Title
Miniatures for solo trumpet (©1977) by George Andrix published by SeeSaw Music Corp. – which is now Subito MusicBiographical Info
George Andrix was born June 15, 1932. He began the study of the violin at the age of five (5) in his native Chicago. As a youngster, he attended the Chicago Musical College and Lane Technical High School where he received training in violin, music theory, and orchestral and chamber music repertoire.
Later, he earned Bachelor of Master of Music degrees in viola and composition at the University of Illinois where he worked with such renowned musicians as George Enesco, Igor Strawinsky, Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Paul Rolland, Sir Thomas Beecham, John Cage, Max Rostal, Benjamin Britten, and Harry Partch. He studied composition with Burrill Phillips and Robert Palmer.
His training continued at Trinity College of Music in London, England, where his composition teachers were Matyas Seiber and Richard Arnell. There he won the Ricordi Conductors’ Prize as the outstanding conducting student.
George Andrix, composer, is in fairly steady production, being in demand by a growing number of interested performers. He was written for a wide variety of ensembles with many works for brass and percussion. He has received commissions from such various organizations as the Composers’ and Choreographers’ Theatre of New York City, the Montana String Teachers’ Association, and the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra (Alaska). He has numerous works published by G. Schirmer and See Saw Music, both of New York, and a brass quintet recorded on Golden Crest Records.
Since moving to Canada in 1970, Mr. Andrix has lived primarily in Edmonton, where he currently makes his living as a freelance violinist, violist and composer. He is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.
Suggested Equipment
Mr. Andrix writes “Bb trumpet is preferred but C trumpet may be used, but do not transpose.”
I used an Eclipse C trumpet for these clips.
Practice/Performance Tips
I really like this piece. The movements are short enough to keep the audiences’ attention and practical for live performance. Each movement showcases a different 20th Century compositional technique and in doing so, conveys great variety in concise yet meaningful soundbites.
Fanfare (first)
Try to maintain strict time to bring out the “Morse code” quality of the opening call. The middle section is somewhat pointallistic so keeping time even through the rests will bring out the syncopations and occasional triplet figures.
Dodecophony
“Dodecophony” is also known as twelve tone, this is music that employs all twelve tones found within an octave. Unlike tonal music, twelve-tone music does not have a central tone or scale, but is based on an arrangement of the twelve tones known as a row. The composer manipulates the row in various ways, backwards, transposed, inverted, etc., to produce related rows from which the musical material for the piece is derived.
The entire set of Miniatures seems to be tied together by the interval of the minor third. Even though this movement is built in the twelve-tone fashion, the movement ends very decisively on a minor third. In fact, every movement in the set ends on a minor third.
Calculation
“Calculation” is a palindrome, both rhythmic and intervallic. It is in three sections with the outer sections mirror images of each other in reverse. The middle section is composed with a twelve tone row that actually begins and ends with the penultimate notes of the outer sections. The middle section is a contrasting lyrical section where each note adds an eight-note to its duration till the middle then shrinks by an eighth-note, forming a perfect rhythmic hairpin shape.
The question is, can you the listener hear this compositional trickery? Does knowing this compositional Sudoku puzzle help the player’s interpretation? I’ll leave that up to you.
Theme
This is a tough one to practice but always a favorite movement in performance. The whole thing is built off a minor third (E & G) and sounds and feels like how a jazz player might explore a motivic idea.
Variation
“Variation” starts with our E & G then takes off in a pseudo-swinging romp through jazz serialism. The rhythms and articulations vary enough to keep it from “all out” swinging but the movement has a very cool overall lilt.
Intonation
“Intonation” is an exploration in micro-tones. The composer has indicated false fingerings with arrows indicating the pitch tendency and you are at liberty to accentuate the “out-of-tune-ness” to further the point. He has also indicated slide techniques and a brief section in the middle where you are to improvise “using false fingerings, harmonics, slides and other devices for producing micro-tones.” If possible, slide the last note down far enough to create our minor third motive.
Fanfare (second)
The last fanfare is pretty complex rhythmically so try to pay attention to the subtle changes of rhythmic notation. It is also a bit of a workout for your multiple tounging.
Suggested Recordings
I find reference to a recording made by Kevin Gamble in 1976 (even though the work is copyrighted in 1977) but cannot find the actual recording.
Kevin Gamble, trumpet; Nov. 27, 1976, Contemporary Showcase, Walter Hall, Toronto.
Other than this, I don’t believe there are any commercial recordings available.
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Beautiful playing dave.