DASH
Program Note
Dash is inspired by common meanings of the word ‘dash’: to travel or run somewhere in a great hurry, or to hurl an object with great force, often with destructive effect. I was also inspired by other meanings, such as adding a dash of something to something else, for example, adding a dash of salt or pepper. A dash is also a type of punctuation mark. There are em dashes—like these—as well as en dashes, used to indicate spans of time or ranges of numbers, like 20–21, or hyphens, which denote compound adjectives, like well-known brass quintet. An underscore, which emphasizes words, phrases, or sentences, can also look like a dash. In music notation, a dash is called a tenuto and is used to indicate emphasis when placed under or over notes. Of course, in this piece, I had to include plenty of tenutos. Dash was commissioned by the Atlantic Brass Quintet.
Instrumentation
2 Bb Trumpets (Harmon and straight mutes needed)
Horn (mute needed)
Trombone
Tuba or Bass Trombone
General Explanation of Notation
short fermata
hard accent
World Premiere
Atlantic Brass Quintet
Atlantic Brass Quintet Summer Seminar
Hampshire College
Amherst, MA, July 9, 2021
Duration: ca. 4’00"
Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Horn in F