Great etudes rediscovered

[hubert]

https://imslp.eu/files/imglnks/euimg/c/ ... nement.pdf

Years ago I came across the etudes of the famous Belgian trumpet player Theo Charlier (d. 1944).
His work is famous among trumpet players, but he also wrote one set of etudes especially for the lower brass.
Some time ago I rediscovered these challenging and rewarding etudes: 32 Etudes de Perfectionnement.
For those of you who do not know these: there are plenty new editions available, but for a first impression you may look at the IMSLP-file above.
Enjoy,
Hubert

[bone-a-phone]

Thanks, I always enjoy new stuff to read., on slide or valves.

[UncleBeer]

Interesting. I'd only ever played his trumpet etudes.

[the elephant]

I work on two or three of his trumpet etudes at least a few times every week; I started working on the trumpet collection in 1984. I love his etudes, so I will enjoy looking over this new-to-me collection. Thanks, Hubert!

[Jim Williams]

Reminder:
These etudes are in TRANSPOSING bass clef.
Not the biggest deal in the world, but worth noting nonetheless.
You can find several clues in the explanation of overtones and in
at least one of the etudes (2&4 for F#, for ex.).

The designation Tuba Sib also indicates the use of transposing bass clef.

So play them on a CC tuba and you're good to go.

[C J]

Reminder:
These etudes are in TRANSPOSING bass clef.

So play them on a CC tuba and you're good to go.

Remember that our beautiful transposing system we teach here in The Netherlands also is a octave to high, so if you want to play them as they are intended add 2 flats, one tone and a octave down (for CC tuba)

[P@rick]

...Remember that our beautiful transposing system we teach here in The Netherlands also is a octave to high...

...mooi hè... ...ik doe ff mee

[Jim Williams]

Ik doe ook mee!!

[UncleBeer]

Doe ik lekker niet.

[peterbas]

...

[2nd tenor]

Reminder:
These etudes are in TRANSPOSING bass clef.
Not the biggest deal in the world, but worth noting nonetheless.
You can find several clues in the explanation of overtones and in
at least one of the etudes (2&4 for F#, for ex.).

The designation Tuba Sib also indicates the use of transposing bass clef.

So play them on a CC tuba and you're good to go.

Please forgive my ignorance but what is Transposing Bass Clef? I’m a Treble Clef player and understand the concept of transposed treble clef parts but I’d always thought that Bass Clef parts were all written at Concert pitch.

[peterbas]

...

[2nd tenor]

Same thing.
Nowadays the bastuba part is transposed to Bb or Eb and up an octave like said before.
In earlier days the bastuba part was in treble clef Bb. (still available most of the time)

So no different fingerings to learn for the amateur musician.

Thanks, I guess that that makes sense to someone but ...

I didn’t look at the book from cover to cover but when I looked at the studies they quickly went out of my range on an Eb Bass, but they would be fine on a Euphonium. As the true pitch is being ignored then I guess that they’re fine on a BBb too.

I’ve a few studies in Bass Clef, as far as I know they’re all in true Concert pitch.

[bone-a-phone]

If you're not playing with other people, does transposition really matter? I've been playing them as written on trombone and euphonium. They are really great as reading exercises. Very nice etudes. Not Rochut or Snedecor, but nice, playable, readable, and there are a lot of them.

[Jim Williams]

If you're not playing with other people, does transposition really matter? I've been playing them as written on trombone and euphonium. They are really great as reading exercises. Very nice etudes. Not Rochut or Snedecor, but nice, playable, readable, and there are a lot of them.

It depends upon circumstance. Some etudes are designed to drill certain finger patterns or to provide simple finger patterns while drilling other skills. In that case, playing an etude in the "proper" key would be essential to getting the most out of the etude. One of the trumpet Charlier etudes is for developing the third finger--to play that in any other key than the correct one defeats the purpose.
In the case of a generic Rochut-like etude, it's fun to play them in all 12 keys anyway!