Adoration, for brass quintet
Instrumentation: brass quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba)
Year Composed: 2022
Duration: 3’
Originally composed for organ by Florence B. Price
Premiered April 2022
Program Notes:
Adoration (1951) by Florence Price is a piece originally written for organ that I arranged for tuba-euphonium quartet, horn quartet, and brass quintet. This piece features a sweet melody reminiscent of truly adoring something and transports the listener to those fond memories. In the middle, there is a brief section with minor tonality that portrays the conflict that can sometimes occur in love, but the original melody returns as things will almost always resolve in the end.
Total Praise, for brass quintet
Instrumentation: brass quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba)
Year Composed: 2022
Originally composed for Gospel choir by Kirk Franklin
Premiered April 2022
Program Notes:
Total Praise is a Gospel standard composed by Richard Smallwood. This arrangement uses brass to match some of the magnificence of hearing a full choir and band perform the work.
Quarantine(r) March, for brass quintet
Instrumentation: brass quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba)
Year Composed: 2021
Duration: 2’46”
Premiered February 2022 by the Charm Brass Quintet
Program Notes:
Quarantine(r) March is a march I wrote at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. The title gives a nod to the popular march “Florentiner March” by Julius Fucik. Originally written for a full wind band, this work explores the different moods that most people experienced surrounding the beginning of the pandemic. It conveys the early joy when things were first canceled, the boredom experienced after a few weeks in isolation, the frustration felt after realizing it was nowhere near over, and the inner-turmoil of trying to balance all of these emotions. When I adapted the work for brass quintet, I placed the final piccolo solo in the tuba part to allude to my community band’s longstanding tradition of having the tuba section play the piccolo solo in John Philip Sousa’s the Stars and Stripes Forever.