumpet, C180ML, equipped with a full-length B-flat trumpet mouthpipe

"probably a Bach 25," as the basis for the new instrument.91 Normally a full-length B-

flat trumpet mouthpipe—that is, as one might expect, longer than that for a C

trumpet—cannot be used on a C instrument, let alone one whose mouthpipe must be

short enough to be pitched in D. Without being cut substantially, a B-flat mouthpipe

would not ordinarily allow enough room for a useful main tuning slide on a D trumpet.

The instrument Tottle built for Ghitalla, however, came equipped with a tunable bell, so

the bend from the tuning slide could be soldered directly to the leadpipe. The longer

mouthpipe had the particular advantage of improving the intonation of the C/D trumpet.

Unlike the piston valve used for the fourth valve of Franquin's Thibouville-Lamy

instrument, the "Tottlephone" came equipped with a rotary valve. Tottle did not

manufacture or purchase new rotary valves for these instruments, but scavenged them

from "old single F horns" in his shop. Osmun estimates that Tottle only built around ten

of these instruments, two or three of which he produced for Ghitalla. Around the same

time, the New York City shop Giardinelli produced an unknown number of C/D trumpets

91
Robert Osmun, interview by author, Arlington, MA, September 18, 2008; Jim Becker (Osmun
Brass Trumpet Specialist),
http://trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=652580&sid=a44e052375
ac6c42891a81c9fl423a74, accessed 10/8/2008. Although "medium large," at a diameter of
11.66mm (0.459in) the bore size is 4% larger than Franquin's Thibouville-Lamy instrument.
92
Robert Osmun, interview by author, Arlington, MA, September 18, 2008.
115
with the Tottle configuration. In the early 1980's, Schilke produced several large bore

(ascending) four-valve trumpets, on which all four pistons were parallel to one another.

On the earliest Tottlephones, the ascending rotary valve attached toward the top

of the would-be main tuning slide, its slide attached at a 45° angle from the axis of the

mouthpipe. On later Tottlephones, the ascending rotary valve attached at the very end

(middle) of the would-be tuning slide, its slide parallel to the mouthpipe. The rotary

valve, on this system, operated by means of a lever with its hinge mounted on the third

valve slide. Tottlephone advocate Wilfredo Cardoso, a student of Roger Voisin who also

collaborated with Tottle to create his own unique design, listed the advantages of the

rotary valve system as compared to Franquin's ascending piston valve:

a) it is easier and simpler to make;

b) it is cheaper and in current production;
c) it has a better and shorter action;
d) it is easier to install and of a more compact size than the conventional
piston valve;
e) the tubing system is simpler and more direct with considerable
advantages in the acoustical production. The use of a piston valve
increases the number of bent slides, requires a greater number of [tubes]
and offers more resistance. It changes the tone (smaller) and alters the
timbre to a more brassy quality with a greater number of harmonics
similar to those of a medium bore trumpet.94

In the 1980 International Trumpet Guild Journal, David Hickman presented step-

by-step instructions on how to construct an ascending C/D trumpet, which—like the

Tottlephone—used a rotary fourth valve.95 Since this particular configuration maintained

93
Voisin and Gaar, A Users Manual for the Four Valve C/D Trumpet, 2.
94
Cardoso, Ascending Trumpets, 16.
95
David Hickman, "Advantages of the Four-valve C/D Trumpet," International Trumpet Guild
Newsletter 6, no. 2 (February 1980): 22 - 24.
116
a functioning main tuning slide (and a fixed bell), it required the excision of

approximately two inches of tubing from the small end of the bell. Excepting trumpet

players possessing an unused C trumpet of good enough quality to merit the effort, most

would tend to avoid performing this type of elective surgery on a favored instrument,

especially since the end results of the procedure cannot be guaranteed. And in

maintaining the existing (short) C trumpet mouthpipe, the Hickman solution fails to

address the inherent intonation problems commonly associated with it.

Armando Ghitalla continued to perform on an ascending-valve trumpet even after

his retirement from the Boston Symphony. In 1979, the manufacturer Yamaha "wooed

[him] away" from the Vincent Bach brand. Apparently unaware of the five-valve

Franquin system, Ghitalla devised a similar system independently, working with Kenzo

Kawasaki at Yamaha. On the Ghitalla-Yamaha five-valve instrument, the fifth valve

added only one semitone, as opposed to the one and one-halftones added by the fifth

valve on the Franquin system. Thus by pressing one or the other of the additional valves,

or by using them in combination, the instrument could be made to function in B (natural),

C, D-flat, and D. As with the Franquin system, the lengths of its regular valve slides

worked primarily in conjunction with the C instrument. This system eliminated the need

for fifth and seventh positions altogether, and sixth position for all but the lowest note.

At the same time, the semitone change of tonality might usefully allow the player to think

more in terms of transposition, as opposed to completely internalizing a new set of

fingerings in order to play the instrument. This would be applicable, in particular, to

96
Michael Tunnel, "Armando Ghitalla—Master Trumpeter, Master Teacher, Master Musician,"
11-12.
117
parts written in concert pitch. Ghitalla, for example, found this system particularly

advantageous for passages in D-flat and G-flat in C trumpet literature, explaining, "For

years I played the first two movements of the Tomasi Concerto on a D-flat/D trumpet

using the 5-valve trumpet. All the difficult scale passages in the key of D-flat and G-flat

were suddenly in just plain C and F."97

Like the Franquin system, Ghitalla's five-valve system had thumb-operated fourth

and fifth valves. But unlike the older system, the new fourth and fifth valves operated

with rotary and not piston valves. Therefore, they benefited from all the advantages

outlined above by Cardoso. In particular, the action of the rotary system would be easy

enough to preclude the "inconvenient" tendency of Franquin's five-valve system to pull

the mouthpiece away from the player's lips during use.

IX. CONCLUSION. The beginning of the twentieth century brought two major

advancements to the trumpet's piston valve system. Both improvements aimed to render

the instrument perfectly chromatic, allowing the performer to use a single trumpet for

all—or most all—the repertoire. The simple system of the mobile valve slide, invented

by Theo Charlier in 1900, goes some way toward achieving this end. It also presents the

special advantage of being easily adapted to virtually any modern trumpet, requiring only

a minimum of modification, and no alteration of the instrument's basic fingerings. Merri

Franquin's approach, perfected by 1912 with the first Thibouville-Lamy C/D trumpet,

achieves the same—or better—results, with the additional advantages of improved

Broiles, "The Acoulon Letters," 12.

118
accuracy and whole note trills. Moreover, Franquin's system can easily be made to

accommodate a mobile first valve slide, offering all the advantages of both systems.

Franquin developed his innovation in the same vein as Arban's double instruments,

attempting to address the inadequacies of the three-piston system through the addition of

supplemental valves. And like Arban's systems, Franquin's present the drawback of

requiring specially-made instruments and a period of reeducation for the player to fully

assimilate new fingerings. Franquin's 1916 five-valve system extends the low range of

the four-valve C/D trumpet, and presents even more potentially useful alternate

fingerings and "scordatura" tunings, but at the price of even more complex mechanisms

to assemble and fingerings to master. Since its initial disappearance in France after the

First World War, Franquin's ascending-valve system has not achieved widespread

popularity, despite its prominent use in the Boston Symphony by Roger Voisin and, in

modified form, by his successor Armando Ghitalla. The reasons for this are probably less

artistic than microeconomic. A trumpet combining the advantages of instruments in C

and D presents obvious advantages to the classical performer. Yet with mass-production

now the norm in brass instrument manufacturing, large manufacturers have little

incentive to produce a combined C/D instrument when they sell two separate instruments

pitched in these keys. The combined instrument would appeal only to a small number of

players to begin with. And it would also require substantial research, development, and

retooling in order to mass-produce to modern specifications. This would result in an

elevated price that would further diminish the number of potential customers. As a result,

custom-made instruments such as the Tottlephone or the Zigmund Kanstul replica have

119
become the only way for modern players to enjoy the benefits of Franquin's system. But

such instruments come with a steep price, or in the case of the Tottlephone, the uncertain

prospect of destroying a working trumpet in order to build the new one. At the same

time, the very issues of conservatism, machismo, and conformity that hampered the

initial acceptance of Franquin's system have by no means disappeared in our time, and

would confront any modern trumpeter hoping to adopt his system.

120
 CHAPTER 5

TOWARD A NEW LITERATURE

Nothing in particular to report for the competitions of these last three

classes [cornet, trumpet and trombone], if not the evidently exaggerated
enthusiasm of a public ever eager for some mishap to present itself with
the appearance of the cornetists and the trumpeters—and which passes the
time as it can when its hope is disappointed. 1

When Merri Franquin began teaching at the Paris Conservatory in 1894, he found

himself at the head of ".. .a class [whose level] was the lowest of all and the laughing

stock of the Conservatory." 2 Perhaps one of the most public forums for this derision was

the end-of-the-year competition. Although the press showered most of their attention on

the vocalists—Parisian musical society during the belle epoque was very much focused

on opera—reluctant critical attention was paid to the winds and brass. As Darcours'

observation cited above suggests, the brass competitions at the Paris Conservatory

presented little of artistic interest during the nineteenth century. Franquin's teaching

1
« Rien de particulier a signaler dans le concours de ces trois dernieres classes, si ce n'est
l'enthousiasme evidemment exagere du public qui s'attend toujours a voir surgir quelque incident
a l'apparition des cornettistes et des trompettistes, et qui se distrait comme il peut quand son
espoir est decu. » Charles Darcours, "Conservatoire National de Musique et de Declamation,
Concours des Instruments a vent," Le Figaro, 30 July 1891.
2
".. .une classe qui etait au dessous de tout et la risee du Conservatoire." Merri Franquin to Henri
Rabaud, Director of the Paris Conservatory, 12 July 1925, in the "Dossier de Professeur" of Merri
Franquin, Paris Conservatory Archive Collection, French National Archives, Paris, No. AJ37 5, 1
-2.
3
It may be surprising to the modern reader that any critical attention in the musical press—let
alone the mainstream, popular press—be paid to end-of-the-year Conservatory competitions. Yet
during this period and well into the twentieth century, music journals such as Art musical,
Courrier musical, artistique et litteraire, Le Guide musical, and Le Menestrel, and newspapers
such as Le Figaro reported on the results of the competitions, giving particularly detailed
accounts of the competitions for the vocalists and pianists.
121
vastly improved the level of the trumpet studio within two years. 4 Yet, beyond the

quality of the student performers, the musical depth of the trumpet contest repertoire

before Franquin's tenure left much to be desired. This changed in the final years of the

nineteenth century as the Paris Conservatory began to commission new solo works for

the competition from trained composers. A new type of trumpet contest literature

emerged combining traditional bravura writing with elements of virtuosity and lyricism

previously reserved for the cornet. 5 At the same time, a more progressive musical

aesthetic began to manifest itself in these works, one characterized by the inclusion of

chromatic harmonies, minor modes, alternative scales, and key changes. As leader of the

trumpet studio during this transitional period in the instrument's history, Franquin

promoted his agenda pertaining to the technique, equipment, and artistic/musical qualities

of the instrument through the competition repertoire, resulting in an important body of

belle epoque music for trumpet and piano that remains largely unheard in concert today.

