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2015 / 2016 SEASON

Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 7:30 pmUniversity of Connecticut School of Fine Arts

Anne D'Alleva, DeanJorgensen Center for the Performing Arts

Rodney Rock, Director

presents

American Brass Chamber Music Association, Inc.45 Perry St., Apt 13New York, NY 10014

(620) 563-7312

American Brass QuintetKevin Cobb, trumpet

Louis Hanzlik, trumpet Eric Reed, horn

Michael Powell, tromboneJohn D. Rojak, bass trombone

PROGRAM

Elizabeth Consort Music edited by Raymond Mase Almayne Alfonso Ferrabosco II Joyne Hands--Widowe's Myte Thomas Morley-Anthony Holborne Dovehouse Pavan Alfonso Ferrabosco II Two Madrigals Thomas Weelkes Allemande--Volta Thomas Simpson-John Dowland

Five Miniatures Robert Starer (1924-2001) Fanfare Air Canon Chaconne March Shine for Brass Quintet Robert Paterson (b. 1973) I. Ringing Brass Bells II. Quicksilver III. Veins of Gold IV. Bright Blue Steel

Intermission

Brass Quintet No. 1 "Circus" Clint Needham (b. 1981) Entry Clowns The Ringleader The Contortionist Finale

Canons of the 16th Century edited by Raymond Mase Vive le roy Josquin des Prés Pleni sunt caeli Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina J’ay pris amours Johannes Martini Pleni sunt caeli; Agnus Dei Josquin; Palestrina

Colchester Fantasy (1987) Eric Ewazen (b. 1954) The Rose and Crown The Marquis of Granby The Dragoon The Red Lion

– Please hold applause between movements –

AMERICAN BRASS QUINTET

The American Brass Quintet, 2013 recipient of Chamber Music America’s highest honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award for significant and lasting contributions to the field, is internationally recognized as one of the premier chamber music ensembles of our time, celebrated for peerless leadership in the brass world. The ABQ's rich history includes performances in Asia, Australia, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and all fifty of the United States; a discography of nearly sixty recordings; and the premieres of over one hundred fifty contemporary brass works.

ABQ commissions by Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, Eric Ewazen, Anthony Plog, Huang Ruo, David Sampson, Gunther Schuller, William Schuman, Joan Tower, and Charles Whittenberg, among many others, are considered significant contributions to contemporary chamber music and the foundation of the modern brass quintet repertoire. The ABQ’s Emerging Composer Commissioning program has brought forth brass quintets by Gordon Beeferman, Jay Greenberg, Trevor Gureckis, and Shafer Mahoney. Among the quintet’s recordings are eleven CDs for Summit Records since 1992 including the ABQ’s 50th Anniversary release State of the Art—The ABQ at 50 featuring recent works written for them.

Committed to the promotion of brass chamber music through education, the American Brass Quintet has been in residence at the Aspen Music Festival since 1970 and at The Juilliard School since 1987. Since 2000 the ABQ has offered its expertise in chamber music performance and training with a program of mini-residencies as part of its regular touring. 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 a dozen foreign countries.

The New York Times has written (12/02/2013) that “among North American brass ensembles none is more venerable than the American Brass Quintet,” while Newsweek has hailed the ensemble as “the high priests of brass” and American Record Guide has called the ABQ “of all the brass quintets, the most distinguished.” Through its acclaimed

performances, diverse programming, commissioning, extensive discography and educational mission, the American Brass Quintet has created a legacy unparalleled in the brass field.

www.AmericanBrassQuintet.org

This performance is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Brass Chamber Music Association, Inc.

The American Brass Quintet appears by arrangement with Stanton Management, New York. www.StantonMgt.com

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PROGRAM NOTES

ELIZABETHAN CONSORT MUSICEdited by Raymond Mase

During the reign of Elizabeth I and continuing with James I, the arts in England flourished. Literary figures--Shakespeare, Ben Johnson and Bacon--as well as composers--Dowland, Morley, and Holborne--have irresistible appeal to us today and easily depict the exuberance of Elizabethan life. English musicians of the day were in such demand on the continent that many of them took posts as court musicians and teachers in other countries. This is the case with the composers Simpson and Dowland. Although Simpson worked his entire life in Germany, Dowland left England for religious reasons, returning home in 1604 to publish his important instrumental collection Lachrimae. This collection, along with Holborne's Pavans, Galliards, etc. for Viols, Violins or other Musicall Winde Instruments, is among the most extensive of English instrumental music. Insight into the style of English performance practices can be gained from Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical Music (1597) and the First Book of Consort Lessons. A composer of incidental music for Shakespeare's plays, Morley, in his Consort Lessons, includes many arrangements of popular tunes and vocal pieces to be played by a "broken" (assorted) consort of instruments. In his madrigals he includes the footnote "to be sung or played by viols or other winde instruments"--encouraging instrumental performances of these pieces. Included in our set of pieces here are Morley's own instrumental setting of Joyne Hands and two madrigals by one of the most illustrious of English madrigalists--Thomas Weelkes. The other pieces in this set with "dance" titles (Almain and Pavan) were probably never danced to at all. These works resemble the earlier dance forms in title and characteristic rhythm only. Occasionally they even express some of the most contemporary ideas as in Dovehouse Pavan by the English born Alfonso Ferrabosco II. As in all of their editions of early music the American Brass Quintet is adhering to many of the practices of the day. Florid ornamentation and the use of other brass instruments in producing varied consorts certainly enhance the vitality and spirit of this music of Elizabethan England. Elizabethan Consort Music is recorded by the American Brass Quintet on the Delos label (DDD 3003).

