Street Song
Subtitle: For Symphonic Brass
General Info
Year: 1988 / 1996
Duration: c. 15:20
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Kongcha Music
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Trumpet I-II-III
B-flat Flugelhorn
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Street Song is a work in three continuous parts – an interweaving of three songs. The first song opens with a jagged downward scale suspending in the air a sweetly dissonant harmony that very slowly resolves. This moment of resolution is followed by responses of various kinds. The harmonies move between the world of the Middle Ages and the present, between East and West, and always, of course, from the perspective of twentieth-century America. Overall, the movement is about starting and stopping, the moments of suspension always leading somewhere else.
The second song is introduced by a yodel-like horn solo. It is followed by a simple trumpet duet, which was first written around 1972. It is folk-like in character and also cadences with suspended moments of slowly resolving dissonance.
The third song is really more of a dance. It begins when the trombone slides a step higher, bringing the work into the key of F sharp where it develops a jazzier swing. The harmonies here are stacked-up moments of suspension from the first two parts of the piece. By now I hope these ‘dissonant’ sounds actually begin to sound ‘consonant’. There is a resolution, but it is in the world of a musician who, after many after-hours gigs, greets the dawn. Finally, the three songs are brought together and the work moves toward a quiet close.
Street Song was originally written in 1988 for the Empire Brass. It is dedicated to my father, Ted, who was and still is the central musical influence of my life. - Program Note by composer
Media
None discovered thus far.
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Michigan State University (East Lansing) Wind Symphony (Craig Adams, conductor) - 25 September 2025
- University of Central Oklahoma (Edmond) Wind Symphony (Brian Lamb, conductor) - 30 November 2023
- Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) Chamber Ensemble (Jeffrey de Seriere, conductor) - 23 November 2021
- Chicago (Ill.) College of Performing Arts Wind Ensemble (Stephen Squires, conductor) – 20 February 2019
- Bay Brass (San Francisco, Calif.) (Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor) – 12 May 1997
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Street Song (1988)
Resources
- Michael Tilson Thomas website. Accessed 20 February 2019
- Perusal score