After the trumpet class produced no first-prize laureates and received no particular mention at
the end of the 1894 - 95 academic year, in 1896 the critics heralded its arrival: "Just in time, here
is an instrument—a superb brass—of resolute timbre! How often we have admired it in the
Cantatas of Bach! The students of M. Franquin have been remarkable."; « A la bonne heure,
voici un instrument, un cuivre superbe, aux sonorites franches ! Ne l'avons-nous pas admire
souvent dans les cantates de Bach ! Les eleves de M. Franquin ont ete remarquables. » Hugues
Imbert, "Chronique de la Semaine : Paris, Concours publics du Conservatoire," Le Guide
Musical 42, nos. 33 - 34, (16 and 23 August 1896): 549.
5
Gillian MacKay's 1996 doctoral dissertation presents the most thorough account to date of the
stylistic changes in both the cornet and trumpet contest repertoires during this period, along with
detailed, accurate lists of the laureates and contest pieces through the end of Merri Franquin's
tenure. M. Gillian MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours Music at the Paris Conservatoire,
1835 - 1925: the Development of Styles and Roles," (D.M.A. dissertation, Northwestern
University, 1996).
122
I. FROM SOLOS DU PROFESSEUR TO SOLOS DE COMPOSITEUR. From the first trumpet

competition at the Paris Conservatory in 1835 until the first overseen by Merri Franquin

sixty years later, the faculty ordinarily composed the contest solos themselves. Instead of

composing a new piece every time, they often reused works from previous years.

Francois Dauverne composed about one dozen such solo works, which served for the

thirty-five competitions held during his tenure (1833 - 1869). One of these seems to

have been the theme and variations for large valved trumpet in E-flat that appears as the

first of the "72 Etudes melodiques" at the back of Dauverne's Methode pour la trompette.

The version of the piece in the reprint edition currently available contains only the

trumpet part, shorn of rests during accompanimental solo passages.6 For the most part

Dauverne's successor, Jules Cerclier, recycled Dauverne's solos. He used his own work

just six times in the contests during his twenty-five years as Professor of Trumpet (1869 -

1894).7 One new piece by trumpeter Charles Ferdinand Dubois, entitled L 'eclatante-

fantasiepour trompette chromatique appeared during this period (1891).

Generally, the pre-Franquin trumpet competition repertoire lacks musical

6
The exact number cannot be precisely established because the existing records from the period
tend to use generic titles such as "Solo" "Theme varie" "Air vane" and "Fantaisie," without
consistently specifying the key or other identifying features. Aside from the theme and variations
mentioned above, a collection of six solos and an additional Polonaise seem to represent the
extant competition repertoire composed by Dauverne. MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet
Concours," 21 - 24; Francois Dauverne, Methode pour la trompette (1857; repr., Paris:
International Music Diffusion, 1991), 248 - 9.
7
Cerclier did not publish his competition solo(s). None appear in the collection of the French
National Library. Listed in Conservatory records and contemporary reports as "Fantaisie" (1875)
and "Solo" (1883, 1887, 1888, 1892, 1894) it could well be—the fantasy being a favored
competition solo form—that Cerclier wrote only one competition piece. (According to Gillian
MacKay, Dauverne authored the 1890 Morceau de Concours, erroneously attributed to Cerclier
by Constant Pierre in the Conservatoire National... Documents historiques et administratifs.)
MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours," 27 - 29, 73.
123
interest—or variety, at least—compared to the later repertoire. It seems especially

retrograde when one considers the aesthetic and compositional changes that occurred in

French music during this same period, spanning the compositional careers of Berlioz,

Franck, Bizet, Massenet, Saint-Saens, Faure, and Debussy, to name a few. The

trumpeters who wrote the competition music from 1835 - 1894 concerned themselves

primarily with testing the students' ability to execute idiomatic trumpet figures, rather

than expression. Their works emphasized fanfare and military style: dotted rhythms,

triplet figures, bursts of rapid single tonguing, and multiple tonguing on short groups of

repeated notes (coup de langue de trompette).8 One can hear very little lyrical writing or

passages requiring extended multiple tonguing technique in these works.

The singularly diatonic character of this music also seems striking, given that it

was written for (nominally) chromatic instruments during a period of increasing

experimentation with chromaticism in other genres. Aside from the occasional secondary

dominant, diminished chord, or chromatic neighbor figure, it remains grounded firmly in

a single major key—that of the nominal tonality of the trumpet. This probably resulted

from a number of factors. Although music in general tended to display increasing

harmonic variety over the course of the nineteenth century, French orchestral and

operatic writing for trumpet tended to be much more conservative.10 Thus in writing

harmonically grounded contest solos, these teacher-trumpet players prepared their

students to play the type of music that they would most likely encounter as professional

8
MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours," 8 1 - 8 5 .
9
At the time both idioms were reserved mainly for the cornet. Ibid.
10
As discussed in Chapter 2, in French orchestras, cornets replaced trumpets for the performance
of the most demanding repertoire during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
124
trumpeters without expending unnecessary pedagogical energy accustoming them to key

changes and modulations. Since the trumpet professors Dauverne and Cerclier

apparently never received training in composition, they would not have been predisposed

to create pieces of greater harmonic sophistication. It could be, in the case of Cerclier,

whose class produced only nine first prizes in the course of his twenty-five-year tenure,

that the professor selected contest repertoire with the express aim of facilitating success

in the competitions in an attempt to mask deficiencies in his studio—both his and his

students'.11 Finally, the instruments themselves, the antique, large trumpets tuned in F

and E-flat, presented a major obstacle to note accuracy and thus to updating the literature.

On these instruments, increased demands in terms of technique, modulation, or non-

major modes only exacerbated their inherent shortcomings.

This resulted in relatively bland contest repertoire, which—along with

correspondingly underachieving students under professor Jules Cerclier—did not escape

notice of the critics, as evidenced in this account of the 1894 competition from Le Figaro:

TRUMPET: Professor, M. Cerclier. Seven competitors; competition

piece: a solo by the professor.
The jury has been generous to the young trumpeters who, for their
part, have not been stingy either, with clams, above all in the sight

11
In fairness to Cerclier, it should be pointed out that Jean-Baptiste Arban led the cornet class
during most of Cerclier's tenure, from 1869 - 1889 (with the exception of six years under the
instructor Jacques Maury while Arban lived in Russia, 1875 --1880). Arban's renown as a
performer and pedagogue probably attracted the best high brass students—such as Merri
Franquin—to his cornet class. Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire national de musique et de
declamation: documents historiques et administratifs, recueillis ou reconstitues par Constant
PIERRE, Sous-chef du Secretariat, Laureat de L'Institut. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1900),
436, 451, 650 - 1; At the same time, French cornetists played the better parts and enjoyed a
greater number of professional performance opportunities since the cornet was equally welcome
at the time in popular, military, dance, concert, and opera music—which in itself may well have
left trumpet a distant second choice for many potential students.
125
 reading. It must be said that some played with a certain taste and a
satisfying enough tone. 12

In 1896, the composer Alfred Bruneau (who later became the Inspector General of

Musical Instruction for the Conservatory) complained in the same newspaper of the

cornet competition piece, "the banality, the platitude, truly exceed the acceptable limits.

And to this end, I must comment that, with but rare exceptions, the required pieces in the

wind instrument classes are unworthy of being heard in a self-respecting conservatory." 13

However, the situation soon changed for the wind and brass classes. The cornets

and trumpets seem to have been slightly in advance of the other wind instruments with

regard to receiving new contest repertoire. 14 One might imagine that their evidently

retrograde instructor-written works, lack of a suitable body of historical repertoire upon

which to draw, and lack of high public expectations with regard to quality, made these

« TROMPETTE : Professeur, M. Cerclier. Sept concurrents; morceau d'execution : un solo du

professeur. Le jury a ete genereux envers les jeunes trompettistes qui, eux, n'ont pas non plus ete
avares de couacs, surtout dans le dechiffrage. II faut dire que plusieurs ont joue avec un certain
gout et une assez satisfaisante sonorite. » Charles Darcours, "Concours du Conservatoire,
Instruments a vent," Le Figaro, 1 August 1894.
13
« .. .La banalite, la platitude passent vraiment la mesure permise. Et a ce propos, je dois
constater, qu'a de rares exceptions pres, les morceaux imposes dans les cours d'instruments a
vent sont indignes d'etre entendus en un conservatoire qui se respecte. » Bruneau did, however,
single out that year's trumpet piece for mild praise: "Also M. Rougnon has wisely been
commissioned to write for the trumpet players a concerto which, short of great originality, is at
least carefully written." « Aussi a-t-on sagement fait de commander a M. Rougnon pour les
trompettistes un concerto qui, a defaut d'une grande originalite, est au moins soigneusement ecrit.
» Alfred Bruneau, "Concours du Conservatoire : Cor, cornet a pistons, trompette et trombone,"
Le Figaro, 1 August 1896; By 1919, Bruneau sat on the Conservatory's Board of Overseers for
Instruction (Conseil Superieur d 'Enseignemeni) as the Inspecteur general de I 'Enseignement
musical. Hugon-Roydor, ed., Annuaire Officiel du Conservatoire National de Musique et de
Declamation, (Paris: Maurice Senart, 1919), 9.
14
After nearly three decades of works written by cornetists, Emile Jonas, a Conservatory-trained
composer, former solfege repetiteur, and former professor for the students Gymnase Musicale
Militaire, wrote the cornet pieces for 1894 - 1896. But this represented a lateral move, at best:
Jonas' Deuxieme fantaisie pour cornet a pistons specifically provoked the critical rebuke cited in
the previous footnote. Pierre, Le Conservatoire National, 781.
126
classes a good place to experiment with such reform. In a centralized system such as that

of the French National Conservatory, it appears unlikely that any single brass faculty

member would have had the political, administrative, and financial means at his disposal

to begin commissioning works independently. 15 However the changes came about, they

were formalized under the administration of the new Conservatory Director. As critic

