by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hello horn friends! Instead of featuring one composer and discussing the music in depth, I decided to join the holiday festivities and introduce several brass quintet pieces about the fall and winter months.
First, we have Gwyneth Walker’s collection of quintets. Several of Walker’s brass quintets are suitable for festive celebrations, including her pieces A Season of Wonder, Fanfare Among Friends, and The Light Descending. Her music is frequently inspired by folksongs and other familiar genres like jazz, so her compositions are both approachable and highly enjoyable.
Another piece that I enjoy programming during the holidays is Violet Archer’s Two Fanfares for a Festive Day. Both movements of this piece are bombastic and lively, showcasing the virtuosity of the players, and performers can certainly select to perform either the “Majestic” fanfare or its “Joyous” companion.
Yet another composition highly suitable for this time of year is Judith Lang Zaimont’s Winter Music—Chanty. At five minutes long, this piece is full of shifting meters with a shanty flair. While perhaps requiring a bit of rehearsal, this work is well worth that investment.
If one is looking for a more esoteric interpretation of the holidays, Margaret Brouwer’s Tolling the Spirits is an eighteen-minute piece that reminds me of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, especially Brouwer’s third movement, appropriately entitled “Spirits.” Performers are instructed to use air sounds, vocalizations, and other extended techniques to create an other-worldly soundscape. While not the most traditional interpretation of my self-imposed brief, I think this is a fun work to play at this time of year! Be sure to check out the other movements of the piece, including the “Monk’s Canon,” an inspiring interpretation of Renaissance vocal music and tolling bells—and, of course, another of Brouwer’s brass quintets, Celebration.
There are many other wonderful pieces to program during this season, but I would be remiss if I left out two of my current favorites: Dale Trumbore’s Light of Late November and Lauren Bernofsky’s Musica Solaris. I like to think that these pieces pair beautifully together, with the former being a peaceful and, at times, melancholy ode to the changing of fall to winter, while Bernofsky’s quintet reminds us that the sunshine that can break through even the bleakest cold.
Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays to all!
