Students' Choice Day(Star Wars, Sheet Music Resources and Ska for Brass Ensembles)

In honor of May the 4th, we heard a cross section of recordings of brass ensembles performing music from Star Wars. They included:

• Filmharmonic Brass
• London Studio Brass Band
• Presidio Brass
• Quintetto Inflagranti:
• Ryukoko Symphonic Band
• Oberaargauer Brass Band
• Pacific Brass Ensemble
• New Zealand Army Band

Sheet Music Resources for Brass Ensemble Music:

• Cimarron Music
• Robert King - Publications can be found at Sheet Music Plus and J.W. Pepper
• Editions Bim
• Cherry Classics
• Just for Brass
• Southern Music
• Brassworks 4 
• Waterton Brass Music 
• Brass Music Online

Ska for Brass Ensembles Playlist on YouTube

• Klandestinos Brass Band
• Tokyo Paradise Ska Orchestra
• Melbourne Ska Orchestra
• Ska Vengers and Kawa Band
• Too Many Ska Horns (parody from College Humor) 
• The Specials
• The Skatelites
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (only one trombone)

Brass Ensemble Music from Other Cultures

Jaipur Kawa Brass Band

The diversity and variety of brass ensemble traditions is rich and deep, and certainly not limited to Western European art music genres. Today, we will be listening to selections from a playlist of recordings of brass ensembles from around the world, as well as here in the U.S., that illustrate this diversity. 

My playlist for this particular class offering has grown over the years, and currently contains over two hours and twenty minutes of music and growing. Of course, I will not play every track or every second of every track. I will pick and choose as we go and highlight the many traditions and styles represented.

The different categories include:

• Balkan Brass Bands from the Roma tradition
• Fanfare Ciocarlia
• Boban Markovic Orkestar
• Brass Bands from India and Pakistan
• Jaipur Kawa Brass Band
• Bollywood Brass Band (U.K.)
• Brass Bands from the Kingdom of Tonga 
• Beulah College Band
• Mariachi and Banda from Mexico
• Pepe Gutierrez & Mariachi De Pepe Villa
• Band El Recodo
• Banda Carnaval
• (...and several others)
• Polka Music from U.S., Austria and Germany
• Kris and the Riverbend Dutchmen 
• Die Tiroler Blasmusikanten
• The Oktoberfest Oompah Band
• African Brass Band
• Gangbé Brass Band
• Klezmer and Shout Bands from the U.S.
• Frank London's Klezmer Allstars
• The Tigers

Joan Tower - Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 3

 

Today we watched a video of the premiere of Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 3, for two brass quintets, performed by members of the New York Philharmonic and the Empire Brass. It was written and premiered in 1991 for the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall. It is one of six short works for varied instrumentation.

From Wikipedia, here is more information about the piece and the other fanfares:

Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman is a series of six short compositions, or “parts” of one 25-minute composition, by Joan Tower. Parts I, II, III and V are scored for brass, Parts IV and VI for full orchestra. The score for the whole series includes 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, 2 bass drums, 5 cymbals, 2 gongs, tam-tam, tom-toms, the triangle, glockenspiel, marimba, and chimes. Tower wrote Part I in 1987, Part VI twenty-nine years later, in 2016.^[1] Along the way, in 2014, the series was added to the National Recording Registry, having been judged “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.” 

The first and most popular of the Fanfares was commissioned by the Houston Symphony as part of the orchestra's Fanfare Project and was composed in 1986. It debuted on January 10, 1987, with the Houston Symphony conducted by Hans Vonk. It was originally inspired by Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and employs the same instrumentation while adding the glockenspiel, marimba, chimes, and drums. The piece is about 2 minutes and 41 seconds long and is dedicated to the conductor Marin Alsop.^[3] It contains an opening flourish, huge percussion strokes, and then a galloping rhythm that pushes through the rest of the piece to reach the conclusion.

The second Fanfare was written in 1989 and uses the same instrumentation as the first while adding percussion. It was commissioned by Absolut Vodka and premiered at the Lincoln Center in 1989. It was performed by the Orchestra of Saint Luke and is about 3 minutes and 23 seconds long.^[4]

The third Fanfare was written in 1991 and was commissioned by Carnegie Hall in commemoration of its 100th anniversary. It premiered on May 5, 1991, and was performed by the Empire Brass and members of the New York Philharmonic brass section. The conductor was Zubin Mehta and it is about 5 minutes and 15 seconds long. It is laid out on a larger scale than the others and gradually moves from quiet lyricism to full-ensemble chords before slowing down into a final coda.

The fourth Fanfare was written in 1992 and was the only one in the series scored for full orchestra where the brass does not dominate. However, its propulsive rhythms and sheer energy qualify it as a fanfare. The piece was commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony, and premiered on October 16, 1992, conducted by William McGlaughlin. The piece is about 4 minutes and 35 seconds long.^[5]

The fifth Fanfare was written in 1993 and was commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival for the opening of the Joan and Irving Harris Concert Hall in 1993. It is approximately 3 minutes long.

