Fanfare for Birmingham

ensemble of 8 players
2014

Duration 3’
Instrumentation soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, french horn, piccolo trumpet, trumpet in Bb, trombone, tuba
First Performance Library of Birmingham; Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Commissioned by History West Midlands

Further Performances
23.09.18 UNC School of the Arts, North Carolina; UNC wind ensemble, Mark Norman conductor US Premiere

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Commissioned by History West Midlands to commemorate the centenary of the death of Joseph Chamberlain

First Performance at the Library of Birmingham on 5th July 2014 by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group to mark the centenary of Birmingham’s Iconic Mayor

A live free improvisation by Herbie Hancock, opening Cantaloupe Island, hugely inspired the work. The principal theme is in fact a quote from his improvisation and this drives my composition. Trading, a technique used in jazz, (‘trading fours’), in which musicians alternate brief solos of typically four or eight bars, was loosely used in the compositional process to structure the central section.