Hugues Imbert noted, "this year [1897], M. Theodore Dubois, judging quite rightly that it

was necessary to modify the somewhat outdated contest pieces, had solicited certain

composers to write special works for the wind instruments." 16

Even Bruneau, after his fierce critique of the previous year's repertoire, noticed the

improvement:

First let me say a word about the required pieces. These pieces, contrary
to the former practice, were [newly written and] unpublished.... I would
not know how to commend this innovation enough. Save M. [Gabriel]
Pares, a cornet specialist who left to his solo the traditional and somewhat
arbitrary virtuosic allure to which we are accustomed, the authors of these
pieces have tried to make the brass instruments sing as in the orchestra and

Nearly from its inception, the founders of the Paris Conservatory designed it to serve as the
apex of a "pyramidal" system, one whose teaching—from curriculum to specific pedagogical
works and repertoire—set the norms to be imposed in the music schools throughout the rest of the
Republic and its colonies, from cities to provincial towns. By the mid-nineteenth century the
conservatories of certain large French cities became official branches {succursales) of the
National (or Imperial, at certain points in its history) Conservatory in Paris. Emmanuel Hondre,
"La mise en place des premieres succursales du conservatoire," Anne Bograin and Yves Gerard,
eds., Le Conservatoire de Paris: Des menus-plaisirs a la cite de la musique, 1795 - 1995 (Paris:
Buchet/Chastel, 1996), 169-200; The present-day hierarchy—including Conservatoires
nationaux superieurs (Paris and Lyon), Conservatoires a rayonnement regional, and
Conservatoires municipaux—still reflects this tradition of centralization on a national level.
16
« Cette annee, M. Theodore Dubois, jugeant a tres juste titre qu'il etait necessaire de modifier
les morceaux de concours, quelque peu surannes, avait prie certains compositeurs d'ecrire des
pieces speciales pour les instruments a vent. » Hugues Imbert, "Chronique de la Semaine : Paris,
Conservatoire, Concours de violon et des instruments a vent," Le Guide Musical 43, nos. 33 - 34
(15 and 22 August 1897): 518; Dubois had been on the Conservatory faculty since 1871, and
may well have had a hand in the selection of colleagues such as Rougnon (and Jonas?) in the
years immediately preceding his directorship. Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire National, 429.
127
 have respected the poetry of their timbre, the character of their
technique.

Public outcry over Maurice Ravel's five failed attempts to win theprix de Rome

forced Theodore Dubois to resign as Director of the Conservatory in 1905. 18 The spirit of

reform ushered in with his successor Gabriel Faure spread modernization of the contest

repertoire to other instruments and to the classes for voice, and changed the kinds works

chosen for public presentations, such as the novel choice in 1920 of a trumpet laureate to

perform at the public award ceremony. 19

The trumpet contest solos composed for Franquin's class at the Paris

Conservatory present a number of stylistic innovations. 20 While many elements of

traditionally idiomatic trumpet writing, such as signal figures, bravura style, and extended

triplet "flourishes" remained, "the instrument was increasingly called upon to play music

for trumpet, rather than trumpet music." 21 Some of this literature explores new (for the

solo trumpet) forms and sounds new emotional/psychological states. Composers such as

« Je dirai d'abord un mot des morceaux imposes. Ces morceaux, contrairement a l'usage
ancien, etaient inedits.... Je ne saurais pas trop approuver cette innovation. Sauf M. Pares, un
specialiste du cornet a pistons, qui a laisse a son solo l'allure de virtuosite traditionnelle et
quelque peu arbitraire a laquelle nous somme habitues, les auteurs de ces morceaux ont essaye de
faire chanter les instruments de cuivre comme a l'orchestre et ont respecte la poesie de leur
timbre, le caractere de leur mecanisme. » Alfred Bruneau, "Concours du Conservatoire : Cor,
Cornet a pistons, trompette et trombone," Le Figaro, 1 August 1897.
18
Barbara L. Kelly. "Ravel, Maurice." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.bu.edu (accessed November 25, 2008).
19
Jean-Michel Nectoux, "Gabriel Faure au Conservatoire de Paris, une philosophie pour
Penseignement," Anne Bograin and Yves Gerard, eds., Le Conservatoire de Paris : Des Menus-
Plaisirs a la Cite de la musique 1795 - 1995 (Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1996), 220; Merri Franquin,
"La Trompette et le cornet," Encyclopedic de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire Part
III, vol. II, ed. Albert Lavignac (Paris: Deleagrave, c. 1925), 1612.
20
Gillian MacKay details many of these in her dissertation "Trumpet and Cornet Concours Music
at the Paris Conservatoire, 1835 - 1925: The Development of Styles and Roles."
21
MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours;'' 91- 94, 105.
128
Alexandre Georges and Georges Enesco, with their respective Legendes (1904 and 1906),

sought to evoke characters far removed from that commonly associated with the trumpet

in the dreamy (Reveur) muted endings to their pieces. At the other extreme of character,

Henri Dallier juxtaposed common trumpet figures and circus/carnival music in his Fete

joyeuse (1905), in seemingly self-conscious musical depiction of a boisterous turn-of-the

century fair (fete foraine).

Before 1900, the presence of a key signature in a piece for trumpet was a relative

novelty.22 Yet flat-laden key signatures and scales in different modes and varieties began

to appear, from (written) B-flat minor in Emile Pessard's Premier Solo (1898) and C-

sharp minor in Dallier's Fete joyeuse, to chromatic runs in the Pessard and Enesco (1906)

and whole tone scales in the Alexandre Georges' Legende de Larmor (1904). The

composers also employed chromatic harmony for the first time in solo trumpet music,

including augmented triads and augmented sixth chords, in additional to more

conventional major, minor, dominant seventh, and diminished chords. Long modulatory

passages highlighted this more sophisticated harmonic language that extended moments

of tonal ambiguity to French trumpet music. The introduction of Camille Erlanger's Solo

de trompette chromatique en fa (1901) presents the first such passage with shifting

tonalities in chromatic sequences.

With the exception of former Conservatory Director Theodore Dubois' 1920

Fantaisie pour trompette chromatique, the outbreak of the First World War ended the

22
Following the practice for natural trumpets, music composed for the large trumpets in F and E-
flat tended, until shortly before 1900, to be written in the nominal key of the instrument. Even
the contemporaneous theme and variation settings for cornet by Arban, although much more
virtuosic and full of chromatic figurations, rarely present a key signature of more than one flat.
129
commission of new repertoire during Franquin's tenure with Marc Delmas' Choral et

variations pour trompette in 1914—essentially limiting the repertoire to belle epoque.

In all, nineteen new works written by seventeen different composers saw commission

during Franquin's professorship.24

II. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NEW CONTEST REPERTOIRE: OVER AN APERO OR THROUGH A

KITCHEN WINDOW? Although the choice of composer for the contest piece fell mostly to

the Conservatory administration, and the musical content of the piece to the composer,

the instrumental professor nevertheless seems to have been allowed some input in the

process. Aside from a few intriguing scraps of existing correspondence between Merri

Franquin and composers responsible for the creation of the some of the new contest

repertoire, the exact degree of the professor's influence on its genesis remains unclear.

One can assume that level of professional and personal cordiality between the

instrumental professor and the composer largely determined the extent of the

collaboration, and perhaps whether such collaboration took place at all. Roger Voisin

speculated that the pieces were commissioned and discussed informally, over an

aperitif.25 Georges Enesco, composer of the 1906 trumpet contest piece, Legende, wrote

the following note to Merri Franquin on one of his calling cards. The note seems to have

been written much later than 1906, after Enesco achieved substantial renown as a

23
Dubois' piece, written toward the end of his long career and devoid of the Neoclassical or Jazz
influences heard in later French solo trumpet repertoire, can arguably be best grouped with the
other pre-War compositions in terms of its musical and aesthetic content.
24
MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours" 33.
25
Roger Voisin, interview by author, Boston, MA, February 8, 2007.
130
violinist and composer, in apparent response to greetings delivered by the trumpet

professor before a performance:

Dear Monsieur Franquin,

Useless to tell you how much it pleases me that you will be
present. It has been an eternity since I could pass them [notes?] to you
through the kitchen window..[.] it was so delightful back then..[.]
we 11!..[..] Certainly come shake my hand after the concert! With my most
affectionate devotion,
Georges Enesco.

There exists other evidence to suggest that Enesco and Franquin worked (and lived?) in

close proximity around the composition oiLegende, such as the inclusion in Franquin's

1908 Methode complete of a reading and transposition exercise written by Enesco (p.

311). This could simply have arisen at the request of their mutual publisher, Enoch &

Compagnie. However, it seems doubtful. In that case one might expect the inclusion of

etudes and exercises by other composers published by Enoch, or perhaps the inclusion of

Enesco pieces in other contemporaneous Enoch method books. More fascinating is this

little trumpet melody—apparently offered to Franquin in honor of New Year's Eve (31

X bre ), 1904—-just the type of thing that may have actually been passed from one musician

to the other through a window: 27

26
« Cher Monsieur Franquin, Inutile de vous dire combien cela me fera plaisir que vous y
assistiez. II y a des eternites de ne plus pouvoir les passer par la fenetre de la cuisine., c'etait si
charmant autrefois., enfin !.. Venez done me serrer la main apres le concert! Avec mon bien
affectueux devouement, Georges Enesco. » Photocopy (recto/verso) of an undated calling card
containing the above message and signature, the front of which bears the imprint « Georges
Enesco, Paris, 16 rue de Bruxelles », collection of the author.
27
The photocopy reproduced here of this short Enesco manuscript was included in a collection of
Franquin documents obtained by the author from Franquin's niece.
131
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A letter from Camille Erlanger (composer of the 1901 contest piece) to Merri

Franquin reveals another interesting detail of collaboration in the trumpet contest

repertoire, namely that Franquin's daughter Jane served as the competition accompanist

for his class:

Dear Monsieur,
I am altogether inexcusable: it has been over six weeks since I put
two parts from my Solo pour Trompette aside; one for the incomparable
master that you are, and the other for Mlle Franquin, who so extraordinarily
accompanied your excellent students to victory; and both (the parts)
express, by a dedication, all my gratitude and my admiration.. ,.28

Jane Franquin accompanied at least one other trumpet competition, that of 1920.

