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.