Trumpet Voluntary: A Song History

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Jeremiah Clarke was an English organist and composer whose output was mostly sacred; in 1704 he became master of the choristers at St. Paul's Cathedral and, together with William Croft, organist of the Chapel Royal, and he died in London in 1707.[1] The tune now called the Trumpet Voluntary was printed as "The Prince of Denmark's March," one of several Clarke pieces in A Choice Collection of Ayres for the Harpsichord or Spinett, issued in London by John Young in 1700.[2] That keyboard anthology also carried music by John Blow, William Croft, Francis Piggot and John Barrett.[2] Britannica allows that the march may have begun either as a harpsichord piece or as music for a wind ensemble.[1]

A long silver baroque trumpet with a green and gold cord and tassels

Johann Wilhelm Haas, Natural Trumpet, silver, ca. 1700. A silver natural trumpet made about 1700, the year Clarke's march was printed in London; the instrument has no connection to the music itself.

The piece was once credited to Henry Purcell instead of Clarke.[1] Its wide modern popularity is traced to an arrangement by the conductor Sir Henry Wood, who called it "Trumpet Voluntary" and credited it to Purcell, though he was not the first to do either.[3] The University of Edinburgh's Reid Concerts archive, which logs performances of Wood's version in 1945 and 1997, names Clarke as composer and notes that the piece is often misattributed to Purcell.[4]

In the BBC footage of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral on 29 July 1981, the march is heard as the bride is shown walking on her father's arm.[5] For mountain dulcimer players, Larry Conger sets it in DAD tuning in Traditional Wedding Classics, a nine-tune Fingers Of Steel collection of solo arrangements meant for players asked to perform at a friend's ceremony.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Trumpet Voluntary"

Sources

  1. Britannica: "Jeremiah Clarke".
  2. IMSLP: "A Choice Collection of Ayres (Various)".
  3. All Classical Portland: "The Prince of Denmark's March (Trumpet Voluntary)".
  4. University of Edinburgh, Reid Concerts: "Trumpet Voluntary (Prince of Denmark's March)".
  5. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: "Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding".
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Traditional Wedding Classics".
  7. Image: Johann Wilhelm Haas, Natural Trumpet, silver, ca. 1700. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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