Fanfare, Chorale and Fantasia on a Theme of Elgar

- Gary D. Penkala

PDF Sample

Use: General
Required Resources: Trumpet, organ

Written for a bright high school trumpeter, this piece quotes the melody from Variation IX [Nimrod] of Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations.

After a short maestoso fanfare for both instruments, the trumpet states the theme, mezzo-forte and "molto ricco," with simple chorale-style accompaniment. The first of the fantasia sections is organ alone, with the chorale melody inverted in the left hand and a sixteenth note pattern in the right hand. The trumpet takes up the inversion, transposed from E-flat to B-flat, with the organ supplying the sixteenth note running scale figures in both hands.

The pedal returns with the chorale in augmentation; the manuals play the chorale in its original form followed by its inversion transposed. Above this, the trumpet has a cantabile countermelody in eighth notes.

After modulating from E-flat to C, the organ has quiet chords under a quick, well-articulated, muted trumpet passage, using the chorale in ornamented augmentation. A return modulation to E-flat moves to a recap of the initial fanfare section, followed by a "quasi cadenza" for trumpet. The piece ends with a seven-measure diminuendo, from fortissimo to piano.

While the range for the trumpet is not overly demanding [concert B-flat below middle C to concert G above the staff], there are numerous technical devices that a good player will navigate with joy: fanfare motives, wide leaps, rich and sonorous tones, a playful muted passage and a closing cadenza. The organ part is of medium difficulty, and while written for a four-manual instrument, is very easily played on a two-manual one, with the use of several pistons.

Find your best high school trumpeter and schedule this piece for September, as the academic year begins, or for Graduation or Baccalaureate Masses at the close. You, the young player and the congregation will all be pleased with this "cerebral," yet effective piece!