The composer has provided the following program notes:

Transcription

1 FACULTY CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES Oct. 7, 2015 Faculty Chamber Music Series Program Information QUINTET for BRASS (1967) Edward Gregson (b 1945) I. Andante Sostenuto Allegro scherzando II. Allegro moto ritmico Meno mosso-tempo I. A VERDI MEDLEY Go for Brass Quintet (2014) arr. John Mindeman Anthony DiLorenzo The LaMoine Brass Quintet Bruce Briney, trumpet Alberto Racanati, trumpet Randall Faust, Horn Terry Solomonson, tuba Intermission New, Original works by members of the Hopper Jazztet It s A Matter Of Timing Struttin Blue Cheer Beacon Michael Stryker George Turner In Town Samba (1992) John Cooper QUINTET for BRASS (1967) PROGRAM NOTES Edward Gregson The English composer Edward Gregson is one of the most important composers of brass music of the past half century. Although he has major works for wind bands and orchestral works recorded and performed bythe B.B.C. Philharmonic, his compositions for brass instruments are particularly significant. The Quintet for Brass has become one of the important standard works in the brass chamber music repertoire. The first performance was given at the Royal Academy of Music in London The composer has provided the following program notes:

2 This work was written in 1967 as a graduation piece whilst I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music. It won the coveted Frederick Corder memorial prize. In the audience at the first performance, given by a student brass quintet, was Philip Jones, who took up the work and gave it its first professional performance as well as a broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Soon after, the Quintet was also taken up by Hallé Brass, who recorded it commercially. It was the composer s first published work with Novello, who remain as his main publisher today. The work is dedicated to the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. The Quintet is in two movements. The first movement is in three sections marked Andante sostenuto, Allegro scherzando, followed by a reprise of the opening Andante. The opening horn melody, built on fourths, provides much of the material for the movement. The answering semiquaver rhythms on muted trumpets become the background accompaniment for the middle section scherzo. This scherzo is frenetic in character and consists of upward leaping sevenths, with various effects such as trills, flutter-tongues, and glissandi. The opening tranquil section returns, this time in canonic form. The second movement is marked Allegro molto ritmico and the march-like character of the music is apparent from the outset. The movement is cast in rondo form and the main theme is built on arpeggio-like figures on the trumpets. The first episode is more lyrical and slightly bluesy with the horn taking the lead, whilst the second is a fugato built on the opening melody of the work, but this time extended into a twelve-note chromatic subject. The opening rondo tune returns and the work concludes with a brilliant coda. (edwardgregson.com) GO by Anthony DiLorenzo Emmy Award winning composer Anthony DiLorenzo grew up in Stoughton Massachusetts. His music is performed throughout the world by symphony orchestras and chamber groups, including The San Francisco Symphony, The New World Symphony, The Louisiana Philharmonic, The Utah Symphony, The Tokyo Symphony, and The Boston Pops Orchestra. Burning River Brass under the direction of Feza Zweifel, regularly performs Anthony s works in their concerts. You can also hear his music weekly on ABC's College Football, Ice Skating, Horse racing and countless cues for ESPN, HBO, FOX and numerous campaigns for NBC For the past twelve years Anthony has composed more than 80 film

