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| An Uncommon Bond |
~ A brass quintet (2 trumpets in B-flat, horn, trombone, and bass trombone)
~ Approximate duration: 14 minutes
~ Approximate duration: 14 minutes
~ Written in the Fall of 2009, for the Spacific Brass Quintet: Josh Aguiar, Patrick Murray, trumpets,
Carey Lamothe, french horn, Chris Tune, trombone, Jonathan Goldman, bass trombone, and premiered
on March 3, 2010, at the California State University, Los Angeles.
Carey Lamothe, french horn, Chris Tune, trombone, Jonathan Goldman, bass trombone, and premiered
on March 3, 2010, at the California State University, Los Angeles.
I. A Coming Together -- view score (pdf)
II. The Wayward and Watchful One -- view score (pdf)
who sits in the background, taking in the scene,
leading only by asking the right questions
III. The Grand Mother -- view score (pdf)
soft and delicate, even a little sad, but not frail...
IV. Versions of a Story -- view score (pdf)
more and more elaborate...
V. The Hero Ritual -- view score (pdf)
An Uncommon Bond, is a collection of five pieces for brass quintet, written in the fall of 2009. This piece
came after a period of inner conflict for me, where I couldn't bring myself to continue writing my pieces, as I
had for so many years. It was a crisis, but it was a time for coming to terms with myself as an artist. And
when I came back to my music, starting with this brass quintet, and working with a group in Los Angeles
called the Spacific Brass Quintet, I began a series of pieces that might be distinguished as the beginning of
my mature work. An Uncommon Bond is raw and simplistic, immediately appealing, and song like and modal
in character. Yet it is still reminiscent of youth, not a model of maturity by any means. It would however,
for me, serve as a starting place for a new stream of works that have led to some interesting places, and
to the particular stylistic aesthetic that I work with today. This piece represents for me a new beginning.
The work has quasi programmatic titles, and it was a program kept in mind as I was working on these
pieces. Each piece is meant to represent a different character in a kind of tribe or group that has come
together for some kind of gathering. A Coming Together is meant as a kind of starting place for the group,
introducing the motivic materials that become the basis for the Wayward and Watchful One (this is secretly
me), for the Grand Mother, and for the hero of the tribe, honored in the ending with the Hero Ritual.
Versions of a Story is probably my favorite piece in this collection. It represents not a character, but a
conversation amongst the group, a story told first by the horn and tuba, with new details and versions
being added by others as the story grows into the quintet, with parts recognizable only because they were
introduced one at a time.
II. The Wayward and Watchful One -- view score (pdf)
who sits in the background, taking in the scene,
leading only by asking the right questions
III. The Grand Mother -- view score (pdf)
soft and delicate, even a little sad, but not frail...
IV. Versions of a Story -- view score (pdf)
more and more elaborate...
V. The Hero Ritual -- view score (pdf)
An Uncommon Bond, is a collection of five pieces for brass quintet, written in the fall of 2009. This piece
came after a period of inner conflict for me, where I couldn't bring myself to continue writing my pieces, as I
had for so many years. It was a crisis, but it was a time for coming to terms with myself as an artist. And
when I came back to my music, starting with this brass quintet, and working with a group in Los Angeles
called the Spacific Brass Quintet, I began a series of pieces that might be distinguished as the beginning of
my mature work. An Uncommon Bond is raw and simplistic, immediately appealing, and song like and modal
in character. Yet it is still reminiscent of youth, not a model of maturity by any means. It would however,
for me, serve as a starting place for a new stream of works that have led to some interesting places, and
to the particular stylistic aesthetic that I work with today. This piece represents for me a new beginning.
The work has quasi programmatic titles, and it was a program kept in mind as I was working on these
pieces. Each piece is meant to represent a different character in a kind of tribe or group that has come
together for some kind of gathering. A Coming Together is meant as a kind of starting place for the group,
introducing the motivic materials that become the basis for the Wayward and Watchful One (this is secretly
me), for the Grand Mother, and for the hero of the tribe, honored in the ending with the Hero Ritual.
Versions of a Story is probably my favorite piece in this collection. It represents not a character, but a
conversation amongst the group, a story told first by the horn and tuba, with new details and versions
being added by others as the story grows into the quintet, with parts recognizable only because they were
introduced one at a time.
~ Subsequent performance on March 30, 2011, by the Lyric Brass Quintet, faculty ensemble at the
Lutheran Pacific University, in Tacoma, Washington.
Lutheran Pacific University, in Tacoma, Washington.
| Daniel Gall |
| music + art |
