Jean-François Michel

Call

Call
The superposition of two confronting keys creates, right from the beginning of the piece, a strong dramatic tension, amplified by exchanged stressed rhythmic figures.
Then follows a calm, quasi mystical phase with clusters in movement. The sound landscape of Call plays a lot with the mix and transformation of timbres and colors. After a recall of the beginning, the piece ends delicately with a quasi celestial choral with extremely soft and calm dynamic.
To have the musical effect open out in its complete emotional density, the interpretation of Call requests to work in-depth, with a strong collectiv concentration, an essential cohesiveness on expression signs and tuning accuracy, a constant precision on the touch of the attacked notes and special care for a refined collective merging of pure, unforced sounds.
To open out the delicate musical dimension of Call in all kinds of performing places (open air or various sized halls), it requests over all a good acoustical adaptation from each performer, reason why it offers a free alternative use of mutes.

Call has specifically been composed for 8 trumpets in C to make the most out of the sound resources of that key.

Nevertheless, this work also offers a very good pedagogical material for trumpet classes of music institutions. In this case it can be practiced and played by 8 trumpets, cornets or flugelhorns, all in the same key of Bb.