Motor City Mahler

Dear Ed,

You made a statement in the thread on crossover playing that really caught my attention. Speaking of Maurice Andre, you wrote:

"His attack was absolutely perfect in all registers and this, in my opinion, was the key to his legato."

I'm not quite putting two and two together here, and I was wondering if you would mind elaborating on this a little?

Thanks so much for your time!

-Nick

Manny Laureano

Ed is absolutely right but I've never heard anyone else put it that way. Nevertheless, as I said, Ed is dead on. His smoothness came from the unfailing quality of his articulation.

Carry on, señor...

ML

Jerry Freedman

Somewhere within the last few months I read something about M. Andre. miight have been an interview, where he explains that his teacher emphasized attacks and working on attacks was an important part of his playing

ROGERIO

Nick, I'm curious to see how Ed will respond. But after I thought about your question for a minute I came up with this. Legato to me means eveness in sound with a ever so slight separation between the notes. If the attack is too strong then there goes the eveness. The note would start stronger (from the attack) and the flow from note to note would be less.

Funny, think about the word "attack"... no wonder we all go "SPLAT" sometimes! ... and maybe why some teachers stress "release"... that seems more liberating and peacefull...

ecarroll

Mo Mahler,

Listen carefully to those many recordings of Maurice playing baroque transcriptions. You will notice how incredibly clear his sound is. This is especially apparent in slow movements, where the ear can isolate and linger on each note a bit longer than in a stream of 16ths.

I view many elements of trumpet technique as balance between flow and focus. Both must be present, naturally, to make a good sound. Maurice's classic "French" attack -- very forward, with little movement other than a clean flick of the tip of the tongue -- allows a clean and quick release to the body of the note. I believe that this (coupled with fabulous air management and a knowing ear) is the key to his playing.

It's interesting to me that in today's "flow centric" world how often we ignore the clarity of our attack. Arnold Jacobs was fond of saying that the quality of the exhale is determined, in great part, by the quality of the inhale. I'm fond of saying that the quality of our sound is released by the clarity of our attack.

Listen to recordings of Maurice Andre, Reinhold Friedrich, Jouko Harjanne, Hakan Hardenberger, et al and tell me if you ever hear a compression (uuh) attack or hammer tongue. I don't think you will.

Fondly,
EC

oj

Ed,

Did you study with Maurice André?
If you did, I wonder if he used the Franquin book in lessons?

Maurice first teacher (after his father) was Leon Barthélémy. With Barthélémy, Maurice had to buy method books like Arban and as he says:
Ole

ecarroll

Ole,

I played for him a few times but never had formal lessons.

You'll enjoy a photo that I'll try to scan and post here of our friend Ole Edvard, Maurice, Ed Tarr, Dokshitzer, and myself in Rotterdam. Maurice played the Hummel and then Dokshitzer stole the show with his Shostokovich Piano Concerto transcription. The Janacek Sinfonietta was an anti-climax after what preceeded it. Great fun.

Best,
EC

Billy B

Hammer tongue? Sounds like a medical condition. :-)

trickg

It's actually a lesser form of a malady I used to have - Thunder Tongue.