8 Studies for 8 Trumpets

The Eight Studies for Eight Trumpets were written to provide trumpet players with practical study material relating to the performance practices of the music from the Second Viennese School (ca. 1925).

The importance of the School, from the performer’s perspective, is less about the specific music of its “founders” (Schoenberg, Webern, Berg) as it is about the fact that many of their compositional concepts and techniques have been adopted, as least in part, by serious composers throughout the balance of the twentieth century. Moreover, due to the specific nature of the musical material, (i.e.: pointillism) most performance problems are “ensemble” in nature. Therefore, the basic precept of these studies is to present training pieces in an ensemble format.