Jubilee Fanfare for Brass Band

Here I present, in a somewhat rough and early form, my Jubilee Fanfare.
Named thus because it is written for the Golden Jubilee concert of my brass band (celebrating its 50th year).
The piece is intended for humans (as opposed to musicians), and therefore the harmony is not too adventurous, but I hope it's satisfying.

Attached are the pdf and the midi. Please forgive the horrendous quality of the percussion in the midi - read the score and use your imagination!

With any luck, I should get a performance of this in September. Fingers crossed.

You were the only to take the time to listen and comment the piece I posted, so it's only fair for me to listen to this, because I usually don't comment music around here.

I'm rather glad I did.

I really quite enoyed this. You really caught me at bar 6, when I was thinking this would be a normal boring celebration fanfare, but no. It does have a lot of traditional sounding elements, but you also threw in some unique and twists that definitely kept my attention.

I didn't like that the MIDI was a bit obnoxious but there's really nothing I can do about that, so maybe there'll be a recording in September.

I should try this brass band thing some time, should I?

Good job!

Dan -

What I suggested you do with your work of 2 years ago you do here with excellence. Very toght motivic unity, great harmonic twists and resolutions and very convincing dramatic arch.

Only criticism - the last say 30 second could be extended another 20 - 30 seconds at most -- possibly the dissonances and their resolutions held a little longer -- even using some slight rhythmic dislocations would be great. But this is a small thing. Wouldn't change anything else. Just check that YOU are convinced about the ending.

As I preface all my extended reviews, for the record, I hold no punches, and never sugar coat things. So if there's something wrong, I will tell it to you straight, not bury it in stentiment and wonderful positive thinking. I'll give you both sides, the good and bad. Being from North America, I'm not too familiar with all the brass band traditions. While I know how the instruments work and how their instrumentation and so forth works, I haven't played in one personally, so I can't know if some of my comments will be breaking an untold tradition of the brass band.

Overal remarks:
Overall, it sounded very British. It had that slow-march feel and a great dotted 8th motive that is very characteristic of British marching music. I could imagine a brass band marching along to this or playing it at some convocation, which is good, since that's what you said it's intention was. So you nailed concept (which, IMO, is the trickiest thing to do in composing).

As far as the music itself, it was ok. Good, not great. Your opening motive is a good start, memorable and to the point. Some of the chords clashed and that ruined the opening for me. The worst was m. 12, beat 3. Awful clash in the highest trumpet there. Don't get too caught up on voice leading and paralels. I can tell from your review on my organ piece that you stick to the rules of barouque counterpoint with no parallel 5ths or 8vas. While the rules are valid, this isn't counterpoint here. It's plain old block chords, the typical march style. Now, I agree that voice leading is very important, but the parallels really don't come into play here. It's all about emphazising the tonic of the chord. That's why the brass band is so bass-heavy, to emphasize those fat bass notes.

I thought the tempo was a tad too slow. I tried it by pushing the tempo to 108 and that gave the piece a whole new life! Great excitement was added with only 12 beats per minute difference. Consider that. Key-wise, C major is an interesting choice. It's not dark, but not bright either. I tried moving it up to E-flat and again, a new life! C major is the most overplayed key in the history of keys. Don't join that realm. Keep it in a band they so that the cornets won't kill you. E-flat is unique because it's a flat key yet still very bright because of where the ranges coincide on the instrument. It's a great compromise for bands who need to do all those fanfares and big boomy glorification marches.

The orchestration, overall, was not using the band to it's full potential. The flugelhorn is not another cornet and the trombones are not extra trombones. Each instrument has a very distinct sound that should be exploited. There was also a dispointing lack of percussion. In a march, there should be lots of it! Pull out the snare drums, cymbals, bass drums, tam-tams, and glockenspiels. Go William Walton on it! Look up his "Crown Imperial", a great use of subtle percussion.

