Composition date: 2009-09

On September 2008, I was contacted by a trumpetist called Michael (Mic) Smith, from Miami, FL. He had just recorded an album for trumpet quintet called "Trumpets Alone", in which he wanted to include an arrangement of one of my pieces, "Andean", made by Jay Lichtmann. Unfortunately he wasn't able to do so before contacting me to ask for permission.

So he wanted to record a second album for trumpet quintet, in which he would include a number of original commissions, including the "Andean" arrangement. He also offered me to include any other arrangement, to which I responded that I would rather compose a dedicated composition. And thus was born this work, "Bronze Fantasia". I started some failed sketches during the first months of 2009, but I couldn't find the inspiration until the summer of 2009. Between July and September I composed the whole piece.

Unfortunately, personal circumstances made it impossible for Mic to record that second album. On the other hand, he recorded some very good quality mock-ups of the piece, so that I could check them and review the score. You can listen to them here.

The piece starts with a kind of gallant dance phrase and develops it through the first part of the piece. In the second (slow) part I featured an inversion of that phrase, and after writing some of the fast-paced third part I realized that that inversion was very similar to a traditional Spanish theme called "Antón Pirulero"; so I decided to structure the last part around a final, climactic exposition of that theme.

Instrumentation

  • C Trumpet 1
  • C Trumpet 2
  • C Trumpet 3
  • C Trumpet 4
  • C Trumpet 5

Downloads