Roy Eugène

Méthode de trompette sans clef et avec clefs

The use of proper historical instruments is an important prerequisite for modern-day performance practice involving early music, but the instrumental methods written and published during those historical periods are of equal importance because they provide specific and relevant details with respect to how the instruments were played, the types of articulations employed, and under which circumstances instruments were or were not utilized. To date the Méthode de trompette by C. Eugène Roy has been considered to be possibly the oldest method for keyed trumpet and an interesting testimony regarding the history of that instrument. While this is still true, it turns out that its significance extends far beyond these elements. Thus it is important to make it available to new and succeeding generations of performers and musicologists. It contains the most virtuosic pieces ever published for the keyed trumpet, which can therefore be played again on historical or modern instruments. The method was published in different versions in five countries. This unusually wide geographical distribution makes it an unique testimony of its time.