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Light Touch, The Book 2: Trumpet and Piano

£9.75

Standard: Intermediate to Advanced
With FREE downloadable MP3 accompaniments

The fourteen new pieces of The Light Touch for trumpet and piano capture the energy of popular music and the fascination of its ever-changing boundaries. In two books, graded Easy to Intermediate and Intermediate Plus, with accompaniments also available as free downloadable MP3 files, the collection has been compiled and edited by noted soloist Deborah Calland, who has showcased the work both of leading composers and exciting new talents.

The contents are wide-ranging, from funk, jazz and blues to ragtime, Latin American and minimalism, with additional scope for cross-curricula study. A major resource for players and teachers, the two albums will encourage fresh and revealing encounters with popular music in its many forms, while charming audiences with the allure of ‘The Light Touch’.

1. … as the sun rose, as the day sank ~ Raymond Yiu
2. Turtle Song: Geoffrey Burgon
3. Two to Boogie: Deborah Calland
4. Groovetime: Tony Cliff
5. Dark Tango: Ross Lorraine
6. Least said ….: John Hawkins
7. Night Flight: Paul Hughes

These files are available for you to play directly by clicking on the links, or you can download the files to your computer by right-clicking, selecting “Save Target As..” and saving them into a folder of your choice. The tracks can then be copied to your portable mp3 player, or burned to a CD for use on a standard CD player.

Each piece is recorded at the metronome marking indicated in the score.

Tuning Note (B flat) (214 Kb)
… as the sun rose, as the day sank ~ Raymond Yiu (2.54 Mb)
Turtle Song ~ Geoffrey Burgon (2.90 Mb)
Two to Boogie ~ Deborah Calland (1.52 Mb)
Groovetime ~ Tony Cliff (1.30 Mb)
Dark Tango ~ Ross Lorraine (2.02 Mb)
Least said …. ~ John Hawkins (1.62 Mb)
Night Flight ~ Paul Hughes (2.38 Mb)

Deborah Calland has collected together a ‘magnificent seven’ of composers to write a piece each for her The Light Touch books. ‘Light’ suggests popular music, and there are a variety of styles contained within the books.

Book one (Ref H457 £8.25) is for players of about 4–5 standard while book two follows on for players of Grade 5–8. Geoffrey Burgon penned The Endless Blues for book one, but it is his Turtle Song that really catches the ear in book two (Ref H458); players will enjoy the lyrical lies here. The wide variety of compositional approaches is exemplified by John Hawkins’s minimalist writing. Least Said . . . , from book two is energetically purposeful with its pulsating piano accompaniment, in contrast to his more carefree, relaxed Samba-Cha (book one). Paul Hughes’s Unread Message and Night Flight have strong jazz influences but perhaps Night Flight is more suited as a saxophone piece, as the sustained high note passages pushes the trumpet range.

Tony Cliff offers two pieces in a similar genre from the relaxed Lazy Waltz to the slow jazz funk Groovetime. Ross Lorraine provides the straightforward Boogie Days and an evocative Dark Tango. Raymond Yiu offers another classic tango and a foxtrot. My only reservation with the latter work is that the semiquavers are notated in full triplet notation instead of the simpler standard quavers with swing instructions, which makes for easier reading for younger players.

As well as editing all of the pieces, Deborah Calland offers a traditional light-hearted ragtime piece and a swinging boogie-woogie. The books have a professional feel to them and the accompaniment is available as a free downloadable MP3 file… yet another reason to recommend these books to pupils and teachers alike.

Kevin Street, Music Teacher Magazine

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