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...