Cat No. JM50663
Price £39.95
Composer: J.B Arban
Arrangers: Edwin Franko Goldman, Walter M. Smith
Category: Books

The ideal gift !

Arbans complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet/ Cornet OR ANY Treble Clef Brass Band Instrument.

Includes mp3 and PDF downloads from carlfischer.com

The New Authentic Edition of Arban’s Complete Conservatory Method contains the same tried and true comprehensive system of study that Arban developed over a century ago, and this completely re-engraved edition has been painstakingly edited by prominent trumpet performers and teachers. In re-editing the method, the Arban system has been kept intact, while adding some of editors’ own insights with respect to how trumpet is taught today. Purists and modernists alike will welcome these new editions. Arban’s time-tested pedagogical sequence has also been given a fresh new layout for easier reading. As an added bonus, the included downloadable resources contain spectacular performances of all of the 14 Characteristic Studies as well as piano accompaniments for the Fantasies performed by John Walker. All tracks are in MP3 format and can be downloaded to your desktop or MP3 player/iPod. The download also contains the original text from the first edition of the Arban method in PDF form, including multi-language translations. The Arban Complete Conservatory Method is the definitive must-have for all trumpet players. With this masterful new edition and all of its extra resources, the Arban will remain the driving force in brass education for generations to come.

Contains :
1. Arban's Original Complete Method
2. The Art of Phrasing - 150 Songs & Operatic Airs
3. 68 Duets for two cornets ( or any two Bb. or two Eb.instruments).
4. 14 Characteristic Studies
5. Numerous fantasies and other solos

JEAN BAPTISTE ARBAN :
Joseph Jean Baptiste Laurent Arban was born at Lyons, France, February 28, 1825. He entered the Conservatory at an early age, taking up the study of the trumpet under Dauverné. and won first prize in 1845. His military term was spent in the navy on board the “La Belle Poule,” whose chief musician, Paulus, became Chief Musician of the Gardea Parisduring the reign of Napoleon Ill.

After having been professor of saxhorn at the Military School (1857), Arban was elected professor of cornet at the Conservatory, January 23, 1869. Afterattending to these duties for a period of five years. he left the Conservatory for six years, returning again in 1880.

He was the most brilliant cornet player of his time, and his astonishing performance and triumphant concert tours throughout Europe were the means of establishing the valve cornet as one of the most popular of all musical instruments. Arban’s artistic ideals, sound musicianship and invaluable instructive principles were perpetuated in his splendid Method for the Cornet, which has succeeded in maintaining the very highest position among similar instructive works and which has never been surpassed in point of practical superiority or artistic plan.

Arban died at Paris on April 9, 1889. He was an officer of the Acaddmie, Knight of the Order of Leopold of Belgium, of Christ of Portugal. of Isabella the Catholic, and of the Cross of Russia.

PREFACE to the 1982 Edition by Claude gordon :

It is not only desirable but necessary for the student when. working with a method to study the text thoroughly. Only by understanding the meaning of the author’s statements and applying his teachings can a method be successful to the student.

To help with this understanding, I have, with the aid of footnotes, attempted to clarify and augment the full sense of what Arban is saying in his text as it applies to modern instruments and today’s practices. In certain instances, where the explanations and teachings are obsolete or no longer applicable. I have deleted them from the text proper so as not to confuse today’s student. Arban’s book, however, is Arban’s and, in my opinion, should not be impulsively changed. Accordingly, deleted material has been placed below in the footnotes within brackets [ ] along with appropriate comments as called for. Further, in an attempt to maintain the book’s authenticity, the entire original French text along with a picture of a very early cornet of the type used by Arban appears at the back of the book.

Perhaps more than any other person, Arban was responsible for successfully demonstrating the possibilities of the cornet. He wrote his method at a time when valve instruments were just beginning to be accepted and those instruments were far inferior to those which we have today. It is important then to remember when studying the original text that Arban discussed things in terms of the instrument known and available at the time. This is quickly apparent when we note his references to the tuning slide and the use of “crooks” which are obsolete today.

The tuning slide that is used today to place the instrument at “common pitch” is still a slide at the end of the leader pipe on the trumpet or cornet. Some players today use a ring on the 3rd slide, some have one on the 1st slide, and some have one on both the 1st and third slides. These are used to put the low C# and low D in tune while playing; low C# on the better instruments is usually quite sharp while low D is just a little sharp.

