quintet
Arrangements & Arranging
When you have the opportunity to write or arrange music for a specific group of musicians, you have your own personal laboratory.  That was what I experienced.  Sometimes an experiment flopped, but as the successes grew so did my desire to reach into areas outside the classical genres. brass arrangements
In the very earliest days of the group, which had it beginnings as a quartet, one of our favorite selections was the Manhattan Transfer's version of "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square".  Trying to come up with music for a quartet was even more difficult and more limiting, but that's where we started and that's where I started arranging seriously.
After spending lots of time making arrangements, I turned to more challenging music by such composers as Massenet, Faure, Borodin, Suk, Gottschalk, Elgar, Albeniz, Bach and others. Along the way I wanted to try to bring a similar blended sound to our popular selections, as well.
At that time there were only a few commercial brass quintet arrangers of popular or jazz music (meaning you could go out and buy their arrangements), and after a while they started sounding pretty predictable and safe.  Not bad, mind you -- several of them are quite good indeed.
During this time I was listening to groups like Manhattan Transfer and Take Six.  Both of these groups conveyed that perfect "top to bottom" blend that I was after.  One Manhattan Transfer arrangement caught my ear -- "Down South Camp Meeting".  I wrote to Janis Seigel and asked if they were ever going to publish it, as I (and the whole quintet) was a BIG fan of theirs.  A few months later she just sent me a xerox of the scrawled out score they worked from in the studio, and said, "Here's what we used.  Have a go at it."  Something like that.
I was floored!  No request for anything, just "Here you go -- enjoy!"  What a wonderful example of unpretentious professionalism.
Eventually I did arrange it, and we played it quite a number of times.  It is definitely on the drawing board to get typeset.
All this doesn't mean that I felt like leaving the various classical genres in favor of jazz.  One of my very quintet first arrangements was of "Leyenda" by Isaac Albeniz.  After hearing Empire Brass do a concert where they performed a suite of Spanish Romantic works of turina and Albeniz, again I was astonished.  I'd never heard a quintet do that kind of playing.  I deicded if they could make arrangements like that, I could, too.
So I found three lovely pieces by Albeniz and got to work.  That was followed by some selections of Handel, Bach, Brade and Purcell.
About a year later Musician's Publications published my five-movement suite from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker".  Two years ago I got the rights to publish this collection transferred back to me.  At the time this was published (1990), there were no other Nutcracker arrangements for brass quintet.  I was told it did very well for that publisher.
It was again around 1990 that I came across another great piece of music.  As I was driving home one day, my car radio was tuned to a station that played nothing but Big Band music.  It wasn't always really great Big Band music, but it was most always fun.  There I was, listening to and completely absorbed in some fast-paced, energetic early swing band.  As this music was coming in to the home stretch, I started to come out of my hypnotic daze -- "Holy Cow!", I thought, "What in the world is THIS?"
I listened carefully, but the announcer garbled over the name of both the tune and the band.  I was upset.  How could I ever trace what I'd heard?  I was definitely affected by this piece.
