Brian Holmes

Trick or Treat!

Instrumentation2222/2000/Timp+2perc/strings
features the double bass sections as soloists. Mostly in unison, sometimes in two parts.
Length6:30
Difficultymoderate
CommentsA Hallowe'en piece, featuring the entire bass section as soloists. At the premier, seven bass players played from the front of the orchestra. Can be played by a good amateur group.
SourcesBrian Holmes: self-published.
horncabbage@aol.com
408-293-2765
Extras
HistoryPremier November 2010 by the Peninsula Symphony in San Mateo and Cupertino, CA. Intended as a memorial for Kay Raney, everyone's favorite bass player, who died in 2009.
ContributorBrian Holmes
horncabbage@aol.com
Professor
San Jose State University
Other

Death's Jest-Book Overture

Instrumentation2222/2100/timp and perc (1 player)/strings
Length6:30
Difficultymoderate
CommentsThis overture is based on music I wrote (14 songs and choruses) for a production of Death's Jest- Book by Thomas Lovell Beddoes. (Performed at UCLA and Fordham University in 2003.) The play was written in 1830, so I wrote the overture in an early romantic style. Beddoes was obsessed with death (the hero of the play dies in the first act and is brought back to life in the second act) so my music does not hesitate to quote the dies irae theme. The music also owes something to early Wagner, Rossini, and Carl Maria von Weber. Might make a nice piece for a Hallowe'en concert. Sonata-allegro form, minor key, 6/8 time plus a sinister introduction.
SourcesSelf-published.
Contact me at horncabbage@aol.com
phone 408-293-2765
ExtrasYou can hear a recording at http://www.myspace.com/brianwholmes
HistoryCommissioned and premiered by the Mission Chamber Orchestra (San Jose CA) in 2007. Two additional performances since then.
ContributorBrian Holmes, Professor, San Jose State University.
Other

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