All this not withstanding, many positive developments have come about over the years with both the instrument and the players capabilities so that except for a few things that apply only to that era and the older horn, Arban’s method stands today as modern, as sound and as correct as it did over one hundred years ago. Indeed, this method along with another equally great method by Saint-Jacome serve as an absolutely necessary basis for anyone studying and playing trumpet or cornet.

Today, the modern cornet has come to resemble the trumpet in external shape and tone quality and both instruments, are widely used in ensemble and solo work. Because of this amalgamation, Arban’s method is equally suitable to form the basis for either instrument.

— Claude Gordon

PREFACE to the 1894 and 1936 editions :

It may appear somewhat strange to undertake the defense of the cornet at a time when this instrument has given proofs of its excellence, both in the orchestra and in solo performance. where it is no less indispensable to the composer, and no less liked by the public than the flute, the clarinet, and even the violin: where, in short, it has definitely won for itself the elevated position to which the beauty of its tone, the perfection of its mechanism and the immensity of its resources, so justly entitle it.
But this was not always the case: the cornet was far less successful when it first appeared: and, indeed, not many years ago. the masses treated the instrument with supreme indifference. while that time-honored antagonist—routine— contested its qualities, and strove hard to prohibit their application. This phenomenon, however, is of never-failing recurrence at the birth of every new invention, however excellent it may be. and of this fact the appearance of the saxhorn and the saxophone, instruments of still more recent date than the cornet, gave a new and striking proof.

The first musicians who plaved the cornet were, for the most part, either horn or trumpet players. Each imparted to his performance the peculiarities resulting from his tastes, his abilities and his habits. and I need scarcely add that the kind of performance which resulted from so many incomplete and heterogeneous elements was deficient in the extreme, and, for a long while, presented the lamentable spectacle of imperfections and failures of the most painful description.

Gradually, however, matters assumed a more favourable aspect. Performers really worthy of the name of artists began to make their appearance. However, regardless of the brilliant accomplishments of such performers, they could not deny the faults of their original training, viz., the total lack of qualifications necessary for ensenible playing, and decided musicianly tendencies. Some excited admiration for their extreme agility:
others were applauded for the expression with which they played: one was remarkable for lip; another for the high tone to which he ascended: others for the brilliancy and volume of their tone. In my opinion, it was the reign of specialists, but it does not appear that a single one of the players then in vogue ever thought of realizing or of obtaining the sum total of qualities which alone can constitute a great artist.

This. then, is the point upon which I wish to insist, and to which I wish to call particular attention. At the present time, the incompleteness of the old school of performers is unanimously acknowledged. as is also the insuffiency of their instruction. That which is required is methodical execution and methodical instruction. It is not sufficient to phrase well or to execute difficult passages with skill. It is necessary that both these things should be equally well done. In a word, it is necessary that the cornet, as well as the flute, the clarinet, the violin, and the voice, should possess the pure style and the grand method of which a few professors, the Conservatory in particular, have conserved the precious secret and the salutary traditions.

This is the aim which I have incessantly kept in view throughout my long career: and if a numerous series of brilliant successes obtained in the presence of the most competent judges and the most critical audiences.t give me the right to believe that I have, at any rate, approached the desired end. I shall not be laying myself open to the charge of presumption, in confidently entering upon the delicate mission of transmitting to others the results of my own thorough studies and assiduous practice. I have long been a professor, and this work is to a certain extent merely the resumé of a long experience which each day has brought nearer to perfection.

My explanations will be found as short and clear as possible, for I wish to instruct and not to terrify the student. Long pages of “text” are not always read, and it is highly advantageous to replace the latter by exercises and examples. This is the wealth which I consider cannot be too lavishly accumulated; this is the source which can never be too plentifully drawn from. This. however, will be perceived from the extent of the present volume, in which, in my opinion, will be found the solution of all difficulties and of all problems.

I have endeavored throughout to compose studies of a melodic nature, and in general to render the study of the instrument as agreeable as possible. In a word. I have endeavored to lead the pupil, without discouragement, to the highest limits of execution, sentiment and style, destined to characterize the new school.

— J. P. ARBAN