Don Freund - BEYOND THE BRASS GATES for Violin & Wind Ensemble - Full Score

My greatest concern as I began writing this Concerto for Violin and Wind Ensemble (or Concert Band) was how to explore the potentials of a band's large brass section without overwhelming a solo violin. My strategy in solving this problem ultimately provided the form and the character of the work as a whole. The brass section is formally isolated from the rest of the ensemble, playing "Gates" beyond which lie a series of seven "Realms" depicted by the solo violin, woodwinds, and percussion. This form owes a great deal to Pictures at an Exhibition and Bluebeard's Castle - Mussorgsky's promenades and Bartok's keys become Brass Gates which open to display fantasy worlds, the variegated domains ruled by the solo violin.

The first brass gate, a brisk but stately fanfare, opens onto a vast, warm realm, "Filtered Sunlight," dominated by sweeping lyricism and flickering triadic tremolos. Gate 2 interrupts with urgent brass reeated notes opening to Relam 2: "Rustic Clockwork," a mechanism populated by the violin's disjunct harmonics pitted in hockets against the insistent rhythms and lines of the winds and percussion. Gate 3 allows the brass to tbe heard in a rich, expressive choral style, surprised by the exposure of Realm 3: "Heavy Hitting," a hard rocking episode in heavy triple meter. The stuttering end of this realm stumbles onto Gate 4, a montage of thick, dense brass clusters supported by gongs and Tam-Tams, clearing to uncover, clearing to uncover the low solo violin and Realm 4: "Plaintive Strains," built around a sighing melodic subject. Gate 5 relieves this sultry mood with a bright, canonic fanfare, superseded by the even faster swirling dance of Realm 5: "Tarantella."

Gate 6 has the brass chanting throbbing chord progressions to unveil Realm 6: "Buttermilk and Honey," featuring a perky but bittersweet tune int he violin over an undulating, harmonically rich backdrop. Gate 7 grows seamlessly out of this realm, with rising overlapping lines in the muted brass scaling to a dreamy height that is rudely shattered by the incursion of Realm 7: "Rough Coursing," a bumpy ride through a rugged landscape. The intrusion of the brass at the end of this realm spurs a striking detour- a mini-cadenza for scurrying muted violin and barely audible cymbals capped by a brusque return to the rough course as the gate slams shut.

Beyond the Brass Gates was premiered 26 March 1999 by violin virtuoso Julian Ross and the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory Wind Ensemble who commissioned this work in consortium with bands from Indiana University and Florida State University.

Note by Don Freund

Score measures 11 X 15.

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