Thursday, April 20, 2017

Brass Ensemble Music from Other Cultures

Fanfare Ciocarlia

On Wednesday I gave a listening presentation titled "Brass Ensemble Music from Other Cultures". Below is a table with the playlist, providing information on the selection, ensemble, recording and origin, as well as links to each ensemble.

The details of each work are listed in this order:
Title
Ensemble
Recording
Origin

Rusasca de la Buzdug
Fanfare Ciocarlia
Radio Pascani  
Romania (Balkan Brass Band)

Mundo Cocek
Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar
Golden Horns - Best of Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar
Serbia (Balkan Brass Band)

Sword Fight
Bollywood Brass Band
Movie Masala
England (Indian)

El Carretero   
Pepe Gutiérrez & Mariachi De Pepe Villa
Vintage Mexico No. 158
Mexico (Mariachi)

Entierrenme Con La Banda   
Banda el Recodo
Del Pueblo
Mexico (Banda)

Y Te Vas

Banda Carnaval
Las Vueltas de le Vida
Mexico (Banda)

Tangimausia
Beulah College Band
Ifi Palasa - Tongan Brass
Tonga (Traditional)

In your Garden Twenty Fecund Fruit Trees
Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars
USA (Klezmer)

Always Remember
The Tigers
Dancing with Daddy G
USA (Trombone Shout Band/Gospel)

Doghouse Polka
Kris and the Riverbend Dutchmen
Partners, Brothers, And Friends
USA (Polka)

We also viewed these two videos:

Guca (Balkan) Brass Festival 

Wedding Band Jaipur (India) 

Finally, at the conclusion of class, I mentioned the correlation between the similarity of styles and instrumentation in German/Austrian Polka and Northern Mexican Banda style. This is explained below in the article "Does Mexican Music have German Roots?" by

Mexican Music Style Influenced by Germans

Music from the northern part of Mexico, norteño, meaning "northern," or música norteña, "northern music," was influenced by German settlers in Texas around 1830. It is no coincidence that some types of Mexican music have the German polka "oom-pah-pah" influence.

Migration Phenomenon

There was a large migration of Germans to southern Texas from the 1830s to the 1840s. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the largest ethnic group in Texas born in Europe or whose parents came from Europe hailed from Germany. By 1850, Germans made up more than 5 percent of the entire population of Texas. This part of Texas became known as the German Belt.



Monday, April 10, 2017

Gagarara, Pitch Black and Berio Call

Today in class, we listened to an eclectic mix of recordings including works by Brian Martinez, Luciano Berio and Jacob TV. First up was a YouTube video of the U.S. premiere of Gagarara by Spanish composer and winner of the Isla Verde Brass Festival composition competition, Brian Martinez. Below you can view both the Tritantic Brass Ensemble video as well as the world premiere in Argentina:

   



We spent the rest of the class time listening to a recent recording called "Pitch Black" by Brass United (Channel Classics CCS 38717). From it we heard Call (St. Louis Fanfare)
by Luciano Berio and the title track, Pitch Black by Jacob TV. Pitch Black uses an interview by Chet Baker as source material, which is then looped and manipulated to provide a rhythmic and contextual backdrop for the brass quintet, which was transcribed from the original saxophone quartet. 


Also on this recording is Pulcinella 2.0, which consists of ten arrangements for brass quintet and harpsichord of the original source music that Stravinsky used for his landmark work. Some of the pieces include works by Pergolesi, Gallo, Monza.
 

Monday, March 27, 2017

Carter and Tymoczko

Elliot Carter (1908-2012)
Today in class we heard two major works for brass quintet: Elliot Carter's Brass Quintet (1974), as recroded by the American Brass Quintet and Rube Goldberg Variations for Brass Quintet and Prepared Piano by Dmitri Tymoczko, as recorded by the Atlantic Brass Quintet. 

Both works are extremely unique, so I have asked you to blog about your thoughts on each piece by answering the following questions about each piece:
  1.  What is the overall affect of the piece? How does it make you feel? How does the composer achieve that?
  2. List three remarkable or noteable aspects of the piece. Include measure numbers or rehearsal numbers or letters and explain your answer.
  3. Comment on the harmonic, melodic and rhythmic language used. What are some of the challenges presented in the performances of this work created by these languages?
  4. Finally, compare and contrast both works. What are their similarities? What are their differences?
I look forward to reading your responses in your blogs and be sure to reach each others' blog post replies.





To listen to the Tymoczko again, click on the links below:
  1. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com/rubegoldbergm1.m4a
  2. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com/rubegoldbergm2.m4a
  3. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com/rubegoldbergm3.m4a
  4. http://dmitri.tymoczko.com/rubegoldbergm4.m4a


Monday, March 20, 2017

Arnold Symphony for Brass and Tomasi Fanfares Liturgiques

Tuesday we listened to two great original works for brass choir: Malcolm Arnold's Symphony for Brass and Henri Tomasi's Fanfares Liturgiques.

