CLASSICAL MUSIC : Unusual Band of Trumpets Upholds Fanfare Tradition

Trumpet fanfares were the calling cards of Renaissance nobility. In fact, no self-respecting prince would have made an appearance without the tuneful blasts by his retinue of court trumpeters. When the divine right of Kings gave way to more business-like parliaments and congresses, trumpeters were unceremoniously phased out of politics and into orchestras, where they were promptly banished to the back rows behind the ranks of earnest string players.

San Diego’s Clarion Trumpet Ensemble has revived the ceremonial fanfare as a kind of cottage industry for local brass players. Clarion’s regular gig is trumpeting the opening night of every San Diego Opera production, but the ensemble has also heralded opening nights at the Old Globe Theatre and social galas at the Hotel del Coronado. For an opera opening, the ensemble plays two fanfares outside Civic Theatre prior to curtain, followed by two fanfares in the hall.

What makes this group of six brass players unique is their instruments. Unlike a brass quintet, which mixes trumpets with a French horn, trombones and occasionally even a tuba, the Clarion musicians only play trumpets. Their collection ranges in size from the tiny piccolo trumpet to the larger-than-life contrabass trumpet.

“I was aiming for a homogeneous sound like a men and boys choir, or like the single timbre of a Renaissance consort,” explained group leader and founder Steve Foster. “The sound of a typical brass quintet or quartet is more like a choir of mixed voices.”

When the ensemble started in 1985--they heralded the opening of a San Diego Opera production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”--they played their standard B-flat orchestra trumpets. Foster soon decided that adding trumpets that play in a lower range would give the group a richer and more balanced sound. San Diego Opera Orchestra trombonist Richard Gordon learned to play the bass trumpet, an infrequently used instrument that Richard Wagner required for the dark sonorities of his “Ring” cycle. San Diego Symphony principal horn John Lorge polished his technique on the alto trumpet, a mid-ranged trumpet in the key of F. Foster usually plays the piccolo trumpet, which plays an octave higher than the standard orchestral trumpet; Mark Bedell and Charles Lauer play traditional B-flat trumpets.

Clarion’s newest instrument is a contrabass trumpet, a specially designed trumpet that emits throaty tones that the orchestral bass trombone might play.

“The interesting thing we’ve discovered, is that all the instruments, regardless of their size, still have a clearly recognizable trumpet timbre,” Foster noted.

The contrabass trumpet, one of two in California according to Gordon, was designed and crafted by Larry Minick, an instrument builder in Cambria, Calif. The contrabass is played by Matthew Garbutt, principal tuba with the San Diego Symphony. According to Garbutt, the most difficult part in playing the contrabass trumpet is holding it perpendicular for any length of time.

“It’s not too difficult for a short fanfare,” he explained, “but for concert performances, we’re going to have to design a stand to hold up the bell.”

Gordon writes or arranges all of Clarion’s fanfares. He usually tailors the style of each fanfare to each opera.

“I like to get the flavor of a particular opera in the fanfare. Sometimes I’ve taken a theme from the score itself, for example, when we did ‘Boris Godunov’ in 1989, I quoted the Russian hymn from the coronation scene. Other times I’ve waited to write the fanfare until I’ve played a few rehearsals of the opera to get a feel for the composer’s style.”

Honoring King. The San Diego Symphony has announced a Jan. 26 concert to remember the dreams and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Leslie Dunner, associate conductor of the Detroit Symphony, will lead the local symphony and a 200-member choir drawn from San Diego churches in the 2 p.m. program at Copley Symphony Hall.

Programming will feature orchestral works by black composers, including Alolphus Hailstork’s “Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed,” Hale Smith’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and selections by Duke Ellington. Choral works will include “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and Gospel favorites such as “I’m So Glad,” “For God So Loved the World,” and “I Just Can’t Tell You (How Good He’s Been).”

Proceeds from the concert will benefit the African-American youth scholarship program administered by both the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the Baptist Ministers Union of San Diego. Louise Pearson, a member of the Lincoln High School faculty, will organize and rehearse the massed choir before maestro Dunner’s arrival. Besides his Detroit post, Dunner is principal guest conductor for the New York’s noted Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Notable this week. Ljuba Davis will give a concert of traditional Sephardic Jewish folk music tonight at 8 p.m. in Southwestern College’s Mayan Hall in Chula Vista. Davis, a Berkeley resident and synagogue cantor, will sing contemporary Israeli songs, Sephardic chants, and Ladino folk ballads. . . .