In 1976, my parents gave me two brass LP's as
Christmas gifts (some of you may remember vinyl)
- the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble's splendid Classics for
Brass and the equally spectacular Canadian Brass in Paris .
As a budding young tubist, these recordings were seminal, inspiring a deep
love for the sound of the
brass ensemble in all of its
various manifestations. Immediately, I set to work transcribing and
orchestrating works for brass and
have been immersed in the field ever since.
A quick perusal of the pages on this site will reveal a couple of things -
1) seemingly, I have too much time on my hands; and 2) I tend towards
orchestrations of keyboard works (with a few notable exceptions). It
is my belief that many composers write music for piano or organ with a more
colorful palette in mind - there is simply too much implied color and effect
in most keyboard music to ignore this conclusion. Additionally, the early keyboard
works by the English court composers who served at the pleasure of Queen
Elizabeth I would be pleased to hear their works played with such majesty
and splendor, I think. Arrangers and orchestrators have used the music of
Bach as a playground since...Bach. Nevertheless, it would be the
height of hubris to think that Debussy was thinking brass (his orchestral
works
don't demonstrate any particular predilection towards the brass instruments as a
family). But, for me, many of his
piano works simply orchestrate themselves for brass.
In addition to writing for the Boulder Brass,
I have been fortunate recently to work with some of the world's other truly
outstanding brass ensembles, orchestrating in recent years works for the
Canadian Brass, Summit Brass, and the Burning River Brass. The
orchestrations represented here have been performed by the brass sections of
the New York Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Nashville Symphony, as well as
the Bay Brass, the New York Big Brass, Rodney Mack's Philadelphia Big Brass,
Rhythm and Brass, the Imperial Brass, the Dallas Brass, and some of the
brass ensembles
from our country's top military bands.
Of course my colleagues here in Colorado that comprise the Boulder Brass
deserve a special mention - the best workshop for any arranger is direct
access to a talented group of artists that can breathe vigor into the little
black dots, and my friends in the Boulder Brass have been doing just that
with alacrity (and patience) for 20 years.
This is a dream come true. I hope you enjoy the sights and sounds on
these pages and welcome your
comments.
Mike Allen
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