Luck was with me, because about a week later, maybe around the same time of day (you know that some radio stations plan what they play to "fit" different times of the day), I heard it again.  Since I didn't really know it yet, having heard it only once (and then I was in a trance from it), I was unaware that it was the same piece of music.  I was aware that this piece was grabbing my ears, big time!  So, I pulled over to the side of the road -- just a few blocks from where I live -- got out a piece of paper, and waited for the announcer.  
Garbled again!
But I had some idea of what it sounded like.  So I called that radio station as soon as I got home and asked.  They said it was called "The Casa Loma Stomp", and the band was called Glen Gray and The Casa Loma Orchestra.  A week or so later I found a brand new cassette tape, just released by Columbia under a new series of theirs called "The Best Of Big Bands".
There it was, #8 on the tape.  I was in heaven!  THE CASA LOMA STOMP.
Then when the quintet went on out of town concerts to Cape Cod, we'd all be packed into one of the guy's parent's station wagon, and I would bring this tape.  Several members rolled their eyes when I would play it -- after eight road trips, they wanted to roll it out the window!
When I finally got the CD, I decided I would copy it off the album.  It took a while, but when it was done, I was a big believer in Glen Gray and The Casa Loma Orchestra.  In the process of this, I found that when he retired in 1955, he settled in Plymouth, Mass., the same town from which the radio broadcast came that I initially heard.  When he died in 1963, he bequeathed his papers to Northeastern University, here in Boston.
I called NU and asked about these papers.  They said I could look, but I could not make any kind of copies at all.  I looked at many scores, memorabilia, notebooks (this man was very organized, and famous for his level-headed business sense), and an old slightly damaged trophy from 1938 from Downbeat Magazine, for having "The Sweetest Band In America".
I now have five or six Glen Gray CDs.
Another item I discovered on that CD was a rarity by Hoagy Carmichael called "New Orleans".  It is not a very well known song -- quite simple in that Carmichael fashion, and likewise beautifully poetic.  As arranged for brass quintet, it opens a door of possibility for a quintet that may have a member with a good singing voice.  The tuba player at that time was Randy Montgomery, who always did a fine job with that song.
TOURNAMENT GALOP (Gottschalk)
This was another "radio discovery".  One morning my clock radio woke me, and the piano music that was playing immediately and completely woke me up!  I listened, and got a pen and paper to write down the information.  This announcer, the late Rober J. Lurtsema, spoke clearly and distinctly (he was renowned for his diction and clear pronunciation).
At the end he said the music was by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, entitled "Tournament Galop".  I found it in a collection of his complete piano works, and the arrangement soon became one of the most popular pieces we ever played.
It nicely pairs the trumpets off "against each other", from a staging point of view.  This aspect adds a little visual drama for the audience, although the piece itself is plenty dramatic.  It is one heck of a lickety-split, winner-take-all showpiece.
I previously had known Gottschalk (1829-1869) from two selections arranged for quintet by H. A. Stamm (Two Caribbean Dances: Souvenir di Porto Rico/Souvenir di Havane).  There was something definitely interesting about his style of writing.  I soon discovered that there was a book by him.  It is a journal he kept for many years.  11 years ago I bought a second-hand copy for $50.00, and when I last looked, used copies were going for over $200.00 or more.
The book is called "Notes of A Pianist".  It is one of the most interesting books you can imagine.  Take a look:

