Kris Kwapis On Playing Bach's Brandenburg 2

Kris Kwapis - Photograph - Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

Kris Kwapis  - Trumpet Player
Playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto Number 2
Vancouver Playhouse - Friday September 18

I don’t know why I found it tough to put together some words on performing Brandenburg 2. Partially because the beginning of the new season and academic year consistently bring long lists of Things That Must Be Done, but also because writing about the challenge of playing Brandenburg 2 on baroque trumpet reminds me how so much of what we do as musicians struggles in terms of communication when put into mere words! But here goes:

When a trumpet player accepts the call to perform Brandenburg 2 on period instruments, they know they will be in for months of preparation in order to be physically prepared for what can only be described as a marathon sprint. Everyone in your household and all of the neighbors, or anyone else within earshot of your practice space will have this ear worm as well for many, many weeks. Sure, it is a relatively short concerto, but during those few minutes of music, Bach asks the trumpet player to not only play many extremely high notes, but he also asks for near continuous playing in that register for the entire duration of the movements scored for trumpet. It requires a combination of the strength of a world-class Olympic-level body-builder and the flexibility and dexterity of the most effortlessly skilled dancer in order to use those tiny embouchure muscles to attempt to create sounds akin to a hummingbird in flight.

Audience members talk to me after concerts about playing baroque trumpet and when they notice I have no valves like a modern trumpet, often ask: “So you just use your lips to play the different pitches, then?” My reply is usually that while the lips play a huge part, playing the baroque trumpet is more about training your mind than your lips, or at least equally so.  Much in the way singers produce pitches by hearing them in their imagination (in combination with countless hours of training the mind to work effortlessly with the body) to produce the desired result, a baroque trumpet player uses these same skills and processes. I suppose playing the valveless instrument in public at all takes a great deal of courage and playing Brandenburg 2, even more so. One of the biggest challenges in preparing this piece is convincing yourself you are up to the nearly impossible task of it.

This pie-chart comes to mind, although I would probably have the Crippling Self-doubt part be about 50% and the practice increased by 25%:

Kris Kwapis

UBC's Martin Berinbaum on Bach's first trumpet player 

My pursuit of the trumpet towards Bach's Number 2 Brandenburg 

This Friday's concert at the Vancouver Playhouse