Brass against Brass against Brass

The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli; The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble; The Cleveland Brass Ensemble; The Chicago Brass Ensemble; E. Power Biggs, organ

In my third year of Symphonic Band at SDSU, Mr. McK. decided to open our winter concert with a piece called “Flight” by composer Claude T. Smith. Mr. Smith composed this march-like work for the United States Air Force Band, who premiered the composition on November 1, 1984, in the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. At the request of the director of the museum, Mr. Smith included snippets of the Pachelbel Canon in D Major as the Canon plays as background music at Air and Space. The composer also makes a passing glance at the opening measures of the Air Force Song.

In the middle of the piece, the score calls for antiphonal trumpets. Typically, antiphonal brass ensembles divide themselves into groups of two and place themselves at opposite sides of the room, one answering the other across the expanse. But in this case, the composer just wanted a set of three trumpets to sit separate from the band, and Mr. McK. put me in the antiphonal trumpet section. It’s the only antiphonal playing I’ve ever done.

They say that the “Big Five” American orchestras are the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Thankfully, musical ensembles don’t instigate the rivalry that sports franchises do. As a matter of fact it’s refreshing to see the brass ensembles of three major orchestras come together to create a magnum opus for the ages. The master musicians came together in 1959 and 1968 to record this fanfare-ish and often triumphant music.

Credits: To James Smithson, the original “funding father” of the Smithsonian Institute, granting the United States 104,960 gold sovereigns in order to create an “Establishment for the increase and diffusion of Knowledge among men”. Congratulations, Mr. Smithson. The United States Government did something right with your money.