Concerto Grosso (2015-16)
wind quintet, saxophone quartet, brass quintet, percussion trio
I. Andante-Vivace
II. Misterioso
III. Allegro vivo-Quasi rustico
Concerto Grosso is a work styled after the late 17th and early 18th century genre the concerto grosso in which a small group of soloists (concertato) leads a larger orchestra (ripieno). The most famous examples in the repertoire feature strings - a family of whose sound is homogenous - but the wind ensemble offers a variety of instrumental colors and tonal combinations, perfectly suited to that kind of musical treatment. In this piece I use a saxophone quartet as the soloists (though not burdened by excessively virtuosic writing, they carry the musical load, so to speak), with a wind quintet, a brass quintet, and a percussion trio (as a three-part ripieno). There are three movements, typical of the fast-slow-fast arrangement in the Italian concerto of the 18th century and as a nod to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 the second movement is only a few measure long and serves as a tonal connector between the outer movements.
Other traits found in the 18th century that I chose to use are a slow introduction featuring a conspicuous descending line and chains of suspensions, a pastorale section in the third movement (a musical topic almost always associated with winds back then), and occasional outbursts of canonic writing.
But Concerto Grosso also features the inversion of some traits typical of the 18th century models it was built on: a first movement in 6/8 (though still the "heaviest" movement musically), a third movement in 2/4 (though still a "dance"), and whatever one might term the opposite of a Picardy third to end the piece.
I. Andante-Vivace
II. Misterioso
III. Allegro vivo-Quasi rustico
Concerto Grosso is a work styled after the late 17th and early 18th century genre the concerto grosso in which a small group of soloists (concertato) leads a larger orchestra (ripieno). The most famous examples in the repertoire feature strings - a family of whose sound is homogenous - but the wind ensemble offers a variety of instrumental colors and tonal combinations, perfectly suited to that kind of musical treatment. In this piece I use a saxophone quartet as the soloists (though not burdened by excessively virtuosic writing, they carry the musical load, so to speak), with a wind quintet, a brass quintet, and a percussion trio (as a three-part ripieno). There are three movements, typical of the fast-slow-fast arrangement in the Italian concerto of the 18th century and as a nod to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 the second movement is only a few measure long and serves as a tonal connector between the outer movements.
Other traits found in the 18th century that I chose to use are a slow introduction featuring a conspicuous descending line and chains of suspensions, a pastorale section in the third movement (a musical topic almost always associated with winds back then), and occasional outbursts of canonic writing.
But Concerto Grosso also features the inversion of some traits typical of the 18th century models it was built on: a first movement in 6/8 (though still the "heaviest" movement musically), a third movement in 2/4 (though still a "dance"), and whatever one might term the opposite of a Picardy third to end the piece.
