One Day Wonder #22

For 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones and tuba.

I've been watching a lot of Nip/Tuck lately and I can help noticing that they play a lot of spacey bossa nova music. You'd think that since it takes place in Miami, they'd use salsa or something from the universe of Caribbean latin music, but no. It seems to be mostly non-authentic Brazilian bossa. I really like the lazy way the tunes flow, but wasn't sure how to set it up for brass ensemble. After some tribulations, I figured out an approach: mute everyone except for the lead horn and tuba! (Well, one trumpet un-mutes in the middle.) That’s why it sounds like frogs croaking. Keep in mind that one of Finale's major flaws is that Finale only offers one muted brass patch and that's Harmon-muted trumpet. That's it. Got a straight-muted trombone or a stopped horn? Take a hike, buddy! So basically, you're just hearing one instrument sound across a few registers when you should be hearing Haromon-muted trumpet and trombone and stopped horn. The ensemble will sound different than depicted here (it should sound much richer), but again, not unlike a bunch of frogs. I really like the into and the A section. The lead horn just drifts along above all this croaking. The problem is that I had to write a B section. I don't like this one so much. At very best, it offers a more kinetic contrast to the nice A section, which returns promptly. That's followed by an outro and we're done.

Click on the title to listen.