PROGRAMME NOTES

Music For Brass

Two trumpets, three trombones (1957/2015)

Lento – Allegro Moderato

Music for Brass is a student work from 1957, revised in 2015. The first public performance was given by the Juilliard Brass Ensemble conducted by Arthur Bloom at the Juilliard School of Music, New York, on 19 May 1959. It is not typical of Dickinson’s later works such as Fanfares and Elegies for organ and brass (1967) or London Rags for brass quintet (1986). There are two linked movements - Lento and Allegro Moderato. The Lento opens with sombre chordal settings almost like a chorale. The Allegro Moderato is in effect a study in varied metres. It is in a ternary design with an austere central part which builds up to fanfares that reach a climax followed by a brief reference back to the first movement before the first section of the Allegro is repeated.