East Meets West

The waning years of the Russian Empire witnessed the development of a rich tradition of trumpet playing. Noted trumpet scholar and performer Edward Tarr's latest book illuminates this tradition, which is little known in the West. Tarr's extensive research in hitherto inaccessible Russian archives has uncovered many documents that illuminate the careers of noted performers. These documents are reproduced here for the first time. A concise chronological summary of Russian political and musical developments provides an effective backdrop for this inventory of trumpeters. The author ably demonstrates how profoundly Russian trumpet-playing and pedagogy were influenced by emigrées, particularly from Germany (Wilhelm Wurm, Willy Brandt, Oskar Böhme), and how Russian-born trumpeters like Vladimir Drucker subsequently influenced the American musical scene. In his Lexicon of Trumpeters, both Russian and 'Foreign, ' Active in Russia, Tarr supplements his own research with information from valuable but obscure secondary sources in Russian. This lexicon carries the story into the late twentieth century, and includes modern legendary figures such as Timofey Dokshizer. Members of the International Trumpet Guild will receive a discount of 15% on purchases of this title.