Re: to do brass quintet rep or not to do ...


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Posted by Joe S. on March 03, 2000 at 00:57:05:

In Reply to: to do brass quintet rep or not to do ... posted by ken k on March 02, 2000 at 23:46:43:

There are some recently-written things that border on profound. Works by composers such as Stanley Friedman, David Sampson, even a good effort by Michael Tilson Thomas, and several others. The only problem with works of this caliber is the level of commitment required to communicate works such as these to the audience. If not perfected, this genre of work will be totally misunderstood, because 110% clarity and zero misfires are required in order to communicate them. If I had to describe this body of new music, I would describe it as newly conceived tonal music, which is based more on sounds and moods, than on counterpoint.

This is a new breed of brass quintet composition, and I am delighted to see it. The only problem is the amount of mental and physical energy that this level of composition requires from the performers, and programming works such as these makes it difficult to muster the energy to come back and even play a few "filler" pieces to complete an hour long recital.

I guess the only alternative is to play an entire hour of "filler", or to drag out some of the old dependable warhouses (Arnold, Adler, Calvert, Frackenpohl, Ewald, Bozza, Renaissance collections, etc.) which are inferred to in posts above...

...Although I digress, there ARE some fairly powerful transcriptions/arrangements for brass quintet which, due to their musical content, would not be classified as "fluff".


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