Stop and go Rines and Cornils pair trumpet and organ BY BECCA DEWAN

Those who can’t do, teach? Psh! What nonsense. Betty Rines and Ray Cornils, along with other members of the USM Music faculty, constantly disprove this ludicrous theory. Not only are they phenomenal players, but they also are well-respected teachers.

Rines and Cornils are teaming up on April 8 to present a concert of "Pipes, Stops, Mutes, and Trumpets!" (a concert with a name is clearly better than one without). The program takes us on a rollercoaster ride across centuries and musical styles. "We ordered the program for contrast and variety," says Cornils. Certainly!

Perhaps in your travels this past Easter Sunday you heard trumpet and organ duets — trumpets are commonly used instruments in church services for the holiday. The combined timbre is regal, stately, and beautiful.

Not all instruments would be well-paired, though. Baritone saxophone and harpsichord? The latter would never be heard. Flute and gospel Hammond B3? The timbres would clash. This isn’t to say that composers don’t pair these instruments, but look at the extent to which organ and trumpet duets have been composed.

"I think the organ and trumpet can match each other in volume and the organ’s sustaining ability can support the trumpet," says Cornils.

But don’t be expecting a bag full of church music on April 8. Cornils and Rines are drawing on the wide variety of music written for trumpet and organ. Avoiding pieces that are too often performed, they chose some better known composers and compositions and "paired them with unknown but very interesting compositions," explains Cornils.

Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky is a Moravian composer, trumpeter, and music copyist who lived in the second half of the 17th century. He was an avid music collector and a highly paid court musician. Given his own instrumental background, it seems fitting that he wrote parts for trumpets and trombones in many of his works, choral and instrumental.

His Sonata a 4 is "one of Vejvanovsky’s most exceptional pieces of trumpet writing . . ." according to music historian Don Smithers. Vejvanovsky plays with traditional harmony and tonality in this piece and often alludes to old church modes.

Both Vejvanovsky and Italian composer Carlo Tessarini have question marks next to their birth dates — the exact year of their births went with them to their graves. But their music has survived, and we are glad for it. Rines and Cornils will perform Tessarini’s Sonate en Ré.

But Copland is a well-documented composer. The son of Jewish immigrants, Copland loved all varieties and venues of music, from stage and screen, to radio and concert hall — and he composed for all of them, too. Vocalise was commissioned and written in 1928 for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Many different arrangements of this piece have been made over the years, including the trumpet and organ duet to be performed.

French composer Andre Jolivet (1905-1975) went through many stages in his compositional career. When he began composing, he was very influenced by other French composers, such as Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas. Schoenberg and Varèse then became major influences in his life, and he experimented with atonal — though not serial — music. After World War II, he abandoned atonality in favor of lyricism. His music became tonal, modal, and simple. He found a compromise between his new-found accessibility and his earlier experimental phase. In the early 1950s, Jolivet traveled to the Middle East, East Asia, and Africa, all of whose music influenced him. Then came the composition of Air de Bravoure in 1952. Will you be able to hear Jolivet’s wide and eclectic musical background in this one piece on Friday?

Benjamin Godard, another French composer, was the equivalent to so many of our child stars today. He showed great potential as early as age 10, but then burnt out. Critics say that early adulation hindered the development of his later career. While Godard composed in most genres except church music, he was best known as a composer of salon pieces for piano and of vocal pieces, many of which have been translated into English. He wrote an opera titled Jocelyn and Rines and Cornils will perform the aria "Berceuse."

Eighteenth-century composer Johann Ludwig Krebs studied with Bach and became one of his most highly regarded students. Only a few of Bach’s students actually wrote for organ, and it is in this genre that Krebs really stands out. His Choral Preludes will be performed.

Cornils and Rines’s fabulous evening will end with Psalms by Daniel Pinkham. This contemporary composer studied with many of the major names — Piston, Copland, Boulanger — and has taught at some great schools — Boston Conservatory, Harvard, New England Conservatory. Pinkham, an organist himself, has composed many works for the instrument.

For those who are used to seeing Rines and Cornils in Merrill, soak up the opportunity to hear them in a different space. Cornils gives some tips to audience members: "Listen for the various types of sounds from the organ. Notice how the sound changes as I change the stops or change manuals. Sometimes the organ will sparkle and glitter, other times it will gently sing, and occasionally it will roar."

Becca DeWan can be reached at beccadewan@mac.com

Ray Cornils and Betty Rines play at the USM School of Music, in Gorham, on Friday, April 8. Call (207) 780-5555.