The notion of a brass quintet having its own repertoire is a fairly recent one, born of the boom in chamber music since World War II. Even today, few composers just sit down and write a brass quintet; members of such ensembles have become accustomed to building this repertoire themselves, whether from transcriptions or from commissions like those on this recording. In asking William Bolcom, Ralph Shapey, Maurice Wright, and Jacob Druckman to write works for them over the past twenty-five years, the American Brass Quintet has added to the repertoire four quite diverse compositions that all will captivate listeners and challenge players with their demonstrations of a brass quintet's timbral richness.
A vernacular American spirit in the Brass Quintet of William Bolcom puts this work at home beside any Sousa march or Ives symphony Even the titles of the six sections of the work are peculiarly American in their celebration of Bolcom's family tree, spread out across American history. As Bolcom has explained, the five sections following the introduction are named after individual ancestors, among them a vegetable-cart peddler in San Francisco in the 1830s and the composer's grandfather, a lumber magnate in Seattle.
With the Quintet, Maurice Wright shows an affinity for full brass sound that plays up the blend of the five instruments. In the first movement he opens the floodgates with thick, organ-like scoring. And for sheer use of color, the second movement offers a tenor trombone solo that flows against imitative lines played by the horn and bass trombone. The third movement features crisply articulated writing that contrasts with the more legato, smoothly rolling style of the fourth movement.
Ralph Shapey leans toward the opposite end of the color spectrum; bright timbres dominate in his Quintet of 1963. His music characteristically features dense configurations structured to varying degrees along serial principles. Shapey's standards for the players of his Quintet are high, and he expects much from the listeners as well. For example, the massed build-up of sound and the effects such as rips and whooshes created from instructions to “suck in sound” leave the listener with an eerie sense, almost like being in an anechoic chamber with a “funnel-shaped” gust of sound whizzing by.
With Other Voices, Jacob Druckman again shows the influence of the electronic music studio by writing parts for acoustic instruments in which they make tape-like sounds. The opening tumult of quickly alternating open and closed Harmon mutes provides but one example of his imaginative success. Sometimes called a New Romantic because of his use of quotation and tonal language, Druckman shows the breadth of such a term when applied to a work as virtuosic and inventive as Other Voices. Echoes of the past may filter through, but only in the spirit of the present day.
American Brass Quintet: Works by Bolcom, Druckman, Shapey, Wright
| MP3/320 | $16.00 | |
| FLAC | $16.00 | |
| WAV | $16.00 | |
| CD | $25.00 |
Track Listing
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Quintet: I. Introduction-Remembered Fathers/II. Alexander Balcom/III. Joesph Chandler Bolcom/IV. Henry Cable Bolcom/V. William Marshall Bolcom/VI. Robert Samuel Bolcom Deploration
William Bolcom
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Quintet: I
Ralph Shapey
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Quintet: II
Ralph Shapey
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Quintet: III.
Ralph Shapey
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Quintet: I. Bold and Strong
Maurice Wright
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Quintet: II. With a subtle pulse
Maurice Wright
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Quintet: III. Brisk
Maurice Wright
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Quintet: IV. With great energy
Maurice Wright
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Other Voices: I
Jacob Druckman
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Other Voices: II
Jacob Druckman
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Other Voices: III
Jacob Druckman
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Other Voices: IV
Jacob Druckman
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