Edward Gregson (b. 1945)
Recordings
- 1968 – The Hallé Brass Consort (Hallé Brass Consort)
- 1983 – British Brass Works (New York Brass Quintet)
- 1986 – Brass Ring (Brass Ring)
- 1996 – Music from Chaucer (Beaux Arts Brass Quintet)
- 2007 – Le Soleil de Mitia (OR Notes Brass Quintet)
- 2011 – Hallé Brass Plays Gregson (Hallé Brass)
- 2020 – Gregson – Music of Angels (London Brass)
General Info
Year composed: 1967
Approximate duration: c. 10:30
Publisher: Novello & Co., Ltd.
Cost: $26.40 – Score; $24.76 – Parts (print, sold separately)
Difficulty:
Movements
- Andante sostenuto – 5:30
- Allegro molto ritmico – 4:40
Instrumentation
- Full score
- Trumpet 1 in B flat
- Trumpet 2 in B flat
- Horn
- Trombone (bass clef & tenor clef)
- Tuba
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Commission
dedicated to the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Premiere
5 July 1967 – Royal Academy of Music (student group comprising George Parnaby & William Stokes, trumpets; Christopher Larkin, horn; Alan Griggs, trombone; David Honeyball, tuba)
Program Notes
Quintet for Brass is a seminal work in Edward Gregson’s output. Composed in 1967 as a graduation piece, it won the Royal Academy of Music’s most prestigious composition prize established as a memorial to one of its most influential composition teachers, Frederick Corder (1952-1932). Interestingly, Gregson’s teacher Alan Bush (1900-1995) was a pupil of Corder at the Royal Academy of Music. In the audience at the Quintet’s first performance, given by a student brass quintet, was Philip Jones, who was impressed with the confidence and skill it revealed and took on a UK Tour with his ensemble. It was also broadcast in the finals of the BBC Young Composers Competition. When the work was published the following year, it bore the dedication to the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. ‘I owe Philip a huge debt of gratitude for promoting a work by a then unknown young composer’, Gregson writes.
The Quintet is a remarkably assured work in two finely balanced movements. In the first a wild Allegro – full of leaping sevenths, muted trills and glissandi – is framed by a contrapuntal Andante. The opening horn ‘call’ together with its ‘response’ on muted trumpets brings all 12 semitones into play. It returns in canon to bring the movement to a tranquil close. The second movement is a lively rondo. A quick march introduction leads to a fanfare-like main theme, built from trumpet arpeggios in a ‘nod’ to Malcolm Arnold, whose Brass Quintet No. 1 (1961) had become a staple of the PJBE repertoire. In a ‘bluesy’ first episode, the horn takes the lead, while the theme of the fugato second episode extends the work’s opening theme to encompass all 12 semitones. The rondo tune returns to propel the piece to a brilliant finish.
program note by Paul Hindmarsh
Other Works for Brass by this Composer
- Aria for Philip (2000; revised 2019) for brass quintet
- Brass Quartet No. 1 (1968)
- Brass Quartet No 2. (1968)
- Ceremonial (2009) for brass quintet
- Equale Dances
- Fanfare for a New Era (2017) for brass ensemble
- Fanfare for Europe (1973) for brass ensemble
- Fanfare for PL (2014) for brass ensemble
- Fanfare for the North (1990) for brass ensemble
- A Festival Fanfare (1978) for brass ensemble
- Flourish for an Occasion (1981) for brass ensemble
- Flourish for the Theatre (1991) for brass ensemble
- Music for an Occasion (2009) for brass quintet
- Music of the Angels (2019) for brass ensemble
- Processional (1992) for brass quintet
- Quintet for Brass (1967)
- Rousseau (1962) for brass ensemble
- Sonata for Four Trombones (1984)
- Susie’s Fanfare (1995) for brass ensemble
- Symphony in Two Movements (2015) for brass ensemble
- Three Dance Episodes (1974) for brass quintet