Classical Music | Music for Quintet

John Ferguson

Brass Quintet (2nd movement)  Play

Indiana University Brass Quintet

Recorded on 05/10/1999, uploaded on 02/10/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The second movement of my Brass Quintet (1997) sharply contrasts two ideas: a repeated vamp (A), and sections built on more complex, contrapuntal music (obliquely based on fragments of the opening material) (B).  The returns of the vamp lend a rondo-like shape to the piece, but these returns are less conspicuous each time they occur.  The form can be described as follows:

 

A

B

A (new harmony)

B (varied)

A (soft dynamic, trumpets in canon)

C (developmental middle section, begins quiet and sparse, gains momentum and             density)

 

D (trumpet "screams", brief interlude based on trills, retransition to A section)

 

A (with new "bass line" in tuba)

B (based solely on trills)

A (repeated notes only, no tune)

B (based solely on glissandi)

Coda: two "starts and stops," third "start" leads to tutti repeated-note climax, return of the trumpet "scream"; final four measures recapitulate A