Gottschalk was from New Orleans.

There he was surrounded by music sung by the slaves.

He entered the Paris Conservatory at age 13, and soon was hailed as a genius.

He returned to America and toured so constantly that he often didn't know what town he was going to.

The ladies loved him.

He toured the country during the Civil War.

He mostly played his own music.

He was the very first famous American musical virtuoso.

He died in South America of Yellow Fever at age 40.

His sister translated his journal from its original French into English for publication, 30 years after he died.
NESSUN DORMA (Puccini) (Wedding commission)
Often weddings served as opportunities to publicly perform selections that were being prepared for a formal concert setting.  This means that in addition to some of the more standard wedding music (the Wagner "Bridal Chorus" or the Mouret "Rondeau", for example), we would toss into the mix of Preludes some very challenging, yet still appropriate music.
These might include the unusual and tricky "Jig" Fugue allegedly by J.S. Bach (allegedly, since several musicologists disagree as to whether Bach actually did write it), the Handel "Aria", made famous by the Empire Brass, or a dramatic and lush song by Richard Strauss, "Aller'seelen".  Both the Bach and the Strauss are arrangements beautifully done by Los Angeles trombonist Ralph Sauer.
Having been accustomed to including the "more expensive" repertoire, it was a delight when a musically informed bride contacted me to see if the quintet were available for her wedding.  In discussing the music for her ceremony, she brought up several big opera selections, and it turned out the she had spent at least a week in Milan, Italy, going every night to hear opera -- she loved the stuff!
The music she wanted had never been arranged for quintet, but I told her I did arranging for the group.  So she hired not only the quintet to perform at the wedding, but also she hired me to arrange "Nessun Dorma" for quintet.
In looking at the score, I wanted the melody for myself, but I realized that within the confines of the ensemble the trumpet would not do justice to that melody.  To me, the obvious choice was the French horn, and it was such a success with everyone in the quintet that we began including it at concerts.
Audiences loved it -- so much so that we included it on our third recording (which was also our first CD, "Fire In The Chamber").  About a year later a popular announcer at one of the local public radio stations often used it in his programming.  What a thrill to hear it over the air!  (Is my ego showing?)
IN THE STEPPES OF CENTRAL ASIA (Borodin)
There is but a small amount of original music for brass quintet.  Within that limited number are four quintets by a Russian composer named Viktor Ewald.  They are fun to play, and there are some definite challenges to overcome in order to do a good job with them.  Even so, they are not great works of music.  They serve as something of a standard for Romantic writing for brass.
There are some moments in them (as well as in that excellent "Sextett for Brass" by Oskar Bohme) when the same powerful moods arrive that Alexander Borodin often created.  Borodin's music has a definite "signature" about it, totally unique and often captivating.
This struck me while listening to IN THE STEPPES OF CENTRAL ASIA.  As grand and dramatic as it sounded, it also sounded pretty simple.  Once I looked at the score and followed along with the recording, I could see that it was a prime candidate for being arranged for quintet.
Another feature that struck me as desirable was its ever so gradual building of intensity to one grand moment, and then an equally gradual return to the same quiet it displayed in the beginning.  It is easy to imagine a caravan in Central Asia slowly processing by, reflecting the character of the music.  Nothing in the world like it for quintet -- and again, audiences loved every moment of it.
FAIREST ISLE (Purcell)
If you were to compare the amount of music publicly available for brass quartet (either for two trumpets and two trombones, or for two trumpets, French horn and trombone) and brass quintets, you would see that there's no comparison.  Quartets come up short in every category of style.
As a result, any group starting out as a brass quartet (as Boston Brass did) will soon gravitate to the same selections.  Some of these are quite nice.  There's an interesting version of the Berlioz "Chorus of the Jugglers" that not as many groups know about.  One of the all time favorites is a three movement suite from "King Arthur" by Henry Purcell.  To say that everyone knows this is quite likely true, if you are speaking of brass players.
Having come to know this suite, I was pleased to find something else for sale from "King Arthur".  It was an arrangement for trumpet and piano, and in a brass music catalog it was merely titled "Song (from King Arthur)".  I thought that for $10.00 it would be a good risk, since the suite was pretty good.