She remained active as an accompanist and maintained a private studio in Paris until

28
« Cher Monsieur, Je suis tout a fait inexcusable : il y a plus de six semaines que j 'ai mis deux
morceaux de mon Solo pour Trompette, de c6te ; l'un pour 1'incomparable maitre que vous etes,
et l'autre pour MUe Franquin, qui accompagna si extraordinairement vos excellents eleves a la
victoire ; et tous deux (les morceaux) vous exprimant, par une dedicace, toute ma reconnaissance
et mon admiration. » Camille Erlanger to Merri Franquin, 23 8bre (October) 1901, photocopy of
letter manuscript, collection of the author.
132
sometime after her father's retirement in 1925. A gifted professional accompanist, it

would not be unreasonable to assume that she played for many—if not most—of the

competitions during her father's tenure as a professor at the Conservatory. 29 The tone of

extreme deference and gratitude in Erlanger's letter is also worth noting. That he seems

to be thanking Merri Franquin for the chance to write the contest piece would confirm the

notion that the professor had some role in the composer selection process.

The professor's hand can be felt in some of the choices within the contest

repertoire as well. Franquin made no secret of his preference for the small trumpet in

C.30 Despite the reality that the major Parisian orchestras and opera companies had

barred the large antique instruments from their trumpet sections by 1891, the

Conservatory insisted on their instruction until 1914. Writes Franquin:

The review of the 1920 competition in Le Figaro states, "With much talent, Mile Franquin took
charge of the piano part." « Avec beaucoup de talent, Mile Franquin tint la partie de piano. »
Antoine Banes, "Concours du Conservatoire : Concours de Cor, Cornet a pistons, Trompette et
Trombone," Le Figaro No. 178 (27 June 1920); correspondence between the author and Merri
Franquin's niece has established that the Mile. Franquin in question is indeed the daughter of
Merri. Letter to the author, 4 August 2008; Born in 1882, Jeanne Blanche (known as Jane)
Franquin received a ler accessit in the 1903 piano competition at the Paris Conservatory. Hugon-
Roydor, ed., Annuaire Officiel du Conservatoire National de Musique et de Declamation, (Paris:
Maurice Senart, 1919), 196; Along with the photocopy of a handwritten endorsement by Camille
Saint-Saens (« Je recommende tout particulierement Mile Franquin, [signed] C. Saint-Saens. »),
the author has been given orignal programs from recitals given by her studio in « Piano & Cours
D'Accompagnement » at the Salle de Photographie (51, rue de Clichy), 29 May 1919, and at the
Salle Gaveau in Paris, 30 January 1927.
30
Franquin's article "La trompette et le cornet" presents a veritable diatribe against the F trumpet,
in favor of the modern small trumpets in C (and B-flat). He includes the results of a 1900
questionnaire on the subject of trumpet preference sent by composer/conductor Gabriel Pierne to
various Parisian composers and conductors, including many of the contest piece composers, and
Parisian musical luminaries such as Edouard Colonne and Camille Saint-Saens. The respondents
favored the trumpet in C by a large margin, 21 to 6, over the F trumpet. Franquin singles out
composer Charles Silver, who responded in favor of the large trumpets (comparing the C trumpet
to "a sort of improved cornet"), placing his comment directly after a favorable review by Gabriel
Faure in Le Figaro of the 1904 trumpet competition, in which all the contestants played
[Alexandre Georges' Legende de Larmor] on C trumpet. Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet,"
1614-1615.
133
 Of 45 students to leave the trumpet class with first prizes from
1896 to 1914, 15 obtained it playing the trumpet in F, and all the others
were taught to play it, along with the crook trumpet (natural trumpet).
None of them ever played the old-fashioned trumpets in orchestras.31

Not only resistance from within the Conservatory but apparently also from elderly

trumpeters made "a hell of a life" for Franquin when it came to introducing instruction on

the C trumpet.32 Merri Franquin apparently had to work hard to "induce" composers to

write for C trumpet—"but he succeeded!"

George Alary's Morceau de concours, Op. 57, the 1900 competition piece,

became the first to be written for small C trumpet. Camille Erlanger (1901) and Max

D'Ollone (1902) scored their solos for F trumpet, but not all of Franquin's students may

have performed them on that instrument. As reproduced in the back of Franquin's

Methode complete, these solos come with an indicated transposition for performance on

B-flat trumpet. The low concert F's in these pieces, readily playable on the B-flat

trumpet, lie just below the range of a modern C trumpet.34 Auguste Chapuis' Solo de

trompette en fa, however, written for the competition in 1899 and used again in 1909 and

1919, works nicely on the C trumpet (it only descends only to low G concert). Most—if

31
« Sur les 45 premier prix sortis de la classe de trompette, de 1896 a 1914, 15 l'ont obtenu en
jouant de la trompette Qn fa, et tous les autres on appris a en jouer, ainsi que de la trompette a
corps de rechange (trompette simple). Aucun d'eux n'a jamais joue de la trompette ancienne
dans les orchestres. » Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1614; According to composer Paul
Hillemacher, it was not the instructor but "the Conservatory" that had not yet "yielded to this
reasoning" (ne s 'estpas encore rendu a ce raisonnement) "and maintains the F trumpet in its
classes." Ibid.
32
Melvyn Broiles: "The Acoulon Letters," Trumpets through Time (unpublished typescript,
1964), 14.
33
Ibid., 15.
34
These pieces can be played without range limitations on the Merri Franquin system five-valve
C trumpet.
134
not all—of the contestants probably performed the Chapuis on C trumpet in 1909. In

1919, participating trumpet students played it on Franquin's five-valved C trumpet. 35

Beginning with J. Guy Ropartz's 1903 Andante et Allegro, composers wrote the final

eleven contest solos composed during Franquin's tenure for C trumpet.

Beyond the choice of C trumpet as the instrument of preference, many of Merri

Franquin's pedagogical preoccupations manifested themselves in the contest repertoire

composed during his tenure. Increased use of soft entrances and lyrical passages in/? and

pp dynamics emphasized mastery of the gentle attack {la pose du son) and tonguing in

the sound {detaches dans le son). Performance range extended upward to high concert

Bb with Emile Pessard's Premier solo (1898), then to high C with Enesco's Legende

(1906). Prominent high concert A's and AZ>'s—viewed by Franquin as among the most

unforgiving notes—tested accuracy in the Chapuis, the Dallier, and the Enesco, the only

pieces to be used in the end-of-the year competitions three times during Franquin's

tenure. The Dallier also contains an awkward whole tone trill from C to D—although

trills otherwise seem to be little-associated with the trumpet during this period. 38

Extended passages of multiple tongued repeated notes—commonly associated with the

Franquin, "La Trompette et le cornet," 1612.

36
As this and most of the other contest solos from Franquin's tenure became republished after the
Second World War, editors transposed them for B-flat instruments, so that they could be played
on the trumpets in that key popular in most countries outside of France, as well as on the cornet.
Some of theses works' titles became truncated in these later editions, such as Chapuis' Solo de
trompette en fa, which, transposed for B-flat cornet or contralto (flugelhorn) by Alphonse Leduc
& Cie. in 1952, is simply called "Solo."
37
Played on large F trumpet, the Chapuis contains several prominent second-space
AZJ'S—equivalently difficult on that instrument—in its introduction and middle sections. Played
on C trumpet, the third solo entrance occurs on a sustained high Ab.
38
The corresponding cornet literature is replete with trills, such as the well known solos by
Arban, Jacques Maury's Troisieme solo de concours (1877), and Charles Silver's Scherzo pour
cornet a pistons (1901).
135
cornet repertoire since Arban's professorship—began to appear in the trumpet contest

solos as early as 1891 with Ferdinand Dubois' L'eclatante-fantaisie pour trompette

chromatique. Beginning with Paul Rougnon's Deuxieme solo pour trompettte

chromatique (1896), extremely rapid double-tongued scalar passages began to appear.

In most contexts, the speed and lyrical nature of such passages demands the portato

double tonguing in the sound (coup de langue dans le son) cultivated by Franquin in his

Methode completed

III. CONCLUSION. It would be careless to credit Merri Franquin alone with genesis of a

new contest repertoire during his tenure as Professor of Trumpet at the Paris

Conservatory. Although he clearly favored the changes that occurred and helped to bring

them about, this could only have happened with the support of the National Conservatory

administration. Fortunately, two of the (four) conservatory directors to serve during his

tenure, Theodore Dubois and Gabriel Faure, seemed to have had similar agendas with

respect to modernizing the contest repertoire of the instrumental departments. Under

Dubois, this resulted in professionalizing the composition of the competition pieces for

trumpet, which before Franquin had been written mostly by the instructors themselves.

Most of the composers of the new works were selected from among the faculty of the

Conservatory, but Franquin seems to have had some input into the process, possibly

resulting in commissions for non-faculty composers such as Camille Erlanger, Alexandre

Georges, and Georges Enesco.

39
MacKay, "Trumpet and Cornet Concours" 100.
4
Franquin, Methode complete, 229.
136
 Although Franquin himself credits Jean-Baptiste Arban and his popularization of

the C cornet with the eventual predominance of the C trumpet in France, without Merri

Franquin's preference for this instrument, his instruction of a large number of students on

it, and the creation of a viable solo repertoire for it, the trumpet in B-flat would probably

have been adopted as a modern replacement for the large F trumpet in France, as it was in

Belgium, England, and Germany. At the same time, Franquin's influence can be felt in

the aesthetic profile and technical demands of the contest solo repertoire that appeared

during his tenure. The presence of gentle attacks, soft dynamics, lyrical writing, elevated

range, and virtuosic passagework seems to reflect the musical and pedagogical priorities

of the professor.

As Professor of Trumpet at the Paris Conservatory, Franquin oversaw the

commission of a large body of solo trumpet music during the belle epoque to be used in

the end-of-year competitions. Although one piece, George Enesco's Legende, has

remained part of the standard repertoire, many of these works have been more or less

forgotten, especially in the United States. Others, such as J. Guy Ropartz''s Andante et

Allegro and Georges Alary's Morceau de Concours, perhaps now seen as quaintly

charming but lacking in sufficient technical challenges for the advanced player or

professional, have been largely relegated to high school contest repertoire.41 Owing to

the (otherwise enviable) practice of favoring newer and more technically challenging

41
It probably comes as no coincidence that the better-known pieces—including those by Alary,
Enesco, and Ropartz—were composed for C trumpet (as opposed to F trumpet) and used for
competition at the Conservatory in years roughly corresponding to the student careers of
Franquin's successors, Eugene Foveau and Pierre-Joseph Vignal, as well as of members of first
wave of French trumpeters in the Boston Symphony, Mager, Perret, and (Rene) Voisin.
137
repertoire in the annual competitions at the National Conservatory in Paris, and the

persistence of elements of the pyramidal structure that propagates similar priorities

throughout the country, many of these works have become little-known in France as well,

despite, for the most part, being readily available.

