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Programme Note

This is a short piece for brass quintet in one movement. The polyphony of the introduction gives way to massed chords, which in turn lead to the first main section. This is a funeral march during which all the instruments have solos in turn. The trombone is first, then trumpet I; horn; later in duet with trumpet II; finally there is long solo for the tuba.

The second section is a series of fanfares on trumpets, joined by the horn, which alternate with successive phrases of a chorale melody on the lower instruments - horn, trombone, and tuba. Mit Fried and Freud ich far dahin is Martin Luther’s masterly and very beautiful re-creation in German of the Nunc dimittus. The massed chords of the introduction then return, and the piece ends with the polyphony with which it began.


Funeral music was written in April and July of this year 1992. I have wanted to write such a piece for brass ever since my father died on 27 July 1966. This work commemorates him and other members of my family, as well as several friends who have died. But it is inscribed specifically in memoriam Stefan Pal: he was the son of friends in Hohenpeissenberg, Bavaria, and he died in July 1990.


Hugh Wood