The creation of a brass ensemble

Chapter 2 ‘The Brass Quartet’

In chapter one the creation of ‘Continuous Brass’, starting in The Netherlands as a professional brass trio in 2006, has been described. From 2008 a pianist was added in order to have more possibilities during concerts. This contributed playing more frequently as soloists with piano accompaniment.

In 2012 a tuba player joined our brass section, so a special brass quartet was created. The first piece we added to our repertoire was ‘Fanfare to Bima’ (1950) by Leonard Bernstein. A very short one minute capricious piece, a real flashy concert opener. Now the balance in this setting is quite interesting since we played with just one trumpet together with one french horn, one trombone and one tuba. Here the search towards original pieces started. Happily for us the French composer and tuba player Thierry Thibault has composed original and arranged pieces for this type of quartet. A very nice sunny original Thibault quartet is ‘Alla Cubana’ which can be listened by clicking here. Other Thibault arrangements are: ‘The Impressario’ (W.A. Mozart), ‘Colliwogg’s Cakewalk’ (C. Debussy) and ‘La Valse Fantastique’ (H. Berlioz). Other composers created also nice original repertoire like ‘Brass Polka’ (J. Horovitz), Instants d’une Aventure comme au Cinéma (A. Meier), Orange Tango & Tangolla (A. Lopez). Our versatile programms still consist of special brass trios like ‘Trio’ by F. Hidas for low brass, ‘Trio’ by M. Schmitt for trumpet, trombone and tuba, ‘Pearl’ by E. Lewis for flugelhorn, french horn and tuba. In 2013 we performed ‘Semaphore’ a beautiful and cheerful composition by Thierry Thibault for brass quartet and symphonic wind orchestra, the live registration can be listened by clicking here.

During this transition period, becoming a brass quartet, we did not forget our pianist and we still performed in various settings with piano accompaniment. The ultimate composition for brass quartet and piano, the only one in the repertoire, is Joseph Turrin’s ‘Solarium’. A challenging piece we still have to master and yet to perform. On 18 September 2016 we will celebrate our “tenth anniversary” in the ‘Barthkapel’ located in The Hague, The Netherlands. It will be a nice cosy afternoon concert with coffee, cakes and a good glass of wine afterwards in which we hope to meet and greet our Dutch fans but of course music lovers from abroad are most welcome too. Interesting pieces we want to perform are: ‘Pocono Menagerie’ by Kerry Turner for trumpet, french horn, tuba and piano and ‘Capriccio’ by Lewis J. Buckley for trumpet, tuba and piano. The rest of the programm will be individual soli and brass quartets. We can be followed on http://www.trompetnet.nl/continuousbrass and future concerts we like to promote here too.

Next time more about our plans to further enlarge the ensemble!?

Geplaatst in Continuous Brass.