Sir Malcolm Arnold
The recording of Sir Malcom Arnold's Symphony for Brass was done by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. The piece was written in 1978 with the PJBE standard instrumentation of four trumpets, one horn, four trombones and one tuba. Arnold was born in Northampton, England in 1921 and after hearing Louis Armstrong play, he decided to learn the trumpet at age twelve. He attended the Royal College of Music and studied trumpet with Gordon Jacob. In 1957, Arnold won an Academy Award for the music to epic film The Bridge on the River Kwai. According to Music Academy Online: 

Malcolm Arnold moved to Ireland in 1972, where he reveled in the lush scenery and lively Celtic music. Here, however, his behavior became increasingly erratic and, in 1977, his second marriage collapsed and he returned to England, exhausted and unable to work for several years. Significant works eventually emerged during this unhappy period, such as the Trumpet Concerto, Symphony for Brass and the Eighth Symphony.

Oral history of Glyndebourne opera

Oral history of Glyndebourne opera
For more information about the PJBE, here is a link to the book The Odyssey of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble by Donna McDonald available at Editions BIM.

Henri Tomasi
The recording of Fanfares Liturgique, by Henri Tomasi, was made by Grand Ensemble de Cuivres et Percussion des Hauts de France, with Alexis Malotchkine & Bernard Calmel. As you heard, it is a very powerful and well-crafted composition. The names of the movements are translated below, and as we discussed, the genre seems to be an "instrumental oratorio" - that is, a sacred brass choir version of a liturgical work. Of course there is no text sung, but the orator could be represented by the trombone solo of the second movement. Note also the return of the triumphant first theme, possibly a motif for the Christ figure, returns in the final movement. I also was reminded in several passages of the works Stravinsky, Respighi, Bach, and Dukas.
This work was originally called "Fanfares Concertantes" and was part of his opera Don Juan de Mañera. 


Movements: 
  • I. Annonciation (Annunciation is the term describing the moment when the angel Gabriel declared Mary to be the mother of God)
  • II. Evangile (Gospel, or the word of God)
  • III. Apocalypse (Apocolypse, or revelation?) Four Horsemen who are listed as Pestilence (disease epidemic), War, Famine, Death
  • IV. Procession du Vendredi-Saint (Good Friday Procession, a Christian celebration commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus)
For more information about Tomasi, go to the Tomasi page and for more listening, go to Tomasi on Naxos.

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Arfen Owen Lecture

Today, we had the great pleasure of hearing famous Tenor Horn solosit Arfen Owen speak about the history of the British Brass Band tradition. It was a very enlightening lecture, especially when we learned that the origins of the British Brass Band included keeping mill workers out of trouble and to discourage unionization. 

Here are the YouTube videos we listened to:



 


I encouraged each of you to blog about your notes on the lecture, so I look forward to reading your impressions online. Check out this brief article on Four Bars Rest about Mr. Owen.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Bohme Sextet


Today we will be listening to and studying the score of Oskar Böhme's Trompeten-Sextett in E-flat minor Op. 30 for cornet, two trumpets, bass trumpet (or alto horn), baritone horn (or trombone) and euphonium composed in 1907. It is a romantic work for six brass players in four movements. We will listen to the Atlantic Brass Quintet recording, "Five Chairs" on Summit Records from 2004. There are also excellent recordings by the Center City Brass Quintet, the Empire Brass Quintet,  and the NewYork Brass Quintet.

From Wikipedia:

Oskar Böhme, a son of Wilhelm Böhme, also a trumpeter, was born in Potschappel, a small town near Dresden, Germany, which is now part of Freital. For much of his early career, after studying trumpet and composition in the Leipzig Conservatory of Music until graduating in 1888, it is unknown what Böhme's musical activities were, though it is probable he concertized, playing in smaller orchestras around Germany.

From 1894-1896 he played in the Budapest Opera Orchestra and then moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1897. Böhme played cornet for 24 years in the Mariinsky Theatre, turned to teaching at a music school on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg for nine further years, from 1921-1930, and then returned to opera with the Leningrad Drama Theatre until 1934.

In 1934, however, the Great Terror began under Joseph Stalin and in 1936 a committee was established to oversee the arts in Soviet Russia. According to its anti-foreign policies, Böhme was exiled to Orenburg on account of his German heritage. It is said that he died there in 1938, though he was also said to be seen working on the Turkmenistan Canal in 1941. 

New Information about Bohme's death:

Dear Friends,

Here in a letter to the editor I wish to inform you and our readers that a Russian historian has recently discovered how the cornetist Oskar Böhme came to an end. In a chapter about Böhme in my book East Meets West I had written: “The exact date and the circumstances of his death will probably never be known.” In the wake of Stalin’s “Great Terror” (1928-54) more than four million people were deported and/or executed. Especially after Central Committee Secretary Sergey M. Kirov had been assassinated on December 1, 1934, Stalin initiated a great series of purges of artists and scientists, also banishing many persons of German origin, including Böhme, to distant places. Böhme was arrested on April 13, 1935 because of supposed – i.e. trumped-up – anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation and sentenced to three years of banishment from St. Petersburg to Orenburg (Stalinist name: Chkalov), a traditionally German city at the foot of the southern Ural mountains. Until 1938 he was teaching at a music school there, without the right of correspondence. Historian Anatoly Jakovlevich Rasumov, with access to the KGB archive, has since 1995 been publishing the names and short biographies of those who were assassinated by Stalin’s henchmen; his Leningrad Martyrologium has reached 14 volumes so far. He has discovered that in October 1938 (probably on the 23rd) Oskar Böhme was shot. See Christian Neef, “Archivar des Terrors”, Der Spiegel 53 (December 2015), 94-97, here 96.

