My Most Hated Music Activity Sounds Pretty Decent

Not the most popular opinion, especially in high school, but being forced to participate in marching band in order to be involved in the band program in high school was not a very pleasant experience for myself.

However, I can't help but admire all the effort, precision, coordination, and ability that these musicians require in order to play at such a high level while marching.  This is the "The Commandant's Own" United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps at the opening of the DCI Finals in 2014.  The program had a mix of different arrangements, from movie themes to big band tunes.  There is a clear sense of precision and technical mastery that I cannot help but admire, even if the marching band tone is not always pleasant to listen to.

Again, this type of brass playing requires a much different type of skill set and ability than classical brass, and these musicians are some of the best in the country when it comes to drum corps performance.  A link to the full performance can be found here.

To Infinity and Beyond!

(One note before I get started.  I am not making money on this post and I highly doubt any of the creators of a certain animated Franchise will be reading this anyway, so I am probably safe.)

Anyway, back to brass music.

Tonight, we are going to keep on rolling with brass bands but examine a much different style, performance, and ensemble of brass band music.  This is the Grimethorpe Colliery Band performing Infinity at the English National Brass Band Championships in 2008.  A full link of the video can be found here.

As for the performance itself, while I am sure the musicians did a wonderful job and should be proud of there accomplishments, much of the sound featured in this group is not much better than the other brass band featured in this blog earlier.  While there are certain moments that really shine, such as the end with a full brass fortissimo and then ending on a soft piano section, there are other parts where the tone of certain sections of the ensemble really degenerate and sound just way to overblown in this recording.  It is a certain style of performance and I am sure it is probably well done and appropriate for this style of ensemble, but it is still not my preferred method of performing nor do I purposely listen to this type of playing without a reason.

Rebirthing My Brass Posts and Experiences

I'm going to go in a different direction with this post.

So far, my ensembles have been mainly smaller chamber ensembles that perform pieces one would find in a classical concert setting or perhaps as a part of a university led ensemble.  This particular ensemble is not affiliated with either of these genres of brass music as it mostly combines traditional New Orleans style brass band music with the New Orleans Second Line tradition.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of this type of sound as it sounds really overblown and quite painful to the embouchure in my opinion, but the energy produced by the musicians that is taken up by the crowd is definitely an experience worth having.  It's also good for me as a classical brass musician to expose myself to as much of this other type of music as possible, and this will be explained in greater detail on my blog post about my presentation I will be writing later today.

For now, here is a link to the album by the Rebirth Brass Band celebrating 25 years.

There is No Net

It is time to expand our horizons for just a little bit.  In this horizon expanding video, we have an increase in brass players from five or seven, (or eight), to nine in this Nonet for Brass.  The piece was composed by Wallingford Reigger, an American composer from the first half of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately, this particular recording is not very good as the sound is from a video camera and is not very high quality.  However, the piece itself is quite good and has a lot of loud and rhythmic brass playing.  It is scored for three trumpets, three trombones, two horns, and a tuba, and is performed by the Bay Brass Ensemble.  Research on this composer has revealed that he was one of the first to use a form of serialism in America, as well as being a former professor of music theory and cello at Drake University.

This piece sounds more like a neo-classical fanfare than it does sound like a piece of twelve-tone music however.  In fact, it sounds like a piece that Charles Ives might have composed for a brass ensemble as it has a lot of very loud and dissonant sound masses involved.  Overall, it's a really good piece of music and I'm sorry there is not a better recording that is more easily available.

Beautiful Music and a Correct Title

Keeping up with the ongoing theme of finding different mixed ensembles as well as today's current theme of the (sometimes incorrectly titled) brass septet, one more piece to be featured today is an arrangement of Anton Bruckner's version of Ave Maria for brass septet (specifically three trumpets, three trombones, and tuba).

While this version saddens my soul as there is no horn present in this ensemble the performance is exquisite with all the necessary soft and delicate playing heard here.  Bruckner is one of my personal favorite composers and this arrangement works well for brass, as does most vocal arrangements, since brass and vocal ensembles have the common purpose and design to blend in well with each part or voice.  In addition to the excellent blend, the intonation, entrances, and articulations are smooth and well done on the part of the performers.

Here is a link to the full performance.

The Title is Wrong

One would be very surprised to find the different amount of possibilities that exist when forming an ensemble with brass players.  Take this particular one for instance. 

This is the NSO/SMI Brass Septet performing a short recital of mostly older tunes arranged for this ensemble and is performed at the Summer Music Institute in 2013.  The musicians themselves do a very good job and are quite expressive in their playing.  They also stay together pretty well, a challenge with eight players. 

Now, as this previous sentence has stated, there are eight performers in this brass septet.  I myself had to double check several times before coming to the conclusion that this is either some inside joke amongst those involved in the making of this video, or there is an error in the title.  I'm thinking the latter, personally.

A Brief Trip back to Homogeny

This next post is essentially a guilty pleasure of mine.  Now that the weather has warmed up and spring is upon us, it would be a good time to show off one of my personal favorites in the horn octet repertoire.  This piece is called Farewell to the Red Castle by Kerry Turner and features the Berliner Philharmoniker performing this work.  It is not too often to get a recording of a quality professional group of musicians performing music such as this and is always a pleasure to listen to great performing by all the members.  Kerry Turner is a low horn player himself, so this piece features many virtuosic passages in the low registers as well as in the upper registers.

A link to the video can be found here.