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Brass Quintet, Op. 7
for 2 trumpets, horn, trombone & tuba
1. Ground
2. Blues
3. Air
4. Finale
(Duration c. 11 mins 30 secs)
The entire quintet is based on different variation techniques. The first movement employs the traditional repeated bass pattern of the ground (or passacaglia). The second movement follows the 12-bar structure of a blues, with two variations. The third movement is in the traditional format of an air and variations. The final movement mixes elements of the initial ground with a freer variation technique. Throughout the piece, a melody is hinted at, or partially quoted, and in the final movement reveals itself to be the song ‘When that I was a little tiny boy’ (which in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night has the extra syllable ‘and’ after the word ‘was’ – presumably to maintain the dactylic rhythm). The song is probably contemporary with Shakespeare’s play, but remained known and performed elsewhere (for example, Vauxhall Gardens in the later eighteenth century). I quote the version that appears as number 132 in National English Airs (London: Chappell, 1840).
Derek B. Scott