Local remarks:
m. 1-4, Timpani too high. Place an octave lower. The flugelhorn would be drowned by the trombone because it's not as powerful an instrument. I would stick it in the solo horn. Also, a bit funky thing is that because it's a G, the tonic of G is estalished. Then at m. 5, the key of C catches the listener off base. Not a good idea to do that. Either make it C, or find some way to make it sound like a dominant. Senza vibrato indication is not necessary. Unless you specifically ask for vibrato, a player won't put any in unless the music calls for it. This section doesn't.
m. 8, Bass note moves too early causing a clash
m. 9, Starting with a sus4 chord seems funny
m 12, clashes in beat 2, change Ab concert to a G, clash in beat 3, change Ab to A, G bass to D
m 13+, all those sfz accents need some sort of percussive accent. I suggest a bass drum on 1st beat, cymbal on accent. Some of your cornet chords don't agree
m 17, again, funky sus4 on beat 1. Why did you suddenly go into minor here? That makes no sense from a listener's point of view
m 21, Yay! The first climax! Mark it with a big cymbal crash.
m 22-23, the dominant 7ths (Gb concert) make no sense here. Perhaps a blue note? If it is, this ain't the place for them. Your still stating the theme here.
m 25+, you have to orchestrate the diminuendo. Drop out instruments gradually. Flugels, while able to use standard trumpet mutes, are very rarely seen with mutes simply because the sound it too quiet and just muffled. Your flugel player won't be heard here. If you really want that muted sound, stick it in the repiano cornet, then it will have a chance at being heard. Also, the glock part is a nice refresher, but it should move with the trumpets at octave, not just doubling their notes in the same octave. Perhaps a vibraphone here too would be effective at giving a little sustainment to the notes.
m 29, the Crescendo isn't necessary. You should stay soft here. If all the low brass are playing whole notes at mp, they'll cover up the soloists. Keep it pp and make the solos mf. The mark tree won't be heard over the timpani roll.
m 30+, nice contrast here. I would use the flugelhorn to it's advantage and put the solo there rather than the 1st cornet. The flugelhorn matches the euphonium better and is much more mellow. Very nice melody! Good balance of non-chord tones and nice color tones in the harmonies esp. that augmented chord. Yay! Love that stuff. Those nice countermelodies in the horns/cornets should probably moved to only horns simply for color contrast, though that's a personal preference.
m 40, a few disagreeable notes.
m 44+, I’m assuming your going for an alternation between quiet and mysterious and loud and brash. Again, use of percussion will make or break this. I don’t like the inclusion of the xylophone, seems too out of character for a piece like this. The triangle would be swallowed up in the timpani roll. Come to mention it, a good deal of the band would be swallowed up there. Score carefully. Make use of the brass and percussion being the loudest families of instruments. Throughout that section until the recapitulation, the crescendo should be orchestrated. All those 32nds should be grace notes. There’s several funky notes that don’t belong. Another thing that will help the buildup is simply more notes. Get some of the cornet or horns to play some rhythmic stuff going faster and faster until m. 52.
m52, another nice cymbal crash needed.
m55, same disagreeable notes as beginning m 12
m59-60, I saw the circle of 5ths modulation coming from a mile away. I also don’t see the point of going to E-major this way. A M3 modulation is much more effective if you just go! C – G7- E! Very bright and unexpected. But with the circle of 5ths, it’s like “Yeah, ok. What next?” See what I’m saying? The following section seemed cheap too. Just repeating that whole note thing twice is really unnecessary. Do something different each time; don’t rely on copy and paste.
m73, Ah! Triplets! Very nice use of them too. It’s a nice refresher though then it feels like they should have been in the beginning. Consider adding some of this triplety stuff in the exposition. Loose the xylophone. Make it a glockenspiel instead. Spice it up with some nice snare rudiments and a steady pulse with the cymbals and bass drum
m76, Those same darned notes again!
m80, Those same darned notes again again!
m81+, Nice moving chromatics in the chords! Well done! Only change the bass G’s to either an F# for a tense sfz or a C for not so tense. Make everyone triplet on beat 4.
m83+, Nice surprise dynamics. Orchestrate the crescendo more. f < fff in low brass? No! They will cover everything up. If it’s just the bass note, you don’t need it that loud.
m87, A few disagreeable extensions in there
m88-89, The extensions ruin it for me. I would expect a grand and glorious, huge, bombastic, brash, loud, glorious, Rule Brianniaish… you get the idea. Give the brass band one of the most gorgeous tonic chords ever! The first big chord should have lots of extensions to emphasize the tension and release; from lots of dissonance to perfect consonance. Fermatas on the last 2 bars and long accents not ^ accents should be used.

