#4363, Music for Brass

Hear mystical brass music from Messiaen, music for an invented brass by Ben Neill, music from David Byrne, and music from underground – a huge reverberant cistern in Washington State, with meditative trumpet from Daniel Barry.

Listen to music by composer, performer, producer, and inventor of the mutantrumpet, Ben Neill. (The mutantrumpet is an instrument that is based on a trumpet, but with multiple bells, a slide, and electronics.) Hear his multi-media work, “Posthorn,” a live performance piece for mutantrumpet titled after and based on the “Posthorn solo,” a section of the third movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.

Then, listen to a work by composer Raphael Mostel, who has written music commemorating the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His 2005 work, "Night and Dawn," is a commission in honor of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War II. 

Hear music by 20^th Century French composer Olivier Messiaen, in the mystic vein brought on by his Catholic faith and Eastern philosophy. Better known in the organ version, listen to the Bastille Opera Orchestra brass section, in “L’Ascension.”

Then, there’s music by David Byrne inspired by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from his “Music for the Knee Plays,” and composed for Robert Wilson’s The Civil Wars. Plus, listen to music with brass recorded inside an abandoned cistern on the grounds of Fort Warden in Port Townsend, WA, by composer, director, and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Barry.

Program #4363, Music for Brass (First aired 5/5/2020)

ARTIST: Royal Concertgebouw Brass Ensemble, Ivan Meylemans, conductor
WORK: Raphael Mostel: Night and Dawn [1:30]
RECORDING: THE NYFA COLLECTION
SOURCE: Innova 223
INFO: innova.mu

ARTIST: Ben Neill
WORK: PostHorn [11:06]
RECORDING: This performance not commercially available. 
SOURCE/INFO: newmusicusa.org | benneill.com

ARTIST: Royal Concertgebouw Brass Ensemble, Ivan Meylemans, conductor
WORK: Raphael Mostel: Night and Dawn [8:17]
RECORDING: THE NYFA COLLECTION
SOURCE: Innova 223
INFO: innova.mu

ARTIST: David Byrne
WORK: Winter [6:26]
RECORDING: Music for the Knee Plays
SOURCE: ECM/Warner #25022, reissued on Nonesuch
INFO: davidbyrne.com or Available at Amazon, AppleMusic, or Spotify

ARTIST: Orchestre de l’Opera Bastille, Myung Whun Chung, cond.
WORK: Olivier Messiaen: L’Ascension I.- Majeste du Christ demandant sa gloire a son Pere [8:13]
RECORDING: Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 Avec Orgue/ Messiaen: L’Ascension
SOURCE: Deutsche Grammophon #435854
INFO: Out of print. Try auction sites.

ARTIST: Daniel Barry
WORK: Penultimate Ladder [10:47]
RECORDING: Music Of The Spheres
SOURCE: Origin Classical 
INFO: Available at Amazon.com