[TPIN] Arban: the Grande Ecole

[William Benzon]

While most of us use Arban for the exercises and the etudes, there is also
this little written passage near the back of the book:

p. 284: At this point my task as professor ... will end.  There are things
which appear clear enough when uttered viva voce but which cannot be
committed to paper without engendering confusion and obscurity, or without
appearing puerile.

There are other things of so elevated and subtle a nature that neither
speech nor writing can clearly explain them. They are felt, they are
conceived, but they are not to be explained; and yet these things constitute
the elevated style, the grande ecole, which it is my ambition to institute
for the cornet, even as they already exist for singing and the various kinds
of instruments.

Jean-Baptiste Arban, Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, Edited by
Edwin Franko Goldman and Walter M. Smith, Carl Fischer, Inc. 1936.

Bill Benzon


on 7/23/07 8:55 PM, Paul Kurtz at kurtzph at comcast.net wrote:

> I agree with John Daniel. If you call Arban "over-rated" in general,
> you're ignoring both history and present reality. Arban was the basis
> Charlier worked from (Arban's successor in Paris). Clarke worked from
> Arban and so did most of the cornetists of the early 20th century. It
> covers so many nuances from a perspective not always covered or in some
> cases assumed as knowledge by other method book writers.
> Yes, some of its material on range and even some of the styles may be a
> bit dated, but you know, the styles seem to come back around. The range,
> of course, is much more demanding than Arban reflects although the early
> 20th-century cornetists probably had more range than they're given
> credit for because they didn't always use anything above their perfect
> level to control. (as I think was Mendez's policy)
> Glenn, you fire out some hooks to make people think, cannon fodder if
> you please, and that's not all bad!
> Paul Kurtz Jacksonville, FL
> 
> 
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