Sonata for Trumpet and Piano

Description

This Trumpet Sonata was written for Greg McEwan in 2003, and was first performed that year as part of the Stourbridge Local and Live concert series. It was intended to be a showpiece for the trumpeter and pianist, and to appeal to the audience through a melodic style and exciting interplay between the piano and soloist. It is in three movements.   The first is fast and lively, and there is a strong jazz influence in the syncopated rhythms. The music constantly develops an exciting, fanfare-like motif, although there is a more lyrical and song like mood in the middle section, which is based on a slower, more relaxed version of the fanfare idea.  By contrast, the slow middle movement is very still and enigmatic, with a hypnotic ostinato pattern on the piano. This supports melodic phrases on the trumpet which gradually become more dramatic and impassioned as the music progresses. At the coda there is a lower ostinato on the piano, which brings the music to an end with a sense of peace and resolution.  The final movement is a lively scherzo in 10/8. Driving rhythmic patterns in the piano maintain a constant sense of forward movement, while the trumpet has exciting, syncopated melodies which blend plenty of rapid, virtuosic movement with more extended lyrical ideas. The closing bars are even faster, and the piano and trumpet combine in a headlong rush to the final chord.