The sixth Fanfare was written in 2016 for full orchestra, commissioned for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Elliott Carter Brass Quintet

Elliott Carter (1908-2012)

Today, we studied the recording Elliott Carter's Brass Quintet (1974) by the American Brass Quintet. Elliott Carter was a very important figure in modern music in the 20th century, who studied with Nadia Boulanger and was influenced by Ives, Stravinsky and Varese and won the Pulitzer prize in music in 1960 and 1973. 

Below is a description of the piece in Carter's own words from Wise Music Classical,:

The Brass Quintet was written during the summer of 1974 for the American Brass Quintet which commissioned the work. This group gave its premiere on October 20, 1974 at a Charles Ives Festival broadcast by the BBC from London, and its American premiere at the Library of Congress on November 15, 1974, and has recorded the work for Columbia Records.

The music being almost constantly multilayered, as is my Second String Quartet, separates the players by individualizing their parts, but not completely, because each instrument shares parts of its repertory with one of the others. The first trumpet, for instance, near the beginning plays in a trio with the second trumpet and tenor trombone featuring the minor sixth light, irregular chords of which the character and interval become part of the repertory of the three participating instruments. A bit later, the first trumpet plays another trio with the horn and bass trombone that features fanfares and quiet, majestic music based on the perfect fifth, which then become part of the repertory of these three instruments. The horn, which has the largest repertory of all, however also frequently uses the augmented fourth which it does not share with any of the other.

All of the contrasting characters and their related musical materials form a multilayered piece planned along the following pattern: Every third (that is, the first, forth, seventh, etc.) of its overlapping 19 short sections is a brief five-part quodlibet in which the instruments oppose each other with contrasting parts of their individual repertories. Between these is a dup preceded or followed by a trip in which two or three instruments join in music of similar character. Each dup and trip has a different instrumentation.

The general plan is interrupted midway through the work by a relatively extended unaccompanied horn solo which is cut off by angry octaves from the others. The slow music which began the piece and forms the background of the first three quodlibets is abandoned after the last of these, only to return in extended form near the end. The entire work, in fact, can be heard as one long, slow movement with interruptions.

This quintet, rather than employing all the resources of color possible with modern mutes for the brass, relies primarily on linear material, textures, and the instrumental virtuosity for which the American Brass Quintet is notable.


--Elliott Carter

To learn more about Carter, visit his Boosey and Hawkes page to view an excellent video on his early years here.

Bernstein Dance Suite

Center City Brass Quintet

Today we listened to Leonard Bernstein's final composition (1989) Dance Suite for Brass Quintet performed by the Center City Brass Quintet. Not only was the piece his final composition before his death in 1990, but it was the only piece he composed for brass quintet. It was fitting he asked the Empire Brass to premiere it since he was instrumental in encouraging them to form at Tanglewood and including them in the premier of his Mass in 1971.

Read more about this piece at LeonardBernstein.com

Overview

Bernstein's final composition, each of the five movements is dedicated to a choreographer-friend of his:

I. Dancisca, for Antony (Antony Tudor)
II. Waltz, for Agnes (Agnes de Mille)
III. Bi-Tango, for Mischa (Mikhail Baryshnikov)
IV. Two-Step, for Mr. B (George Balanchine)
V. MTV, for Jerry (Jerome Robbins)

The piece was premiered by Empire Brass, at American Ballet Theater's 50th-anniversary gala, at the Metropolitan Opera House on January 14, 1990.

NOTES

Dance Suite is the last work to be written, mostly in late 1989, by the composer. It was premiered as part of the 50th Anniversary Gala of American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, on January 14, 1990. This light-hearted divertissement was not danced, however, even though that was the original intention of the ballet company. A choreographer began work on it, but apparently it was felt that the movements were too short for danceable development. It was presented instead on stage, in front of the traveller curtain, as an independent instrumental work. The performers were the Empire Brass Quintet, to whom the Suite is dedicated "with affection:" Rolf Smedvig and Jeffrey Curnow, trumpets; Eric Ruske, horn; Scott Hartman, trombone; and Sam Pilafian, tuba. The first movement alone was doubled simultaneously with the Quintet members by the ballet orchestra in the pit.
Each movement is dedicated to a choregrapher-friend: Antony Tudor, Agnes DeMille, Mikhail Baryshnikov, George Balenchine and Jerome Robbins. More than a piéce d'occasion, there are other layers of meaning in the work since each movement had its origin in other formats. These are mostly anniversary pieces composed for family and friends.

I. Dancisca, for Antony (Antony Tudor)

The portmanteau work DANCISCA is the title for what was originally a piano piece. Written for the composer's granddaughter, Francisca Anne Maria Thomas, "For my Rhymy Girl, with thanxgiving and love, Tata, " it was completed "21 Nov. '89."

