30 Marches
Trumpet - Sheet Music

4 trumpets with timpani ad libitum - Grade 3

SKU: ET.TP244

Composed by Jules Cerclier. Arranged by Bryan Proksch. Romantic. Editions BIM #TP244. Published by Editions BIM (ET.TP244).

ISBN 9790207002938.

If we know little of Cerclier’s life, we know even less about his "Trente Marches pour Trompette d’Ordonnance". They were published by G. Hartmann in Paris and sold for the price of 10fr. The marches have no date of publication, but because the title page recognizes Cerclier as a professor at the Conservatoire and a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, they could not have been published before 1888 or after 1894. 1891 is listed as their original date of publication in a later printed source.
Each marche carries a dedication to a prominent French military figure and includes the dedicatee’s military appointment. Most of the dedicatees were affiliated with mounted regiments, meaning that the marches were probably intended for actual use by mounted trumpeters. The most distinguished dedicatee is that of the first march of the set, Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet (1828-1923), who served as the French minister of war from 1888-1893 and 1898-1899.
The marches themselves are, as the title states, for natural trumpets with optional timpani. The highest note played is a G on top of the treble clef, and a top space E is the upper limit of the working register in general. This upper range is in keeping with the ranges seen in earlier nineteenth-century trumpet methods such as Dauverné’s. The late publication date of these marches defies the traditional wisdom that natural trumpet playing died out in the late nineteenth-century due to the popularity of the cornet and valved trumpet. It would seem that, at least in France, trumpeter’s retained a degree of proficiency equivalent to that of the early nineteenth-century on the valveless instrument.4 These marches participate in a tradition of military trumpeting extending back through Altenburg, Fantini, and Bendinelli to Thomsen and Lübeck and forward to the bugle ensembles of the early twentieth century. In fact the military trumpet ensemble continues to flourish in France to the present.
While the marches may appear to be formulaic and repetitive at first glance, Cerclier actually shows a good deal of imagination and creativity in his compositions. For example, they seem to be originally composed rather than based upon any known French battlefield trumpet calls. While the marches share certain affinities, such as the thin textured openings and loud closings, the melodic lines, forms, use of soloists, textures, and rhythms vary considerably. In all, they are exciting, fun to play, and suitable both in concert and as fanfares for special occasions.