422
The first movement, marked allegro,
contains appogiatura-like figures for both
solo tuba and piano, with the range
stretching from E to g". The second move?
ment, lentissimo,is quite soft, with running
passages in triple meter. Again the wide
range and interval leaps are used. Move?
ment three, allegretto, is a sprightly waltz,
and the fourth movement, vivace, is a no-
holds-barred free-for-all guaranteed to do
in most mere mortals. With the quarter-note
pulse at measure 132, eighth-note jumps
over nearly two octaves punctuate a march-
like texture which finishes up in a blaze of
glory: six successive bars trilling above the
staff, followed by two bars of sforzando
quarter notes, ending in a three-octave swan
dive from g' to G.
If there is any doubt in the reader's mind,
let me say that this work is very ambitious
writing for the tuba. But I feel certain that
very talented advanced students and
professional will enjoy the challenge.
Jan Krzywicki. Ballade; for tuba or
baritone horn and piano. Fairmont,
VT: Heilman, 1984. [Score, 7 p., and
part; no price given]
This work belongs to a generic category
of pleasantly contemporary tuba solos.
While not tremendously imaginative, it is
an innocent composition utilizing quarter
and dotted half-note figures in triple time.
The Ballade was composed for Paul Krzy?
wicki, tubist of the Philadelphia Orchestra,
and was first performed at the 1983 Inter?
national Tuba-Euphonium Conference at
the University of Maryland. The difficulty
in this work for the tubist lies in the control
necessary to sustain long phrases in the up-
per register at very soft dynamic levels. The
tempo and dynamic variations in the Bal?
lade are both subtle and frequent, forcing
the player to structure the performance
carefully. The very soft tuba line over
chordal and arpeggiated figures in the piano
should make pleasant listening when skill-
fully done. The ending is particularly de-
manding, with a twelve-bar figure ascend-
ing to a sustained high e' for four bars?
all this during a decrescendo from mezzo-
piano to pianissimo! If performed on the F
tuba or baritone the range will become more
accessible for the less advanced player.
Frank Byrne
U.S. Marine Band
MLA Notes, December 1986
Arthur Bliss. Eight Fanfares for Brass
Ensemble. Sevenoaks, Kent, England;
Novello (Presser), 1984. [Score, 26 p.,
$8.00; set of parts, $13.00]
Henri Lazarof. Celebration; for 4 brass
choirs. Bryn Mawr: Merion (Presser),
1985. [Score, 18 p., and set of parts;
$40.00]
Jerzy Sapieyevski. Aesop Suite; for
brass quintet (with or without narra-
tor). Bryn Mawr: Mercury (Presser),
1984. [Score, 20 p., and parts; $17.50]
Witold Lutoslawski. Mini Overture;
for brass quintet. (Just Brass, 50.)
London: Chester (Magnamusic-Ba-
ton), 1984. [Score, 10 p., and parts;
$21.50]
Philip Glass. Brass sextet. Sevenoaks,
Kent, England: Novello (Presser), 1985,
cl966. [Score, 10 p., $7.25; set of parts,
$22.00]
Pavel Mihelcic. Quinta esentia;
Blechblaserquintett (1978). Leipzig:
Peters (Peters, NY), 1984. [Perfor?
mance score. 11 leaves: %12.501
Morgan Powell. Windows; for brass
quintet. Newton Centre, MA: Gun-
mar, 1985. [Notes and score, 10 p.,
$6.50; set of 5 performance scores,
$25.00]
The seven works discussed here are fairly
representative of much of the variety in new
music for brass ensembles available today.
The procedures employed run a gamut
from the relatively conventional and com-
fortable, to the more demanding, unfamil-
iar avant-garde approaches that utilize a
wide range of notational, technical, and
sonic devices. For the ensemble that can do
it all, these pieces offer a rich palette of
programming possibilities. For lesser
groups, they may provide challenges to
build on.
First to be considered are two works in-
tended for ceremonial occasions: Eight
Fanfares by Arthur Bliss, and Celebrationfor
four brass choirs by Henri Lazarof. The
Bliss pieces were composed over a period
of thirty years, beginning with a "Peace
Fanfare" (1944), and including a fanfare to
precede "God Save the Queen" (1960) and