JULES LEVY, the self-styled ‘King of Cornet Players’, was undoubtedly one of the greatest exponents of the instrument. Born in London, England in 1838, he became infatuated with the cornet from an early age. By the time he was 18 he had been invited by Dan Godfrey to join the band of the Grenadier Guards. Soon his playing became the talk of London and he was in constant demand as a soloist at home and abroad. From 1864 onwards his career took him to France, Holland, America, and Russia, where he spent almost two years at the request of the Grand Duke Alexis.
In 1876, by which time (according to the great Herbert Clarke) Levy was without equal as a cornet soloist, he appeared regularly with the renowned Gilmore Band, attracting thousands to his solo performances. A household name across the USA, Canada, and throughout Europe, he died in a fit of apoplexy in Chicago in November 1903.

Levy’s variations on Carnival of Venice was originally for the now rarely found Cornet in A, so this new edition for B-flat instruments makes it available to a great many more players.

The arranger writes...

There’s something about Italian vocal music that is well-suited to brass instruments; whether it is vibrant bravura writing or a soaring cantilena. Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Mattinata (Morning or Morning Serenade, to be more poetic) certainly soars and captures the sparkle of a bright new day. The lyrics (by the composer himself) are a greeting from a lover to his partner urging her to awaken and come to him – sunlight is missing without her!
The music is suitably bright and cheery, becoming slightly more grandiose toward the end. In arranging it for trumpet I wanted to provide players with something in D major that wasn’t a Baroque trumpet tune and featured lyrical yet agile lines.

The song has the distinction of being the first written especially for recording. That recording was made by the Gramophone and Typewriter Company (known today as HMV) in Milan Italy in 1903 and features the great Enrico Caruso accompanied by the composer at the piano. You can listen to it at https://archive.org/details/mattinata1903 although there are countless modern recordings to listen to as well. Some tempo markings are given in parenthesis and I’d urge players explore their own interpretation.

Eric Wilson