Whew! That was long! All 1,508 words of it. I hope this is helpful to you and I greatly await the revised version! Good luck and happy composing!

Thanks to all of you for listening and reviewing this.

Just a few specific remarks to Justin's lengthy review.
Firstly, thanks!
OK - the clashes are *all* intentional. That's the first thing to get out. There is no dissonance in here which is an error (as far as I can possibly know).
I will consider upping the tempo a little.
Btw, I chose C major because it is fairly bright, and quite rich. Also, it's really rather rare in brass band music, so it will be good as a bit of a change. Transposing at this stage is impossible, as parts have been carefully calculated to fit the instruments' ranges.
I'm not quite sure what your comment about voice-leading meant, but the clashes in the piece generally resolve with good voice-leading. That clash on the third beat of bar 12 actually isn't that harsh a dissonance. The G# resolves upwards to A, the dominant, and the A# (which is really a Bb - I re-spelt it for ease of playing) resolves downwards to an A. A simple augmented sixth. Sure, other stuff is going on, but the clash is not that bad.
The timp. I will consider changing to an octave lower. That's been a question in my mind.
The senza vibrato is definitely necessary. *I* know who plays with vibrato, and when, in my brass band!
(Btw, I did add a bit more percussion....the ending now has tam-tam. Still, I follow the axiom: less is more; or, the more sparing the use of percussion, the more effective.)
b.13 ff. What do you mean my cornet chords don't agree? I don't think you understand my harmony. It's not traditional march harmony.
I see what you're saying about the accompaniment to the solo, however, the range, and indication 'Solo' will prevent that from happening.
The mark tree *will* be heard at a general mf/mp dynamic.
I don't know if you've ever heard a brass band... they do not get drowned out by the timpani. You realise when it says "Solo cornet" my band will have 6, on the night. And 3 seconds, and 3 thirds, etc., etc.
Your percussion tips are helpful - I'm going to check through the score looking at all the points you mentioned.
M.59-60. I wasn't actually trying to get to E major...
I don't get your objection to my dissonances....there were far more dissonances in your piece I just reviewed.
"f < fff in low brass? No! They will cover everything up."
That's *exactly* what I want. Notice I use 'fff' very sparingly. Even 'ff' I hardly use.
I don't know what you mean by extension. Suspension? Anyway, they're not triads, so they can hardly be 'extended'. They're just.......harmony.
Again, extensions? I take it you mean the 7ths. I happen to think that particular tonic chord with the major 7th *is* one of the most glorious tonic chords! It's barely dissonant.
Uhh.......I know what accents I wanted to use! I don't know why you keep assuming I wanted to do something other than....what I wanted to do! This isn't your piece, you know.
I don't want a fermata on the penultimate chord, but I do on the last one. The last one will happen anyway. I've spoken to the conductor about it.

Anyway, thanks for the long review. I will check over a few places where you mentioned.
You mostly seemed to be trying to change what I wanted, with your suggestions, and you've made a few silly comments about the brass band, as if assuming I know nothing about it! But you've still made some useful comments, so thanks!

Thanks all for listening! I appreciate all listens and comments.
Mitch, yes you should try it!
Composerorganist - I have considered expanding the ending, but I think I'm at just about my time quota already! I will contiue to think about it.

Again, thanks guys.

