American Brass Quintet

Oneppo Chamber Music Series ¡ David Shifrin, Artistic Director

american brass quintet

Music of Cherubini, Gabrieli, Gureckis, Josquin, Lacerda, Tower, and Widmann Morse Recital Hall • Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 8 pm

Robert Blocker, Dean

american brass quintet Raymond Mase, trumpet · Kevin Cobb, trumpet · David Wakefield, horn Michael Powell, trombone · John D. Rojak, bass trombone with Allan Dean, trumpet · Paul Futer ’12mm, trumpet · William Purvis, horn Scott Hartman, trombone · Ben Firer ’12mm, bass trombone Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

december 6, 2011 tue · 8:00 pm

Erasmus Widmann (1572–1634) ed. Raymond Mase

Canzoni (1618) Canzon X Canzon I Canzon XIII

Osvaldo Lacerda (1927–2011)

Fantasia and Rondó

Trevor Gureckis ’07mm (b. 1982)

Fixated Nights (2010) With quiet intensity Tranquil Driving intermission

Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842)

Four Marches Pas Redoublé No. 1 Pas Redoublé No. 3 Seconde Marche Pas Redoublé No. 4

Josquin des Prés (ca. 1440–1521) ed. Raymond Mase

Chansons En l’ombre d’ung buissonet El grillo Plaine de dueil De tous biens playne Kanon; N’esse pas ung grant deplaisir

Joan Tower (b. 1938)

Copperwave

Giovanni Gabrieli (1557–1612) ed. Raymond Mase

Venetian Canzoni Canzon duo decimi toni a 10 No. 1 (1597) Canzon XV (1615)

About the American Brass Quintet

Now in its 51 st season, the American Brass Quintet has been internationally recognized as one of the premier chamber music ensembles of our time and an icon in the brass world. The ABQ’s rich history includes performances in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and all fifty of the United States; a discography of over fifty recordings; the premieres of over one hundred contemporary brass works, and in the last decade, mini-residencies that have brought the ABQ’s chamber music expertise to countless young musicians and institutions worldwide. ABQ commissions by Samuel Adler, Bruce Adolphe, Daniel Asia, Jan Bach, Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, Jacob Druckman, Eric Ewazen, Anthony Plog, Huang Ruo, Steven Sacco, David Sampson, Gunther Schuller, William Schuman, Joan Tower, Melinda Wagner, and Charles Whittenberg, are considered among the most significant contributions to the modern brass quintet repertoire. Premieres in the last three seasons include works by Gordon Beeferman, Nolan Gasser, Trevor Gureckis, Justin Dello Joio, Shafer Mahoney, Anthony Plog, and David Sampson. In commemoration of the ABQ’s 50 th anniversary last year, the ABQ released its ninth recording on the Summit label—a double CD of new works written for the ABQ in the last decade called State of the Art—the ABQ at 50.

Equally committed to the promotion of brass chamber music through education, the American Brass Quintet has been in residence at the Juilliard School since 1987 and at the Aspen Music Festival since 1970.

Since 2001 the ABQ has offered its expertise in chamber music performance and training with a program of mini-residencies as part of its regular touring season. Designed to offer young groups and individuals an intense chamber music experience over several days, ABQ mini-residencies have been embraced by schools and communities throughout the United States and internationally.

Through its acclaimed performances, diverse programming, commissioning, extensive discography and educational mission, the ABQ has created a legacy unparalleled in the brass field. Hailed as “the high priests of brass” by Newsweek, “positively breathtaking” by the New York Times, and “of all the brass quintets, the most distinguished” by the American Record Guide, the American Brass Quintet has clearly defined itself among the elite chamber music ensembles of our time.

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

Notes on the Program

erasmus widmann Canzoni (1618)

osvaldo lacerda Fantasia and Rondó

Originally adaptations of French and Flemish chansons, the canzon is a type of instrumental music that was popularized in the 16 th and 17 th centuries. Most often characterized with the opening dactylic rhythm (long, short, short), the canzon da sonar (chanson to be played) became independent of earlier vocal models in the 1570s, and by 1600 had become the most important form of instrumental music in Italy. Ensemble canzoni were composed by all sorts of musicians— from the master composer/organist Giovanni Gabrieli with his multi-choired works for the ceremonies at San Marco in Venice, to lesser-known Northern European composers like Erasmus Widmann, who spent most of his career working as court musician in the region of Germany near Nuremburg.

