June 10, 2025 | Author: Dominic Nicholas | Category:Instruments
Brass Ensemble
Down the centuries brass instruments have been the poor relation to strings and woodwind when it comes to ensemble music. Whilst there is a vast repertoire of chamber music for strings, and a fair amount that includes woodwind or is for woodwind specifically, many composers ignored the possibility of writing for brass ensemble, partly because for a long time brass instruments were plagued by technical limitations.
Despite this there are a handful of truly great ensemble works that were written for brass, or for precursors of modern brass instruments. Here are some of our favourites.
Gabrieli’s Sonata Pian’ e Forte is foundational not just as a brass piece, but in ensemble music more generally, since it was one of the first works to make use of loud and soft dynamic markings. Originally written for cornetti (an instrument which has attributes of both trumpet and recorder), sackbuts (precursor of modern trombones), a viola and organ continuo, it is nowadays usually played on modern brass instruments. It also makes use of spatial separation of the players, who are divided into two ensembles that would have been placed in different parts of the building for which it was written—St. Mark’s, Venice.
Monteverdi’s Orfeo is the earliest opera that is still regularly performed today. It was written by the composer for the 1607 Carnival season in Mantua, where he was employed as Master of Music at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga. The work opens with an arresting brass Toccata, now often performed as a standalone work. The composer liked it so much, he later reused it for the opening of his sublime Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610.
Though best known as an violin technique innovator, Austro-Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber also produced this brass masterpiece, which was probably written for a feast day or major liturgical event, Sancti Polycarpi (Saint Polycarp) being an early Christian martyr. At a time when it was more normal to hear a maximum of only 2-3 trumpets in a piece of ensemble music, Biber wrote for 8 trumpets, 2 timpani and continuo, making it is one of the largest surviving trumpet ensemble pieces from the 17th century and a great demonstration of the ceremonial power of brass in sacred court contexts.
A contrasting use of brass in a ceremonial context can be found in Henry Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary. Composed for the state funeral of Queen Mary II in 1695 it opens with a March in C minor, written for four flat trumpets. These instruments resemble trombones, the addition of a slide allowing them to play in flat keys. The effect, especially when played in procession, is one of profound solemnity.
The tradition of writing funeral music for brass continued into the 19th century. In Austria, indeed, a separate genre of music emerged, known as an ‘equale’ or ‘aequale’, which were used at funerals or to commemorate the dead on All Souls’ Day (2nd November). Though they could be performed on any instrument, the melancholic and noble sound of the trombone was thought particularly appropriate. Beethoven’s Three Equali for Four Trombones, WoO 30, written for All Souls’ Day in Linz, is a particularly fine example of this genre.
6. Anton Bruckner – Two Aequali for Three Trombones (1847)
The next most famous work in the Aequali tradition are the Aequali No. 1 and No. 2 for Three Trombones by Anton Bruckner, written in 1847 for the funeral of his aunt Rosalia Mayrhofer. They are similar in style to those by Beethoven, though with a harmonic richness that is a defining characteristic of mid-nineteenth-century romanticism.
By the end of the century the modern brass quintet was beginning to emerge. One of the first examples of this was Victor Ewald’s Brass Quintet No. 1 in B-flat minor. It combines Russian folk influences, classical chamber forms and the rich style of late nineteenth-century romanticism to produces a work that is nowadays a foundational and essential work of modern brass repertoire. Neither was this his only contribution to the form—this quartet was followed by three more, marking him out as one of the most important composers of brass music.
Oskar Böhme was a trumpet player and composer, best known for his marvellous Trumpet Concerto, Op.18 and this Brass Sextet in E-flat minor. Scored for cornet, 2 trumpets, bass trumpet, trombone and tuba, like Ewald’s quintet it successfully blends classical forms with a lush late-Romantic harmonic language in the context of a new instrumental idiom.