II. Waltz, for Agnes (Agnes de Mille)

The ironic WALTZ, which sometimes is in 3/4 time (alternating with common time) has wry overtones. Dated "22 Nov. '89," it was conceived as "The NEA Fovever March," after the composer refused the National Medal of Arts from President Bush. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to Artists Space, a nonprofit gallery in New York City, had been revoked because of its AIDS exhibit, "Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing." This was unacceptable to Mr. Bernstein, whose lyrics for the March were:

Everyone got a medal but Bernstein,
The President gave twelve medals,
Not to Bernstein.
Well, actually there showed up only ten to toast,
'Cause one of the dozen couldn't make it,
And the other was just a ghost.
But ten out of twelve is better than most,
And the President was a very lovely host.
So everyone had a great time but Bernstein.
The Lord be praised!

III. Bi-Tango, for Mischa (Mikhail Baryshnikov)

The bitonal BI-TANGO is based on a "Birthday Serenata" composed for a violinist friend, Paul Woodiel, "17 Nov. '89" with words in Spanglish for "Señorito Pablito."

IV. Two-Step, for Mr. B (George Balanchine)

The TWO-STEP was at first "A Spiky Song," written for the composer's grandson, Evan Samuel Thomas: "Two weeks old, from his loving Granddaddy, 28 Oct. '89." ("Spike" was the name given to Evan prior to his birth by his father, David Thomas.) Its words include:
Hooray, ni-hao, Little Spike. So glad, thank God, Didn't call you Mike(ae)l, Stephen, Paul,...
Hip, hip, loud cheers, little tyke.
Welcome, warning:
Livin' ain't a bike ride,...
Hooray. Thank heaven for Evan.

V. MTV,  for Jerry (Jerome Robbins)

MTV is in part a tribute to the ubiquitous Music Television. The middle section was also a song, written for the mother of the Bernstein grandchildren, Jamie Bernstein Thomas: "7.II.86, for Jamie, to be continued... Love, LB." This one was inspired (if that is the appropriate word) when Mr. Bernstein watched an episode of "Miami Vice" on TV. The composer's lyrics for it were loosely based on actual dialogue. The words are found partly in the manuscript, and have been in part recalled by a family friend, the conductor Michael Barrett, as:
He said: You wash my back and I'll wash yours. With the baby lyin' in a shoe-bag on the floor
So she stabbed that rapist crime for crime.
He was a small-time stand-up comic anyway,
Very small-time.
Now ain't that nice? Miami Vice.
-note by Jack Gottlieb
© Copyright 1992 by Jack Gottlieb
All rights reserved.

Brass Ensembles in Popular Music Genres

David Byrne & St. Vincent, Love This Giant tour

Since the earliest days of brass instruments, brass ensembles of some type have often been involved in popular music in some way. Whether they were part of Renaissance dance music, Civil War regimental brass bands, dixieland bands, part of big bands of the Swing Era, or rock and roll, brass ensembles have proven to be a versatile and sometimes unique addition to popular music.

Here is the Apple Music playlist called Brass Ensembles in Popular Music which I played from today. It ranged from Pink Floyd and the Beatles, to Tower of Power and David Byrne . Please share links to any videos or recordings of brass ensembles that fit withing this category. 

For more visuals, here is a related YouTube playlist I created. It includes a modern remake of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother as well as of the 1970 premiere for comparison. Please share your own suggestions to add to this playlist.

Dahl and Hindemith

Ingolf Dahl

On Monday, we heard Ingolf Dahl's "Music for Brass Instrument" (1944) performed by the American Brass Quintet and Center City Brass Quintet. As I mentioned, the piece was written as a sextet (brass quintet with a tenor and a bass trombone) with an optional tuba part in the score.

Description by Joseph Stevenson (from AllMusic.com) 

The Hamburg-born Dahl (his parents were Swedish) left Germany before World War II and based his musical career in Los Angeles. By 1944 he was working as a regular accompanist for comedienne Gracie Fields and it was while touring with her that he completed this composition for brass quintet (two trumpets, horn, and two trombones) with optional tuba in Toronto in May, 1944. It is a pivotal work, for it is regarded as not only having been the one in which the composer found his authentic personal voice, but as the source of the modern revival of the brass quintet. It has even been called (by Julian Menken) "... the most outstanding work in brass repertory."

It is a thoroughly American-sounding piece in three movements, adding up to fifteen minutes. Jazzy figurations merge seamlessly with Baroque-style gestures in the faster parts. The opening "Chorale Fantasy" is based on the old German chorale tune "Christ lag in Todesbanden" (Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death. The joyful second movement evoked spontaneous applause at the work's premiere, and the third movement, a fugue, brought only redoubled cheering. In addition to the old chorale, musical material of the piece includes transcriptions of the telephone numbers of Universal Studies and composer Gail Kubik, Dahl's friend and the composer of the score for the Gerald McBoing Boing animated short film.

 What is Gerald McBoing-Boing? (from Wikipedia):

"Gerald McBoing-Boing is an animated short film about a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It was produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and given wide release by Columbia Pictures on November 2, 1950. It was adapted by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott from a story by Dr. Seuss, directed by Robert Cannon, and produced by John Hubley.

