10028 – Trumpet Voluntary

Jeremiah Clarke (1674-1707)

Arranged by Roger Harvey

Difficulty: Medium

Price: £20

Programme notes:

Jeremiah Clarke was train as a chorister at the Chapel Royal before becoming organist at Winchester Cathedral (1692-1695). In 1699 he was appointed organist at St Pauls cathedral and became master of the Choristers there in 1703. He also held the position of organist at the Chapel Royal from 1704.

Although he is thought to have committed suicide due to an unhappy love affair with a pupil of noble birth, and his contemporaries considered him of ‘melancholy cast’, his music, particularly his harpsichord pieces and the theatre music show him to have possessed an ability to write cheerful music of considerable invention.

His best-known composition, long thought to have been by Purcell, is the Trumpet Voluntary, a harpsichord piece known also as “Prince of Denmark’s March” and is also extant in an arrangement for wind ensemble.

Performance notes:

The solo line is shaped between to trumpets, preferably in D. They may be placed on either side of the platform for an antiphonal effect.

The rhythm should be crisp, the dotted notes being rather clipped to give a lively feel, but the effect should still be leggiero.