The Medieval Manuscript the 'Chronicles of Mann and Sudreys' mentions various locations, including the Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and even places as far away as Norway and Brittany.
Russell Gilmour (trumpet) and David Kilgallon (organ) use melodies from these countries and they merge and fuse these ideas together with their own to create unique compositions for trumpet and organ. The idea behind their musical collaboration is to explore traditional music from these countries and to adapt the music, interpret it and explore it. Chronicles' musical format is slightly unusual in that it combines trumpet and organ - not the instruments you may initially associate with folk music - but it is an approach that has sparked a lot of interest.
Their limited edition EP "Prologue" is a sample of things to come, as the production of a full album is underway. The full album will be Chronicles' musical impression of the Isle of Man's influences and rich history - as documented in the Chronicles of Mann.
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‘Just’ Natural Trumpet Masterclass - Junior Guildhall
%PM, %Europe/London %b %2024, %RI was invited to give a masterclass about just intonation, the harmonic series, early music, and my book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet, at the Junior Guildhall on Saturday 30 November 2024.
Masterclass, Natural Trumpet, ‘Just’ Natural TrumpetI began the class with a short discussion about overtones and the harmonic series. This was a brief and practical introduction to the acoustics of wind and brass instruments. After a few demonstrations on the natural trumpet, finger-holed trumpet, and piano, pairs of students practised playing pure intervals on their own instruments (such as major thirds) and they listened for resultant tones (which evince pure intonation). Thereafter, the students played Anthony Holborne’s ‘The Fairie-round’, which became the basis for further discussion on the subject of tuning, and introduced further complexities such as reading from mensural notation, interpreting musical metre, and uncovering other implied conventions in earlier musical styles. These students are among the brightest and most advanced young musicians in the country, so I was advised to delve as deeply as possible into the subject in the time available.
The middle part of the class took the form of a recital-masterclass: three students had a performance platform with an excellent accompanist. While this part of the class did not necessarily directly relate to the earlier themes of the class, it became an iterative class with a great amount of input from the students in attendance as well as those performing. This was a conservatoire-level masterclass in all aspects, and it led to short discussions of practice techniques, musical semantics, musicianship, stagecraft, interpretation, musical influence, musical intention, music history, harmonic language, and many other interrelated topics. All three performances were exemplary.
The final part of the session was exclusively for the trumpet players. I brought four natural trumpets with me to enable them to play together in a natural trumpet ensemble. This was a great opportunity to use my book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet, with the students of the Junior Guildhall. We began with music from c.1598 and progressed to rehearse Monteverdi’s well-known Toccata from L’Orfeo. This was a whistle stop introduction to the natural trumpet, but it has hopefully given them an idea of what it is like to play this instrument and some of the basic techniques involved. It is a great joy for me to introduce people to the natural trumpet and I feel a great sense of fulfilment when my book is put to good use. Well done to everyone who played the natural trumpet for the first time and thanks to the Junior Guildhall for the invitation!
After the class I took the Northern line to Belsize Park to rehearse with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under the direction of Christophe Rousset in preparation for a tour—the first performance of which is at La Scala in Milan on Monday, with subsequent performances in Frankfurt, London, and at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.