Note by Raymond Mase

FIVE MINIATURES Robert Starer (1924-2001)

Robert Starer was born on January 8, 1924, in Vienna and received his musical education at the State Academy in Vienna, the Jerusalem Conservatoire and the Juilliard School. He became an American citizen in 1957. His stage works include three operas, two of them with libretti by Gail Godwin, and ballets for Martha Graham, Herbert Ross and Anna Sokolow. His symphonic works have been performed by major orchestras here and abroad under Mitropoulos, Bernstein, Leinsdorf, Steinberg and Comissiona. His violin concerto was recently premiered by Itzhak Perlman with the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa. Among his honors are two Guggenheim Fellowships and an award from the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters

Note by David Wakefield

SHINE FOR BRASS QUINTET Robert Paterson (b. 1973)

My father is a sculptor who worked with bronze, so as a child, I was always hanging around the foundry at the school where he taught, watching him cast bronze sculptures by pouring crucibles of molten metal into giant molds. In many ways, this is probably what caused me to have an affinity for brass instruments and metallic percussion instruments such as bells. There’s just something about metal, and the sounds metal instruments make, that I find very captivating.

Shine is in four movements and explores colorful aspects of four different types of metal: brass, gold, mercury and steel. The first movement, Ringing Brass Bells, is bell-like from beginning to end, with brief episodes of repeated note flourishes, creating a sort of brief fanfare. The title of this movement is also a double entendre, referring the the bells of the brass instruments. The second movement, Veins of Gold, is a slow movement that begins and ends softly, and focuses on the melodic capabilities of each instrument, almost like a mini concerto for brass quintet. The third movement, Quicksilver, is scherzo-like and fast. In this movement, I explore colorful, metallic sonorities using a variety of mutes and fast trills, and the movement gradually rises in tessitura from beginning to end like mercury rising in a thermometer. The last movement, Blue Steel. is powerful and fast from beginning to end, and contains runs that emulate something moving at a very fast speed. The term ‘blue steel’ refers to the color steel blue, and also refers to a tempering process in metallurgy used to reduce brittleness and increase toughness in objects made of steel.

Robert Paterson's music is praised for its elegance, wit, structural integrity, and a wonderful sense of color. Paterson was named The Composer of The Year at Carnegie Hall from the Classical Recording Foundation. His music has been on the Grammy® nomination ballot for the past three seasons, and his works were named ‘Best Music of 2012' on National Public Radio. His works have been played by the Louisville Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, New York New Music Ensemble, BargeMusic, the Albany Symphony Dogs of Desire, among others. His opera, Safe Word, was part of the Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers program, and The Companion, was performed at the Roulette in Brooklyn by American Opera Projects and AME. Paterson’s choral works were recorded by Musica Sacra and maestro Kent Tritle, and the album is being released in 2015 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Current commissions and world premieres include the American Brass Quintet, being performed at Aspen and Juilliard in 2015. The Whole Truth is being commissioned by UrbanArias and showcased at Opera America in 2015. Notable awards include winner of the Utah Arts Festival 2014, the Copland Award, two ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a Music Alive! grant from the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, and yearly ASCAP awards. Fellowships include Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Paterson holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Indiana University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA). Paterson gives master classes at colleges and universities, most recently at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, James Madison University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He resides in New York City with his wife, Victoria, and son, Dylan.

Program note by Robert PatersonFor more info, visit robertpaterson.com

BRASS QUINTET NO. 1 "CIRCUS" Clint Needham (b. 1981)

Brass Quintet No. 1 “Circus” was premiered in August of 2003 in Harris Hall at the Aspen Music Festival. The work won the 2004 Brass Chamber Music Forum Composition Competition and was performed by the American Brass Quintet at the conference held at Appalachian State University. It is published by Brass Chamber Music Press, Midland, TX.

I drew inspiration for my brass quintet from not so fond memories of a circus I was forced to attend when I was younger. The first movement, Entry, depicts the overwhelming chaos as one enters the tent; the noisy crowd, the sights, and the smells mesh together to create a disenchanted ‘welcome to the circus.’ The second movement, Clowns, portrays these creatures as the vile beings they are through use of a demonic waltz. The third movement, The Ringleader, is a grotesque fanfare for the master of (evil) ceremonies himself. The fourth movement, The Contortionist, portrays the only calm and beautiful happening I remember from the circus. The fluid motion of the musical lines and the pauses at the end of phrases are an attempt to bring to realization of the slow movements and frozen positions of a contortionist. The fifth movement, Finale, is a quick and feverish gallop. The frenzied circus performers, in a sudden surge of mass confusion, all come back into the ring as I make a mad dash for the door. Ironically, the door I ran out of faced an old Spanish mission… a sight which brought much needed comfort! Needless to say this was a traumatic experience for me.

