8001 – Siciliana and Trumpet Tune

John Stanley (1712 – 1786)

Arranged by Roger Harvey

Difficulty: Medium

Price: £20.00

Programme notes:

John Stanley was blind from childhood but this did not prevent him, even in those difficult times, from becoming a virtuoso organist, so highly admired that his fans would follow him from church to church to hear him play. He was also a violinist, teacher, concert director and, from 1779 Master of the King’s Band as well as being a prolific composer. As well as music for organ he wrote six string concertos, stage works, anthems, flute sonatas and keyboard concertos.

The Trumpet Tune, beloved of 17th and 18th century organists, was not originally written for the trumpet but for an organ stop of brassy character. These pieces would have been used as voluntaries to be played before or after church services. Purcell borrowed the genre for his stage works, sometimes, but not always, actually using a trumpet in the scoring. The stately and forthright style of the music, however, cries out for transcription for the trumpet. This version is for a pair of trumpets in D.

Performance notes:

The 3rd and 4th trumpet parts in the Siciliano are best played on flugels if available. In the Trumpet Tune the two solo trumpets are best placed to the right and left front of the ensemble to give a stereo dialogue. The style should be stately but bright. Take a quickish march tempo and make sure that the accompaniment, particularly the lower voices play with a lift. To help this the crotchets need to be slightly shaped away, almost like a light accent on each one. Try to make some contrast between the alternating sections, rather like a solo and tutti differentiation. In doing so, though, be careful not to overbalance the soloist. The percussion parts are optional. If only one percussionist is available the side drum part should take preference.