138
 CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

Although trumpeters continue to adhere to many of Merri Franquin's fundamental

pedagogical and stylistic tenets, many of his later accomplishments, such as his Methode

complete and ascending valve system, have retained only limited currency. This may

result in part from an accident of history whereby his immediate successors on the faculty

of the Paris Conservatory—who might be supposed to act as the chief propagators of his

legacy—had already passed through the institution as students before the completion of

his method book and the development of his new trumpet system. Also, Franquin's

uncompromising nature—one of his greatest attributes as a musician, pedagogue, and

innovator—may have undermined his immediate musical legacy.

His method book goes to unprecedented lengths with explanatory text, charts, and

figures. It presents page after page of carefully elaborated—difficult—exercises, etudes,

and repertoire. Unfortunately this comprehensiveness risks rendering it impenetrable to

all but the most dedicated students and teachers. Surprisingly few will study the

expansive explanations found in such a method. And not many students have the

patience to diligently practice emission exercises and long tones interspersed with

frequent rest, following Franquin's instructions. Fewer still—limited by both range and

sight transposition skills—have the wherewithal to transpose his exercises on scales,

arpeggios, articulation, and velocity into the many keys suggested.

Similarly, Franquin was not content to simply improve the design of the trumpet

139
by adding an ascending valve. Nor did he attempt to combine its advantages with those

presented by the mobile valve slide. And although the addition of a fourth (ascending)

valve seems to introduce sufficient complications to deter most trumpeters accustomed to

the three-valve system from taking it up, Franquin attempted to further perfect his

invention—before his initial innovation had taken hold—by developing a five-valve

system. This more complex system provided only limited practical advantages over the

initial improvement and introduced the glaring technical problem of jostling the

instrument against the embouchure with its use. The impractical five-valve system

largely eclipsed the more practical four-valve system in the popular consciousness—on

account of its fanciful design and appearance—and as a result neither system was widely

adopted, regardless of the real advantages presented by addition of the fourth ascending

valve.

Franquin's article "La Trompette et le cornet" represents a historically instructive

example of his dogged persistence. Written around 1922, it has much more to tell us

about the situation of these instruments at the end of the nineteenth century than at the

beginning of the twentieth. Long after the move to small trumpets was a, fait accompli,

he felt the need to argue in their favor (and against their replacement in orchestras by

cornets). Resistance to his five-valve system in 1920 seems to have rekindled his

lingering feelings of resentment towards those who had stood in the way of progress

thirty years earlier. He used the historical example of the rise to dominance of the small

trumpet to make an argument in favor of his latest system, trying to establish it as the

logical next step in the evolution of the trumpet. In so doing, he felt obliged to carefully

140
document exactly how the shift to small trumpets in France had come to pass. This in

itself represents one of the principal contributions of his article. At the same time, one

can glimpse from Franquin's apparent indignation with regard to those who had resisted

the shift to smaller instruments—from his inclusion of the results of Gabriel Pierne's

questionnaire to composers and conductors, and from the recollections of the elderly

Acoulon—that Franquin was likely more than just an enthusiastic spectator in the move

to the use of small C trumpets. Unfortunately for Franquin, it seems probable that his

article's implicit denigration of cornetists, and more importantly, of the few influential

composers who had continued to value the antique trumpet sound above the accuracy

afforded by smaller instruments, won Franquin few allies in the French music world.

Today, trumpet players can no longer afford to ignore Franquin's contribution to

the art. Technical demands placed on instrumentalists have continued to increase, as

have expectations of audiences. The listening public, conditioned by exposure to a

surfeit of edited, pre-recorded music by the greatest practitioners of the art accumulated

throughout the last century, demands impeccable accuracy and technique. Instead of

gambling on newer methods that may contain only a fraction of what Franquin's has to

offer—or that may provide no real advantage whatsoever—students would do well to

commit themselves to the study of his book. It contains under one cover virtually all of

the important pedagogical innovations of subsequent trumpet methods, but dosed and

reasoned, tried and tested in accordance with a great, time-proven tradition.

Likewise, Franquin's quest to improve the design of the instrument should once

again be taken up. Complacency clearly reigns when orchestral trumpet players seem

141
content to perform on instruments whose harmonics are inherently out-of-tune, while

instruments designed nearly a century ago had already overcome this problem. These

same musicians should ask themselves if it makes sense to perform solo and chamber

pieces on large-bore instruments designed to maintain a dark timbre when projecting at

full-volume over a large symphony orchestra. When played quietly, in intimate settings,

such instruments maintain little that is attractive in their timbre. It becomes fragile and

thin; sound production becomes treacherous. At the same time, Franquin's ascending

valve system should no longer be ignored. As demonstrated by Roger Voisin, Armando

Ghitalla, and others, it does much to improve the instrument. In a short-throw, rotary

valve configuration on a trumpet also equipped with a mobile valve slide (a hybrid

Charlier/Franquin/Tottle system), the trumpet gains unparalleled accuracy, facility, and

versatility. As shown by Armando Ghitalla, even Franquin's vision of combining

supplemental ascending and descending valves becomes quite practical with rotary

valves.

Melvyn Broiles wrote to Franquin's daughter in 1963, "...Prof. Franquin [may

well have] invented the trumpet of the future, 50 years too soon."1 At present, one might

extend this sentiment—with regard to his method book as well—to an entire century.

The time has come to reassess Franquin's place in the pantheon of great and innovative

trumpeters. He was among the first to see the small C trumpet as a vehicle not just for

Baroque music, but also for new music. As Principal Trumpet of the major French

orchestras, an active chamber musician and soloist, and Trumpet Professor at the Paris

1
Melvyn Broiles, November 4, 1963, letter to Jane Franquin, collection of the author.
142
Conservatory, he was uniquely positioned to promote the use of the small C trumpet.

With this change of instrument and his attempts to perfect it, the creation of an important

new method specifically for it, and by championing a new solo and chamber repertoire,

Franquin did much to reinvent the trumpet as a virtuosic concert instrument at the

beginning of the twentieth century. Proof of his success comes not only in the

persistence of his ideas and innovations, and the continued use of the C trumpet in

orchestras worldwide, but also in the degree to which the cornet—once the virtuosic king

of the brass instruments—has been dethroned by the trumpet. Historians of music often

privilege a given composer's influence on the course of musical development.

Occasionally, an instrumentalist can have this type of impact on the art, forever changing

the way music is heard. Trumpeter Merri Franquin presents such a case.

143
 APPENDIX 1

1908 COPY OF BIRTH CERTIFICATE

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(J-*lsC^iCfnAL ; l'Ha*Ajllv*AAjd---l JTa-o^cwdL-j •pto^<w<^if -£V*XJ JoWtAMtig), •fHAWteJ, i

144
 APPENDIX 2

1913 PATENT, FOLLOWED BY ENGLISH TRANSLATION

RtPDBLIQUE FRANQAISE.

OFFICE NATIONAL DE LA PROPRIETY INDUSTRIELLE.

— »««

BREVET D'INVENTION.
XVH Arts Industrlels,
4. — MirstQOB. H° 452.822

P i s t o n a u p p l 6 m e n t a i r e a s c e n d a n t d e s t i n e a r e m o n t e r l a t o n a l i t y fonda-
meatale des i n s t r u m e n t s de m u s i q u a a piston.

SOCIBTJS iinbut THIBOUVILLE-LAMY BT C" risidanl en France (Seine).

BftmandA le 2 J a n v i e r 1 9 1 3 .
D^ivre 1 le to, mars i < ) t 3 . — Public le a 3 mai 1 9 1 8 .
La pr&cnte invention a pour objet 1'ad- piston k sont combines avec les orifices du
jonction d'un piston supplfaienlaire aux ins- cylindre danslequel il sedeplace, demaniere
truments A pistons, trompettes, cornets a a laisser la coulisse dans le circuit de la colonne
pistons, trombones, saxhorns,etc. ayantpour d'air, lorsqu'il est releve, et a la supprimer, 35
5 but de permettre de remonlcr la tonality fon- Iorsqu'il est baisae1.
damentale de Firotrument d'un ton; par Dans ce but, le cylindre est interpose' dans
eiemple pour la trompette en ut en appuyant la colonne d'air a entre ses deux troncons k
sur ic piston suppUmentaire on remonte le et I aboulissant a des niveau* legerement dif-
son en ri; pour la trompette on #i Wmol on Krents seraccordant suivant deux directions a ho
10 le reraonle en vt etde mfime pour le cornet a pen ores perpendiculaires. A gauche du tron-
piston en wblmol. con k est placee la premiere brancbe m de la
Ce qualrieme piston interealesur la colonne coulisse qui se raccorde au-dessoua du tron-
d'air soit avant soit apres les trois autres pis- con k et dansle mime plan, i'autrebrancbeit
tons ordinaircs, iaisse a la colonne d'air sa de la coulisse se raccorde par en-dessous h une AS
1 & longueur normale, iorsqu'il n'est pas enfence" hauteur an peu supeVieure a celie du raccor-
et la raccouicil de la longueur de sa coulisse detnent de la premiere brancbe et dans une
lorsqu'au contraire il est enfonc4 et remonte direction faisant un angle obtus avec la direc-
ainsi la tonalite fondamentale de 1'instrument. tion du raccordement de la premiere brancbe.
Sur le dessin annexd est representee tine Le piston auxiliaire, ainsi qu'il est reprd- 5o
90 trompette en ut, fig. 1 en vuede cflt4. sentea part fig. 3 en elevation, est perce* de
La fig. 3 est une coupe faite par la ligne trois conduits obliques a',- b*, «", aboutissant
X-X fig. 1 montrunt en plan la coulisse du respectivement d'une part h trois orifices
qualrieme piston. Stage's et alignes o,p, q, el d'autre part aux
La fig. 3 monlre en elevation le piston sup- orifices de gauche r, s et 111'orifice de droitc i. 5&
•ih pleinentnire, les tronfons de la colonne d'air Les deux premiers conduits «', J1 sont in-
et la coulisse sont represented sur cette figure clines vers le bas et en sens inverse et le Iroi-
en traits mutes. sieme conduit e' est incline' vers le haut.
Sur la colonne d'air a de la trompette est Lorsque le piston est relev<5, les orifices
inlercale, avant les irois pistons b, c, i , et p, q viennent cotneideravee les orifices par 011 60
3o leur coulisse e,/,g, 1c qualrieme piston h denoucbent le troncon * de la colonne d'air et
avec sa coulisse t. Les orifices du quatrienie In brancliem de la coulisse dans le cylindre,
P r i x d u fascicule : 1 franc.

