(Fr. quintette de cuivres; Ger. Blechbläserquintett, Blechquintett; It. quintetto di ottoni).
A
composition for two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba or bass trombone, or a
group performing such a composition. During the 16th and 17th centuries
numerous European composers wrote five-part consort music played by two
cornetts and three sackbuts; five-part Turmmusik was written and
performed by German Stadtpfeifer (town musicians). J.C. Pezel, a
well-known Leipzig Stadtpfeifer wrote 116 pieces for five-part brass
ensemble. Five-part works for brass instruments in the 19th century and the
early 20th include compositions by Ludwig Maurer, Alexander Aliabev, Victor
Ewald and Anton Simon. Although these were written for conical bore instruments
(cornets, E
horns, B horns, tuba), they are
treasured by modern brass quintet ensembles for their musical and historical
value, receiving frequent performances. Five-part brass writing is also found
in European and American brass band music of the 19th century.
Chamber music ensembles flourished in New York in the years immediately following World War II, especially among students at the Juilliard School. Around 1947 the flautist Samuel Baron, founder of the New York Woodwind Quintet, helped to organize the loosely-structured New York Brass Ensemble, which performed primarily as a brass quintet and was the template for the modern ensemble. In 1954 two of its members, the trumpeter Robert Nagel and the tuba player Harvey Phillips, set up the New York Brass Quintet as a professional entity. The American Brass Quintet, organized in 1960 by the trombonist Arnold Fromme (also a member of the New York Brass Ensemble), uses a bass trombone instead of a tuba. These two groups, along with the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in Britain and the Annapolis Brass Quintet in the USA, have been the leading force in establishing the brass quintet as a standard chamber ensemble. They have collectively commissioned over 300 musical works and have inspired the formation of scores of professional ensembles. Over 900 composers have written music for brass quintet since 1954, among them Malcolm Arnold, Jan Bach, Leslie Bassett, Richard Rodney Bennett, Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Eugène Bozza, Elliott Carter, John Cheetham, Ingolf Dahl, Peter Maxwell Davies, Jacob Druckman, Alvin Etler, Eric Ewazen, Lukas Foss, William Mathias, Vincent Persichetti, Ned Rorem, David Sampson, Gunther Schuller, Richard Wernick and Charles Wuorinen. These works can be loosely categorized into three types: those in sonata form; suites, that is, collections of dances or scenes, some in divertimento form and many emulating the dance rhythms of early consort music, Turmmusik and the Baroque suite; and single-movement works, varying greatly in style and length and including tonal and serial pieces.
O.W. Metcalf: The New York Brass Quintet: its History and Influence on Brass Literature and Performance (DMA diss., Indiana U., 1978)
M.H. Tunnell: A Comprehensive Performance Project in Trumpet Literature (DMA diss., U. of Southern Missisippi, 1982) [incl. list of brass quintets by American composers, 1938–80]
S. Baron: ‘Reminiscences of a Golden Age: New York City (1946–51)’, The Instrumentalist (1987–8), 19–24
R.G. Lindahl: Brass Quintet Instrumentation: Tuba versus Bass Trombone (diss., Arizona State U., 1988)
M. Shakespeare: ‘The American Brass Quintet: Still Shining (from Sea to Sea) after Thirty Years’, Chamber Music America, viii/1 (1991), 18–27
F.K. Sherman: The American Brass Quintet: Values and Achievements (DMA diss., U. of Oklahoma, 1992)
W.L. Jones: An Historical and Stylistic Survey of the Brass Quintet (DMA diss., U. of Kentucky, 1998)
BILL JONES