Search results for: 'Quartet for brass'

reduction with Rhythm section (recording is with wind ensemble)

The Concerto for tuba and winds is in my usual Third-Stream style, but I utilized
many new techniques for the first time in this piece. Jazz, rock, hip-hop and many kinds
of classical styles come together in the Concerto. Polymeter, improvisation and intuitive
swing notation play important roles in this piece as well as traditional four-part
counterpoint and ancient Greek form. It is simply titled Concerto in a classical fashion
but each movement has a more descriptive title.
I. Swing Low
II. Adagio
III. Cutting Contest

I utilized a customized variation on the classical concerto form: a sonata-allegro
first movement, a slow second movement and a theme and variations finale.
Philosophically, this piece explores the traditional nature of a concerto from several
different angles. The first movement explores the cooperative side of a concerto. One
Latin root of the word concerto is conserere, which means to join. The soloist and wind
ensemble cooperate to produce many layers of polymeter in Swing Low. The Latin root
certamen, on the other hand, means to fight. So while the first movement is a
cooperative effort, the third movement, Cutting Contest, explores the idea of a musical
battle between the solo tuba and the wind ensemble on a familiar tune.

On March 6th, 2012, the Concerto was premiered in Seattle. Erin Bodnar led the
University of Washington Wind Ensemble with myself soloing. The Central Washington
University Wind Ensemble then recorded it with Dean Snavely conducting.

This reduction of Concerto features two different versions of the third movement
to allow for players to navigate the virtuosic fingering acrobatics on an E-Flat or F tuba.
The solo lines at letter E were inspired by Arban’s Carnival of Venice.

Curtis Peacock
January 26, 2014

with CD or MP3 download

HoUsE miX was composed in September-October of 1995 at the request of tubist Jeffrey Funderburk. The recording of the electronics part provides the first three beats of measure one and then the tubist begins – in time – on the second eighth note of the fourth beat in measure one (marked * in the score).  As to the title, it was my intention in writing this piece to emphasize the electronic nature of the accompaniment rather than to try and disguise it.  In borrowing materials and gestures from the language of 1990s techno dance music, I also sought to borrow one of its structural conceits: the sharp juxtaposition of diverse materials (represented by the mash-up of upper- and lower-case letters in the title). Jeffrey Funderburk has recorded HoUsE miX on his second solo CD, Journeys (Mark Records #3176).