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Favorite Trumpet Solos


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We don't hear them so much any more.

Williams has done some really great ones. BOT4OJ, Nixon. Goldsmith's immortal The Homecoming from First Blood, Horner's Apollo 13.

One of my all time fav is in To Live Forever from Star Trek Generations. McCarthy has always used the instrument well in his Trek scores, but here it really shines.

What are YOUR favourites?

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While not exactly a solo (but trumpet section), this is one of my all time favourite bit (at 1:20):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2S5mGPkT_g

You can recognize it from Horner's ST II.

A fantastic piece btw.

Also a trumpet opening of The Godfather's waltz

Some great stuff in Chinatown, L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia and in scores of all that sort. I'm a sucker for noir.

Does Johnathan's Death from Superman: The Movie count?

Always preferred this cue to Leaving Home. It's fantastic.

Karol

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oh wait I got one

Amistad , The Long Road to Justice at 0.45

This is a great and underrated theme. It expresses so perfectly what this character is all about: calmness, dignity, wisdom.

(Rewatched Amistad the other day. Not crazy about the movie, but the score's pretty good.)

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Miles' solo in "So What", from Kind of Blue.

I had to study that solo for an entire year as part of my degree.....ripped apart every note, every inflection, every millisecond of timing, every idea.....a fascinating task, but it ruined the magic for me.

As a trumpet player I have many favourites from film and outside.....but Dances With Wolves, Summon The Heroes, Apollo 13 (previously mentioned - though it's in a stupid key for normal Bb trumpet....better played on a C Trumpet by a mile....), are all standouts....favourite piece for an entitre section would quite easily be Shostakovich's Festive Overture, closely followed by - yep - Star Wars main Title.

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I'm a trumpet player, so this topic is huge, for me. Silvestri's BTTF inspired me to pick up the instrument in the first place, when I was a kid, so anything from those scores, solo or not. From John Williams, I've always loved playing JFK and BOTFOJ, but when I was younger, I always liked to use the short solo in "Scammed by a Kindergartener" from Home Alone as a tonal warm-up :P. I've also always liked the theme from "Letters from Iwo Jima".

As for non-film scores, I love the solo in Copland's "Hoedown", and the "Promenade" from the Ravel-orchestrated version of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibiton". And the piccolo trumpet solo in The Beatles' "Penny Lane", of course. And lots and lots of jazz, anything from Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Bix Beiderbecke. My favorite would be the one on "Take the A-Train", by the great Ray Nance.

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John Williams has written many gorgeous trumpet solos, it's hard for me to pick just one. "Jonathan's Death" from Superman is probably one of my very favourite, as it is the End Credits from BOT4OJ and the opening of Summon the Heroes.

But I always had a soft spot for a very specific moment: at the end of the cue "Flight from Peru", when Maurice Murphy's golden trumpet intones the Raiders theme while the plane goes off into the sunset. Goosebumps every time.

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Even though there have been splendid, exquisite, etc. trumpet solos by all composers, for some reason this is not really my favourite solo instrument. Someone who's more musical-savvy than me should do a poll 'what's your favourite solo instrument in filmmusic' (with as much instruments as possible, and good examples next to it) - I would be curious to know the outcome.

Oh, and I love that trumpet solo in Amistad!

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Tim Morrison's trumpet solos for JW scores are all quite exquisite. E.g. all Oliver Stone collaborations contains such beautiful playing, the tone of Morrison's playing attracting Williams to his sound in the first place during his tenure with the Boston Pops.

Prime examples:

The Prologue from JFK: such a stately, noble and warm sound. Morrison's playing captures the idealistic feel the Prologue perfectly. The sound is beautifully rounded and the tone so serene.

Growing Up in Whittier from Nixon: Warm, nostalgic, Americana at its best. The tone of the trumpet is dreamy and rich, the solo evoking nostalgic longing in the best possible way. It seems to sing of the age of innoncence the character has inevitable left behind.

Prologue from BOTFJ: The lonely theme on solo horn, the soul of a scarred veteran, howls loneliness and desolation and fatefulness. The tone is harsher or more pinched than in the two previous examples, the change very audible.

End Credits from BOTFJ: Almost an antithesis of the Prologue with an Americana edge to it in the middle portion, warmer and idealistic, noble and lyrical. The same slightly tortured sound of Prologue returns in the finale as the Ron Kovic's theme calls out again on the solo trumpet, the cadenza being a JW classic the winding into different direction than before but ending the score with a somber note.

In this same vein I also adore the brass in Patriot where two great trumpet players Tim Morrison and Malcolm McNab joined forces. Besides the elegaic solos similar to the above mentioned ones Morrison has some excellent fast athletic trumpet work in this score.

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I love Pandora's Fanfare from Goldenthal's Sphere

Speaking of Goldenthal, Final Fantasy features several excellent trumpet fanfares, most likely by Maurice Murphy since it is LSO we are talking about.

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Dracula Soundtrack.

Track: "For Mina"

"For Mina" starts with a wonderfully slow and haunting solo trumpet theme. I used to always use this as a warm-up when i played Euphonium.

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Almost all the maurice murphy solos! and tim morrisons solos born on the fourth of july,jfk.and solo in alien original main title.Toss up with maurice murphys and tim morrisons playing,both superb.

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One of my favorite trumpet solos ever is from the Born On The Fourth Of July soundtrack, the track Homecoming. The beautiful melody is expanded, I think the only time in the score.

It starts at 2.21

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I think that particular melodic development is also heard in the title track

No. It's shorter.

I like your post Roald 'cause I felt your anger..

A sense of indignant outrage about how film scores don't have those kind of cues anymore?

I share it, and indeed participate in this slow burning, angsty ennui. One could look to Goldsmiths' Hoosiers for similar evocation of wistful Americana (when dreams where a possible dream, hope was yes hope) but it's not the same, is it.

Truth is, there is only one Homecoming, the one John T. Williams sonically framed and expressed so piquantly in the motion picture Born on the Fourth of July.

Oh and btw, for all its Top-Gun and sounding suchly, the percussion is not synth.

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I think that particular melodic development is also heard in the title track

No. It's shorter.

I like your post Roald 'cause I felt your anger..

Wha..?

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Thank you to everybody for such great ideas, though I thought of many same answers before reading all the replies. :-) My favourites would have to be So What trumpet solo, Jonathan's Death, Prologue from JFK, Apollo 13 main theme, Il Triello, the pyrotechnic "2 trumpet battle" in TGtBatU Main Title, Arturo Sandoval's solo in I Remember Clifford (with the GRP All-Star Big Band), definitely also Cliffhanger main theme and stuff in Superman and all LotR soundtracks.

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I rather like the solo in "BOT4thOJ" , on the track where Tom Cruise goes to visit the family of the man that he shot (forget the track's name - sorry). It also features a nifty fretless bass. Nice!

Also, and yes, "For Mina" is fantastic!!

The trumpet solos in Monsignor. Maurice Murphy is quite unbeatable.

I met Maurice Murphy in 1982. He told me that his favourite JW score, up to that time, was "Dracula".

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