Search results for: 'holben'

with optional Percussion; This version of Pomp and Circumstance is not only chop friendly, but has some flare and a crowd pleasing ending, and while you rest your face, it still sounds like it should. Majestic and regal for any graduating class!

Seeking to diversify horn repertoire and inspired by her students amid a global pandemic, Margaret McGillivray set out to inject beauty and justice into the world in a small way. Her frustrations soon led to:

LIFT: Solos for Horn by Black Composers

With piano accompaniment for each piece, this project culminated in 18 new arrangements or compositions for horn:

1. Friendship Source of Joy –– Ignatius Sancho/Katy Ambrose

2A. Menuetto in C –– J. Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges/Althea Talbot-Howard

2B. Menuetto in E-flat –– J. Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges/Althea Talbot-Howard

3. The American Girl –– Francis Johnson/Katy Ambrose

4. Deep River –– African American Spiritual/Samuel Coleridge-Taylor/Althea Talbot-Howard

5. Adagio Cantabile from Cinnamon Grove Suite –– R. Nathaniel Dett/Margaret McGillivray

6. Sympathy –– Florence Price/Margaret McGillivray

7. Wake Me Up –– Jasmine Barnes

8. A Stolen Moment –– Joel Collier (ASCAP)

9. Old St. John –– Mary D. Watkins

10. Stranger from the Wind –– Benjamin Horne

11. On the Uses of Quills –– Melika M. Fitzhugh

12. Eulogy –– Stewart Goodyear

13. Pan-Tones –– Mattea Williams

14. When I’m Older –– Shanyse Strickland

15. The First Solo Flight –– David A. Eastmond

16. Tango No. 3 –– Dalian Bryan

17. Dahomey Passacaglia –– Althes Talbot-Howard

18. Pesadelos 1 (Nightmare 1) –– Jeff Scott

The Due Pezzi Perpetua, or “Two Perpetual Pieces” for three tubas was composed for a consortium of commissioners from across the country organized by David Holben. The pieces are “perpetual” in the sense that both have a constant element that strives to lend an incessant nature to the themes.

The first piece is somewhat like a freely composed prelude. To set the foundation, a single drone tone is established at the beginning and it is heard continuously until the closing bar, not even wanting to expire at that point. Of course, a long drone tone is quite impossible on a single tuba, but writing for
three tubas allows an extended technique where the responsibility of sustaining the drone can be shared among the players.

The second piece presents the feeling of a rustic dance, almost like a rhythmic bourée with syncopation. The theme is long winded, and it quickly assumes a kind of endless contrapuntal nature. As the individual lines entangle and interact, they take on an interminable quality that must undergo
violent interruptions to stop the forward flow. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all contributing members of the consortium project who
generously lent their support to make this new tuba trio possible.

Bass Clarinet, Tuba, Bass and Piano; Growing Block universe is the name of a theory with regards to the continuum of time: that past and present exist, but the future does not, which results in a growing universe as time passes. The music does not directly depict any component of the theory. Instead, the work deals with "blocks" of sounds. Because these passages restart several times, one could surmise that the title and the unfolding of the work parallel the theory in the sense that a series of sound-blocks grow by revisiting ideas of the past.

Each movement assumes the name of a different type of "block". The first, "Enchained" expresses the feeling of frustration as small gestural cells become fixated on one note, and cannot progress. Failed attempts at development lead to a protruding note-cluster. In this way, these small cells stay bound to a confined space, enchained.

Anticyclones, known in meteorology as stationary large-scale atmospheric conditions that “block” migratory pressure systems, sometimes result in repeated weather patterns. In this case, nighttime fog. The second movement features dark melodies that slowly circle, hover, and descend through clouds of ethereal colors.

In the final movement, the idea of hindrance is continued; even when a new ideas are introduced. The attempts to break free are short-lived, and are overtaken by previous blocks of sounds. In the end, the movement revisits the stubborn non-progressive one-note material from the first movement, taking us back to "Square One".