145
 2 [452.822] MOSIQUE.
et les orifices «, t coincident respectivement Dans les instruments a trois pistons, Vui
avec les orifices du troncon I de ia colonne dieze et le r^ grave sont toujours Irop hauls, a 5
d'air et de la branche n de ta coulisse, en sorle au contraire avec le quatrieme piston on les
que la coulisse se trouve iaseVee dans la obtient absoiument justes.
5 colonne d'air qui a sa longueur normale. Au
conlraire, lorsque le piston est enfonce", h RESCUE.
conduit a1 fait comrauniquer directement les Piston suppkSmentaire ascendant destine" a
tronuons k ell de la colonne d'air qui se trouve reraonter la tonality fondamentale des instru- 3a
ainsi raccourcie de la longueur de la coulisse. ments de musique, intercale" dans la colonne
to Cet -agenceiaent du piston n'a 6l£ donnd d'air, soit avant, soit apres les pistons ordi-
qu'a titre d'exemple et il va sans dire qu'il naires et don I le raccordement a la colonne
pourrait ^Ire realist autrement. et h sa coulisse et ia disposition des orifices
En outre de I'avanlage qu'offre ce qua- sont combines demaniereque dans la position 35
trieme piston de permetlre de relever d'un ton d'enfoncement le circuit de la. coulisse est
t5 la tonality d'un instrument, il permet d'ob- coupe" pour raccourcir la colonne d'air et re-
tenir encore les autres avantages suivants : monter ainsi la tonalite* de instrument d'un
L'emission facile de deux notes aigues assez ton, alors que dans la position de relevement
ingrates le la qui se fait avec le premier et le la colonne d'air a sa longueur normale. /to
deuxieme pistons et le 2a Wmol avec le deu-
SOCltiFE J. THlBQUVttLE-LAMY t* C"
30 xiemc et le troisieme pistons. Gdtee a ce qua-
trieme piston, le Za se fait a vide et le la biiraol P i r procofitiatk a

se fait avec le deuxieme el le quatrieme pis- ABBIXCIUD jeuoe.

ton; le quatrieme a rempiace le troisieme.

1'aui U vciitc iet fascicules. I'lulrcssitr it l'l»i-mmtiu« NmoKiH, 87, me Vioillo-du-Tomple- Parts (•>").

146
H* 452.822 Societt PL unique
l i r t o e ThflwimUe-IiMay at C1*

*&/

147
 REPUBLIC OF FRANCE.

NATIONAL OFFICE OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY.

*&•+*&

PATENT.
XVII. — Industrial Arts.
4. — Music. N° 452.822

Additional ascending piston intended to raise the fundamental key

of piston-valve instruments.
Jerome THIBOUV1LLE-LAMY & Co. located in France (Seine).

Requested January 2,1913.

Granted March 19,1913. — Published May 23,1913.

The present invention has as its objective the piston h are combined with the openings of its
addition of an extra piston to cylinder in such a way as
piston-valve instruments—trumpets, cornets, to leave the slide in the circuit of the air
5 trombones, saxhorns, etc.—with the aim of column when raised, and to remove it, 35
permitting the raising of the fundamental key once it is depressed.
of the instrument by one whole step. For To this end, the cylinder is interposed in
example on the trumpet in C depressing the air column a between its two tubing sections k
the extra piston raises the and /, ending at slightly different levels,
10 key to D; on the trumpet in B-flat it its slides tuning in approximately 40
raises to C, and the same with respect to perpendicular directions. The first branch m of the
the cornet in B-flat. slide, situated to the left of section k,
This fourth piston—inserted on the column tunes above section
of air either before of after the three other ordinary k and in the same plane, the other branch n
15 pistons—leaves the column of air at of the slide tunes from below at a 45
its normal length so long as it is not depressed, height slightly above that of
and shortens it by the length of its slide the first branch and in a
when, on the contrary, it is depressed and thus direction that makes an obtuse angle with the direc-
raises the fundamental key of the instrument. tion of the slide of the first branch.
20 On the attached diagram a trumpet in The auxilarly piston, as shown 50
C is represented, fig. 1, as seen from the side. separately infig.3 in elevation, is pierced by
Fig. 2 is a cutaway at the line three oblique conduits a1, b1, c1, ending
X—X (fig. 1) showing a plan view of the slide of respectively at three leveled and
the fourth piston. aligned openings o, p, q on one end, and on the other
25 Fig. 3 shows—in elevation—the extra at left side openings r, s and at right side opening t. 55
piston, the tubing sections of the air column The first two conduits a1, b1 are sloped
and the slide are represented on this figure downward in inverse directions and the third
by dot-dashed lines. conduit c' is sloped upward.
On the air column a of the trumpet, Once the piston is raised, openings
30 before the three pistons b, c, d, and their p, q line up with the terminal openings of 60
slides e,f, g, the fourth piston h is attached section k of the air column and
with its slide i. The openings of the fourth branch m of the slide in the cylinder,

Price of reprint: 1 franc.

148
 2 [452.822] MUSIC.

and the openings s, t coincide respectively On three-piston instruments, the low

with the openings of tubing section / of the air column C-sharp and D are always too high, 25
and branch n of the slide, in such a way however with the fourth piston they
that the slide is added into the can be played absolutely in tune.
5 air column, which is of normal length. However,
once the piston is pushed down, the SUMMARY.
conduit a' directly connects the
tubing sections k and / of the air column, which is Additional ascending piston designed to
thus shortened by the length of the slide. raise the fundamental key of musical 30
10 This arrangement of the piston is given instruments, inserted in the air
only by way of example. It goes without saying that it column either before or after the ordinary pistons,
could be set up otherwise. of which the main tuning slide
Besides the advantage offered by this fourth and its slide and the disposition of the openings
piston in permitting the raising of the key of the are combined in such as way that in the depressed 35
15 instrument by one step, it makes position the circuit of the slide is
possible the following other advantages: cut off to shorten the column of air
Easy production of two rather thankless high notes- so raising the key of the instrument by one
the A, which is played with the first and step, whereas in the un-pressed position
second pistons and the A-flat, with the second the air column has its normal length. 40
20 and third pistons. Thanks to this fourth
piston, the A is played open and the A-flat J. TH1BOUVILLE-LAMY AND C°.
is played with the second and fourth pistons; By procuration:
the fourth replacing the third. ARMENGAUD, Jr.

(English translation by the author.)

To purchase reprints, enquire at the NATIONAL PRESS, 87 rue Vieille-du-Temple, Paris (3rd).

149
 APPENDIX 3

1921 PATENT, FOLLOWED BY ENGLISH TRANSLATION

R S P U B L I Q U E FMNQAISE.

OFFICE NATIONAL DE LA PROPRlfiTfi INDUSTRIEIXK.

BREVET D'INVENTION.
XVII. — Arts industrials.
A. — Moslems.
H° 521.761

Perfectionnement d a n s les i n s t r u m e n t s de m u s i q u e a p i s t o n s ,

SocflM itebm THIBOIMLLE LAMY & O r&idanl en France (Seine).

Demand^ le 1 7 Janvier 1916, 4 1 5 " 5 1 m , a P a r i s .
Delivr6 le lh roars i g a i . — Public le 19 juillet i g-a i.
La presents invention due a Mr. M. J. B. sii;»le dans le grave, limiiee avec le systpmc
Hranquin a pour objel un perfeclioiinement it trois pistons au fa diese, alors que dans la
applicable aux instruments de musique a pis- musique classique ou moderne on a &rit 35
tons en general, el plus particulieremeot am jusqu'au »»' benwl et que les faculty hu-
u trompettes ou cornets a piston. maines permettenl de descendre jusqu'au rt
Ce perfectionnement consists d'une part et un peu plus diflkilement jusqu'au conlr'ut,
dans I'adjonclion d'un ou de preference d« le perfectionnetnenl objel de {'invention ri~
deux pistons suppl^mentaires destines a per- pond a une n&essile' iniperieuse. 4o
mettre, par allongement ou raccourdsseraent La description qui va suivre en regard du
t" de la colonne vibranle, d'abaisser ou de re- dessin annexe1 reprfeeutant a litre d'exemple
monter la tonality fondamentale de ('instru- une trompelte en »t |icrfeclionuee, fcra ken
ment, BL d'autre part daus la disposition com prendre les particularity et avantages de,
particuliere de ce ou de ces pistons supple- celte invention. 45
mentaires dans une direction perpcndicutaire Les trois pistons a, b, c du systemu jus-
15 a celle des trois pistons habitucls, dans le but qu'ici en usage, oe subissent aucune modifi-
de detourner le moins possible la cotoimc cation dans leur disposition, et leurs cou-
d'air de sa foie normale, et de rendre leur lisses d, e,/reslent accord&s de la meme
manoeuvre facile en permettant 1'utilisation maniere que piiidSdemineiit. Le doigte' rcste 5o
des pouces. done absolumcnt le mime tant que Ton n'nti-
20 Les principaux a vantages qui rfsultenl dc lise pas les pistons supplementaires. *"
ce perfectionnement son! les suivants : Cos pistons suppMmeutaires g, A sonl
Juslcsse parfaite de toules les notes sans disposes sur la colonne vibrante avant les
exception; trois pistons ordinaires, et dans une direc- b»
Suppression du dauger des accidents tion perpendiculaire a celte de ces trois
-j 6 (eouacs); pistons.
Augmentation de I'ctcndue de fecbeile mu- Le piston g est intercale sur la coulisse
sicale dans le grace, de maniere a ce qu'elle d'accwd (', et comport"; lui-mlme une cou-
n'ail plus comniu limite, comme dtjja dans lisse j . 11 est combine1 de maniere a ce que tio
Paigu, que celle des facult<b humaines; son enfoticeuieut reduise la longueur de la
3o Suppression de certain** djfikuWs dp colonue vibrante en supprimant le passage
doigt<* daus l«s tonalites diesoes, de I'air par sa coulisse, el provoque par
En augntentnot letendue de I'&beile uiu- suite une elevation ds ia tonalite' de Vinstru-
Prix du fascicule : 1 franc.

