Keeping Promises Trumpet Duet

Description

NOTE: This trumpet duet is also included in the book, 40 Trumpet Player Duets.

Keeping Promises Trumpet Duet

by Eddie Lewis

 

Keeping Promises is a trumpet duet for intermediate trumpet players. The most interesting characteristic of the piece is it’s 5/8 drone.

Keeping Promises is a great example of what Eddie means when he says that his educational compositions are not just dummied down. This trumpet duet is a legitimate composition. When Eddie first wrote it, he wasn’t thinking, “let me write something lame enough that the intermediate students can still play it.” Ha ha ha… No, when Eddie composed Keeping Promises, he had a musical idea that came to life as an intermediate trumpet duet.  When it came time to assemble a collection of duets for the Forty Trumpet Player Duets book, Keeping Promises came up because the parameters just happen to work as a trumpet duet for that skill level.

Musical Symbolism

The name of this trumpet duet is “Keeping Promises”. That’s not by mistake. In his everyday life, Eddie Lewis is constantly striving to become a better promise keeper.

A “Promise Keeper” is someone who honors his word. What’s very interesting is that most people believe that they do in fact honor their word. In their minds, when it is important to be true to what you’ve said, they have done so.

The problem is during those times when people think it’s NOT important. For example, if you said you would be on time to a meeting with friends, but you got caught in traffic, then you might think that this is a justifiable tarty. For someone who chooses to be a promise keeper, there is never a justifiable excuse for not honoring your word.

Someone who honors his word will leave for a meeting with enough time to deal with traffic or other unforeseen obstacles. The person who strives to honor his word thinks things through in advance and changes his lifestyle to accommodate this objective.

Why write about this under the heading of “Musical Symbolism”?

Because the repeating five note motif represents this lifestyle. As promise keepers, we need to be constantly looking ahead, constantly adjusting our plans so we do not fall short of keeping our promises.

When we do fall short, we own up to it and do something to not let it happen again. This simple duet is full of this kind of symbolism. Yes, it sounds interesting and it’s fun to play. But it is more than what it seems on the surface.

Keeping Promises Skill Level

Technically, there is one aspect of Keeping Promises that was supposed to keep it out of the Trumpet Player Skill Level. In Eddie’s system, odd meter is not introduced until the next skill level (The Trumpet Apprentice Skill Level). We decided to include it in the Forty Trumpet Player  Duets book because, even though it is written in odd meter, it is not difficult enough to be listed at the higher skill level. So we present it in that book as something of a sneak peak into the next skill level.

The highest note in Keeping Promises is G in the first part, and that occurs only three times. There are no sixteenths-notes and the only advanced characteristic is the 5/8 time signature.

Keeping Promises Demo Video

Here is a video of Eddie Lewis playing this trumpet duet. We do not have other videos (score video or You Play First Chair) for this composition.