A Fantasy about Purcell’s “Fantasia upon One Note” for brass quintet

Year
1974
Duration
3'
Category
Chamber

Dedication: A Christmas Present for the American Brass Quintet
Buy Score: Associated Music Publishers
Manuscripts: Paul Sacher Stiftung

Premiere: Jan 13, 1975/ American Brass Quintet: Raymond Mase (tpt), Louis Ranger (tpt), Edward Birdwell (hn), Robert Biddlecome (tb), Herbert Rankin (tb)/ Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, NY

A Fantasy about Purcell’s Fantasia upon One Note was written for the American Brass Quintet as a Christmas present in the Fall of 1974. This five-part Fantasia of Purcell, much admired since my student days, suggested the étude on one note, the seventh of my Eight Etudes and a Fantasy for woodwind quartet. The Purcell piece has always seemed to have a dramatic meaning—that of a repeated, tolling, bell-like note sounding through musical episodes of contrasting character—which is seldom brought out in performance. So I decided to make an arrangement for brass that would draw attention to this aspect of the music and empahsize a dramatic conception so often expressed in the poetry of Purcell’s time.

– Elliott Carter

Recordings (5)

Pavans, Fantasias, Variations
Meridian (2011)
Onyx Brass
Fantasy
Polymnie POL 570 170 (2010)
Feeling Brass Quintet
hr brass
Capriccio 10361 (1992)
Frankfurt Radio Orchestra Brass Ensemble | Lutz Köhler, conductor
London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble: From the Steeples and the Mountains: American Music for Brass
Hyperion CDA 66517 (1992)
London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble | Christopher Larkin, conductor
First Recordings: Elliott Carter: Brass Quintet; Eight Pieces for Four Timpani
Columbia Odyssey Y 34137 (1976)
Morris Lang, timpani | The American Brass Quintet: Raymond Mase, trumpet; Louis Ranger, trumpet; Edward Birdwell, horn; Herbert Rankin, trombone; Robert Biddlecome, bass trombone