Gerald McBoing-Boing won the 1950 Oscar for Best Animated Short, Gerald McBoing-Boing is In 1994, it was voted #9 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked UPA cartoon on the list. In 1995, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Here is a YouTube video of the short film. See if you here any similarities to Dahl's Music for Brass Instruments.

Hindemith:

 

Morgenmusik is the first part of a much longer work written by Hindemith for a day-long music festival at a boarding school in Plön, in Northern Germany. Unfortunately and embarrassingly, the recording I hastily selected was one of a transcription for four trombones. I have re-uploaded the score instead of just the parts and created a new playlist in Apple Music featuring over seven different recordings.

Plöner Musiktag

The aim of this ambitious initiative is to bring young musicians and professionals together and approach the composer's ideas "playfully": "I hope, on the one hand, that this music is perceived as a highlight of Hindemith's educational oeuvre and among his complete works", says conductor Jobst Liebrecht. "On the other hand, I hope for the Hans Werner Henze Music School in Marzahn-Hellersdorf or, in general, for the educational policy in Berlin that people remember the roots and ideals with which the music school movement began, and that they move forward from the right sense of tradition."
The "Plöner Musiktag" sets a whole day to music: The four parts, Morgenmusik [Morning Music], Tafelmusik [Table Music], Kantate [Cantata] and Abendkonzert [Evening Concert] have been written for different levels of difficulty and instrumentations – from recorder trio to orchestral piece and three-part choir. Hindemith wrote the work for a four-day stay in a boarding school in Plön, Schleswig-Holstein in June 1932 where he made music with pupils.

 from http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Rudolf-Dobler/Performer/280387-2

Notes and Editorial Reviews:

HINDEMITH Plöner Musiktag • Jobst Liebrecht, cond; Dietrich Henschel (bar); David Reibel (speaker); RSO Berlin; Marzahn-Hellersdorf Youth SO; Ens of the Hans Werner Henze Music School; Berlin R Children’s Ch and other children’s and youth ch • WERGO WER 6728 2 (71:36 Text and Translation)


Morgenmusik. Tafelmusik. Kantate . Abendkonzert.

On June 20, 1932, A Day of Music at Plön . The day opened with Morning Music , a complex set for brass instruments. Much of the day was spent rehearsing individuals and ensembles. For a boy who could play only the xylophone, Hindemith wrote a part, on the spot; for three boys who couldn’t play any instrument, he wrote recorder trios and had them trained to play the instrument. During breaks between courses of midday dinner, the orchestral Table Music was played. In the afternoon, a cantata (“Admonition to Youth to Apply Themselves to Music”) for two soloists, three choruses, and orchestra which urges children to learn music was sung, spoken (a melodrama), and played. Hindemith was renowned for his sense of humor; the cantata is supposedly mostly tongue in cheek, but any wit therein doesn’t translate—the texts seem deadly serious, almost boarding-school punitive in attitude. The Evening Concert , a 35-minute series of orchestral, ensemble, and instrumental works, closed the day.

The point of it all was performing, not creating music for the ages to be heard by the general public or even the Serious Record Collector. So there seems little point in evaluating the music (by what standards?) or the performances (measured against whom?). While parts of Table Music have a light touch, most of the Plön music is in Hindemith’s heavy, neobaroque style of the early 1930s. Morgenmusik and sections of Abendkonzert have been recorded before, but I have not previously encountered the cantata. This seems to be the first recording of the complete Plöner Musiktag.

A similar day took place at Montepulciano, Italy, in August of 1980, with local school children premiering Hans Werner Henze’s opera Pollicino. Jobst Liebrecht led another performance and a recording in December 1980, sung and played by Berlin school children ( Fanfare 28:1). Liebrecht founded the Marzahn-Hellersdorf Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and performed Plöner Musiktag in 2008, at which time the music school was named after Henze. The booklet lists every performer—258 of them, by my count—but does not tell us who (or which ensemble) performs what. One must assume that all mix into most of the works; for example, there are not enough brass players in any one of the ensembles to fill out Morning Music . This studio recording documents that day in 1932 and a slice of Hindemith’s oeuvre, which Wergo is slowly producing in toto —at least the majority of it that is owned by Schott Music & Media, the label’s parent company.

  - FANFARE: James H. North 

The boarding school was the King Alfred School. Here is a link translated from German page

The entire Plöner Musiktag program included these movements:

1. No. 1, Mässig bewegt
2. No. 2, Lied
3. No. 3, Bewegt
4. No. 1, March
5. No. 2, Intermezzo
6. No. 3, String Trio
7. No. 4, Waltz
8. Advice to Youth to Apply Itself to Music
9. No. 1, Prelude for orchestra
10. No. 2, Flute solo with strings
11. No. 3, 2 Duets for violin & clarinet
12. No. 4, Variations for clarinet & strings
13. No. 5, Trio for 3 recorders
14. No. 6, Quodlibet for orchestra

