Altitude

Additional Information

Altitude was written in the summer of 1977, at the request of Elgar Howarth.  The music portrays an imaginary fight at an extreme height – cold, solitary, tranquil, and yet swift and mobile.

The form is roughly as follows:-

(i)    A fast, but harmonically static opening section, with a long melody in the tubas;

(ii)    A slower, more flowing section, beginning with a descending theme played by a solo cornet;

(iii)    Tense development of previous material, culminating in a full fortissimo statement of the cornet’s theme.

(iv)    A long, gradual crescendo superimposing several layers of texture, and building up to a climax in which the opening theme appears augmented in the trombones and tubas;

(v)    Final appearance of the cornet’s theme;

(vi)    Repeat of the beginning (with alterations in orchestration) converging on a single note (D) and disappearing in a flash.

George Benjamin

Tags

Details

Year
Publisher
Faber Music
Minutes
9

Recordings

Date recorded
31/5/91
Performers
Grimethorpe Colliery / Frank Renton
Recording format id
1
Date published
2008
Date recorded
5.05.2008
Performers
Foden's Richardson Band/Bramwell Tovey
Recording format id
2
Title
New Music for Brass Band
Venue
Kings School Macclesfield