Gramercy Cornet Album, Peter Graham. Cornet Bb and Piano

GRAMERCY CORNET ALBUM
Peter Graham

The contents are for advanced (and in some cases virtuoso) players in mind and although designated as a Cornet Album the titles within are (mostly) equally suitable for Trumpet.

Contents:

Cossack Fire Dance
The central movement of Call of the Cossacks, a suite originally written for the Black Dyke Brass Band.
Based on the folk song Mazeltov the music brings to mind part of the Cossack wedding ceremony where, following a Klezmer style clarinet call, each guest around the camp fire comes forward in turn to offer congratulations.
The multiple instrumentalists of the original have been supplanted by a single guest whose increasingly attention seeking behaviour includes quoting from a number of popular musical display pieces...
The idea of creating this solo version came from Florida-based Trumpeter Thomas Macklin.

Resurrection
is a Rhapsody for Trumpet (or Cornet) which takes as its model composer Ray Steadman-Allen's classic solo Rhapsody on Negro Spirituals.
Like Steadman-Allen's work, Resurrection is based upon two spirituals, in this case He Never Said a Mumblin' Word and The Angels Rolled the Stone Away.
The piece was written at the request of Chicago-based Mark Ridenour.

Damaré
The French flautist Eugène Damaré was a prolific composer of virtuoso showpieces for his instrument. Two of the best known, Cleopatra and Pandora were adapted for cornet (possibly by William Rimmer) and are well established in the repertoire.
Both pieces became signature pieces for the famous Black Dyke Mills Band Principal Cornet player, James Shepherd, who held the position for over a decade into the early 1970s.
This work is an adaptation of Eugene Damare's polka Le Merle Blanc (Op. 161) and also incorporates an original slow introduction together with other stylistically period-appropriate material.
Damaré was written for Black Dyke's current Principal Cornetist Richard Marshall.

Paramount Rhapsody
Harry James made his Paramount Theater (NYC) debut with Benny Goodman's band in 1937 and by all accounts took the venue by storm.
His characteristic jazz and classical crossover adaptations (incorporating virtuoso cornet solo techniques he acquired in his youth) captured the imagination of the public (and Hollywood), quickly propelling him to household fame. Paramount Rhapsody pays tribute to this legendary performer.
The music roughly follows the Harry James Trumpet Concerto in form, the content incorporating the popular classic In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg.
Paramount Rhapsody was written for and recorded by Philip Cobb on the Naxos album Metropolis 1927