Ingolf Dahl Biography from Schott EAM

Born in Hamburg, Germany to Swedish parents, Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970) began his formal music education with Philipp Jarnach at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik, with whom he studied from 1930 to 1932. Fearing the oppression of the Nazi party coming to power, he fled to Switzerland and continued his studies at the University of Zürich with Volkmar Andreae and Walter Frey. Dahl's first professional assignment out of school was as conductor and coach for the Zürich Stadttheater. In 1938, Dahl emigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, where he worked as a composer and conductor for radio and film, gave lectures and piano recitals, and attended master classes with Nadia Boulanger. He became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1943, and two years later joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he taught until his death. As conductor of the university's symphony orchestra, Dahl gave West Coast premieres of a wide variety of contemporary works from the US and Europe. His close collaboration with Igor Stravinsky had a significant effect on Dahl's own work, leading him to lecture, perform, and arrange Stravinsky's music as well as translate his Poetics of Music (1947). Dahl served on the faculty of the Middlebury Composer's Conference in Vermont and taught at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (1952-1955). In 1961 and 1962 he gave goodwill concerts in Germany sponsored by the US State Department, and from 1964 to 1966 he directed and conducted at the Ojai Festival in California. In his last years, Dahl conducted the Los Angeles Guild Opera and again the University of Southern California symphony orchestra. Among Dahl's many honors are two Guggenheim Fellowships, two Huntington Hartford Fellowships, an Excellence in Teaching Award from USC, and the ASCAP Stravinsky Award. His music has been recorded on a number of labels including Boston Records, Capstone, Centaur, Chandos, CRI, Crystal, Klavier, Nimbus, and Summit.

Proceeding Virtually and Updated Course Syllabus

As we proceed "virtually" throughout the rest of the semester, I will be as accommodating as you need regarding connectivity, assignment extensions, and any physical or mental hardships you or your family are dealing with. Please feel free to contact me should you encounter any difficulties.

To prepare for the rest of the semester, please review the updated syllabus and note the few changes in the class schedule. I have updated the course syllabus to reflect the changes made for the rest of the semester. You can view it at this link or in the ICON site.

Please familiarize yourself with Zoom, as I continue to do and set yourself up in a place where you won't be disturbed during class time. I would also suggest you download and/or print scores for the Major Works presentations in advance. Hopefully we can all figure out through screen/audio sharing how to all listen or view things simultaneously. I am sure there may be technical challenges so we will learn together.  

If you have any issues connecting just before or during class, text my cell phone number (which is highlighted in the new syllabus) and I will see if I can assist.

European Brass Ensembles

Last week I had planned on presenting a playlist of European Brass Ensembles. Here it is in YouTube playlist form.   I have embedded it below, but it may be easier to tell what you are listening to if you click on the link above and view the playlist through YouTube.


The complete playlist of artists, works and composers is here:

1. Brass Quartet No. 2 by Wilhelm Ramsoe performed by the Ewald Brass Quintet 
2. Brass Quintet by Anders Hilborg performed by the Stockholm Chamber Brass
3. Three Norwegian Dances by Mogens Andresen performed by Arctic Brass
4. Rose Without a Thorn Suite by Henry VIII performed by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
5. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by Bach performed by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
6. Excerpts form Lohengrin and Die Walkurie by Wagner performed by the German Brass  
7. Gammal Fäbodpsalm fran Dalarna ("Old cowshed hymn from Dalarna") by Oskar Lindberg performed by the dutch brass quintet Fiifresom Brass
8. Polka from Golden Age by D. Shostakovich arranged by R.S. Filippo and performed by the Hungarian Brass Quintet.
9. Jazz Suite No. 2 by D. Shostakovich performed by World Brass
10. Overture to La Forza Destino by G. Verdi by the Italian Brass Band
11. Brass Quintet Concerto by Salvador Brotons performed by the Banda Municipal de Granada and Spanish Brass
12. Pictures at an Exhibition transcribed by Elgar Howarth performed by Thierry CAENS: les Cuivres Français 
13. Further Eight Arrogant Ideas by Kamilló Lendvay performed by the Budapest Brass Quintet
14. Edinburgh tattoo 2011 Band of the Royal Netherlands Army Mounted Regiments. Bicycle regiment  
15. Digitemotionality by Miłosz Wośko performed by the Polish Brass Quintet

Enjoy!

Brass Chamber Music in Lyceum and Chautaqua

 

 

Earlier in the semester, I mentioned the book Brass Chamber Music in Lyceum and Chautaqua by Raymond David Burkhart.

I think will be a very valuable resource of information about many aspects of this course. Not only does it discuss dozens of touring brass chamber groups that toured across the United States, but includes promotional photos, programs and histories of each group. Additionally, Chapter one provides excellent detail of the history of brass chamber music including overviews of:

• Brass Chamber History from the Renaissance to 1813
• French Chamber Brass School 1814-1870
• Russian Chamber Brass School 1870 - 1940s
• America to 1939
• Remarks on the 20th century and beyond

Appendix one is a chronology of the brass chamber ensembles active in the US including the Distin Family Sax Horn Quartet, the Brooklyn Cornet Quartet, the Aida Brass Quartet and many more. The extensive 42-page bibliography is also a very valuable resource, listing numerous archived collections, books, catalogs, CD-ROMS and DVDs, dissertions, electronic sources, journal articles, magazines and newspapers, published music and sound recordings. He also has a blog (and it looks a lot like ABEL Central!) Check out some of his recordings on his iTunes preview page.

