Some time back, I was emailed by Toronto trumpeter, Chris Kemp, who wrote: ’I was wondering if it would be possible to obtain a version of ’The Lone Ar-ranger!’ arranged for 5 trumpets. I’m in the process of putting together a trumpet ensemble and your composition would suit us perfectly!’ I was able to oblige Chris at the time, who shortly hopes to record the piece.

When Chris more recently emailed to tell me about the possible recording, he also asked me if I could do two more arrangements of other works of mine for him - Samba..alla Turca! and Five-note Disco, which I have now completed.

Chris’s experience encompasses a wide variety of settings and styles including musical theatre, recording studios, television, club and stage performances throughout North America. Currently, Chris is the private brass instructor at Montcrest School in Toronto, leads the twenty-piece Big Smoke Big Band and is a member of the Chase tribute band Primal Therapy.

The arrangement, of course, also fits an ensemble of five Bb clarinets - unlike the existing choir and ensemble versions which really need the bass and Eb instruments. While Trumpets 1-4 are identical with the Clarinet parts, with Clarinet 5, the availability of the low D, does allow for a slightly better bass line, where the lowest sounding note of the normal Bb Trumpet is E. Therefore Clarinet 5 cannot be played as such by Trumpet 5.

However, Chris has an even better solution, in that he uses a Four-valve Flugelhorn for the bottom line. Apart from an added richness, its compass is similar to the clarinet, thus providing a welcome few extra notes at the bottom of the range. The part for Clarinet 5 / 4-valve Flugelhorn are interchangeable. All instructions ’to mute’ have been removed from Clarinet 1-4 parts, whereas these are left in place in Clarinet 5, when played by the 4-valve Flugelhorn.