One Day Wonder #67

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

One of the great things about a large brass ensemble is that you can write some pretty scary and badass stuff, if that’s your thing. That was totally my thing on this day. I’m not completely sold on it. I mean, it could sound much scarier, but it’s tough to generate something truly frightening in just one day. Honestly, my standards are actually higher for something of this genre than any other. I don't just throw notes down on the page and call it a day. I listen to the piece measure by measure and, since I'm not following any sort of theory (such as serialism or whatnot), I let my ear guide me. I usually end up tossing a lot of stuff out because it doesn't sound right. Of course, if you're not a fan of this kind of music, you're probably thinking: "Jeez, you mean it sounded even worse before you finished??" I hear ya. But I've found that there's a lot of beauty in contemporary music once you strip away the pretension and hyper-seriousness. This piece has none of that. It's not inspired by fragments of Sanskrit text, it's not based on a dark chapter in world history, it doesn't justify itself through math and it doesn't have a funky title. It is what it is. I've found that when the aforementioned pretension and hyper-seriousness lapses a few years, it ends up sounding kind of hilarious. Back when I was in college 20 years ago, everybody had their favorite contemporary lion. It could have been Penderecki or Xenakis or Cage or somebody else. These days, I listen to that music, and it all sounds so quaint and dated. I read these pieces' liner notes and find them rather silly and self-serving. The whole post-modern (or post-expressionist, take your pick) is so Cold War. I'm really glad it's over. These days, you can write whatever you damn well please. Of course, if you're like me, you won't be able to make a living at it, but my poverty hasn't reached critical mass yet. My whole point is that, like everything, contemporary music has its good and bad pieces. I would like to think of this as an OK, if not a slightly dated, example of it. Most contemporary pieces of the last 40 or so years don't embrace tempo as heartily as this number. Enjoy.

Click on the title to listen.