Critter Suite Trumpet Duet (4 Creative Movements)

Description

Critter Suite Trumpet Duet

By Eddie Lewis

Critter Suite trumpet duet is a suite of four movements, each movement named after one of our four cats; Brady, Vladdie, Siggie and Dory. These four “critters” were snuck into our house one day when the door was open. Their mother, (who we called “ena” because she had hyena colors “tortie”), hid her four kittens in a gap in our pantry, beneath the baked beans and canned yams.

Not having the heart to evict our new tenants, these four kittens had a new home and grew up to become our cat family.

Brady Bird

The first movement of Critter Suite trumpet duet is named after Brady, and I call it Brady Bird. As an adult cat, Brady is the most athletic, and yet, she is also the most likely of the four to stay inside all day. Brady’s most unique characteristic is that she likes to play fetch, like a dog.

Brady is a brown mackeral tabby with lots of orange thrown in. She has an athletic build because she is so very active, in spite of being inside all day.

We decided to name her after the Brady Bunch. She was the last one we named and it was like saying “welcome to this huge family”.

Vladdie Mouse

Vladdie is a black cat. She is the most neurotic of the four. She will come up to you to be petted for a few seconds and then run away.

I named the black one Vladdie because, as a kitten, she looked like a bat. In German, bat is Fledermaus. Fledermaus morphed into vladdie mouse, and then finally just Vladdie.

Siggie Bear

Siggie is the only male cat of the four. He is more relaxed and self-controlled than the others.

Siggie got sick early on, as a kitten. Pearl took care of him, and he recovered. This was about the time when we were trying to name each of the kittens, so she named him Sigmund, because he was strong and victorious and pulled through his sickness with flying colors.

Dory Deer

Dory is a blue mackeral tabby with very faint stripes. She is the most affectionate of the four.

Dory is the alpha female of the clan. She keeps an eye on what’s going on in the house.

About the Music

All four of these movements fall under the heading of what I call “experimental” compositions. These movements are not entirely tonal and the harmonies are non-traditional. The first movement, Brady Bird, uses my original technique that I call “homogenous harmonies”. The second movement, “Vladdie Mouse”, is a polytonal cannon. The third movement, “Siggie Bear”, is a binary counterpoint composition in whole tone scale, where the first and second parts are playing two different whole tones. The last movement, “Dory Deer”, is a pentatonic piece with lots of parallel chromatics added into the mix.

Forty Trumpet Player Duets book

Critter Suite trumpet duet is number one in our Forty Trumpet Player Duets book. This is a book of intermediate trumpet duets that fit into our Trumpet Player Skill Level.

If you like Critter Suite and would like a book of dozens of similar trumpet duets, then we encourage you to visit the Forty Trumpet Player Duets page on this website.

We would also like to encourage you to check out our other duet books as well by clicking HERE (Trumpet Duet Books). We currently publish six different trumpet duet books (as of 2023).

Trumpet Player Skill Level

Critter Suite trumpet duet, as are all the duets in our 40 Trumpet Player Duets book, are in our Trumpet Player skill level. The most obvious characteristic of this skill level is that the top note is G (or G shard) above the staff.

Practice Suggestions

Here are a few recommendations for working on this trumpet duet of Critter Suite.

• Practice one movement at a time.
• Double check all of your accidentals. This is not tonal music so there is a lot of chromaticism.
• Practice the technical passages slowly at first. .

Critter Suite Trumpet Duet Play-Along

We have a play-along video for Critter Suite that you can access with the following button:

Critter Suite Trumpet Play-Along

If you are interested in play-along videos, then the best way to access Eddie Lewis’ is on our other website, EddieLewis.com.

Critter Suite Trumpet Duet Performance Video

Below is a performance video of Critter Suite Trumpet Duet. The purpose of the performance video is so that you can see that the parts are genuinely playable. In our modern times, it is too easy to write music on computers without ever knowing if the music works. We make these live performance videos to demonstrate that the duets are indeed accessible.