Jan Bach (1937 – 2020)
Recordings
- 1983 – Premieres (Wisconsin Brass Quintet)
- 1995 – Clockworks (Stockholm Chamber Brass)
- 2008 – Something New (Mardi Brass)
General Info
Year composed: 1980
Approximate duration: 21′ 00″
Publisher: Galaxy Music Corporation (distributed by ECS Publishing)
Cost: $33.10 – Score; $33.35 – Parts (sold separately)
ECS Publishing Group – Rounds and Dances
Difficulty:
Movements
- Fanfare – 2:10
- Sarabande – 6:30
- Carioca – 3:30
- Idyl – 4:40
- Galop – 4:10
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
International Brass Congress (joint commission by the four American brass organizations – ITG, IHS, ITA, TUBA)
Premiere
1981 – Eastman Brass Quintet, National Trombone Workshop, Nashville Tennessee
1981 – Wisconsin Brass Quintet, International Trumpet Guild Convention, Boulder, Colorado
Program Notes
Rounds and Dances, composed during the summer of 1980, is a suite of five short movements conceived primarily in terms of the ensemble rather than the individual parts.
The first and fourth movements are canonic in nature: in the Fanfare the instruments enter in score order, moving down from the trumpet at the beginning of the movement whereas in the Idyl, the instruments enter in ascending order from the tuba’s opening solo. These two movements contrast in spirit as well as form; the Fanfare is rhythmically exciting, assertive, and comes dangerously close to being trapped in its repetitions, while the Idyl is quiet and introspective, with a “long line” that builds steadily to a climactic outcome.
The remaining movements, homophonic in texture, are generic dance forms of Europe and South America. In the second movement, Sarabande, each instrument has the opportunity to display its soloistic technique against the unvarying, slow dance background of the remaining instruments. Carioca, the third movement, is a lively dance featuring an unusual opening texture with its own, built-in echo effect. The concluding “fast and fleet” Galop is the quickest movement of the set, poking gentle fun at Rossini among other composers of Allegro movements. This movement follows the Idyl without pause.
edited from the program notes by the composer
Other Works for Brass ensemble by Jan Bach
- Laudes (1971) for brass quintet
- Triptych (1989) for brass quintet
- Derivatives (1995) for brass octet
- Foliations (1995) for brass quintet
- Blowout (2007) for brass quintet
- Vic and Sade’s Band Concert (2008) for brass quintet
- Smoky Mountain Fanfare (2010) for brass quintet
- Still (2013) for brass quintet
- Lazy Blues (2014) for brass quintet