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Programme Note

Equale Dances for brass quintet (which is really my Second Quintet for Brass) was commissioned by Equale Brass, with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain, and was first performed by them in 1983. The structure of the piece is similar to that of another work of the same period scored for brass band, namely Dances and Arias. It uses alternating fast (Dances) and slow music (Arias):

Toccata (a fast but majestic dance with changing time patterns).

Aria 1 (horn solo over an ostinato for trombone and tube – a middle section uses overlapping contrapuntal lines [creating cluster harmonies] for trumpets and trombone with harmon mutes).

Scherzo (a short but frenetic movement built on short melodic and rhythmic patterns – piccolo trumpet used).

Aria 2 (in the manner of a funeral march for two flugel horns with simple chordal support).

Burlesque (a highly-charged dance, fragmented in nature) joined to:

Toccata (reprise).

The work lasts for some 15 minutes and is quite virtuosic in character.

Edward Gregson