Osvaldo Lacerda graduated from the Carlos Gomez Conservatory of Music in 1960 with studies in piano, harmony and composition with Camargo Guarnieri. In 1986, he received a Guggenheim Foundation grant to study in the U.S. for a year, where he studied composition with Vittorio Giannini and Aaron Copland. He was founder and artistic director of three musical societies in Sao Paulo, and has won many national composition prizes. Mr. Lacerda acknowledges the influence of the work of Brazilian musicologist Mario de Andrade. In addition, he shares a basic philosophy with Ralph Vaughan Williams: their music is written in a national idiom intended to be universally understood. Lacerda’s music attempts to capture the essence of Brazil’s musical soul through the incorporation of its folk and popular music into his own. The composer has provided the following note: “Since there are few brass ensembles in Brazil, there are very few original works of Brazilian composers for brass. This made me write the Fantasia e Rondó for brass quintet in 1977. It is scored for two trumpets, horn, tenor trombone and tuba (or bass trombone).”

The Fantasia, as its name implies, has a very free form. There is a small first part, followed by a short fugato, begun by the bass trombone. There follows a sort of humorous central section, and the movement closes with a varied reexposition of the first part. The Rondo has five parts, following the scheme ABACA. It consists of a lively and continuous dialogue between all the instruments.

In some parts of both movements, one can hear some of the ecclesiastical modes, in the way they appear in the Brazilian folk music.

Widmann’s canzoni, included in his Gantz neue Cantzon, Intraden, Balletten und Couranten (Nuremburg, 1618) were considered his finest instrumental works. Strikingly similar to the Venetian canzoni of earlier decades, these canzoni were described by composer Michael Praetorius— the greatest musical academic of the day—as “fresh, joyful, and fast.” While most of the Venetian canzoni of the period are written in four parts, Widmann composed his instrumental music in five parts, much like the music of his contemporaries Brade and Simpson. This scoring, with two equal soprano parts, makes Widmann’s canzoni particularly well suited to adaptation by the modern brass quintet.

– Raymond Mase

– Michael Powell

Notes on the Program

trevor gureckis Fixated Nights

luigi cherubini Four Marches

I came up with the title Fixated Nights (2010) well after I had completed the work. In fact, the American Brass Quintet was already rehearsing the piece with the heading of “Title TBD” for a number of weeks.

The Italian composer Luigi Cherubini (1760– 1842) was employed at the Paris Conservatory, becoming director of the school in 1822 and remaining there until his death. Cherubini was rather prolific, writing more than 450 works including 30 operas. The first opera was staged in Paris in 1797, and Les deux journees reportedly influenced Beethoven’s single opera, Fidelio. Cherubini was also well known as a teacher, with students such as Berlioz.

Looking over what I had written while wracking my brain for a title, I noticed that I indicated a lot of character words like “quiet”, “tranquil”, “still,” and “hazy”. However, the music itself was very erratic and angular. There are explosions that jump out of quiet pointillistic textures. There are simple melodies distorted by incessant staccato repetitions.

As a person with epilepsy, this can be analogous to my experience with sleep. Often there is an undercurrent of ‘buzzing’ energy while I sleep. This of course can then intensify into a seizure, but mostly it just exists. The obsessive quality of this energy and the fact that it happens during sleep led me to the title of “Fixated Nights.” Other than that, it’s just a piece of music in three movements.

– Trevor Gureckis This work was commissioned by the American Brass Quintet with funds from the Jerome Foundation.

In 1814 Cherubini wrote several marches, six quick and two slow, for a commander of the Prussian Rifle Regiment. Never meant to be played outdoors, they were written more for entertainment; Cherubini intended to make a favorable impression on the commander, whose brother was Director-General of the Berlin State Theater. An invitation was indeed extended; however, Cherubini decided to stay in Paris.

These marches represent a rare find for chamber brass from the Classical period. The literature of this time is sparse, with the best-known compositions being Mozart’s horn concerti, the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concerti, and Beethoven’s Three Equali for trombones. Cherubini’s little gems are of peculiar instrumentation, scored for trumpet, three horns, and trombone. The main melodic interest certainly lies with the first horn part, with the trumpet being set apart with its fanfare-like interjections. The ABQ has adapted this to cornet, horn, and trombone playing the horn parts, a smaller E-flat trumpet covering the fanfares, and bass trombone playing the trombone part.