Here is an excerpt from the book to give you an idea of what Lyceum and chautauqua were:

Lyceum and chautauqua were two of many attractions that competed for Americans’ leisure time in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Festivals, fire-works displays, parades, concerts, theater, fairs, circuses, camp meetings, lectures, minstrel shows, carnivals, concert saloons, variety theater, medicine shows, bur-lesque shows, Wild West shows, puppet shows, balls, magic, amusement parks, dime museums, lectures, vaudeville, and motion pictures all enjoyed popularity,581but many of these options were not considered respectable. After the Civil War especially, the working class often sought the combination of song, drink, and frequently crude entertainment in variety theaters and saloons. Minstrel shows, concert saloons, medicine shows, burlesque shows, and early vaudeville also appealed to the working class.582Even theater and circuses were sometimes considered a threat to morality.583In contrast, the very respectable lyceum and chautauqua originated not as types of entertainment, but as means of education. Public lectures were the central feature of both lyceum and early chautauqua, but other elements, especially musical performances, gradually increased in importance, drawing focus at least par-tially away from the single speaker. As America’s rural population increased, its desire for information and culture grew, and lyceum and chautauqua were developed to help meet this need.

 I am currently working on a hyperlinked outline of chapter one, look for it soon here...

Aliabiev and Poulenc

Alexander Aliabiev

Today we heard Alexander Aliabiev's Brass Quintet. Published in 1847, it predates not only Ewald's brass quintets, but Bellon's Brass Quintets from the 1850's as well. 

The performance is by Mantanus-Quintett from their album Russian Music for Brass Quintet.

Information about Aliabiev from Musicalion.com:

Alexander Alexandrovich Alyabyev (1787-1851) was a Russian composer. He was a very successful composer in 19th century Russia, writing some 200 romances, 7 operas, 20 musical comedies, and many choral, symphonic, chamber and piano works. Now, if he is remembered at all, it is for his romance "The Nightingale". 

A participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, he was an officer until 1823. He was an author of vaudevilles, including Morning and Evening, and operas, including Moonlight night, or The House-Spirit, first staged in 1823) and wrote choruses to a prologue Celebration of muses to open the Bolshoi Theatre (1825). In 1827 he composed a ballet Magic drum, or the Consequence of the Magic flute. His compositions also include chamber music, including two string quartets (and one further, unfinished). The overture to Morning and Evening, and some of his chamber works, have recently been recorded.

He was born into a wealthy family and began his musical education while young. In 1812 he joined the Russian army to fight against the forces of Napoleon. A keen soldier, he was given two awards for courage. He left the army in 1824 and took residence in Moscow. By 1825 he had been imprisoned in connection with the death of a man after a night of gambling. Around this time he composed his most famous piece "The Nightingale", a setting of a poem of the same name by a friend of Pushkin's. This work was immensely popular and was used by both Liszt and Glinka as a theme for piano variations. In 1728 he was exiled to Siberia and in 1843 was allowed to return to Moscow having been acquitted of the murder. He continued to compose until his death in 1851.

In 1825 he was arrested on false charges of murder, and was banished to Siberia in 1828. He moved to the Caucasus and later to the Southern Ural Mountains. From the end of the 1830s, he lived in Moscow.

From BBC (for alternate spellings and renderings):

Alexander Aleksandrovich Alyabyev (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Аля́бьев; 15 August [O.S. 4 August] 1787 – 6 March [O.S. 22 February] 1851), also rendered as Alabiev or Alabieff, was a Russian composer known as one of the fathers of the Russian art song. He wrote seven operas, twenty musical comedies, a symphony, three string quartets, more than 200 songs, and many other pieces.

The Russian spelling lead me to this website which Google translate converted to:

