SKU: A0.1489530

New Year’s Puzzle, Op. 145-C, for brass quintet was completed on 9 Jan 2024.  Between performing sets of Christmas carols at a mall on the outskirts of Tokyo, I purchased a stunning 1000-piece puzzle of Mount Fuji as a Christmas gift for my wife.  She is fond of puzzles.  When I started putting together time lapse videos with brass quintet music, the fast-motion working of a puzzle sounded intriguing.  We had just completed a different 1000-piece puzzle, so I estimated that the completed video would be less than a minute.  The camera and table were set up for the filming, and then I opened the box.  The tiny quarter-inch puzzle pieces shocked me!  I even let out a gasp.  However, everything was set up, and I was determined to get the time lapse footage.  The process took a great portion of three days.  Were it not for the end goal of a time lapse video, I think we would have abandoned the cursed puzzle long before completion.  We got it done on 2 Jan 2024 though, and several days later I revived a cute little ricky-ticky piece in the works, gave it a title, and completed it in two days.  One key moment is a musical laugh, as if the menacingly challenging puzzle were mocking us as we struggled so long to complete it.  Duration: 3:00.

SKU: A0.1303802

     A song learned in primary school years and years ago had words something along the lines of the following:
          Oh!  I’m a young musician,
          From distant lands I come.
          Singing and playing,
          Ever I’m straying.
     Also known as “I Am a Fine Musician,� “I Am a Gay Musician� and perhaps other titles, that song is still around and has evolved into many different versions.  The original was probably a German folk song from the early 1800s.  As published in an 1889 collection of children’s songs, it bears the title, “Ich bin ein Musikant.�  That translates as “I am a musician.�  In the lyrics the musician claims to be “from Schwabenland� (Swabia) and to play geige (violin: “Dide schum schum schum�), flöte (flute: “Päde wäpp päpp päpp�) and basse (bass: “Dide schum schum schump, päde wäpp päpp päpp).  Later versions list the instruments played by the musician as bassoon, bells, clarinet, drum, guitar, piano, piccolo, triangle, trombone, trumpet, tuba, tympani, viola and just about every instrument and noisemaker you can think of.
     Anyway, that’s the tune on which “The Brass Player� was built.  But here, the musician is concerned only with brass.  Which brass?  Well, possibly trumpet.  Or maybe horn in F.  Or trombone.  Or tuba.  Or perhaps all four; certainly, all are featured in this piece.
     “The Brass Player� comprises four sections.  The first is in the key of C major and is played at a moderate 2/4 tempo.  After a brief Trumpet/Tuba ostinato, Trombone introduces the main theme.  Other instruments join in and play around with a variation or two. 
     The second section is a sweet, nostalgic rendition in 4/4 carried mainly by Horn in F, with help from Trumpets and Trombone. 
     In section three, the mood changes radically.  Time signature goes to 3/4; tempo speeds up to vivace and the key changes to B Minor.  All five instruments participate, and some odd things take place rhythmically at I through K (measures 200 through 262), but Tuba seems to carry the melody most of the time.
     Section four, in G Major, clips along at a fast 4/4 time.  It returns to the main theme and (as in “Ich bin ein Musikant� and its multitudinous derivations) presents in call-and-response form.  The first few measures are straight, but discord quickly creeps in.  The melody begins to include smears, flutter tonguing and off-beat rhythmic figures.  There is even a brief section in G Minor.  Gradually, order and theme are restored and the piece ends in a glorious, upbeat statement.
     This piece, completed in 2023, consists of 398 measures, a little over nine minutes in length.  There are four changes of key and four changes of time signature.  Trumpet 1’s highest note is A above its staff; Trombone’s is F above the staff.  Trumpet 2 has a few G-below-its-staff notes.
     The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge.  He would like to receive your suggestions, comments, corrections and criticisms.  Contact him at lessmith61@bellsouth.net.  For more arrangements by Les, enter Sweetwater Brass Press (without the quotation marks) in the Sheet Music Plus or Sheet Music Direct search box.

SKU: A0.1145313

Swing Along! by Will Marion Cook, prominent African-American in Music Theater, composer, conductor, and violinist, combines Cakewalk style with classical music techniques to create an entertaining and memorable work from the early 20th century now arranged for a brass quintet of two trumpets or cornets in B-flat, horn in F (alternate flugelhorn part provided), trombone and tuba. The recording is of the complete edition. 

Cook was a key figure in American music from the 1890s to the 1920s. His Swing Along! was written for a theater production in 1903 combining Black folk music with classical music techniques and became a popular standard with choruses and glee clubs. A violin virtuoso, he studied at Oberlin College, Berlin's Hochschule für Musik with Joseph Joachim, and New York's National Conservatory of Music with Antonin Dvorak. He devoted his career to Black musical comedies and was instrumental in showcasing his Southern Syncopated Orchestrat throughout the Unites States and Europe, featuring New Orleans clarinetist Sidney Bechet. Mentored by Frederick Douglas, Will Marion Cook went on to mentor Duke Ellington, paving the path for orchestral concert jazz. 

“The Music of Black Composers Series is a welcome and timely addition to the brass repertoire. Interesting music, expertly arranged, fun to perform, and well received by audiences. Highly recommended!�   Wesley Nance, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Eastman School of Music

“I was so pleased to see the great works arranged for brass ensemble by Charles Decker Music Press especially the Music of Black Composers’ Series. It was especially rewarding to perform several of these with Summit Brass and with the students attending the Rafael Mendez Brass institute. Please keep these wonderful settings coming. You have provided the brass world with some real gems.�  Joseph Parisi, Director Summit Brass, Fountain City Brass Band, University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory Wind Ensemble

The Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Denver have purchased the Music of Black Composer Series with Charles Decker Music Press and the summer Rafael Mendez Brass Institute and Eastman School of Music uses the series arrangements in their chamber and brass ensembles music programs. 

See 50+ homogeneous brass editions for trumpet, horn and trombone ensembles and 75+ mixed brass ensemble publications with Charles Decker Music Press at Sheet Music Plus for inexperienced to advanced musicians with music ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary new works for trios, quartets, quintets, brass choir and brass band. Many of the mixed brass ensemble editions include alternate and substitute parts being alternate C trumpet parts for B-flat trumpet parts, flugelhorn/trumpet substitute for horn, horn substitute for trombone and treble clef euphonium substitute for trombone. To see our Music of Black Composers Series enter “Black Composers Series� in the search box at Charles Decker Music Press for 25 arrangements for mixed brass ensembles ranging from early jazz to symphonic works with composers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, R. Nathaniel Dett, William Grant Still, Will Marion Cook, James Reese Europe, James Johnson and others.