When it arrived in the mail and I opened the envelope, my first thought was that I was cheated -- it was barely two pages long and looked very bland.  And it was just titled "Song (from King Arthur)".  The next day I had a wedding to play, so I took it along. It looked so easy even I might have been able to play the piano part!  As we rehearsed the music before the wedding, we read this.  I was floored at how lovely and simple it was.  Now that $10.00 seemed like a bargain!
Immediately I made an arrangement of it for the quintet, supplying a second verse.  Otherwise it would have been too short -- now its second verse adds some variety as well as length.  A few years later I looked at a full score to Purcell's "King Arthur" and discovered the title to be "Fairest Isle". It's very sweet and offers nice contrast to more "fancy" Baroque selections, either on a concert or at a wedding ceremony.
TWO COURANTS (Voelckel) (LP discovery)
Many years ago, while still a student at the University of North Texas (which was then called New England Conservatory of Music In Denton, Texas  -- oh, sorry, my mistake, it was actually called North Texas State University), I got interested in the "early music" fad.  Well, it seemed like a fad at the time.  I played baroque trumpet and cornetto for a while, enjoying the experience.
Along the way I got a few LPs by the amazing David Munrow, who had a group he called the Early Music Consort.  When I compared those recordings to the examples I had heard in music history class, it was obvious the David Munrow put a lot of passion and thought into his music.  He played every kind of woodwind instrument, and there are LOTS of them, each one completely quirky and unpredictable.
One his landmark double LP recording, "Instruments and Music of the Renaissance and Middle Ages", there was this one particular selection called "Two Courants" by someone with the impossible name of Voelckel (Flemish), from around 1612.  As I listened to it I only heard one courant, but I didn't care -- it was a riot!  So much energy and drive, like the most exciting of the instrumental dances by the well known Early Baroque composer Anthony Holborne.
It took a lot of poking around in a local library to find any entries at all by this composer.  After considerable research I found a publisher and ordered a small collection.  There was no indication as to the contents of this collection, but I had to see.  When it arrived, I was surprised to see how physically small the music was.  The very last two entries were these two courants.
The reason I never heard two separate selections on the recorded, is the Munrow performed them both back-to-back with no separation.  So that's how I wrote it out.  It is a great addition to the more standard Holborne, Gabrieli and Susato from that earlier music period.
CONCERTO IN D  (Loeillet) (LP discovery)
For a few years in college, I was a subscriber to Musical Heritage Society.  Each month their catalog would have all kinds of goodies, and very often Maurice Andre would be featured.  I bought about10 of those LPs.  Most of their LPs were originally released Europe, and MHS did a great job of bringing much lesser known music over here.
One of the Maurice Andre recordings had a Concerto in D by Jacques Loeillet.  From the very first time I heard it I was captivated by the light approach of the writing, which even though conveyed a sense of impetuousness and drive.  To be sure, this was not written for the trumpet, and much of what Andre recorded at that time was transcribed from works originally written for flute, oboe, violin, oboe or organ.
In doing this, he showed that beautiful music never lost any of its beauty if carefully arranged in a manner other than that of the original.
I carried that LP with me when I moved to Boston in 1979, and in 1983, fueled by a good bit of coffee, I played that selection many time, copying off the solo part, and then the string parts.  After several days, I was finished.  Sometime in 1984 I performed it at The French Library of Boston, with a small sting orchestra.
Once Boston Brass came into existence and I began to more seriously work on my arranging skills, I looked over all the various pieces I had gathered.  I knew at once that the Concerto in D of Loeillet had to be arranged.  It had never been published.  In fact, as far as I can tell, Maurice Andre recorded it only that one time, unlike other works that he recorded on several occasions.  For a quintet, it gives a trumpeter the chance to shine on the piccolo trumpet.
PRESTO (DeFesch) (LP discovery)
Another MHS Maurice Andre recording had some unusual suites.  They were unusual because some of the movements had been gleaned from other works and combined into a "new" collection.  So while the composer had not conceived of these movements being together at the same time, they were placed that way on this record.  And they worked beautifully!
One suite was by Willem deFesch (another Flemish composer).  I found myself once more in love with the music, as well as Maurice Andre's playing.  With more than a little help from Esther Breslau at Yesterday's Music in Cambridge (now, sadly, closed), I was able to order a few scores of orchestral suites by this composer, with the hope that I might find this movement.
