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July 12, 1999
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- An Indiana University music professor with a love for building brass instruments is leading a workshop this week where the students will construct their own 17th century trumpets.
Richard Seraphinoff, IU associate professor of French horn, is teaching the July 12-17 "Baroque Trumpet-Making Workshop" with Robert Barclay, a Canadian museum restoration specialist and trumpet maker.
The 14 students, mostly trumpet performers and other musicians from throughout North America, will make their Baroque-era trumpets from brass sheets in a Bloomington-area metal shop.
"This class gives me a lot of joy, because I see people who look at sheets of brass on Monday and say 'I can't do this.' They take something that is a total mystery, and by Friday they have a trumpet they can play. It's a very satisfying experience," Seraphinoff said.
"There are subtle differences to the character of these instruments, as they have no valves and develop a more intimate, rustic sound," he explained. "It takes a lot of skill to play brass instruments without valves."
Seraphinoff, who has been constructing brass instruments for more than 20 years, said the maximum enrollment in the workshop reflects the popularity in the music industry of playing historic instruments. Each student completing the $450 class will leave with an instrument that he or she made, for a price considerably less than the normal $1,500 to $2,000 for a Baroque-style trumpet.
Because much classical music was composed in the Baroque period, he said the participants also have the satisfaction of performing on replicas of the instruments for which the music was written some 250 years ago.
"There is a relationship developed between the musician and the instrument, and this connection is enhanced for the performer when he or she created the instrument," said Seraphinoff, whose teaching duties include the School of Music's Early Music Institute in addition to the modern brass department.
When Seraphinoff started the workshop several years ago, one of the first locations was Nuremberg, Germany. This is where the earliest brass instruments were made in the 1700s and flourished in the Baroque period. The workshop now alternates between the summer program in Bloomington and a fall project in Europe.
Students completing the class frequently perform with their trumpets in specialized orchestras created to play older instruments. Many also belong to the Historic Brass Society that was developed for those interested in these instruments.
(Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)