2. DATA OF THE BOOK
• TITLE: Trumpet voluntary
• WRITER: Jeremy Harmer
• PUBLISHING: Cambridge University Press
• FIRST PUBLISHED: 1999
• BOOK TYPE: Modern, original fiction and a book full of suspense
for learners of English.
• LANGUAGE: English
• LEVEL: Cambridge English Readers Level 6
• BINDING: Hardback book
• CHAPTERS: 11
• PAGES: 111

3. CHARACTERS
• Derek Armstrong: He is a viola player, the main character. He goes to
London to study music and meets two women who change his live.
• Malgosia Armstrong: A trumpet player. This young girl is Derek’s wife. She
is from Poland and she is studying in London.
• Tibor Arkadi: A pianist and trumpet player. He is the most popular guy in
the school. He is very famous among girls because of his appeal and his
sense of humour.
• Rosemary Green: An editor and one of Malgosia’s friends.
• Carl Robins: A violinist who plays in a quartet.

4. • Rachel Merino : A cellist who studies in the same music academy as the
main character.
• Matt Jenkins: A violinist.
• Ken Awolowo: A law student from Nigeria.
• Teresa Kowalewska: Malgosia’s mother.
• Jacek Kowaleska: Malgosia’s father.
• Anja Kowalewska: Malgosia’s sister.
• Sandra Andrade: A Brazilian student in Rio de Janeiro.
• Oswaldo Morales: A Cuban private detective.
• Paul Brewster: An English teacher in Rio de Janeiro.

5. PLOT
A musician disappears leaving only a strange e-mail message behind
her. Her husband, in a desperate search to find her, revisits their shared
past and has to face up to some unpleasant realities, before trying to
rebuild his life. His journey of discovery takes us across the different
places where the story takes place like Rio de janeiro, London and
Poland.

6. SUMMARY
Derek remembers how his life has reached the point where he is at the moment,
married to his best friend from the music academy. The story begins when he
arrived in London to learn music many years ago. There, he met many different
people who would be really important in his future. The most important event of this
period of his life was his falling in love with a Polish girl named Malgosia who fell in
love with a music student who was the most popular student in the school, Tibor.
He went went on studying and started to play in a quartet where he met Rachel.
After the first summer holidays in the school Malgosia broke up with Tibor and
Derek won her Malgosia and they married after finishing their studies at the
academy and they lived together in London.
Malgosia began to go on many trips to Scotland alone to relax but the truth was that
she was keeping in touch with Tibor.
One day she disappeared and Derek discovered an e-mail from Tibor to his wife
where he was asking her to bring poison to Rio de Janeiro. He decided to travel to
Rio. Two friends helped him so he found them but he was shot when he tried to
rescue her. His wife was poisoned and Derek went to Poland where Malgosia was
and finally died.
He decided to come back to England and he was arrested by the police because of
his wife’s crimes. Rachel’s mother helped him and he fell in love with Rachel.

7. MUSICAL VOCABULARY
Trumpet voluntary: It’s the name of a piece of music
for trumpet by the composer Jeremiah Clarke
(1659-1707) who killed himself after being
disappointed in love.
Quartet: Musical group formed by four instruments,
usually two violins, a viola and a cello. The quartet
of this book are two violins, a trumpet and a cello.
Orchestra: This word comes from Greek and means
“place to dance” when performances were made in
outdoor theatres. Today orchestra refers to a group
of musicians playing together.

8. THE WRITER
Jeremy Harmer is a teacher, a teacher trainer and an author of books and
articles for both teachers and students of English as a foreign or second
language. He is also a singer and song-writer. Music is a major part of his
life, both as a keen listener and as a performer. He lives in Cambridge. He
plays the viola in The Cambridge Philarmonic Society.

9. LOCATION
The book is set in: DUNDONNELL
ENGLAND: LONDON WARSAW
LONDON
SCOTLAND:
DUNDONNELL
BRAZIL:
RIO DE JANEIRO
SAO PAULO
RECIFE
POLAND: RECIFE
WARSAW
RIO DE JANEIRO
SAO PAULO

10. LONDON
Royal Academy of Music: It is located in the heart of
London. It was founded in 1822 and many famous
musicians –singers, players and composers-
studied at the Academy. Some have returned as
teachers to stimulate new generations of
musicians.
Theatre Royal Druny Lane: It is the oldest theatre
site in London. It was opened in 1663.
Covent Garden: It is a district of London, located in
the eastern part of the city. The area is dominated
by shopping, street performers and included an
entrance to The Royal Opera House, which is
known as Covent Garden.
Putney Bridge: It is a bridge crossing over the river
Thames in west London.

11. DUNDONNELL (SCOTLAND)
It is situated next to one of
Scotland’s last great wilderness
areas, the Fisherfield Forest.
It is the perfect place for a
niche holiday on which you can
do different activities like
canoeing, mountain climbing
and hiking.

12. BRAZIL
Brasilia is the political capital of Brazil and Sao
Paulo is the financial seat, but Rio de Janeiro
is the historical and tourism capital with its
famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema
and the huge Christ the Redeemer.
Recife is one of the largest cities in Brazil with
the most famous urban, sandy beaches with
warm green waters and also with a complete
infrastructure of hotels, restaurants and
services.

13. WARSAW (POLAND)
It is located in the heart of Poland,
it spreads along both banks of the
Vistula river. It is a city of
contrasts, you can find modern
skyscrapers and historic
monuments in its streets.

14. PERSONAL OPINION
It is a book that reflects what often happens in real life, when you fall in love
with someone you think you know a person and in reality love makes
you blind and do not see more than what you want to see.
I recommend this book because the plot makes you keep on reading until
the end, where nothing is as it begins.
The book combines different elements such as music, which is the writer’s
passion, with the different places where the main character has to go to
seek the answers.
Despite being a short book it deals with many issues which you can
explore.

15. To travel far, there is no better ship than a book. Emily Dickinson
Mª Belén Cano Coca – 1ºAvanzado
Curso 2012-2013