150
 <2 [521.761] miSIQUE.
menl, ilont la vnteur d&ermin^e par In lon- mentaire actionne" par le pouce de la main
gueur dc la coulisse est rigoureuscment egale gauche. Cotnme pour la trompette, ce piston
a un ton. sera ascendant d'un ton sur lie cornet en « 55
Ce piston est actionne" par le pouce de la ht!mol, ou descendant d'un ton si le cornel est
it main droite par l'interm4dtaire d'une tige k, en K(.
munie d'une louche, abnulissanl Increment Dans les deux cas, trompette ou cornet,
au-dessus du piston a. on pourra si on le juge utile ou agr&tble,
[/utilisation de ce piston donne la surete" donner a la coulisse du piston suppIeWn- 6o
duns Amission des notes sol diise et k aigus taire une longueur facultative de deux tons, au
«o les plus dangereuses, el la justesse nu T6 b&- moyett d'une er&iiaillcre.
mol grave, de tntoe qu'aux ri becarres et On aura aiiisi en mains, en un seul instru-
aux la milium et aigu. ment, le cornet ou la trompette en ut et en
Le piston h est intercai<5 entre la coulisse ri Wmol, plus le ton de fa, par 1'allongeraent 63
d'accord t et le piston c, et comporte une de la coulisse.
t5 coulisse I. II est combind de maniere n ce Le sysleme complel a cinq pistons per-
que son enforcement augments la longueur mettra de possedei- avec un seul instrument
de la coionne vibrante en permettanl le pas- en tU, en outre de cet instrument:
sage de I'air dans sa coulisse, et provoque r Un instrument en ri par i'enfoncement 70
par suite un abaissement de la tonalite" dc du piston g.
•-so I'instrument, dont la vaieur d&ermin^e par a" Un instrument en ri Wcarre par 1'ett-
la longueur de la coulisse,est rigoureusement foncemenl simullane des pistons g et h.
igaie a un too et demi. 3* Un instrument en ri bemol par I'enfon-
Ce piston est actionne direclemenl avec te ceinent stmultsnl des pistons g et k et Pae- 75
pouce de la main gauche. cord de la coulisse I a deux tons.
a5 [/utilisation de ee piston donne i'e'iendue 6* Un instrument en la par 1'enfoneement '
iliimitee de feebelle musicale dans le grave, et du piston h et l'accord de sa coulisse I a un
la justesse parfaite aux mi et aux la deTeetueux ton et demi.
dans tous les autres systemes. A 1'instrument, on pourra joindre dtIK- 80
Dans I'extrfime grave, alors que son usage rents accessoiros, tela qu'un crochet ou an-
3o est forcement associe" a l'usage des deux ou neau 0 fixe* a la coulisse du piston e, pour
trots autres pistons descendants a, 9, e, la que le quatrieme doigt de la main gauche
longueur de sa coulisse exactement accordee concourt au maintien de 1'instrument et des
a un ton et demi, serait theoriquement insuf- pieces d'appui p et q pour les pouces, soit Bo
fisante sans le concours d un leger effort des pour faciliter leur action, soit pour fixer leur
3t> tevres. Mais pour te dispenser meme de ee position dans {'inaction.
concours, outre que I'on pent presque tou-
jours preparer la coulisse I a 1'avance, un aisuid.
anneau n y est fixe pour permettre son alion- C'ette invention a pour objet un perfec-
gement au moyen du petit doigt de la main tionnement applicable aux instruments de *)«
ha gauche, sans cesser dejooer. musique a pistons en general, et plus par-
Pour ies trompettes des mustques inili- ticulierement aux trompettes ou cornets a
taires, un seul' piston supplemental fixe* pistons, consistant d'une part dans t'adjonc-
k h coulisse d'accord et actionn^ par te pouce tion d'un ou de preference de deux pistons
de la main droite pourra suilire. suppWmentaires munis de coulisses de ion- \y»
45 Grace a sa disposition sur une partie mo- gueur convenable destines a permettre, par
bite, de 1'instrument, il pourra s'adapter faci- I'alkmgement ou le raccourciaseraent de la
lement aux trompettes a irois pistons. II sera colonue vibrante, d'abaissar ou de remonter
ascendant d'un ton si la trompette est en it la lonalite" fondamentale de 1'instrument, el
Wraol, ou descendant d'un ton si la trompette d'autre part dans la disposition particuiiere too
So est en tit. de ce ou de ces pistons supplementaires
Ponr les cornets a pistons, on pourra 6ga- dans une direction perpendiculaire k celle
letnent se contenter d'un seul piston suppU- des Irois pistons hahittiels, dans ]e but de

151
 MUSIQUE. [511.761 J 3
(tetoumer le moins possible la colonne d'arr I ooeovre facile «n permettant ['utilisation des
de s« voie normale, et dte rendre leur ma- pouces

SOClfiTK UMMB THIBOUVILLB U M V & C".

A»»tM.iuo j«nm;.

Ponr fa voiit'r J'-'* Uswtites, *'»{lre«*«r i I'IIIPMSKIIIII NITI-IKUS, H7, m e Vi»ill'>-i[f-T'.,mp!','. Pari* (.T).

152
M° 521.761 Socicle : PI. unique
Hr&me Tbibouville Lamy & C"

153
 REPUBLIC OF FRANCE.

NATIONAL OFFICE OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY.

PATENT.
X V I I . — Industrial Arts.
4. — Music. N° 521.761

I m p r o v e m e n t in p i s t o n - v a l v e m u s i c a l i n s t r u m e n t s .
Jerome THIBOUVILLE-LAMY & Co. located in France (Seine).

Requested January 17,1916, at 3:51PM, in Paris.

Granted March 14, 1 9 2 1 . — Published July 19, 1921.

The present invention due to Mr. M. J. B. in the low register, limited with the three-piston system
Franquin has as its goal an improvement to F-sharp, whereas in
applicable to piston-valve instruments classical and modern music composers have written 35
in general, and particularly to down to E-flat and human limitations
trumpets or cornets. permit descent down to D
This improvement consists in part and a with a little more difficulty down to pedal C,
in the addition of one or preferably of the improvement sought by the invention responds
two extra pistons designed to to a pressing need. 40
10 permit, by lengthening or shortening The description which follows of the
of the vibrating column, lowering or raising attached diagram representing by way of example
the fundamental key of the an improved trumpet in C, will well
instrument, and in part in the particular disposition convey the particularities and advantages
of this or of these extra pistons of this invention. 45
15 in a direction perpendicular The three pistons a, b, c of the system
to that of the three customary pistons, with the aim of in use until now, undergo no modification
diverting the air column as little as possible in their disposition, and their slides
from its normal course, and rendering their d, e, /remain tuned in the same
operation easy by allowing use manner as previously. The fingerings remain, 50
20 of the thumbs. thus, absolutely the same so long as one does not use
The principal advantages that result from the extra pistons.
this improvement are the following: These extra pistons, g, h are
Perfect intonation of all notes without positioned along the vibrating column before the
exception; three ordinary pistons, and in a direction 55
25 Suppression of the risk of missed notes perpendicular to that of these three
(couacs); pistons.
Augmentation of the range of the musical scale The piston g is inserted on the
in the low register, in such a manner that its tuning slide /, and itself bears a
only limit—as is already the case in slide j . It is combined in such a manner that 60
30 the high range—is the player's physical capabilities; its depression reduces the length of the
Suppression of certain fingering difficulties vibrating column by suppressing the passage
in keys with sharps. of air through its slide, thus
In augmenting the range of the musical scale raising the key of the instrument,

Price of reprint: 1 franc.

154
 2 [521.761] ML
by an interval determined by the operated by the thumb of the left
length of the slide, rigorously equal hand. As for the trumpet, this piston valve
to one whole step. will be ascending by one [whole] step on the cornet 55
This piston is operated by the thumb of the in B-flat, or descending by one step if the cornet is
5 right hand by means of a shaft k, inC.
equipped with a key, ending slightly In both cases, trumpet or cornet,
above piston a. if it seems useful or easier, one will be able to
The use of this piston lends reliability pull the slide of the supplemental piston 60
to the production of the high notes G-sharp and A to an optional length of two [whole] steps, by
10 (the most unstable) and brings into tune means of an extension crook.
low D-flat, as well as D-sharps and The player will thus have in hand, in one instru-
middle- and high-A's. ment, cornet or trumpet in C and in
Piston h is positioned between the tuning B-flat, plus the key of A, by lengthening 65
slide /' and piston c, and bears a the slide.
15 slide /. It is assembled in such a manner that The complete five-piston system will permit,
its depression increases the length with the possession of a single instrument
of the vibrating column by permitting the passage in C, besides this instrument:
of air into its slide, causing 1st An instrument in D by depressing 70
a lowering of the key of piston g.
20 the instrument, of which the interval determined 2nd An instrument in B-natural by the simultan-
by the length of the slide is rigorously eous use of pistons g and h.
equal to one and one-half steps. 3 rd An instrument in B-flat by the simultaneous
This piston is operated directly with the depression of pistons g and h and the 75
thumb of the left hand. tuning slide / at two whole steps.
25 The use of this piston allows unlimited 4th An instrument in A by depression
range of the musical scale in the low register and of piston h and tuning its slide / to one
perfect intonation for E's and A's, faulty and one-half steps.
in all other systems. To this instrument different 80
In the low register, as its use accessories can be attached, such as a finger hook or
30 is necessarily associated with the use of two ring o affixed to the slide of piston c, so
or three of the descending pistons a, b, c, the that the ring finger of the left hand
length of its slide tuned exactly aids in holding up the instrument, and
to one and one-half steps, would be theoretically in- thumb rests p and q, either 85
sufficient without the aid of a slight effort from the to facilitate the motion of the thumbs, or to maintain
35 lips. But to dispense with even this their position of rest if unused.
effort, notwithstanding that one can almost always
pull out the slide / in advance, a SUMMARY.
ring n is attached there to permit its extension This invention has as its goal an improvement
by the little finger of the applicable to piston-valve musical instruments 90
40 left hand, while playing. in general, and particularly
For military ensemble trumpets, to trumpets or cornets,
only one additional piston [valve], attached consisting in part in the addition
to the tuning slide and operated by the thumb of one or preferably of two extra pistons
of the right hand, will suffice. equipped with adjustable-length slides 95
45 Owing to its placement on a [re]movable part designed to permit, by
of the instrument, it will be easily lengthening or shortening of the
adaptable to trumpets with three pistons. It will be vibrating column, lowering or raising
ascending by one [whole] step if the trumpet is in B- of the fundamental key of the instrument, and
flat, or descending by one step if the trumpet in part in the particular placement 100
50 isinC. of this or of these extra pistons
For cornets, only in a direction perpendicular to that
one additional piston will be necessary as well of the three customary pistons, with the aim of

155
 MUSIC. [521.761] 3

diverting the air column as little as possible operation easy by allowing use of the
from its normal course, and rendering their thumbs.

