Fanfare, Marches, Hymns and Finales
About this Piece
Though best known for his television and film scores – ten Emmys, plus an Oscar nomination for Silverado and a Grammy nomination for Young Sherlock Holmes – Bruce Broughton has also composed a distinguished body of concert music, including several concertos and works for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Debussy Trio. (Members of the LA Phil played his Three American Portraits for brass quintet on a Chamber Music program last season.) Fanfares, Marches, Hymns, and Finale was composed for the Bay Brass in 2002, and premiered and recorded by that ensemble with the composer conducting.
The title is eminently self-descriptive of the style or attitude of each movement, which also correspond roughly to a classical symphony. The energetic Fanfares form a bright and positive opening. The jazz-inflected Marches make a sort of scherzo, off-kilter in a Prokofiev manner, and the Hymns are the slow movement, featuring expansively lyrical horns and prominent percussion decoration in a broad, Coplandesque soundscape. The dramatic Finale is the dark side of the opening movement, a relentlessly driven tour-de-force of tightly integrated ensemble and individual virtuosity.