Friday, February 24, 2006

Listening Session - 2/22/06


Robert Schumann


On Wednesday, we heard an ecclectic mix of recordings, thanks to Matt and Nathan. Here is a listing:

• Schumann Konzertstück featuring Roger Montgomery, Gavin Edwards, Susan Dent, and Robert Maskill on horns with John Eliot Gardner conducting the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique. The CD is in the Rita Benton Music Library, Audio Record 10262 v. 1-3. We heard disc 3 tracks 1-3.

Youngblood Brass Band "Word on the Street" EPB 6595. We heard track 1 "New Blood" and track 2 "Jumpin' the Buck".

• Chicago Transit Authority (now "Chicago") A Columbia Records vinyl LP from 1968. We heard "Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is?"

George Clinton & Parliament

Horn Heads "Fat Lip". We heard "Can't Quite Put My Finger on it"

George Clinton
George Clinton

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Professional Brass Ensembles - Week II

This week we will focus on large professional ensembles. Here is basically a copy of the class lecture outline with hyperlinks to the ensemble websites:

Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
• Founded in 1951 (started as a quartet, quintet by 1961, 10 members by 1970)
• Over 36 recordings
• Philip Jones retired in 1986, died in 1990 at age 71.
• The Odyssey of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble - McDonald. Editions BIM 1986
• Spin-offs: London Brass (1986), Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble (1992)

German Brass
• Founded in 1974 (founded as a quintet, 10 members by 1975)
• Over 6 recordings (+DVD)
• German Brass Academy

Summit Brass
• Founded in 1985 (16 piece brass ensemble, optional percussion)
• 9 recordings
• Affiliated with Summit Records and Rafael Mendez Institute

Black Dyke Band
• Founded 1855 (British Brass Band) *150 years of performing and touring
• Over 39 recordings
• National Brass Band Champions (England)

Besses O' the Barn Band

• Founded 1818
• More than 4 recordings
• Numerous British Competition titles, International touring

Grimethorpe Colliery Band
• Founded 1917
• Over 23 recordings ( including Soundtrack to Brassed Off)
• Winners of 19 competitions from 1932-1945
• First brass band ensemble-in-residence at Royal College of Music in London
• Conducted by Elgar Howarth (among many)

Proteus 7
• Founded 1994
• Mixed Septet (2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 tuba, 1 percussion, 1 reed player)
• Dorian Label, 4 recordings

Symphonia
•Founded 1995, Winston Morris (Tennessee Tech.)
• 3 recordings
• Comprised of American tuba and euphonium professors and soloists

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Listening Session - 2/8/06

Here is a guide to the recordings we listened to today in class.
1. The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli, featuring the Brass sections from the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Master Works Heritage, Sony Classical MHK62353. We heard track 7- Canzon a 12 by G. Gabrieli
2. Russische Musik für Blechbaser, featuring the Montanus Quintett. Fermate FER 20022. We heard track 14 - Quintett by Aleksandr Aljababjew [Alexander Alyabiev] (1787-1851)
Premier!
3. Premier! featuring the American Brass Quintet. Summit Records DCD 187. We heard: track 1 - Allegro vigoroso from Brass Quintet No. 2 (1993) by Gunther Schuller (b. 1925) and track 10-11 - Brass Quintet (1982) by Dan Welcher (b. 1948)
Four of a Kind, Music for Trombone Quartet
4. Four of a Kind: Music for Trombone Quartet, featuring Joe Alessi, Scott Hartman, Mark Lawrence and Blair Bollinger. Summit Records DCD 123. We heard tracks 3 & 4 - "Andante" and "Poco Adagio" from Beethoven's Drei Equali
5. Confluences featuring Tom Brantley, trombone and Jay Coble, trumpet. JCTB Productions (USF Tampa). We heard track 1 - "Allegro" from Divertimento for Trumpet, Trombone and Piano by Boris Blocher (1903-1975)
6. Virtuoso Brass featuring the Chicago Brass Quintet. Delos DE 1022 13491 1022 2 (1991). Chicago Brass is Ross Beacroft, Bradley Boehm, trumpets; Jonathan Boen, horn; James Mattern, trombone; Robert Bauchens, tuba. We heard track 14 - "La Marche" from Suite from the Monteregian Hills by Morley Calvert (1928-1991)
Various
7. Frozen Brass: Africa & Latin America [Anthology of Brass Band Music #2] Pan Records 2026. We marched to track 10 - Winti-pre Opening Song . From the liner notes: "one of the opening hymns of a Winti-pre changing into the first Winti dance song." What's Winti you say? Click here to find out.

• The above CD is available at CD Roots, which is a great place to find a wealth of recordings of brass music from around the world, including the Balkans, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

• The Eastman Trombone Choir has a nice page on the history of the trombone choir, check it out.

• REMINDER: February 23rd and April 5th are extra listening sessions. I will open them up to anyone who like to present more recordings, or didn't get all the way through their initial session.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

An Exemplary Listening Session

Chestnut Brass Company
Today's listening session by Melissa was excellent. She presented numerous tracks from over fifteen recordings. Because her format, content and planning was done so well, I have suggested that successive listening sessions be modeled in this fashion.

Utilizing Interlibrary loan (ILL) is an excellent method of locating hard to find recordings. We listened to a wide variety of music, from Chestnut Brass Company to Fanfare Ciocarlia, which was so inspiring that we all actually danced in class!

Here a few helpful links related to today's class:


Pro Musica Brass Trio - The recording of the Poulenc Trio
Chestnut Brass Company
Gerard Schwarz
Thomas Stevens
Crystal Records (Toby Hanks and many others)
Empire Brass
Lucia Dlugoszewski
Center City Brass Quintet
Kitty Brazleton - We heard her Chamber Music for the Inner Ear recording.
Daniel Asia
Summit Records
Lagos Mozart Orchestra (formerly Calabar Brass Band) Echoes of Africa
Rough Guide Music
(they also write excellent travel guides at Rough Guide Travel)
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble

Here is another recording of Cortege by Gaston Litaize.

If you enjoyed the DVD, here is where to order it from Amazon.com

Nvu - The free web editing software I use. It is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. I just create my post in that and copy it to the blogging host's interface. Several of you may find this helpful because of complicated interfaces of your particular blog host.

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