Success!  One of them had this "Presto".  On the record Andre was playing piccolo trumpet, in tandem with an oboist.  It was an exciting duet!  I decided that I did not want it to be the same kind of higher-pitched duet, so I lowered the key into a more medium range.
While it does feature both the trumpeters, the entire ensemble is obviously providing the drive and energy that continues forward to the end -- it does not let up until then.
TOWARD A NEW LIFE (Suk) (Radio discovery)
In the mid-1980s, the Cincinatti Pops was becoming a very popular "pops" orchestra, in some ways competing with the Boston Pops.  One day I heard a powerful and proudly heroic march on the radio.  I didn't know what it was, but it practically demanded that I listen to it.
Once the title (Toward A New Life, by Josef Suk) and the recording were identified. I went out and bought a tape of it.  The recording was all about excitement, "Pops and Pizzaz" it was called.  The trumpets were really great -- it sounded like they had two Herseths in the trumpet section!
If you do not know that name, you are likely not a trumpeter.  Adolph "Bud" Herseth played 1st trumpet in the Chicago Symphony for over 50 years, retiring only in 2001; he is revered worldwide for his musical artistry and command of the trumpet.
I actually did begin copying this off the cassette, after listening to it over and over and over (it really is a compelling performance).  It soon seemed like a huge job, even too big.  So I called Esther at Yesterday's Music, and she said it was available only from Prague.  Therefore I would have to go directly through a European American Music association.
After a few months they were able to supply me with an orchestral score.  There I made a discovery -- there was also a choral part!  A chorus was indicated to be singing throughout much of it, doubling the musical lines that the orchestra was playing.  Since the chorus was doubling the orchestra, it works perfectly well as a strictly instrumental work.  It won an award in the 1932 Olympics, which were held in California I believe.
It's far from Sousa, but he certainly would have loved it.  It is so complex, almost like a miniature tone poem -- a more heroic march would be hard to find.
MASSENET SUITE (radio discovery)
Every Sunday morning a local public radio station, WGBH, played a delightful smorgasboard of music.  The host, the late Robert J. Lurtsema, managed to find music that was both unusual and captivating.
One Sunday I was hearing short piano selections.  They soon became very interesting, so I started to pay attention and really listen.  Each little piece, about two minutes long, was brilliant.  Once Lurtsema came back on the air, he identified the music as an early work by the French composer Jules Massenet.
Monday I called a local music store and was told they had a CD in stock with this very piece.  It was a "limited" European import.  I was again lucky to find it, and soon I had my hand on the music itself.  This 10 movement suite was written while he was a student in music school.  The liner notes speculated that he may have quickly written these off to pass a test in school, but they are far from academic.
They are each one a gem.  Three of them seemed to contain potential technical problems for brass, so I focused on arranging the other seven movements.  Boston Brass performed them during one season.  Parts of them do pose the kind of virtuoso technical challenges that are more often associated with a string quartet or a woodwind quintet.  That is one of their main points of interest, because they bring out different aspects of a brass quintet.
This is not to say that they are all technical and flashy, though parts of them are that.  There is a necessary element of finesse required to play these well, along with solid technical command. 
SALUT D'AMOUR   (Elgar) (Radio discovery)
Soon I realized that whenever I was listening to the radio, I was also scrutinizing music and noticing if it had elements that would make it a likely candidate for arranging.  One day there was a series of shorter orchestral pieces being played.  They had an attractiveness and charm that caught my attention at once.
When the announcer mentioned the recording, and especially the title of one that I found particularly loively, I went out and got a copy of that recording.  The piece was called "Salut d'Amour" and I instantly knew it would be perfect for quintet.  Next, I ordered an orchestral score and looked at it while listening to the recording.
The challenge in this kind of harmonically rich Romantic writing is to keep enough of the original for just five players.  There are so many different ideas going on throughout this piece, that eliminating any of them would weaken the power of the piece.  This is not a long piece, nor is it a outward and flashy showpiece.  What it is instead is a display of controlled passion, requiring both physical stamina and delicacy.  It's this almost restrained drive that makes it such a beautiful miniature.