– Kevin Cobb

Notes on the Program

josquin des prés Chansons

giovanni gabrieli Venetian Canzoni

Few musicians have enjoyed more stature in their lifetimes or had a more lasting influence on those who followed than Josquin des Prés, who is often regarded as the most important composer of the High Renaissance. He was hailed by contemporaries as “the best of the composers of our time” and by Luther with “He is master of the notes; others are mastered by them.” Josquin’s chansons are masterful in counterpoint and variety of spirit – from the light-hearted El grillo (The Cricket), to Plaine de dueil (Filled with Grief ) – and stand as some of the earliest music that the ABQ has adapted for modern performance. Josquin’s output of twenty masses, one hundred motets, and seventy-five secular pieces was long forgotten until he was rediscovered by the music historian Burney in the late 18 th century. Josquin’s chansons are recorded by the ABQ on their fortieth-anniversary disc American Brass Quintessence (Summit DCD 263).

– Raymond Mase

While Gabrieli’s organ music and madrigals occupy a distinguished place in the repertoire, it is his ceremonial music—motets and canzoni—that is most frequently performed today. Gabrieli’s canzoni were published in several major collections during his lifetime. His Sacrae Symphoniae of 1597 includes sixteen instrumental pieces that are considered among the finest examples of 16 th-century ensemble music. But it is Gabrieli’s Canzone e Sonate, published posthumously in 1615, that includes the most mature and developed examples of this genre. These twenty-one pieces, employing from five to twenty-two players in single and multiple choirs, explore a new, more dramatic style of composition more commonly associated with the vocal music of the period. As the last important publication of Venetian canzoni, Gabrieli’s Canzone e Sonate signaled an end to the 16th-century polychoral style and served as a model of originality in the transition to the Baroque.

joan tower Copperwave The title of the piece is COPPERWAVE. What is means is that copper (in brass) creates a weighty (and heavy) motion and feeling that travels in waves (and circles) throughout the piece. Another more ‘background’ story is that my father was a mining engineer and dealt with copper in some of his jobs in Latin America, where the family lived for nine years – hence the conga rhythm.

– Joan Tower Copperwave was commissioned for the American Brass Quintet by the Juilliard School for its Centennial Celebration. This commission was supported by the Trust of Francis Goelet.

Gabrieli was not only a brilliant organist and the most celebrated composer of the Venetian school, but one of the most famous teachers of his time.

His pupils and followers were scattered throughout northern Italy, Germany, and Austria. Gabrieli’s last and most famous student, Heinrich Schütz, paid tribute to the master by composing his own Sacrae Symphoniae some years after Gabrieli’s death. The dedication included: At Gabrielius, Dij immortales, quantus vir (But Gabrieli, immortal Gods, what a man).

– Raymond Mase

Oneppo Chamber Music Series 2011–12 Patrons

The Yale School of Music gratefully acknowledges the generosity of its donors.

Following are the patrons of the Oneppo Chamber Music Series as of December 2, 2011.

To find out more about becoming a Yale School of Music Patron:

» music.yale.edu/giving You can also add a contribution to your ticket purchase to any of the Yale School of Music concerts.

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Upcoming Events

Lunchtime Chamber Music

Toshiko Akiyoshi Quartet

december 7

december 9

Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 12:30 pm Music for a colorful variety of chamber ensembles. Free admission.

Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 8 pm Ellington Jazz Series NEA Jazz Master Toshiko Akiyoshi, piano, with Lew Tabackin, flute and saxophone; Paul Gill, bass; and Shinnosuke Takahashi, drums. Tickets $20–30, Students $10.

Prokofiev Piano Sonatas II december 7 Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 8 pm Horowitz Piano Series Graduate pianists perform Prokofiev’s War Sonatas — No. 6 in A major, No. 7 in B-flat major, and No. 8 in B-flat major — and the Sonata No. 3 in A minor, “From Old Notebooks.” Tickets $5.

Vista: A Fresh Look at Chamber Music december 10 Morse Recital Hall | Saturday | 8 pm Music by Haydn, Poulenc, Frank Martin, and Anton Arensky. Free admission.

Guitar Chamber Music

New Music for Orchestra

december 14

december 8 Morse Recital Hall | Thursday | 8 pm Yale Philharmonia Shinik Hahm conducts new works by graduate composers. Free admission.

Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 8 pm Benjamin Verdery, director. Chamber music with guitar, including works by Tedesco, Matiegka, Frank Martin, Matilde Salvador, and Francisco Acosta. Free admission.

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Robert Blocker, Dean

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