Trumpet in Transition: A History of the Trumpet and its Players in the United Kingdom through the Music and Relationships of Sir Edward Elgar

The life and career of Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) coincided with a period of significant change in the development of the trumpet and the music scored for it. A professional musician from the provinces, mostly self-taught, Elgar slowly gained recognition and ultimately international fame. In the United Kingdom for most of the nineteenth century the pre-eminence of the slide trumpet, which was not a fully chromatic instrument, made for a unique situation, leaving the ubiquitous cornet to fill the gap when a fully chromatic instrument was required. The valved trumpet, at first in the form of the large F trumpet, only gained a foothold in the last decades of the nineteenth century. This thesis examines the development in the trumpet and cornet scoring of Elgar throughout his career and correlates this with the trumpeters he worked with both in the provinces and in London. This is set in the context of the instruments that were available to, and promoted by, these trumpeters. The analysis leads to an original theory of Elgar being both a reflector and a driver of change in the turbulent world of the trumpet. A review of the trumpet writing of composers contemporary with Elgar from the United Kingdom corroborates this theory. The playing styles of Elgar’s trumpeters are investigated, and the sonic and playing qualities of the instruments explored. These qualities are related to the advocacies of the leading trumpeters and commentators of the time, and are illustrated on the accompanying CD which contains contemporary exercises and excerpts performed by the author on historic instruments with original, or copies of, contemporary mouthpieces. This study, relating the music, circumstances of composition, performers involved and the instruments available presents significant new knowledge of the trumpet world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The conclusions challenge certain anecdotes that have been passed from generation to generation concerning trumpeters of Elgar’s generation. I draw attention to evidence suggesting a hitherto little-researched continental influence