Clint Needham currently serves as Composer-in-Residence/Assistant Professor of Music at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. He has served as an Associate Instructor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as well as Assistant Professor of Music at Ohio Wesleyan University. He holds degrees from Indiana University, where he was a four-year Jacobs School of Music doctoral fellow in composition, and from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers include Claude Baker, Loris Chobanian, David Dzubay, Michael Gandolfi, Per Mårtensson, Sven- David Sandström, and Richard Wernick. He has also studied with Robert Beaser, Syd Hodkinson, Christopher Rouse, and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival as a Susan and Ford Schumann composition fellow and with Mario Davidovsky at the Wellesley Composers Conference as a composition fellow. Needham’s music has been recognized with numerous awards including the International Barlow Prize, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Project 440 Commission, Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award, the Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, First Prize in the International Ticheli Composition Contest, the Heckscher Prize from Ithaca College, a Lee Ettelson Composer Award and the coveted Underwood New Music Commission from the American Composers Orchestra. Clint is also the recipient of a 2014 Cleveland Creative Workforce Fellowship with funding from the Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Needham’s music is published by the Theodore Presser Company with additional works published by Manhattan Beach Music and Triplo Press.

Note by Clint NeedhamCANONS OF THE 16TH CENTURY Edited by Raymond Mase By definition, the canon is the strictest form of musical imitation - a polyphonic composition in which all the parts have the same melody throughout, but start at different points. Both written and improvised canons existed as early as the 14th century, but in the mid-15th century, important Franco-Flemish composers - like Ockegem, Isaac, and Josquin des Prés adopted the canon in both sacred and secular music. This 15th century tradition of canonic writing culminated in the 16th century with the works of the great choral composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Palestrina’s works have long served as the model of the discipline of counterpoint, but by 1600 the canon had become an old form of polyphony.

Josquin des Prés was the most illustrious composer of his day, and highly respected by his contemporaries. In Vive le roy, likely written for King Louis XII of France, he uses a three-part canon to accompany the cantus firmus. Martini’s setting of the popular J’ay pris amours juxtaposes the canonic parts so closely together, that at times they seem in danger of becoming unison. But while these two secular pieces show canonic techniques in the most obvious way, it is in masses of the period, like those of Palestrina, where canons are used in the most expressive and beautiful way. Both the Josquin and Palestrina settings of Pleni sunt caeli are canons at the interval of the major second that mask their strict imitation and create unusual harmonies. Agnus Dei, from Palestrina’s Missa ad fugum (a mass entirely composed of canons) is a beautifully developed double canon that supports the notion that the perfect canon, like the perfect crime, must not be suspected, much less detected.

Note by Raymond Mase

COLCHESTER FANTASY (1987) Eric Ewazen (b. 1954)

Colchester Fantasy was written for the American Brass Quintet while I was teaching at the Estherwood Music Festival, held in Colchester, England during the summer of 1987. Colchester is the oldest recorded town in Britain. It has an old Roman wall, a massive Norman castle, picturesque

homes and churches and, as in all decent English towns, colorful old pubs. Each movement in this work is named after an old Colchester pub. The first movement, "The Rose and Crown", is filled with bright, sonorous chords, energetic rhythmic patterns, and constantly changing and fluctuating motives. The second movement "The Marquis of Granby" (a name which I associated with a distant, faded aristocracy) is a stately, chorale-like movement with somber, plaintive themes. The third movement "The Dragoon" brings forth the sounds of battle with dissonant, clashing harmonies, agitated rhythms and fragmented melodies.To close the work, the fourth movement, "The Red Lion" (a name with its intimations of royalty and nobility) is a resonant fugue, propelled forward with motoric motion, and a rapid, spinning fugue theme. These old English pubs of Colchester were a fine source of inspiration. Their names brought to my mind images of ancient and historical traditions, and impressions of the grandeur and majesty of time past.The beer was good, too!

Note by Eric Ewazen

Eric Ewazen, Composer-in-Residence of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble in New York City, studied under Samuel Adler, Milton Babbitt, Gunther Schuller, and Joseph Schwantner at the Eastman School and The Juilliard School (where he received numerous composition awards, prizes, and fellowships). His works have been performed by numerous ensembles and orchestras in the U.S., overseas, and at festivals such as Woodstock, Tanglewood, Aspen, Caramoor, Tidewater, and the Music Academy of the West, among others. Mr. Ewazen's music is published by Brass Ring Editions, Triplo Press, Encore Music, Southern Music, Boosey & Hawkes, Seesaw, and Eric Ewazen Publishing.

Currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School and lecturer for the New York Philharmonic's Musical Encounters Series, he has also served on the faculties of the Hebrew Arts School and the Lincoln Center Institute. He served as Vice President of the League of Composers - International Society of Contemporary Music from 1982-1989.

This work has been recorded by the American Brass Quintet on their CD “New American Brass,” Summit DCD133