Brass Quintet (2008)
6 minutes
Program Notes
Brass Quintet is essentially an understated fanfare, which in itself is something of a contradiction. The heraldic fervor of brass writing. Following the introduction, a web-like polyphonic section obsessively spins out endless repetitions of a basic three note rising motive and a jittery repeated note gesture. Gradually, a downward reaching melodic fragment emerges, taking us to a radically different texture before the music dissolves into another polyphonic section. Once again the instruments continually exchange the same rising motive, while the falling gesture, now transformed into a long-line of descending thirds, gently cascades between the trumpets and the bass trombone and horn, expanding slightly with each iteration. After some time the music stops. There are two endings: a brief period and a final sustained sonority.
Premiered November 4, 2008 on New Music New Haven by Elizabeth Fleming, Douglas Lindsey, John Brandon, Ted Sonnier and Richard Henebry
Starts at 41:37
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Performances
December 10, 2019 Staller Center Recital Hall, Stony Brook, NY. The Contemporary Chamber Players.
November 4, 2008 Sprague Hall, New Haven, CT. Members of the Yale Philharmonia, New Music New Haven.