Sonata (in one movement) from Piano Music I Brass Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1634702

Davison was a mid-20th-century American composer, educated at Harvard and the Eastman School, who spent his career teaching at Haverford College. Although not widely known, his music is tonal and quite appealing--in a similar vein to Copland, Hindemith, David Diamond, and the like--displaying Davison's unmistakable flair and wit. The Sonata brass-quintet arrangement (for two trumpets in B-flat, horn, trombone, and tuba) is intended for advanced players. The trumpet parts make use of the brilliant top of the range, up to (concert) C6 for 1st trumpet and (concert) B5-flat for 2nd. The horn part (as tends to be the case with arrangements of piano music) lies fairly low, with a range extending from (concert) A2 to B4. The trombone part extends from E2 to D5 (but if neceessary, the highest notes can be taken down an octave). The tuba part goes up to B3 and down to E1-flat.

Kaplan writes, "I have fond memories of studying composition with John Davison at Haverford College, where music majors received a copy of his (otherwise unpublished) book, Piano Music I. It has been a beloved companion through the years, always in a prominent place on my piano." In hopes of reviving Davison's place in the repertoire, and giving woodwind players some excellent, interesting, lesser-known works to play, Kaplan has arranged all of Piano Music I for woodwind quintet, for which it is quite well suited, and selected pieces for brass quintet as well; all are available on these online sheet-music platforms.

Davison's Sonata in One Movement (the final piece in the Piano Music I album) has many of the typical elements of "sonata-allegro" form, expressed in Davison's 20th-Century idiom, incorporating references to Eastern Orthodox liturgical music, folk dances, and other material, and making use of the entire seven-octave range of the piano, with an extensive development section and an abbreviated recapitulation that ends in a serene coda. The piece works well in a brass-quintet arrangement (despite the occasional omission of a few notes--after all, a pianist has more than five fingers!--or their displacement by an octave to fit the ranges of the instruments). This is part of Kaplan's project to broaden the repertoire of music available to brass-quintet players by arranging both great classics and little-known gems. See YouTube for more of his arrangements, also available for purchase through SheetMusicPlus or SheetMusicDirect.