Brass choir and
percussion
SKU:
P2.60002
Composed by
Crawford Gates. Chamber
music. Published by
Potenza Music (P2.60002).
This
composition grew out of a
musical concert in
Chicago sometime in 1981.
The concert was an
outgrowth of public
opinion about the
superiority of various
ensembles in three of the
top five US Symphony
Orchestras of that
period. The Philadelphia
Orchestra under Eugene
Ormandy had the
reputation of having the
most luxurious string
section of any orchestra
in the world. Ormandy was
a superior violinist
himself, and worked his
strings into providing a
similar luxurious string
sound of which he himself
was master. It was agreed
that the Boston Symphony
had the top woodwind
choir, and the Chicago
Symphony the best brass
choir. An outgrowth of
these widely held
opinions occurred in
Chicago in 1981 when the
Chicago Symphony Brass
section announced a
performance in Symphony
Hall. The event attracted
a sell out crowd and
standing room overflow.
Public interest was keen
and intense. The detail
of the concert included
brass solos, duets and
trios of a wide variety
and concluded with a
large brass choir work by
a local composer, which
had been commissioned to
premiere in this concert.
The musical evening was
marvelous, a brilliant
triumph for superlative
brass players of
world-class quality.
Afterwards the players
remained on the stage and
were beset by hundreds of
congratulating fans. The
principal horn, Dale
Clevenger, was a friend
of mine who was present
at the International Horn
Conference in 1974, when
Barry Tuckwell of the
London Symphony premiered
my Sonata for Horn and
Piano. I congratulated
Dale on the brass wonders
that we had all just
witnessed, and commented
that the final brass work
was somewhat
disappointing. Dale said
that he and the other
players felt the same. At
that point, Dale said Why
don't you write a work
for the Chicago Brass for
our next offering? How
could I not be
complimented by such an
invitation? I immediately
started to write
Stonehenge, having just
visited Stonehenge in
Britain a month or two
earlier. But the Chicago
Brass did not have a
follow up to their first
presentation, so there
was no opportunity for my
new work to be performed
by them. Later there was
a premiere in Madison,
Wisconsin, by three
professional brass
quintets who were
together hosted by the
School of Music of the
University of Wisconsin.
They were joined by four
superb percussionists
from the Madison
Symphony. Stonehenge
received a wonderful
ovation from an
enthusiastic full house
audience, and that led to
wide use in the Midwest
by other brass groups,
including a professional
brass choir in Minnesota,
which recorded the work
superbly, and two
different tours of the
work by a brass choir
from the Indiana
University School of
Music. The wonderful
response to this work's
recording and its many
performances have been a
delight to the
composer.
Ton invitation
