Trumpet Sonata No. 1

We know very little about the early years Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (ca. 1620-1680), though at least by the 1640s he had arrived in Vienna to take up an official position. He is mentioned at times as a cornetist or trumpeter, though his position in history largely derives from his violin music. Schmeltzer was a virtuoso himself and mastered the popular, dazzling Italian style when it was still fresh import to Austria. He enjoyed the Support up the Habsburg dynasty–enough so to make a direct petition to have himself ennobled in 1673. Once that status was granted, Schmelzer began adding “von Ehrenreuf” to his name. Among his most important collections is Sacro-Profanus Concentus from 1662. These are mostly ensemble sonatas for one or more violins with continuo, but the first Sonata in C Major is scored for two trumpets with strings. It generally follows the three-movement, fast-slow-fast Italian structure. But Schmelzer remains close enough to his sacred training to slip occasionally into a more sectional format based on contrasting tempo and meter.
The sonata opens with trumpets and strings in ceremonial dialogue, outlining a clear tonic to dominant motion. He passes later through additional keys such as E minor, A minor, and F major, though without the sense of logical directedness that characterizes Baroque tonality of the next generation. The slow movement is a chord progression played by just strings; the physical demands of natural, valveless trumpets are such that breaks are usually written into the music in this way. The finale opens with a lively imitation in the strings in 4/4 meter. Before the final cadence, however, Schmelzer returns to triple meter for a stately phrase featuring the entire ensemble. This brief triple-meter passage hearkens back to the Renaissance “alleluia” tradition, in which a final section in triple helped tie up all vocal lines and bring motets and mass movements to a resounding, unified finish.

(c) Jason Stell