Don Smithers

Don Leroy Smithers ( born February 17, 1933, New York City ) is an American music historian and performer on natural trumpet and zinc, pioneer of the revival of the game on the historically accurate natural trumpet.

Life and work

After studies at the Universities of Hofstra, New York and Columbia Don Smithers received his doctorate in 1967 in Oxford in music history, then became associate professor at Syracuse University in 1975 and taught music history and historical performance practice at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague, Netherlands.

As a music historian Don Smithers has done groundbreaking research on the baroque trumpet to their social and historical context as well as their allegorical aspect and published numerous articles and books. His special interest is the work of J. S. Bach and the games contained in them for brass instruments. Don Smithers has a significant contribution to the revival of historically -based techniques used on authentic instruments and mouthpieces.

In addition, Smithers has contributed to the rediscovery of forgotten many important works, including the complete music from the archive of the episcopal residence in Kroměříž (Czech Republic), which boasts significant works by Biber, Schmelzer and Vejvanovský for trumpet. 1968 Smithers taught a copy of a complete collection on microfilm at Syracuse University. More recently, Smithers was responsible for the filming of all music manuscripts of the castle archive Sondershausen, under which there is a large part of the obtained cantatas Gottfried Heinrich Stölzels.

After early recordings with ensembles such as New York Pro Musica, Musica Reservata and studio of the early music Smithers began his solo recording activities on the trumpet and the tines with ensembles from England, Italy and Germany. He presented numerous solo recordings and was the first recording of the complete cantatas of JS Bach's involved on original instruments under Gustav Leonhardt and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. As the first in our time, he played roles like the cantatas BWV 77 You shall the Lord thy God, to love and 90, It, Break you a horrible end to the copy in a historically accurate natural trumpet without assistance and with an authentic mouthpiece of the 18th century. On his last publication records of 1980, inter alia, the demanding sonatas Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Carl Heinrich Biber and Mozart's Divertimento KV 188 are received with such an instrument.

Smithers ' vocal play style the emphasized in many historical sources similarities between singing and instrumental playing.

Bibliography (selection)

  • The Music and History of the Baroque Trumpet before 1721, London, Dent, 1973 ( Second edition Buren, the Netherlands and Carbondale, USA, 1988)
  • The trumpets of J. W. Haas: a survey of four generations of Nuremberg brass instrument makers, Galpin Society Journal, xviii, London, 1965
  • Music for the Prince - Bishop, Music and Musicians, XVIII, 8 (April), 24-27, 1970
  • The Habsburg imperial trumpeter and Heerpaucker privileges of 1653, Galpin Sociey Journal, xxiv, London, 1971
  • Playing the Baroque Trumpet ( with Wogram, Klaus and John Bowsher ), Scientific American, 1986
  • Gottfried Reich reputation and his influence on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach-Jahrbuch 73, 113-150, 1987
  • An Interview with Don L. Smithers, ITG Journal 13, no 2, 1988, 11-20
  • A New Look at the Historical, Linguistic and Taxonomic Bases for the Evolution of Lip -blown instrument from Classical Antiquity until the end of the Middle Ages, Historic Brass Society Journal 1, 3-64, 1989
  • Bach, Reiche and the Leipzig Collegia Musica, Historic Brass Society Journal 2, 1-51, 1990
  • The Emperors ' New Clothes Reappraised; or Bach 's Musical Resources Revealed, BACH, The Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, xxviii, 1-81, 1997

Discography (selection)

  • A Florentine Festival, Musica Reservata, Morrow & Beckett ( Argo zrg 602, 1968)
  • Music for Trumpet and Cornetto (works by Grossi, Buonamente, Viviani and others) Argo zrg 601 1969
  • Festive Trumpet Music of the Baroque, Academy of St. Martin-in -the-Fields (works by Telemann, Schmelzer, Vejvanovsky others), Philips 6500 110, 1970
  • The virtuoso trumpet, I Musici (works by Torelli, Perti, etc.), Philips 6500 304, 1971
  • Virtuoso Trumpet Concertos of the Baroque and Rococo (works by Richter, Graupner, Querfurth, Haydn ), BASF MPS 25 21778-7, 1973
  • Bach trumpet, Philips 6500 925, 1975
  • Two Centuries of Trumpet (Works of HIF Biber and CH, Altenburg, Vejvanovsky, Mozart and others ), 2 LPs, Philips 6769 056, 1980
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