My Ipod

Well..... here it goes. As a trumpet player, the first piece I would have to have on my Ipod is Mahler's 5th symphony. This is the staple of the trumpet world, one which is requested on most auditions, and one which I requested our visiting guest artist in trumpet master class today (Tom Hooten, principal trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) to play for us. In addition to its importance to the trumpet world, it is music of great emotional depth and breadth. Beginning with a funeral march, it rises from the depths of despair, through a turbulent sonata-allegro movement, to a joyful, energetic scherzo. Also along the way there is a delightful moment of call in a beautiful Adagietto for strings. Mahler concludes this journey from tragedy with a moment of grandeur and triumph with a rondo-finale displaying great contrapuntal mastery.

The second piece on my Ipod would be Dance Movements by Philip Sparke. Sparke is a contemporary British composer, and this music is quite difficult to perform. It is energetic, and has been dubbed the British response to Bernstein's West Side Story. In the first movement, Sparke takes the band through numerous metrical changes, culminating in a quick transition to the second movement. This movement is for the woodwinds, and is sort of like a scherzo movement. It is a ternary structure, with two outer rhythmically charged sections framing a lyrical, more nostalgic middle. This movement segues into the third movement. This is the slow movement of the work, and it is just for the brass. Sparke writes music of grandeur and great expansiveness. It rises to a climax, before fading away to nothing. Then, out of nowhere, the finale charges in. This is also a ternary and is also the longest movement of the work. It is more unsettled that the previous movements, and it is not until the coda that the music final is able to receive resolution and to conclude in a highly triumphant manner.

The third piece on my Ipod would have to be Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West side story. The Wind Ensemble is actually playing a new arrangement of it at the end of April, which I am looking forward to. This work is full of energy, but one can feel the pent up tension in the music which is representative of the tense atmosphere between the rival gangs in the musical version. At the end, the work concludes quietly, ponderous of the fate that has befallen several of the main characters during the bloody feud between the two gangs.

The fourth piece on my Ipod would definitely have to be Mahler's 6th symphony. I know I have put two compositions by the same composer, but Mahler's works are so distinct from one another, that the only resemblances they bear with one another typical is that they were written by the same composer. In this work, Mahler uses a traditional four movement format. Subtitled "tragic" by the composer, it is music that he wrote to depict his trials throughout life. The first movement is a vigorous march like movement with a bombastic conclusion. The scherzo is almost sarcastic, with the shrill sonorities of the instruments exploited. Only in the third movement is there a repose from the atmosphere generated by the symphony. Here, the music has a pastoral feeling, enhanced with Mahler's use of Cowbells (Incidentally, Mahler used cowbells in the first movement of this symphony in a passage of relative calm). The finale returns to the mood established in the first two movements: one featuring despair and sarcasm. Originally, in this movement, Mahler had three hammer blows of fate written in, but in the revision he made to the symphony he omitted the final one. The movement concludes in utter despair, a stark contrast with his fifth symphony.

The final piece that I want on my Ipod is by a Russian-French-American composer: Igor Stravinsky. His Firebird suite is a staple among the symphonic repertoire. The ballet from which the suite is drawn from focuses on the adventures of Prince Ivan while in the forest. He comes across the Firebird and captures him. The Firebird begs for freedom, and Ivan grants it, a move he would later be thankful for. Later in Ivan's sojourn in the forest, he comes across 13 princesses held under a spell by King Kaschei. Ivan decides to free the princesses but is overpowered by Kaschei. At that moment, the Firebird returns and they defeat Kaschei. Stravinsky concludes the work by quoting in the orchestra an old Russian Folk tune. It is sounded first in the horn (much to Cheryl's approval) and is passed around the orchestra, growing louder until the music ends in triumph.

That, in a nutshell, would be the five pieces I would want on my Ipod.