Mark Fullmer

Note: All music by Mark Fullmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Music was my first love, from those swaddling toddling days I sang "Oh, oh" along to crackly 1980s-era cassettes and listened to Mom pianize "All My Lovin" from brute muscle memory, to the hours tromping through earthsmelling dewy 7am grass in the high school marching band, blasting John Williams' "Olympic Fanfare" louder than Jericho trumpet. Then, then, those august moments when I harbored dreams of bohemian classical trumpetdom, singing a song in Rachmaninoff's Vocalise. Oh! oh!

Marks' Audio Archive

"Why Don't You Cry, Baby Blue, Baby Blue?"
a farragine, by Mark Fullmer

My album, "Why Don't You Cry, Baby Blue, Baby Blue?" is done, and you can listen to it, below. (Available for purchase ($10.00) through a mutual respect books & music)

Listen to my rendering of Chet Atkins' I Still Can't Say Goodbye

Listen to Dream, my adaptation of the Priscilla Ahn song.

The Last Rose of Summer I recorded this song a couple years ago, but on reflection, I felt it had a new story to tell as a mostly-unaccompanied melody, and with a bit brighter tone. For comparison, scroll down the page.

The Little Orphan Girl I once had a long and drunken conversation about authenticity in music as the end of my graduate school days neared, in which I found myself defending the idea that real music, real emotion, comes best without ornament or polish. This take of "The Little Orphan Girl," to me, does just that.

Down in the Valley to Pray A Doc Watson Americana classic, snazzed up with open harmony

Tonight You Belong to Me My homage to Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters

Irish Blessing Moi in benedictory harmonic garb, a nice old-country rounding out of the CD, which is shaping up to be quite a farraginous lot.

Kyrie What's a musical offering without an offertory? Yesterday I rewatched Yashujiro Ozu's film Tokyo Story, and had a bit of an epiphany. I realized the word that encapsulates the emotion of the whole album, a Japanese word that expresses the idea of feeling joy and sorrow simultaneously, that is, realizing the wonders in a moment of feeling abject grief as well as the transitoriness of a moment of delight. This minor-key setting of the mass, I think, gets right at that idea.

Bop Duet No. 2 | Bop Duet No. 3 | Bop Duet No. 21 A tribute to 1950s bop jazz and Bugs Bower. This is me on trumpet times two, thanks to my handy multitrack recorder. I debated adding piano accompaniment, but finally decided my jazz keyboarding skills weren't quite up to the task.

Flow, My Tears The 16th century English composer John Dowland was way into melancholia. He even gave himself a Latin nickname, "Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens" -- "Always Dowland, Always Sad." Here's his song "Flow, My Tears," arranged and sung by me.

Spanish Royal March | Bolero (De Gouy) A pair of duets (me on both parts), from the Arban Trumpet Method book.

Sonata for St. Mark, 1st movement | 3rd movement When Tomaso Albinoni composed this sonata for Venice's St. Mark Cathedral back in 1722, I'm not sure how, but I'm positive he had me in mind. Here's me playing all parts to an arrangement, thanks to my big sister's trusty 8-track recorder.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo On the 28th day in the fourth lunar month of 1253 c.e., Japanese priest Nichiren revealed the mantra 'nam myoho renge kyo', referring to the cause-and-effect harmonic vibrations of the lotus flower. Chanting this is called daimoku, and here's my arranged version, five voice parts recorded sequentially. I hope to set this to film someday, likely for some trancelike nonnarrative vibratory enigma.

Fanfare No. 1 USC friend and composition major George Shaw wrote this short fanfare, and I recorded with a gaggle of other 'SC musicians. I come in on piccolo trumpet about halfway through.

The Last Rose of Summer Back in high school, my friend and fellow trumpeter always used to start our all-night duet jam sessions with this 19th century standby, from the J.B. Arban Method book. Here is me playing both duet parts, my magenta homage to days heard faintly.