Trading

brass quintet
2015

Duration 3’
Instrumentation piccolo trumpet, trumpet in Bb, french horn, trombone, tuba
First Performance 
Commissioned by History West Midlands (as Fanfare for Birmingham)

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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. The title Trading is taken from a technique used in jazz, (‘trading fours’), in which musicians alternate brief solos of typically four or eight bars. This technique was loosely used in the compositional process to structure the central section.