BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
The internationally renowned American Brass Quintet made their debut in 1960 in Carnegie Hall, and are still well and truly alive and kicking today. This May, they’re set to tour Australia for the first time in four decades, and bass trombonist John D. Rojak shares with us some interesting facts about a lesser known genre.
Between Renaissance and contemporary music, there isn’t a great deal available for brass quintet. Why was there such a black hole in brass quintet composition for so long?
Good question and one which calls for a little music history and a little speculation. The Renaissance became the Baroque era, featuring florid music that was better suited to keyboard and string instruments that had been vastly improved and became the virtuoso instruments of the time. Brass seems to have gone from being the featured family to one in the background. The only fully chromatic brass instrument in that time was the sackbut (the ancestor of the trombone), making brass less adept at playing the virtuosic music of Bach, Vivaldi, and Telemann. With the invention of the valve in the 1830s, brass once again came to the fore.
Why have contemporary compositions regained that interest in brass quintets?
Composers are looking to explore different sounds and brass offers quite a change from traditional chamber music groups like string quartets and piano trios. ABQ also has a history of playing pieces multiple times and recording all our commissioned works. Composers like their music to be performed!
How does the music differ from other ensemble music?
We hope it’s not too different than other contemporary music – mostly the timbre, extreme dynamic range (yes, soft as well as loud), and variety of sounds with mutes. The musical language is up to the composers and they have been polyglot!
What got you into playing bass trombone?
I was attracted to the sound of trombone from listening to pop music. Bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears grabbed me. When I went to music school for college, there was a spot open for bass trombone in the symphony orchestra. I switched from tenor to bass and it fit well. Playing low notes is my meditation.
Your ties with Julliard and other achievements such as your 2012 Richard J. Bogomolny Award are evident of your being a world class ensemble, (and a world class musician yourself!). What’s the secret to the quintet’s longevity?
Likely, it’s our ceaseless commissioning of new pieces. When we keep doing the same thing, we’re really doing something different and fresh all the time. The integrity of the genre is our foremost aspiration.
Tell me a bit about the repertoire chosen for the Australia tour.
Serious brass music, yet we hope it will be fun, too.
Why do you like performing music for brass?
There have been many transcriptions of famous pieces – classical, jazz, rock – for brass. I have certainly played in other groups that played them. They are really fun and it’s wonderful to interpret them in a different setting. But, there is so much music written for brass that we have a wealth of riches from which to choose. ABQ plays mostly these pieces – music from the Renaissance that was written for our instruments’ predecessors, any quintets through the centuries until the music of our time, especially that which we’ve commissioned. There are many amazing pieces, incredibly diverse in style, and satisfying to play on every level.
The American Brass Quintet will tour Australia for Musica Viva between May 15 and May 31. For more information go to musicaviva.com.au/ABQ.
IMAGE SUPPLIED.
