maxmatzen

Is there any truth to Mel knowing all 100 Sachse etudes in all 12 keys from memory?

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"You're trying to force my head out!" -Arya Nabizadeh

bulldog

I don't know about playing in the park, but Mel told me about playing outside every day in support of a strike some years ago. He showed me a pocket trumpet he had in his locker and said, "See this? This is the horn I played every day out on the picket line". I think I remember that story right, its been a few years now.

I never met anyone who had a lesson from him in the park, but I guess anythings possible. He was probably the most generous man I have ever known. My shelves are overflowing with books and parts that he gave me week after week at my lessons. Music of his that was never published or out of print, or his handwritten and transposed orchestra parts, or parts that were rental only and impossible for a student to get their hands on, or copies of the MET parts to operas with signatures on them dating back almost 100 years.

He is missed.

Manny Laureano

To imagine that Mel would have played in Central Park for his own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others is completely within the realm of possibility. I don't think I ever met anyone who loved playing for the sheer sake of playing more than Mel. I think that kind of behavior speaks to his unflappable nerve and "trumpet chutzpah" that was such a part of his personality. He was a wonderful antidote to a lot of players I knew back then that just looked at trumpet as a bane, an albatross. If it wasn't the music they liked, they hated it. Mel taught me to find the value in everything musical. I loved that he fed my natural inclination to that attitude.

They truly broke the mold when Mel became a trumpeter. Yeah, he knew those damned Sachse etudes as well as Vacchiano but approached them completely differently. Whether he knew them ALL from memory is another story but lemme tell ya... when you worked on a study with him, you learned it as well as he did because he made you love it!

Much of the trumpeter I am today is due to that personality we call Mel Broiles. He gave me tickets to my first opera and gave me tons of music. He was a good man and took care of me more than a teacher is bound to.

Yeah, I miss him too, man.

ML

brian moon

Are you guys familiar with this book?

http://home.comcast.net/~briandavidm...pretations.pdf

bulldog

That link doesn't work for me, but I think I may know what you are talking about. Could you describe it a little?

Manny Laureano

Yes! I own that book... it must be a collector's item by now. Mel designed the ENTIRE book including the cover. It gives you a great insight into the man's mind and how he conceived musical ideas.

ML

brian moon

Foxit reader is much faster than Adobe Acrobat

It is just a pdf file of the cover.

Mel Broiles Orchestra Interpretations for Trumpet. Etudes written in an orchestral style. I haven't done them much but maybe i will so I can describe them better.

brian moon

Roger Voisin gave them to us at Tanglewood in 1972 or 73. It was a great feeling getting a book by a legend, from a legend. I always thought that Mel Broiles was a really cool guy to let us have those books for free.

Manny, is yours gray too?

Manny Laureano

Yes, it is... I thought it was one of the coolest things ever done by anyone if for no other reason than I appreciated the sheer amount of work he put into it.

ML

brian moon

After playing them they seem like trumpet parts from orchestral pieces that Broiles could have written.