Jerome THIBOUV1LLE LAMY & C°

By procuration:
ARMENGAUD, Jr.

(English translation by the author.)

To purchase reprints, enquire at the NATIONAL PRESS, 87 rue Vielle-du-Temple, Paris (3rd).

156
 APPENDIX 4

c. 1913 CATALOGUE ADVERTISEMENT FOR FOUR-VALVE C/D TRUMPET

16 EXIGER LUNE DE NOS MARQUES SUK CHAQUE INSTRUMENT

NOUVELLE TROMPETTE D'HARMONIE

a 4 pistons (en Ut et Re)
Modelc J. THIBOUVILLE-LAMY, systeme FRANQUIN

AVANTAGES
La nouvelle trompette a 4 pistons (le 4* ascendant) systeme FRAXQUIN offre le grand avantage de.
riunir deux tonalites dans un seul instrument, sa construction fondamentale etant en Ul, et l'abaisse-
ment du 4' piston la mettant en Re, sans rien changer au doigte ordinaire de la main droite. Le
principal intiret de ce perfectionnement est de rendre facile et sure l'attaque des deux notes

dangereuses qui deviennent par 1'abaissement du 4" piston, et d'obtenir,

r-r-r--]
avec une justesse parfaite, le qui, comme on sail, est extremement haut et, par consequent,
•\r-
extremement difficile a rendre juste avec le systeme a 3 pistons.
En outre des Oiuvres entieres (celles de Bach et de Haendel principalement), de la totalite de
certains numeros d'autres oeuvres que Ton a avantage a jouer integralement avec le ton de Rl;
beaucoup de passages, de traits ou d'attaques cotnmencent ou finissent sur le La ou La j; aigus.
La nouvelle trompette permet de les remplacer instamanlment par Sol ou ¥a% que Ton peut
toujours attaquer franchement sans crainte de couac, grace a 1'emploi du 4" piston qui met en mains
deux instruments en un seul : une trompette en Ut et une trompette en Si. Par ce systeme, tous les
doigtes juges difficiles sont ais£ment retnplaces par les plus faciles. Ajoutons que cette modiftcatidn
n'altere nullement la beaute du timbre de la trompette, ni ne diminue la facilite des Amissions, soit que
Ton emploie ou non le 4° piston. Cette nouvelle trompette est certainement appeiee a rendre les plus
grands services aux artistes trompettistes, et principalement aux solistes des grands concerts, des grands
theatres et de tous les orchestres symphoniques.

CI-ICIJC*.

7998 Nouvelle Trompette d'Harmonie en Ul a 4 pistons, et en jR<! par 1'abaissement du

4° piston :
Otivrc Xlclit'lce Arm'ntvt
-J»«Tr. .JJOS-ff. JJSfrTr.
Le guillochage augmente de
( V o i r E t u i s p a g e s 17 e t IS)

157
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andre, Maurice and Thierry Martin. Le Soleil doitpouvoir briller pour tout le monde: Souvenirs
et memoires de la trompette du siecle. Paris: Publibook, 2007.

Andrieu, Gaston. "Merri Franquin, 1848 - 1934." Published obituary of unknown origin.
Photocopy in the collection of the author.

Arban, Jean-Baptiste. Arban 's Complete Conservatory Methodfor Trumpet. Edited by Edwin
Goldman and Walter Smith. New York: Carl Fisher, 1936.

. Grande Methode complete de cornet a pistons et de saxhorn. 1864. Reprint, Paris:

International Music Diffusion, 1985.

Bas, Louis. Methode nouvelle de hautbois: Theorique et pratique, Contenant des photographies
explicatives, de nombreux exercises, et des lecons melodiques et une description
complete de la fabrication des anches. Paris: Enoch, c. 1910.

Benade, Arthur. "The Problem of Clean Attack." Unpublished typescript, 1973.

Berlioz, Hector. Grand Traite d 'Instrumentation et d'Orchestration Modernes, Nouvelle Edition.

1855. Reprint, Paris: Henry Lemoine, c. 1880.

. Treatise on Instrumentation. Edited by Richard Strauss. Translated by Theodore Front.

New York: Dover, 1991.

Bodet, Francis. La Technique des levres: 250 Exercises progressifs pour trompette, cornet,
bugle et tous instruments a embouchure. Macon, France: Robert Martin, 1982.

Bridges, Glenn. Pioneers in Brass. Detroit: Sherwoood, 1965.

Broiles, Melvyn. "The Acoulon Letters." Trumpets through Time. Unpublished typescript,
1964.

Cardoso, Wilfredo. Ascending Trumpets (Trumpets with Ascending Valves): The Use of
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 VITA

GEOFFREY SHAMU
28 DeWolfe St., Box 528
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-861-7237
Email: [email protected]

EDUCATION
Boston University D.M.A., 2009
Boston University M.M., 2004
Conservatoires de la Ville Paris Premier Prix de Trompette, 1997
Harvard College A.B. cum laude, Music, 1994

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Brass coach, Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, 2007 - present
•Coach chamber music ensembles
•Conduct brass sectionals

Private Tutor in Theory and Musicology, 2006 - present

•Coach graduate students for doctoral qualifying exams
•Cover topics in theory and musicology
Sectional coach (guest), Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, 2004 - present
•Coach brass chamber music
•Conduct trumpet sectionals

Co-Chair, Wind, Brass & Percussion Department, Community Music Center of Boston,
2001 -present
•Maintain studio of beginning through advanced trumpet players
•Organize and manage faculty, student recitals and evaluations
•Assist in recruitment and hiring of new faculty

Private trumpet instruction, Michigan; Paris, France; Massachusetts, 1989 - present

•Teach beginning through college-level students
•Develop musicality, solfege, and technique

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TEACHING EXPERIENCE, CONTINUED
Assistant Trumpet Instructor, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Trumpet
Workshop, 2005 - 2007
•Helped direct trumpet ensembles
•Coached chamber groups
•Provided teaching and administrative support to Trumpet Seminar Director
•Solo and group performances on Faculty Concert Series

Faculty member, Music, Arts, and Technology Camp, Evanston, Wyoming, 2003 - 2007
•Taught private and group trumpet lessons and chamber music to intermediate and
advanced students
•Developed and taught classes on solfege, ear training, music theory, practice
techniques, introductory musical acoustics, and music history for college and
high school-aged students
•Lead chamber ensembles, ska/reggae band, funk band

Instructor, Class Brass (MU 180), Boston University College of Fine Arts, 2004 - 2006
•Created syllabus combining elements of brass history, pedagogy, and
performance
•Taught course balancing academic material with practical instruction to classes
of 10 - 15 undergraduate and graduate students
•Wrote, administered, and graded final, midterm and practical examinations,
projects and quizzes

Faculty member, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Twin Lake, Michigan, summer 2005
•Conducted sectionals for the wind ensembles
•Taught music theory course to 30 advanced high school students
•Taught trumpet studio classes

RECENT MASTERCLASS PRESENTATIONS

"The Teachings of Pierre Thibaud: Tradition and Innovation," Grand Valley State
University, July 2007
"Practice Techniques for Successful Performance," Boston University Tanglewood
Institute, June 2007

PUBLICATION IN PRESS
Report on the 2008 Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Solo Competition, to appear
in the International Trumpet Guild Journal, March 2009

CURRENT PROJECTS
Publications in preparation: Arrangements for brass quartet and arrangements for cornet
(or trumpet) and classical/Spanish guitar
Consultant for first English-language edition of Merri Franquin's Methode complete de
trompette moderne
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SELECTED AUDIO PERFORMANCES
/ want to tell you, compact disc, recorded with Pressure Cooker, Grammy pre-nominated
(Reggae), 2001
Christmas in the Busch, compact disc, recorded with the Harvard Brass and Harvard U
Choir, Pro Organo, 2000
Fanfare for Lowry, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, broadcast premier (live) with Harvard
Brass, WHRB, 9/24/2000

SELECTED PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE

Riverside Brass Quartet, Founding member and Managing Director, 2003 - present
Alea III Contemporary Music Ensemble, Trumpet, 2003 - present
[Con Fuego! (cornet/Spanish guitar/dance ensemble), Soloist, 2006 - present
Opera Boston Orchestra, Section trumpet, 2006 - 2007 season
Boston University Trumpet Ensemble, Conductor, Convocation Rehearsals and Performance,
fall 2006
Orquesta Sinfonica U.A.N.L. de Monterrey, Mexico, Section trumpet, 7/2001
Pressure Cooker (reggae band), Trumpet, 1999 - 2002
The Harvard Brass, Founding member, 1998 - 2002
Ensemble Polyphorum (flexible formation), Paris, Principal trumpet, 1996 - 1998
Mariachi Las Culebras, Paris, France, Trumpet, 1996 - 1998
Orchestre Interconservatoire de Paris, Principal Trumpet, 1996 - 1997
Orchestre de la Cite, Paris, Principal Trumpet, 1994 - 1998

RECENT TEACHERS CONDUCTORS CHAMBER MUSIC

COACHES
Terry Everson Jonathan McPhee Eric Ruske
Mark Gould Bruce Hangen Terry Everson
Pierre Thibaud Jeffrey Tate Robert Mealy
Timothy Morrison Carl St. Clair Pierre Gillet

FESTIVALS
Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Trumpet Assistant to Prof. Terry Everson, 2005,
2006, 2007
BU Fringe Festival, Boston premier of Philip Glass's Galileo Galilei, directed by William
Lumpkin, 2005
Summer Music from Greensboro, duo recital with Aaron Larget-Caplan, classical guitar,
2004
Lake Placid Institute 2000—study with Edward Carroll, Mark Gould, James Thompson, John
Wallace
Music Academy of the West 1993 and 1994—study with Mario Guarneri and Adolph Herseth

165
DISSERTATION AND THESIS
Merri Franquin and his Contribution to the Art of Trumpet Playing, D.M.A. dissertation
prepared under the direction of Prof. Thomas Peattie, Boston University, 2009
Richard Strauss as Conductor, A.B. thesis prepared under the direction of Prof. Reinhold
Brinkmann, Harvard University, 1994

LANGUAGES
French—written, read, and spoken fluently; German, Italian, and Spanish—read.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Departmental Award, Boston University School of Music Brass Department, 2004
Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship, Fondation des Etats-Unis, Paris, 1994 - 1995
John Knowles Paine Travelling Fellowship, Harvard University, 1994 - 1995
Leonard Bernstein Music Scholarship, Harvard University, 1991 - 1992

166