I gave it a good listen and liked a few things, but I a lot of things came off as rather harsh. I know you said you intentionally prepared just about all of these dissonances and resolved them properly, and I heard what you were going for, but even with that in mind I thought a lot of the dissonances sounded "too much." For instance... the G# in Solo Cnt. at M.12 really grates... it sounds fine by itself, but when I add your harmonies it sounds a little out of place. I think it's the Bb (or A#) to A resolution you were going for. Although it resolves, I think the impact of the dissonance is a little rough. I would probably have voiced a lot of these harmonies a bit differently throughout the piece, but then again this is your composition not mine. Sometimes cleaner is simpler is better, though, keep that in mind. And another random thought... the parallel sixths at 17 in cornets kinda bothered me... not sure why, but they did. You can disregard that though, it's only an opinion on my part.

I agree about that xylophone part... I'd go for chaging it to vibes myself, instead of glock. as Justin suggested. Sorry I don't have much to say about the piece myself, though. Unfortunately it didn't strike me as quite so wonderful, but perhaps it is an acquired taste that I ... haven't acquired. I can't say I dislike it. I just wish I could hear the recording now instead of the ... *brr* midi. I sat hear plunking out a few of the harmonies on the keyboard, but that's as far as I got. Haven't listened to it at the suggested slightly faster tempo yet, so I won't comment on that.

As much as I have to say is good luck on the recording. I understand you are not conducting this? Will you have lots of control? Just recording or in a concert program? If the latter, do inform us of its reception.

Thanks for listening.
Thanks also for the comments.
A few notes: I will look closely at the dissonances, and see if I can do anything to attenuate the harshness.. I would rather a good reception than 100% artistic integrity. Changing one note doesn't hurt too much.
You're dead right about the 6ths - the extra B clashes with a Bb, very briefly. I honestly like these little passing clashes, and that one happens once or twice at most.
We don't have vibes, and glock. is certainly the wrong instrument for that musical character.
No, I shan't be conducting it, but I should have a fair degree of input.
If I'm lucky it'll be programmed as part of a big concert, so a good few people there!
Wish me luck!
And thanks again. I will possibly post an updated score soon.

Oh, blast! I can't get the MIDI to play. Could there be something wrong with it, Daniel?

Hmm, yes, I had to make the midi a "type 0" whatever the hell that is. Otherwise, it added in some horrible dissonant marimba sound or something, which clearly isn't in the piece.

By the way, here is the updated midi. I will do a score to follow tomorrow.

Further note, to those not familiar with brass bands, transpositions are as follows:
Soprano cornet in E flat - sounds a m3rd higher than written.
Bb cornet, Bb flugel horn - sounds a M2nd lower than written (as Bb trumpet).
Horns in Eb - sound a M6th lower than written. (like a French horn in F, a tone lower).
Baritones, Tenor trombs and Euphoniums in Bb - sound a M9th lower than written.
Bass trombone - at concert pitch (ditto percussion...minus the obvious octave transp. of glock and xylo).
Eb bass (tuba) - sounds octave and a M6th below written.
Bb bass (tuba) - sounds octave and a M9th below written.

Well, Daniel, you've come quite a ways since your Neo-Classical days! I love the direction your style is taking. As Justin said, this sounds rather British, but there is certainly nothing wrong with that, especially if what you're looking for is pomp and pageantry, which is highly in evidence here. Rhythmically, it doesn't sound like the same old thing - you've mixed it up quite a bit with ties and hemiolas - and though it's quite tonally based, there are some terrific dissonances and stingers in there. To my ears, it sounds very well written for the brass idiomatically. Some wonderful changes in the slower section, and the whole last couple of pages brought the hackles up on my neck. The last three measures are going to blow the back of the hall out! The only thing I'm really not understanding about the structure is where you quote the opening pianissimo at 63 and 67 in the midst of something that appears entirely unrelated, tonally or otherwise; I get what you're doing, I'm just not sure why. It works itself out in the following page, and I think it's probably as simple as my sensibilities are different than yours. Otherwise, I can hear nothing else that to me doesn't work.

I certainly hope you do get a performance and recording. I'd love to hear how this sounds live. Congratulations on a very effective piece.

Was this a commission from the band?