Alyabyev was born on August 15, 1787 in Tobolsk in the family of a civil governor. The Alyabyevs' house was musical, both parents and guests played exiles, who were patronized by the father of the future composer. In 1796 the family moved to St. Petersburg , where his father received a position in the Berg College - the Mining Department, and Alexander Alyabyev took music lessons from Johann Heinrich Miller. A few years later he moved to Moscow , where he entered a boarding school at Moscow University and began to study the basics of composition. After the nominal service, to which he, as a "young man of the nobles," was enlisted as early as 14 years old, Alexander Alyabyev began to enter the actual service. He combined work in the Moscow Berg office with music classes. In 1810, the first works of Alyabyev were published - romance and waltzes. When the Patriotic War began, Alexander Alyabyev was enlisted in the Cossack regiment and sent to Ukraine. He met Denis Davydov and enrolled in his partisan detachment, and after that he was sent to the Irkutsk hussar regiment, which was then in the Belarusian Kobrin. There he made friends with Alexander Griboedov and Nikolai Tolstoy - the father of Leo Tolstoy . In military service, Alexander Alyabyev received two orders of St. Anna of the third degree, the Order of St. Vladimir of the fourth degree, the medal "In memory of the Patriotic War of 1812." Relatives noted that he is “a reckless and brave officer . ” The service continued after the victory over Napoleon. In his free time, Alyabyev composed a string quartet, a piano trio and a quintet, many romances, among which there was an elegy to Pushkin ’s poems “The Daylight Has Faded”. On February 12, 1822, the Bolshoi Theater of St. Petersburg hosted the premiere of vaudeville by Nikolai Khmelnitsky with the music of Alyabyev, Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer and Alexei Verstovsky "New Prank, or Theater Battle." Alyabyev made his debut as a theater composer. In January 1823, the opera vaudeville "The Village Philosopher" was staged at the Mokhovaya Theater, and in June, with a week difference, the premiere of Alyabyev's opera "Moonlit Night, or Brownies" was a great success. Vladimir Odoevsky later wrote: “Alyabyev’s operas are no worse than French comic operas . ”

The composer, meanwhile, became increasingly burdened by military service. He submitted a letter of resignation, and at the end of 1823 an order was issued for his dismissal. Alyabyev settled in Moscow. He participated in musical evenings that took place in the house of Maria Ivanovna Rimsky-Korsakova. Later, her youngest daughter Catherine became the wife of the composer.

In 1825, Alyabyev’s music was performed at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. To open the new theater building, Mikhail Dmitriev wrote a poetic prologue, "The Triumph of Muses." The music for it was created by Friedrich (Fedor) Scholz, Alexey Verstovsky and Alexander Alyabyev.

However, in the life of Alyabyev there were not only musical evenings and theatrical premieres, but also gambling. In February 1825, the composer was arrested: cards were played in his house, a quarrel occurred. One of the participants in the conflict three days later died from an apoplexy strike. And one of the witnesses told the police that the victim was hit by Alexander Alyabyev. There was no other evidence or such evidence, but the composer ended up in a prison cell. Even there, he continued to write music that sounded on theater stages.

While the trial dragged on, Alyabyev composed several opera-vaudeville, the song “The Nightingale”, a vocal miniature based on poems by Anton Delvig. On December 1, 1827, the State Council passed a guilty verdict: Alexander Alyabyev was deprived of his noble rank, awards, and exiled to Siberia. In February, he arrived in Tobolsk and came under the supervision of the Governor of Western Siberia, Ivan Velyaminov. Velyaminov allowed the composer to make music. In the same year, an orchestra of "Cossack music" was transferred to Tobolsk from Omsk . Alyabyev took him under his care. They rehearsed a lot, and the collective became a full-fledged symphony orchestra, which played at balls and gave concerts.
Thanks to the efforts of Velyaminov and relatives in 1832, Alyabyev managed to leave for the Caucasus - to treat his eyes. Of course, there he was also under "strict supervision." Alyabyev became interested in Caucasian folklore. The composer composed romances inspired by Kabardian, Circassian, Georgian melodies. They entered the collection "Caucasian singer." Then Alyabyev began working on music for the Caucasian novel Bestuzhev-Marlinsky "Ammalat-bek." Later this work became the basis for the opera of the same name.

In 1833, the composer was allowed to settle in Orenburg , where he fell under the wing of Governor General Vasily Perovsky, a participant in the Patriotic War, a connoisseur of art. At the risk of his own career, Perovsky sought permission for him to live in the Moscow province, in the estate of his relatives.

Alexander Alyabyev still composed a lot. In 1838 he wrote music for Pushkin's “The Mermaid” - this work was inspired by impressions of the death of the poet. The performance was presented on the stage of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. Instead of the name of the composer, only the initials were indicated on the playbill of the performance - “A. A.".

In 1843, after countless petitions, Alyabyev was finally allowed to live in Moscow. The noble title was not returned to him. In Moscow, the composer became a regular participant in "Thursdays" in the house of Alexander Veltman, a linguist, poet, and archaeologist. Famous writers, musicians and scholars gathered at these evenings. Alyabyev devoted much time to choral work: he wrote and prepared for the publication “A Collection of Different Russian Songs” for the choir. It included miniatures on verses by Alexander Pushkin, Anton Delvig, Vasily Zhukovsky , Nikolai Karamzin and other poets. However, the collection was published only in 1952.

Alexander Alyabyev died in 1851. He was buried in the family tomb in Simon Monastery. However, during the years of Soviet rule, the monastery was destroyed - and with it the graves of the composer and his relatives were destroyed.

I finally found the publication date of his brass quintet (1847) at this Allmusic link.

