Trumpet Songs: an album feauturing trumpet pieces by female composers.

In my career, I have played with an all-female brass band (Athena Brass Band), brass choir (Monarch Brass), and an all-female mariachi group (Mariachi Rosas Divinas). I also co-hosted the International Women’s Brass Conference in 2014 and will co-host again in 2022. Lastly, I currently perform with an all-female brass quintet, Seraph Brass and brass trio, Lantana Trio. I did not seek out to play in these exclusive groups, but there has been a need and movement to bring attention to the under-representation of females in the brass world. In this same vein, I find myself passionately interested in bringing an album devoted to female composers. There are amazing works by female composers for trumpet and piano that are either hidden in obscurity or have never been recorded. I believe this album would bring attention to these works and composers.

The album features works for trumpet and piano, as well as trumpet and percussion. Pieces included on the album are Jennifer Higdon (Trumpet Songs), Cecilia McDowall (Framed), Libby Larson (Ridge Runner), Joy Webb (Share my Yoke) and Grace Williams (Concerto).

Libby Larsen’s Ridge Runner was commissioned in 2012 by the International Women’s Brass Conference and includes 2 percussionists. According to the composer, “Ridge-Runner, for Bb trumpet and percussion, is an uninterrupted suite in five sections. The term “ridge-runner” is American slang referring loosely to a number of characters—the southern farmer, the mountaineer, the moonshiner—people of wit, perseverance, and self-reliance, people who don’t mind dealing with the elements. It struck me that solo trumpet performers are akin to ridge-runners in their spirit, energy and daring. So I set about composing this piece by basing its personality in abstract vernacular music—banjo picking, ballad, jazz, harmonica—and treating it as a serious concert piece. My aim is to bring the experience of ridge-running into the concert hall.” – Libby Larsen

Jennifer Higdon’s Trumpet Songs are exquisitely brilliant and in six short movements that explore the lyrical side of the trumpet. According to the composer, “Trumpet Songs first existed as a collection of short art songs for voice and piano, which I eventually arranged for the trumpet. They represent a lyrical quality and bend of phrase that allows the trumpet to sing out”. Jennifer Higdon (Born 1962) is one of the leading American composers from the turn of the twenty first century era. Her earliest compositions date to the early ’80s, but she emerged as an important figure in the period of the new millenium with such orchestra works as blue cathedral (1999), City Scape (2002), and Concerto for Orchestra (2002). She has been prolific and versatile, producing music in most instrumental and vocal genres. Jennifer Higdon won the Pulitzer Prizes for Music in 2010.

Grace Williams Concerto is hauntingly beautiful and relatively unknown. Written in 1963, the trumpet concerto has three movements; the first two are anxious in feeling, but also with a softer lyrical side that juxtaposes the trumpet in its emotional context. The third movement is more dance-like and spirited in character.

Major Joy Webb’s contributions to The Salvation Army’s vocal repertoire has been significant. Bandmaster Ivor Bosanko of the USA Western Territory transcribed Share my Yoke, one of Major Webb’s most poignant compositions. The lyrics to the original song can be found in The Musical Salvationist, July 1987. I wanted to record this beautiful piece on cornet as I love the brass band genre and spiritual meaning of this piece.

Framed by Cecilia McDowall is a collection of pieces for trumpet and piano that draws its inspirations from a variety of art works, ranging from a gentle Parisian waltz (Renoir’s Ball at the Moulin de la Galette), an atmospheric night piece (Whistler’s Nocturne in Blue and Gold), a bright dazzling Winter Landscape with Skaters (the Dutch painter Avercamp) to the jazzy cool in five four time of Walking Man (a powerful elongated sculpture of Giacometti).

I picked these interesting and diverse pieces because of the beautiful and distinct qualities each encompass. I feel each of these pieces are beautiful in their own way, and I hope you love them as much as I do!