3 trailers, from Toy Story, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Red Dragon, The Lost World, Final Fantasy, Fools Gold, Bee Story to The Simpsons movie in 3D. Recently, Anthony was commissioned by conductor Naoto Otomo and the Tokyo Symphony to compose a concerto grosso for Brass Quintet and orchestra. The quintet titled Chimera was performed by the world famous Center City Brass Quintet and was received with rave reviews. Anthony is a member of the Center City Brass Quintet which is another avenue for his compositional talent. His original work "Firedance", which the CCBQ premiered and recorded on its Street Song album, has become a favorite among student and professional brass quintets around the world. DiLorenzo's brass quintet Go, is a rhythmically energetic piece that implies a variety of meters through constantly shifting accents and the repetition and displacement of motivic patterns. Even in it's brevity, the work displays a variety of characters in it's driving exposition from dance-like buoyancy to syncopated lyricism as it races to a brilliant conclusion. Program notes Lamoine Brass Quintet, Oct 7 A Verdi Medley was conceived during the summer of It was written for the Lamoine Brass Quintet and dedicated to Alberto Racanati, graduate trumpet assistant and second trumpet of the LBQ. This arrangement contains select well-known passages from a number of Verdi s operas including, in this order: The Overture to Nabucco The Overture to La Forza del Destino La donna e mobile from Rigoletto Sempre Libera from La Traviata Libiamo ne lieti calici (or Brindisi ) from La Traviata The Overture to I Vespri Siciliani, The Quartet from act 3 of Rigoletto The Overture to I Vespri Siciliani The Finale ( tutti gabbati ) from Falstaff Arranger s note: I came to love the music of Verdi as I had the privilege of performing his operas with the Santiago Philharmonic, Chicago Opera

4 Theater, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. I found that his melodies got stuck in my mind, and so I searched for an opportunity to arrange some Verdi for brass. Since we now have a fine young Italian trumpet player as part of the group, there was no better time. In the arrangement, my intent was to feature the trumpets prominently and highlight some of the drama, variety, and lyricism that are so much a part of Verdi s music. (John Mindeman) It s A Matter Of Timing and Struttin were written in 2003 while I was a doctoral student in the Jazz and Contemporary Media program at the Eastman School of Music. I set as a goal a program of original compositions for the initial degree recital in my plan of study. It s A Matter of Timing is a ballad originally scored for octet (5 horns plus rhythm section) and adapted for 2 horns and rhythm section for tonight s performance. The piece is through composed, 20 measures long, and includes some changes in meter. Struttin is a medium tempo swing tune. The first phrase was inspired by Benny Golson s composition Along Came Betty. The rest of tune has some of my favorite compositional devices, including pedal points and ii-v-i progressions accessing distant key centers. The phrases are in an relationship in the first half of the tune, and an relationship in the second half.--michael Stryker Blue Cheer and Beacon were both written in 2008, while I was a doctoral student in jazz studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Blue Cheer is basically a blues in E flat, but has an 18-measure form. The first 8 bars are based on the Eb blues scale, followed by a 4 bar section which modulates a blues motif down in whole steps via a series of ii-v progressions. The final 6 bar phrase provides melodic contrast and uses a harmonic progression similar to that of John Coltrane s Central Park West. Beacon is a modal/post bop tune inspired by the compositional style of saxophonist Joe Henderson. The introduction features a bass line derived from the diminished scale. The body of the tune utilizes a variety of modes based on both the melodic minor and major scales, and the melody performed by the trumpet and guitar is harmonized somewhat dissonantly by the alto saxophone. - George Turner In Town Samba (1992) In Town Samba is a composition that was written as part of an assignment for Jim McNeely when I was studying in New York. Mr. McNeely wanted me to compose a few tunes before my next lesson and I had to go to Atlantic City, NJ for the weekend. I think I wrote five or six new tunes while riding on a bus to and from Atlantic City. The last tune I wrote for the assignment (In Town Samba) wasn't finished until I was back in Manhattan. That's how the tune got its name. The tune is written in two main sections. The first section modulates to fairly distant keys every two bars. The second section of the composition features relatively static harmonic movement in the tonic key and subdominant.

5 After my next lesson, Mr. McNeely suggested that I develop this composition into a work for jazz orchestra. He also suggested that I make a departure from purely tonal conventional writing and incorporate some bi-tonal techniques in the assignment as well. The arrangement I wrote features this tune as well as auxiliary sections, introduction, interludes and closing material, that pit two keys against one another in a bi-tonal texture. I chose the keys of F major and A major because of the interesting clash these keys would have while happening at the same time. I kept some of these auxiliary sections in the quintet arrangement on this CD. The composition is available for jazz orchestra with full score and all the parts. - John Cooper