James Lan’s March for Trumpet and Piano

Description

James Lan’s March

by Eddie Lewis and Alex Lewis

James Lan’s March is a collaboration between Eddie Lewis and his son Alex Lewis. They had wanted to do work on a composition together and James Lan’s March was a great opportunity for this. As a result, both of them want to work together on more projects in the future.

James Lan’s March is fun to play and enjoyable to listen to. This march is great to perform at a competition for intermediate level trumpet players. There are trumpet solos with piano accompaniment that are ranked by class in the UIL.  James Lan’s March would be considered a class II UIL piece. The piano part in this march is closer in difficulty to a Class I solo than a class II solo.

James Lan’s March is suitable to play in any performance that includes ragtime. The style of this piece is light hearted unlike a heavy duty composition by Beethoven or Brahms. Both the trumpet and piano parts are interesting to listen to and combine into something unique.

Skill Level

The piano part is influenced by Scott Joplin ragtime. In the middle of the piece is a piano solo which is about the same difficulty as one of those rags. Alex took ideas that Eddie put in and expanded on those ideas. For example, there is an octave ‘ping’ that happens in the beginning of the march that Alex repeated throughout the piece. He felt that this octave idea would be cool to write. Another idea he had was exhibiting the piano part when the trumpet wasn’t playing. There are sections in the music where the melody ping-pongs between the trumpet and the piano. The piano part in these described areas is one of the most difficult parts in the piece. There is a lot of syncopation and some hard to play notes.