American Brass Quintet
by
Lyn Bronson
Well, we heard a
whole lot of brass playing at Sunset Center last night, and it was wild! The
American Brass Quintet, presented by the Carmel Music Society, was not here to
play “oldies but goodies” or transcriptions of Sousa marches, but to perform a
program of mostly contemporary music. Spokesman Raymond Mase, who also plays a
bit of trumpet, spoke to the audience and reminded us that when the American
Brass Quintet was founded in 1960 there were virtually no brass ensemble groups
active on the classical music scene. Of course at that time there were great
jazz trumpet players, and pop culture was just discovering “Herb Alpert and the
Tijuana Brass” (actually, “Spanish Flea” or “Tijuana Taxi” in Herb Alpert’s
style would make a great encore for the American Brass Quintet, and it certainly
would lighten things up a bit). Naturally, since the American Brass Quintet
consists of two trumpets, two trombones and horn, very little original music
exists for this ensemble, so virtually its entire repertoire consists either of
transcriptions or music commissioned for or dedicated to the group. Since
approximately 200 works have been written for the American Brass Quintet, it is
obviously not a problem for them to put a program together.
Since brass
playing was highly regarded in the Renaissance and Baroque, it was appropriate
that the program contained a group of lovely songs by Josquin des Prés, arranged
by Raymond Mase, and these turned out to be one of the highlights of the
program. Also, from an earlier era were “Three English Fancies” by William
Simmes, John Ward and Giovanni Coperario, arranged again by Raymond Mase. Anyone
in the audience last night who is a regular patron of the Carmel Bach Festival
would have felt right at home, for here was ”Tower Music” such as we are
accustomed to hear before each Bach Festival concert played by a brass ensemble
in the upper courtyard at Sunset Center.
Before the
evening’s program began, Peter Thorp, President of the Carmel Music Society,
pointed out to the audience the microphones suspended over the stage and
informed us that the concert was being recorded and would be broadcast in two
weeks on FM station KUSP, thus, if we should inadvertently drift off into the
arms of Morpheus, we could catch what we missed later in the broadcast. Well,
there was certainly little possibility of anyone catching a few zzz’s during
this concert, for the decibel level was way up there. In fact, the hall itself
was echoing nicely with reverb, so it obviously liked the American Brass
Quintet, and for that matter so seemingly did most everyone else. Actually, we
lost some of our audience after the intermission, but those who stayed were
richly rewarded.
Among the
contemporary works on the program, one of the most interesting was Joan Tower’s
“Copperwave,” written in 2006, a ten-minute piece that is very effectively
written for brass ensemble. Not only did it contain some fascinating cadenzas
for each of the instruments, but it also was a vehicle for exciting sounds
(sometimes with mutes) such as I have never before heard from a brass ensemble.
What can I say about David Sampson’s “Entrance” except that it was a noisy,
cacophonous, but effective, three-minute piece that was over almost before it
had begun. The Quinteto Concertante
by Lacerda was elegant and entertaining, and the concluding work on the program
Colchester Fantasy by Eric Ewazen with its wonderfully effective rhythms was a
big hit with the audience.
We heard one
encore, the second movement from “Mosaics” by Anthony Clove. This was one of the
fastest pieces I have ever heard from a brass ensemble – sort of “Flight of the
Bumblebee” on meth – and in this brief piece we heard double-tonguing,
triple-tonguing, maybe even quadruple-tonguing, for all I know, but in any case
it was fantastic.
