E lucevan le stelle (And the stars were shining) is a romantic aria from the third act of Puccini's opera Tosca, written in 1900. It is sung in Act 3 by Mario Cavaradossi (tenor), a painter who is awaiting his execution and in love with the singer Tosca. (Wikipedia).

This aria is one of the most beloved in all the operatic repertoire and has been captured beautifully in a lovely arrangement for brass quintet by Vikention Gionanidis. The music is appropriate for advanced performers.

The instrumentation is for 2 Trumpets in C (B-flat parts supplied as well), Horn, Trombone, and Tuba.

C. P. E. Bach was an innovator as an early Classical music composer, helping to develop the sonata form that was refined by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Like his father, Carl Phillip Emanuel was prolific and showed signs of true genius.

Symphony No. 1, in three movements (fast-slow-fast) was originally in D and has been transposed down a step to C by the arranger Justin Bland.

This very fine arrangement of the entire work of about 12 minutes in length is appropriate for very advanced performers and could be the cornerstone of a recital program.

Maurer's 12 Kleine St�cke (12 Little Pieces) for five brass were published posthumously in 1881 and were written for two cornets in B?, two horns in E?, and one bass trombone. They are important works for brass in that they are some of the earliest pieces of brass chamber music existing; with Anton Simon?s Quartuor en forme de sonatine, Alexander Glazinov?s In modo religioso and Wilhelm Rams�e?s five Quartets they remain some of the handful of original brass works from the nineteenth century. This edition is taken from the first version published by A. B�ttner of St. Petersburg, Russia. In order to make it more accessible for a modern brass quintet the second horn part is transposed for trombone, and the lowest part may be performed on either tuba or bass trombone. I have tried to resolve the many contradictions in articulations found in the original score while keeping this edition as close to the original as possible. Many brass players may be unfamiliar with the complete version of this piece; I encourage them to perform the entire work as Maurer originally intended.