Morceaux de concours pour trompette et cornet :

Abstract

1Joseph, Jean Baptiste Laurent Arban, Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, (New York: Carl Fisher Inc., 1936), 2. 2Susan J. Rekward, The Horn at the Paris Conservatoire and its Morceaux de Concours to 1996, (MA Thesis, University of North Texas, 1997), 21.

Throughout this process, the writer was able to compile a comprehensive chronological order of the morceaux de concours pour trompette et cornet. An evaluation of selected material, a brief biographical sketch of each composer, and an updated history of the conservatory and its concours for trumpet and cornet is also included. This document will serve as a resource for future study of the morceaux de concours pour trompette et cornet. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

A majority of the morceaux de concours have been published by numerous music publishers throughout Paris over the past two centuries. The writer sought all published material and purchased as many solos as were available. Many solos are currently out of print and various publishers have since gone out of business. The writer was able to view all the documents, published and non-published available at the Biblioteque National, Mediatheque Hector-Berlioz, and Cite de la Musique, Mediatheque Pedagogique.

Since 1835, the Conservatoire National Superior de Musique de Paris has produced an abundance of trumpet literature in the form of studies and solos. The most popular of these was the Arban's Conservatory Method compiled by Joseph Jean-Baptiste-Laurent Arban, professor du cornet, 1869--1874, 1880--1889.1 Although much has been written about the conservatory and the remarkable literature generated through this institution, the majority of the trumpet and cornet literature has generally been ignored.

In 1979, due to a lack of funding at the conservatory and the cost for commissioning a new contest piece every year, administration elected to rotate the commissioned piece among the various instruments.2 Although officially the funding for the morceaux de concours was adjusted in 1979, records indicate that a new composition had been written and published for both trumpet and cornet several years after funding was no longer available from the conservatory.

This document contains a comparative study and evaluation of selected morceaux de concours which relate requirements of the concours , styles, and manner of implementation in relation to the composers and professeurs. With a comprehensive study of the solos and an evaluation of that literature, we will track the musicianship of each composer, the abilities of the student performers, and the influences of the professeurs. With the employment of various professeur du conservatoire and changes of administration at the conservatory, there came about many alterations in requirements throughout the history of the concours. The writer will identify any changes and evaluate reasoning for any modification.

Over the past two centuries, Paris has been engaged in several conflicts in government and a foreign occupation. Many documents archived by the Biblioteque National were stored throughout Paris for safekeeping during World War II. Most of these documents have survived and have been returned to the Biblioteque National but some still remain unaccounted for. Using previous documentation and viewing available sources, the writer was able to accumulate a comprehensive composite of related material, although some voids did exist.