Francis Poulenc

We also heard the Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone by Francis Poulenc,
performed by Guy Touvron on trumpet, Hervé Joulain on horn, and Jacques Mauger on trombone. It is a witty and, at times, poignant work and one of the most significant brass trios from the 20th century. Most notably in the score are numerous disparities in articulation and dynamics between the three instruments. In this excerpt from a thesis by John T. Cord, Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone: A Structural Analysis Identifying Historical Significance, Form and Implications for Performance, he explains the significance of the work.

The Sonata is a work of singular importance in the development of modern brass chamber music, requiring considerable musical understanding and highly developed performance skills on the part of the players. An understanding of French style is assumed for an accurate performance, but Poulenc‟s extreme approach to issues of tempo, counterpoint, balance, intonation, and expression must also be addressed.

In addition to a basic understanding of French style, the performers must also understand Poulenc's intentions. His approach to using “added-notes” and dissonances, as has been discussed, is an essential feature in this and other compositions of his early period. When performing these dissonances, no apologies can be made in their presentation as they must be played with conviction and strength so that listeners will be acutely aware of the exact effects.

The three movements complement each other in several ways, bringing together the best desired qualities of Poulenc's dry, witty style and the lyricism which is integral in his vocal works. Poulenc seems to alternate between joyful, tongue-in-cheek moods and serious moments full of reflection in time frames often only seconds apart. However, the overriding mood of the Sonata has to be in the realm of fun and folly. Poulenc is meticulous in every detail in his indications to the performers. In order for his wit and unique brand of humor to be fully appreciated, these indications must be followed faithfully.

Beethoven and Bellon

Beethoven's Funeral as painted by Franz Stöber (notice the trombones in the front of the procession)

Today in class we listened to two early works for brass ensemble: Beethoven's Drei Equali and Jean-Francois Bellon's Brass Quintet No. 1. Beethoven wrote his Equali in 1812 in Linz, Austria for the celebration of All Saints Day. The Equali were arranged for trombones, male choir and organ in a setting of Miserere for Beethoven's own funeral in 1827.

Here is an excerpt from Beethoven’s Equali: A New Perspective, an article by Howard Weiner from The Historic Brass Society, an excellent resource for your research:

Ludwig van Beethoven's Equali for four trombones are anything but spectacular masterpieces, yet they have become a staple of the modern trombone repertoire. The reason for this is obvious: The Equali represent the only contribution to the trombone quartet repertoire by a major composer. However, even decades before they were discovered by trombonists, the Equali found wide dissemination as a result of the great fascination the composer and his death had for the music-loving public. Indeed, the Equali, in the version for voices performed at Beethoven's funeral, were published repeatedly starting already a few months after the sad event. But what is an equale,' and what was its actual function? Why were Beethoven's Equali considered suitable to be performed at his funeral? Beethoven wrote the Equali in Linz in 1812; how did they get to Vienna, to surface there again, just in time to embellish musically the funeral procession of their creator in 1827?

Jean Francois Bellon

The twelve brass quintets by Bellon are the earliest brass quintets written. They were originally scored for flugelhorn in E-flat, piston valve cornet, horn, trombone and ophicleide. Published in Paris in the 1850's they are charming and seem influenced by the style of Rossini. Here is a link to the sheet music (at Editions BIM) for the twelve brass quintets by Jean Francois Bellon. As the newly published score explains, "this new edition refers and fundamentally adheres to the original printed instrumental parts, issued without full scores in the 1850's. A full score for each quintet has been reconstructed to permit better analysis of the music."


 Bellon's biography from from Editions BIM:

Born in Lyon, France on 30 May 1795, Jean Bellon concluded his musical schooling at the Conservatoire de Paris, probably as the student of Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831) in violin (Premier Prix in 1823) and Anton Reicha (1770-1836) in composition. He subsequently became concertmaster of the Concerts Musard, and conducted various Parisian orchestras. 

As composer, his name is mentioned in several articles published by French musical journals, essentially in connection with his chamber music. Apart from his 12 brass quintets and some pieces for strings, few of his works are to be found today. Immortalized in a portrait by Ed. Hébert (1812-1890) and printed by the major French publisher, Richault, Jean Bellon was without doubt a notable personage of Parisian musical life in his day, as would suggest the dedicatees of his quintets. He died in Paris on 2 March 1869, six days before Hector Berlioz.

From Classical Plus:

Jean-François Bellon was a Paris-based violinist and composer. As a result of the Waterloo War in 1815, his training at the Paris Conservatoire was delayed, so it was at the advanced age of 28 that he won the violin prize there. While at the Conservatoire he also composed pieces for fellow students.  

Bellon went on to play in many popular Paris orchestras of his day, and was also the inventor of a type of mute for the violin and cello, which he patented, and examples of which are still kept in the Paris Conservatoire Museum. He became the leader of the Musard Orchestra in Paris and it was probably drawing on the brass section of this orchestra that he was able to form an ensemble to perform his Quintets.  

As a violinist however, his writing for brass is typical of string chamber music, particularly the string quartet, a quality which not only led to more individually sculpted part-writing for each instrument than was common in contemporary brass chamber music, but also the influence of string articulation and phrasing in Bellon’s score markings.