Premiere: 13 December 1999 at Pierce Chapel, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
Ensemble conducted by the composer
Duration: ca. 6’
Instrumentation: chamber ensemble (0.0.1.0 – 0.2.1.1 – perc. (drum kit) – pno.)
Performance Note: Brass Musick is a set of three character pieces for an ensemble of wind, brass, and percussion instruments. The opening movement is a celebratory brass fanfare that I wrote in November 1999 in honor of my grandfather’s 84th birthday that year. This is followed by a somewhat inebriated “Blues” movement for brass plus percussion, joined at the very end by the clarinet. The finale is a fantasy on a performance I witnessed while in New Orleans in November 1996: on the occasion, I came across a small combo on a corner of Jackson Square giving a riotous, invigorating rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” In my setting, the tune is arranged for the full ensemble, now including piano, and retitled “Cardinal Bernadin Entering Into Heaven,” in memory of the Chicago archbishop who’d passed away a few days before my trip to NOLA.