Fugues & Postludes

somewhere in the general vicinity of F

Written: 2023
Duration: ca. 5:30
Instrumentation: Brass Quintet (2 Trumpets, Horn, Trombone, Tuba). Mutes requires.
Written for the Atlantic Brass Quintet and Mostly Modern Festival.
Premiere: 6/21/2023

Program Notes

As a brass player myself, I was ecstatic to be able to work with an ensemble of the caliber of the Atlantic Brass Quintet. I wrote the piece as a means of pushing myself further. My pieces often have a severe lack of structure and quickly devolve into theme and variations or a disconnected series of vignettes, so I chose the Fugue to force myself to work within a stricter structural limit. Of course, I couldn't help myself from playing with it a bit. So instead of the standard prelude and fugue, you will hear several attempts at a fugue ranging from strict to sincere to silly, sillily-strict, sincerely-silly, and strictly-sincere. Once that all falls apart, we relax into the postludes. Above all, I wanted this piece to be fun to play and hope you find it fun to listen to as well.