One of this year’s All-State etudes in Texas was composed by Oskar Bohme, a great trumpet player and composer during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Knowing a little about his life and listening to his other trumpet compositions can give us insight to better perform this etude.
Bohme was born and educated in Germany, though most of his professional career was in Russia. He composes in the Romantic style, which is rare for trumpet music (most of our repertoire is from either before or after the Romantic Era in the timeline of music history).
His best-known compositions are his Brass Sextet and Trumpet Concerto (video below). This music expresses a wide range of musical emotion: from sad and angst-filled minor-key melodies to beautifully gentle major-key melodies. I’d encourage us all to approach the All-State etude with similar emotional range.
MPTrumpet 