Elgar originally wrote it as a Valentine for the woman he would eventually marry.  He sold it directly to his publisher, only to see it become the single most popular selection he ever wrote.  If he had been able to somehow retain the rights to it, he would have become wealthy on the royalties from it alone.
THE DOCTOR OF ALCANTARA (Eichberg) (Library discovery)
Having access to good music libraries has been a bonus for me.  I have made friends with interesting and helpful librarians at the New England Conservatory of music.  They have brought to my attention a number of unusual works and composers on several occasions.
In the very early 1990s I was shown an old score for an overture to what looked like an opera.  It was called "The Doctor of Alcantara", and the composer was Julius Eichberg.  It turns out that Mr. Eichberg was the founder of the Boston Conservatory in the early 1860s.
Inside the cover of the score was a synopsis of the story.  It was totally ridiculous and entirely unbelievable, which was the fashion for the light operas.  Gilbert and Sullivan had set the tone in this manner, and they were definitely "all the rage".  This particular story was fundamentally a love story (weren't most of the, when you get right down to it?), and the overture contains several melodies which are most likely the most memorable songs and choruses from the operetta.
It has all the characteristics you would expect.  Once Boston Brass began performing it, and especially when audiences continually expressed their delight in it, the decision was made to include it in the opera aria-and-overture CD called "Stealing The Show"
HENRY K. HADLEY  (Library discovery)
It was during the same period when I came across the Eichberg overture that I began looking for some Romantic songs that might lend themselves to the quintet setting.  At the NEC library I was shown the section where such music was filed, and soon came across several songs for voice and piano by Henry K. Hadley.
A Massachusetts native, Hadley was born in Somerville, a town right next to Boston and Cambridge.  He lived until 1937.
The six songs I arranged all came from the very late 1890s.  Of those six, three were especially beautiful.  Writing in a later Romantic style, Hadley moved freely between various harmonies and tonalities, adding various elements of drama.
Being so colorful these selections were similar to the Elgar in that they did not allow me to leave out much; otherwise they would be diminished in potency.  This means that there is less resting than brass players might be accustomed to, and a greater demand of sensitivity to the subtle shading of the writing.  What this in turn does is open up a potentially broader spectrum of sound-colors for the quintet.
The third of these three, "Calendar of Love", is as close to gold as a quintet can come.
FORGOTTEN FAIRY TALES (MacDowell)  (Library discovery)
Probably one of the best-known miniatures by Edward MacDowell is "To A Wild Rose".  Anyone who has ever been a beginning piano student has probably played it, it is that simple.  And like a beautiful Rose, it is that perfect.
While I knew that it would make a nice arrangement for quintet, I wanted to arrange instead some less known works by this master.  In "Forgotten Fairy Tales" I found just that -- four shorter movements that each conveyed some fairy tale.
Some of them feature an instrument throughout as the solo voice, but in all four, the ensemble acts as a cast of characters with the different melodic motifs.  They successfully convey the imaginary world of each little tale, and together make a delightful suite.
SIR PATRICK SPENS (Pearsall) (Library discovery)
One of the most exciting kinds of concerts a brass quintet can do is to join forces with an organist and delve into the repertoire of "double choir" music.  In much of this kind of music, the writings of Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli (nephew and uncle) are the most popular examples.
These composers, especially Giovanni, wrote in truly exciting new ways during the later 1500s.  Audiences always love hearing these bigger works.
On January 2, 1993, Boston Brass was joined by five other brass players for a most unusual wedding ceremony.  The groom had specified that the only music he wanted for the entire wedding was to be by Gabrieli, and he wanted 40 minutes worth of preludes.  The reason?  His name is Gabrieli and he is a direct descendant of this famous family of musicians.
Anyway, back to Robert Pearsall, an English composer who lived until 1859.  While browsing in the library, I came across a double choir work by this Romantic composer.  It seemed to me that it would make a nice change of pace from the more common Renaissance music typically featured at organ and brass concerts.
The interesting legend on which this work was based gives it a nice sense of drama.  At the end, when Sir Patrick and all his shipmates "hold court" at the bottom of the sea -- having sunk while bravely battling the elements -- a most quiet and fitting conclusion was often added by the creative organist:  By the use of a dark sounding chime, he made it sound as though a ship's bell was ringing as a final salute of honor.

©Copyright Richard Waddell, 2001
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