ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK: “American Fanfare” (1985)
Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. Hailstork currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is professor of music at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. He wrote “American Fanfare” in 1985 as an entry in a contest for a fanfare to celebrate the opening of a new wing at an art gallery in Richmond, Virginia.
FLORENCE ANNA MAUNDERS: “Transmission 1” (2020)
Florence Anna Maunders started to compose music when she was a teenager. Her early tape-based pieces from this time reveal an early fascination with the unusual juxtapositions of sounds and collisions of styles which have been a hallmark of her music making ever since. One of her main goals as a composer has always been to write music which excites and moves the audience. She has also found that her identity as a transgender woman has had a profound influence on her perspectives towards composition, and this is reflected within many of her works. These ideals are all clearly portrayed in “Transmission 1.”
“Transmission 1” deals mainly with the alignment and juxtaposition of 11-beat phrases against a two- or four-beat sense of pulsation, and the transmission of musical phrases and ideas between different instruments within the septet. Maunders also refers to this piece as a “Trans Mission,” referencing the idea of transformation that Maunders often includes in her music. Maunders states: “There's certainly a lot of joyful determination in accepting a great change and making it part of one's identity, and although change in life, as in composition, brings great challenges, it can also bring great rewards and great joy.”
HERBERT HAUFRECHT: Symphony for Brass and Timpani (1955)
Herbert Haufrecht was a Juilliard-trained composer who began his career as a representative for the Resettlement Administration of the Federal Department of Agriculture. In this capacity, Haufrecht chronicled the folk musical traditions of Virginia while working to sustain them through community musical events. His varied compositions reflect this folk quality while also integrating jazz and classical idioms.
Haufrecht’s Symphony for Brass and Timpani was written in 1955 as a "meditation on war and peace.” The first movement (Dona Nobis Pacem, or “Grant Us Peace”) begins with a haunting brass chorale that soon finds a consonant resolution. If the first movement is a prayer for peace between two sides on the brink of war, the second movement is a lament for the cost of that war. A simple, angular theme opens the movement. A return to the mournful first theme closes the movement with despair. This gloominess, however, doesn't last. The third movement begins with a jaunty fanfare that grows into a joyful theme. The war is clearly over, and life is all about celebration, except for the scattered moments of caution, reminding us to be ever diligent about our peace.
BRIAN BALMAGES: Symphony in Brass (1998)
Brian Balmages is known worldwide as a composer and conductor who equally spans the worlds of orchestral, band, and chamber music. Balmages has enjoyed commissions and premieres by many ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Miami Symphony Orchestra, and the Dominion Brass Ensemble, and he currently serves as the director of instrumental publications for the FJH Music Company Inc.
One of his earliest compositions, Symphony No. 1 for Brass was written and premiered in 1998 for the James Madison University Brass Ensemble. The work is structured in three-movements exploring the exciting colors and textures of the contemporary brass ensemble.
—Maya Schiek