- Edward H. Tarr

Monday, February 13, 2017

The Truth About Ewald

Viktor Ewald

This morning, we studied the score and listened to Ewald's Brass Quintet No.3. I gave you each a copy of the article History of the Four Quintets for Brass by Victor Ewald, written by André Smith for the International Trumpet Guild Journal. I would like you to read it and post on your own blog your impressions of this article. Some a

After you read the article, respond to the following questions in a post on your own blog.
  • What did you know about Ewald and his brass quintet before reading this article? 
  • What did this article teach you about proper research?
  • What questions did this article raise?
  • What are your thoughts on rotary vs. piston valve preferences mentioned in the article?
  • Do you agree with Forsyth who wrote, "There is in general no true legato on the trombone"
  • What are your thoughts about Smith's ideas on instrumentation mentioned on page 13.
  • In regards to the modern revival of Ewald's brass quintets, what roles did the following people play? Froides Werke, the American Brass Quintet, the Empire Brass Quintet?
  • What has been your experience both playing and listening to the Ewald quintets?

Some of the common questions regarding these brass quintets include "Why did he write them?" I first heard that Ewald was a teacher, a Civil Engineer and an amateur cellist who played in a string quartet called the Belaiv Quartet. But, as Smith brought out in his article, Ewald played many instruments, including tuba and cornet. He was also motivated and influenced by composers and brass artists of the day, and even by attending the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

He also points out his collaboration with the American Brass Quintet in preparation for a Carnegie Hall Recital in the early '70s, and the confusion and spread of the quintets back to Russia, and then into the hands of the Empire Brass through Froides Wekre.

Until relatively recently, it was believed that Ewald penned only three brass quintets, but as Smith points out, his first work was a brass quintet that many, including Ewald himself, thought the work unplayable - so he reworked it as a string quartet. Many got the story backwards, and thought that the fourth brass quintet was originally a string quartet.

The lesson I hope we learn from this article is the importance of accurate, and methodical research. Smith waited forty-three years to gather his information before publishing his articles. Think of that the next time you are writing a paper.

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Listening Presentation Guidelines

Atlantic Brass Quintet recording session, courtesy of Bove Audio
After enjoying our first student listening presentation today, I thought I would provide some guidelines and suggestions that might clarify the aim of the sessions. I've amended the syllabus to reflect these guidelines below to read:
Student Listening Presentations (2)
  • Dates individually assigned (refer to class schedule)
  • Strive for a good variety of types of ensembles:
    • Small mixed or homogeneous ensembles (brass trio, horn quartet, etc.)
    • Brass quintet (tuba or bass trombone as bottom voice)
    • Large ensemble (brass choir, brass ensemble, brass band)
  • Strive for a variety of styles, nationalities, and eras
  • Balance original works against arrangements
  • Presentations may include videos, but be mindful of YouTube advertisements.
 The three main aspects to keep in mind are:
  1. Recording Quality - When possible, present professional recordings with excellent sound quality and engineering. Recordings should be evenly balanced, with good microphone placement and recorded in an acoustical environment that has sufficient reverberation without being too much so. Some live recordings may display much more energy and musicality than edited recordings, or may be the only recording available. Use these suggestions and your best judgement regarding assessing quality.
  2. Diversity - Ensure your presentation shows a diversity of types of ensembles, styles of music, a balance of original works for brass as well as quality arrangements. Strive to "research" outside of your comfort zone. We do want you to share recordings that you enjoy, but also try to discover something new to you and share that as well.
  3. Presentation medium  - It is recommended that you bring a laptop or smartphone that can be connected to my speakers. Playing from a playlist on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, or other streaming service should be fine. You may also bring separate CDs, or consider compiling the list onto a CD, which I can play from my stereo. As it says above, when using YouTube, be aware of advertisements. Perhaps limit your use of YouTube for recordings that is accompanied by video.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Welcome Students - Spring 2017



"Brass Candy Trio" by Jeremy Armitage
Welcome to Advanced Brass Ensemble Literature, Spring 2017! ABEL Central is the class blog, where you will find information about the class, as well as links to your own course-related blogs. On the right-hand side bar, you'll see the course number, syllabus, ways to follow, search and subscribe this blog, and links to the blogs of former students. Additionally, there are links to professional brass ensembles and other resources.

I will be posting here, generally once a week, on things we covered in class, answers to questions that came up in class, and anything else that might be of interest to this course. This blog is ten years old today, so take advantage of perusing older posts, as well as blogs by former students for ideas for your own blog.