ITG Research Room Announces 2022 Presentations

The ITG Research Room announces the three researchers selected by blind peer review to present at the 2022 ITG Conference in San Antonio. ITG members are encouraged to come see these presentations live on Wednesday, June 1st, at 11:00am.

Combined Respiratory Muscle Training for Brass Musicians: A Requisite Practice in Education and Performance
by Angelica Aldarondo
 
Reexamining the Repertoire: 20th Century French Trumpet Solos by Women Composers 
by Elijah Denecke
 
The New York Brass Quintet (1954-1985): Pioneers of Brass Chamber Music
by Dr. James Sherry
 
For the full abstracts, please read below:
 
 
Combined Respiratory Muscle Training for brass musicians: 
A requisite practice in education and performance
by Angelica Aldarondo
 
Playing a wind instrument requires accurate airflow control with regards to maintained pressures and volume. Adequate airflow control is achieved by respiratory muscle function, generally involving the diaphragm as well as the intercostal, abdominal, and accessory respiratory muscles. Evidence has shown that trumpet players have higher maximum respiratory pressures compared to their age matched controls, presumably due to the respiratory muscle training effects of playing a wind instrument [Fiz, 1993], underlining the importance of respiratory muscle function and strength in wind instrumentalists. 
 
While the beneficial effects of different breathing exercises on wind instrumentalists are widely appreciated and are built into training regimes, specific respiratory muscle training exercises are currently not implemented to support or improve airflow control. Some evidence is available, however, which shows a significant effect of respiratory muscle training on respiratory muscle strength and increased flow use during performance, as well as changed timbre in saxophone players after respiratory muscle training [Dries, 2017]. Furthermore, respiratory muscle training was shown to improve pitch range and phonation time in brass instrument players [Yilmaz, 2020]. 
 
Based on these findings and preliminary data using the Breather, an inspiratory and expiratory muscle training device, we provide a rationale for the need for respiratory muscle strengthening in trumpet players and other wind instrumentalists in both education and performance practice. Combined respiratory muscle training (cRMT) has proven effective in improving breath control, phonation time, pressure generation, and volume control across disciplines, resulting in the ability to perform more challenging pieces. cRMT is currently undergoing further investigation in a range of clinical studies in voice professionals. Preliminary data of these studies will be shared in the presentation. 
 
Reexamining the Repertoire:
20th Century French Trumpet Solos by Women Composers
by Elijah Denecke

French composers in the mid-twentieth century produced some of the most frequently played solo works for the trumpet. However, many works written by French women of this same time period and genre have either been lost, never been categorized, or have otherwise gone unplayed. Gendered criticism, the widespread use of pseudonyms, securing performance past an initial premiere, and balancing home and professional lives were all obstacles for women who wanted to have a career in composition. Taking a closer look at three composers, I hope to encourage trumpeters to explore the relatively unknown solo trumpet works of these three French women composers.
 
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) enjoyed the greatest acceptance of all the French women composers writing for the trumpet during the mid-twentieth century. Her association with Les Six provided a network that allowed her music to be played perhaps more than any other French woman of her time. An in-depth look at her Gaillarde will examine the neo-classical move away from romanticism displayed by many French composers at the time. 
 
Claude Arrieu (1903-1990) wrote many pieces for trumpet between the 1930’s and the 1960’s. A student of Paul Dukas, she developed a unique writing style that showcases the trumpet’s role as a virtuosic solo instrument. Her Concertstücke rivals the energy and difficulty of contemporary works written by Henri Tomasi and André Jolivet.
 
Jeanine Rueff (1922-1999) is possibly the best known to the trumpet community as her Sonatine has been recorded by Timofei Dokshizer, Sergei Nakariakov, and Giuliano Sommerhalder. Sonatine is a highly challenging work, demanding a complete command of the instrument to perform well. Very few of her other works have been performed or recorded.
 
Resources explored include Female Composers, Conductors, Performers: Musiciennes of Interwar France, 1919-1939 by Laura Hamer which provide much of the relevant information to this section, while The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers will be used as a unifying source of biographical information for the aforementioned composers. Scores will also be used to show musical examples from each of the chosen pieces that highlight salient features within each work. One of the most important reasons for this project is to confront the inherent challenges that plague repertoire selection. Though it is important to recognize the pieces we deem “standard” in our repertoire, we must also wrestle with the question of why this subjective list includes so few pieces written by women composers. Pieces by women are often published in smaller quantities, therefore making them harder to obtain and less likely to be performed or recorded. It is through this research that I hope to pique the interest of my fellow trumpet players and encourage discussion of how solo trumpet works by French women composers can be integrated into the greater body of standard repertoire. 

The New York Brass Quintet (1954-1985): 
Pioneers of Brass Chamber Music
by Dr. James Sherry
 
The New York Brass Quintet (NYBQ) enjoyed thirty years as one of the world’s premier brass ensembles. It was the first quintet to appear regularly on the concert stage and was responsible for the commissioning and introduction of a large body of music into the standard repertoire. It was their involvement with educational programs, performance clinics, and college residencies that earned them global respect in the musical community. Most importantly, their success resulted in the brass quintet becoming an established serious concert chamber music ensemble.
 
The purpose is to point to the NYBQ’s influence on brass music and musicians. This research highlights their concertizing, their expansion of the brass literature, and their educational programs, and their involvement in national and international brass symposia for the performance of new music. Groups, such as the Canadian Brass, American Brass Quintet, and the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, were aware of the reputation of the NYBQ, their concerts, and their recordings. Furthermore, the next generation of musicians was influenced by the educational activities of the NYBQ. These groups, including the Eastman Brass, Annapolis Brass, and Atlantic Brass, followed in the path of the NYBQ, whose members held faculty positions at top music schools and several summer festivals. 
 
Many cornerstone works were either premiered or published by the NYBQ. These include Brass Quintet (1959) by Alec Wilder, Quintet (1961) by Malcolm Arnold, Music for Brass Quintet (1961) by Gunther Schuller, Quintet (1963) by Alvin Etler, Parable (1968) by Vincent Persichetti, and Laudes (1971) by Jan Bach. Today, most major music schools have chamber music programs with faculty ensembles; this was not the case before 1950. Brass pedagogy and education was a prime motivation for the formation of the NYBQ.
 
The NYBQ’s pedagogical innovations align with progressive educational trends of the time, during an era impacted by school reform, civil rights, and technological advances. In music education, two events shaped the tone of music education in the late 20th-century: The Yale Seminar of 1963 and the Tanglewood Declaration of 1967. This presentation is based on chapters from the author’s doctoral dissertation on the NYBQ. The NYBQ archives at Yale is an uncatalogued collection containing a complete list of concerts and programs, as well as all the sound recordings produced by the group and scores that were sent to the quintet over the years. This research would have been impossible without that archive. 
 
This historical research addresses the educational rationale for small ensemble programs in high schools and colleges, taken from the author’s doctoral document “New York Brass Quintet (1955-1985): Pioneers of Brass Chamber Music.” The focus of this presentation details the NYBQ’s educational and pedagogical impact. A quote from John Swallow, NYBQ trombonist, and a teacher at Yale, New England Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music supports this main idea: “The brass ensemble. . . is the best educational tool for young brass musicians at the high school and college level” (Swallow, 2001).
 
(Source: Fred Sienkiewicz)
 

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