Welcome Spring 2007 Students

Welcome to the Advanced Brass Ensemble Literature blog!

Here, I will post a record of our in-class listening sessions and discussions. On the right sidebar, you can click on many course-related links, including posts from last year.

One of your assignments for this class will be to keep a blog on a course-related subject and ABEL Central will also serve as a hub for your own blogs.

Listening Session - 4/26/06

Listening - 4/26/06



Recording: Brass Festival, BISCD265
Ensemble: Scandanavian Brass Ensemble
Conductor: Jorma Panula

Holmboe, Concerto for Brass, Op. 157
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Vivace

Madsen, Divertimento for Brass and Percussion, Op. 47
I. Allegro
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Allegro

Grieg, Funeral March, arr. Emerson

Danielson, Suite No. 3 for Brass and Percussion
I. Prelude: Moderato
II. March: Vivace con spirito
III. Finale: Adagio - Piu Mosso - Jubiloso

While I was away in Utah...

"Independent" Listening Session - 4/19/06

1."Right There", Steve Turve -Track 8
2."Vienna Philharmonic Fanfare" Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Richard Strauss LP
3. "Mockingbird Side Step", The Yankee Brass Band, 'American Brass Quintet Brass Band' album
4. "Tagbavo" Gangbe Brass Band, 'Togbe' album
5. "The Battle of Stalingrad" Op. 74 Aram Khachaturian Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, 'Russian Wind Band Classics'
6. "Mini Overture" Witold Lutoslawski. 'Brass Ring'
7. "Brass Quintet" Daniel Pinkham, Huntington Brass
8. Rhythm and Brass album
#15 "Unsquare Dance
#18 "Jazz
#19 "Rockit!"
#20 "Summertime"
9. Bach Chorale, Pittsburgh Symphony Brass

Catching Up

I've fallen behind my normal posting pace, so here is a quick catch-up:

Basically, thank you all for making this class so much fun! I am glad we do some serious score study/listening to three landmark works (Poulenc, Tomasi, Etler) and I hope you all get to perform these works sometime.

Claire gave us a nice outline of here Listening Session on March 22. Here are some links related to her presentation:



Gerhard Meinl's Tuba Sextet - We heard track 16 of "Tuba!"

Dave Gannet, "Tubas From Hell" - We heard tracks 1 and 4

Monarch Tuba/Euphonium Quartet "Metamorphosis"

Toby Hanks "Sampler" Stevens - Dances and Tomasi "To Be or Not to Be"

Velvet Brown "Velvet" - We heard "Deep River"

Daniel Perantoni "Daniel in the Lions Den" - We heard the St. Louis Brass Quintet

Taj Mahal - "The Real Thing" - We heard "Big Kneed Gal"

Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man

Janacek - Sinfonietta

Youngblood Brass Band "Unlearn" track 2

Brian's Presentation on Early Brass was very entertaining. Here are a few links related to it:



Concerto Palatino

London Serpent Trio

London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble



Sir Tom Jones

Listening Session - 3/8/06

Wednesday in class we enjoyed listening to some "lighter" brass playing. Here is the list:

1. Brassil plays Brazil, Nimbus Records NI 5642, track 1, Suite Recife by José Ursicino da Silva "Duda"

2. Sotto Voce Consequences, Summit DCD 322, track 1 Consequences by Mike Forbes and track 13 "The Lord's Prayer" by Malotte

3. Against the Grain BCSPCD33, trombone quartet from the Beklee School of Music, track 1"Guardian of the Muse" by Chris Enright

4. Brass Bonanza, Crystal CD 200, track 8-10 (New York Brass Quintet) and Joseph Horovitz Music Hall Suite (Metropolitan BQ)

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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.

More Links!

A Short History of the Trombone: The Operatic and Symphonic Traditions
A Short History of the Trombone: The Traditions of Courtly Extravagance
Cyfarthfa Reborn
Das Sinfonische Werk von Franz Beck
Gardeners' Question Time
Home Page for the National Music Museum
The Cornet Compendium: History and Development of the 19th Century Cornet
Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments
Brass Resources
Serpent Website
Historic Music for Serpent
Al's Tenor Horn Page - Tuba History
Brass and Military Music Research / Blechblaeser- und Militaermusikforschung
Jan Bach
The Civil War Music Site
Brass Band Reference - Golden Age of Brass
Edward Gregson
Brass Music of Black Composers
Irish Music for Brass
John White
Nothing But Valves
theMouthPiece.com
Anthony Holborne
Holborner - Biography, Discography
Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina
Pezel
Antony Holborne
Matthew Locke
Venetian School: Information From Answers.com
Washington Early Music Festival
Grainger List of Works
Ralph Vaughan Williams Society

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.

BLOG ON!

I have added a new list links related to today's lecture regarding the historical background of brass ensembles. They are located on the right sidebar under "Historical Perspective Links". Enjoy!

Listening Log - 1.25.06

1. Samuel Scheidt; German Brass, Schiedt Entrada (track #1) EMI CDC 747692

2. Portrait of an Artist; Arnold Jacobs, Bozza Sonatine (track 22), Chicago Symphony Brass (1966) Summit DCD 267

3. 4 Valves 4 Slides, Bizet Gipsy Dance from "Carmen" (track 1), Steven Mead with Trombonisti Italiani, RCR 0405

4. Peruvian Festival Music, Canchis Tierra Linda (track 1), Banda San Martin de Sicuani

5. Jive Concerto, Agrell Slip-Step March (track 2), Swiss Brass Consort, Obrasso CD 868

6. Ngoma, Førde Kongolela (track 3), The Brazz Brothers, BBRCD 3002

Welcome to ABEL Central, the hub for all of the graduate student blogs for the University of Iowa course Advanced Brass Ensemble Literature. Each blog features a specific theme of the student's choice with observations and notes on our class discussions.