DOUGLAS ALLANBROOK
and
Douglas Allanbrook
The works of composer, writer and teacher Douglas Allanbrook are characterized by precise construction, probing inquiry, and keen wit. By the mid-1970s he had written over 40 works, including four symphonies, three string quartets, two operas, a raft full of piano music and a slew of art songs. Much of his music had been performed across the US (from Oakland, California to New York City and Washington DC), West Germany, France and Italy. He was the frequent subject of articles in the arts sections of the newspapers in Baltimore and Washington. He was worldly but not world-weary, even though he had seen the worst of war as a combat soldier in Italy during World War II. At St. John’s College in Annapolis, he had been on the faculty of its “Great Books” program since 1952. Born and raised in the Boston area, he had a superb education, having studied with Walter Piston and I.A. Richards at Harvard, and Nadia Boulanger in Massachusetts and Paris. During his local harpsichord recitals, he displayed what he learned in postwar Italy of the Baroque keyboard masters Bach, Couperin, Scarlatti and Soler.
When the Annapolis Brass Quintet met Douglas Allanbrook in 1975 in their own hometown, it was, to quote Humphrey Bogart in the movie Casablanca, “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Before Allanbrook met the Annapolis Brass Quintet, he had not composed for a five-piece brass ensemble. However, he loved the sound of the horn, giving it some prominent passages in his Symphony no. 2 (1962). Even so, the medium of two trumpets, horn, trombone and bass trombone was a fresh field to him. During the next 15 years, he cultivated it thoroughly. [Read More]
The works of composer, writer and teacher Douglas Allanbrook are characterized by precise construction, probing inquiry, and keen wit. By the mid-1970s he had written over 40 works, including four symphonies, three string quartets, two operas, a raft full of piano music and a slew of art songs. Much of his music had been performed across the US (from Oakland, California to New York City and Washington DC), West Germany, France and Italy. He was the frequent subject of articles in the arts sections of the newspapers in Baltimore and Washington. He was worldly but not world-weary, even though he had seen the worst of war as a combat soldier in Italy during World War II. At St. John’s College in Annapolis, he had been on the faculty of its “Great Books” program since 1952. Born and raised in the Boston area, he had a superb education, having studied with Walter Piston and I.A. Richards at Harvard, and Nadia Boulanger in Massachusetts and Paris. During his local harpsichord recitals, he displayed what he learned in postwar Italy of the Baroque keyboard masters Bach, Couperin, Scarlatti and Soler.
When the Annapolis Brass Quintet met Douglas Allanbrook in 1975 in their own hometown, it was, to quote Humphrey Bogart in the movie Casablanca, “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Before Allanbrook met the Annapolis Brass Quintet, he had not composed for a five-piece brass ensemble. However, he loved the sound of the horn, giving it some prominent passages in his Symphony no. 2 (1962). Even so, the medium of two trumpets, horn, trombone and bass trombone was a fresh field to him. During the next 15 years, he cultivated it thoroughly. [Read More]
Invitation to the Sideshow (1980) was Douglas Allanbrook's fourth composition for the Annapolis Brass Quintet and was inspired by the painting of the same name by the French pointillist Georges Seurat. Many of the musical ideas in this short, highly spirited work are abstracted from various forms of popular music. Opening with a gesture of articulated trumpets and bombastic circus trombones, this sassy, sardonic piece beckons one to the sights, sounds and sensations of the sideshow.
Annapolis Brass Quintet
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet; Arthur Brooks, horn;
Wayne Wells, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone
To listen Tap > Below:
(There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.)
Duration: 03'26"
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet; Arthur Brooks, horn;
Wayne Wells, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone
To listen Tap > Below:
(There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.)
Duration: 03'26"
Night and Morning Music (1977) is a sectional piece whose parts reflect the shifting ground that lies partly in sleeping and partly in waking. To the composer it has always seemed absurd that there is any such thing as "abstract" or "pure" music, though music is made from notes, and it is difficult to state anything in words that describe it. These notes reflect and are built upon breath lengths and heartbeats. When in motion they resemble locomotion. This work is also based on the five instruments of the brass quintet. It treats the horn as the heart and guts, and the trumpets and the trombones as the arms and legs.
Douglas Allanbrook's Night & Morning Music
as recorded by the ABQ on May 21, 1979
for Westdeutscher Rundfunk
(WDR) Cologne, Germany
Annapolis Brass Quintet (1979)
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet Arthur LaBar, horn;
Martin Hughes, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone
To listen Tap > Below:
(There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.)
Duration: 12'53" ,
as recorded by the ABQ on May 21, 1979
for Westdeutscher Rundfunk
(WDR) Cologne, Germany
Annapolis Brass Quintet (1979)
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet Arthur LaBar, horn;
Martin Hughes, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone
To listen Tap > Below:
(There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.)
Duration: 12'53" ,
Commencement Exercises (1985) was commissioned by St. John's College for its commencement ceremonies on the occasion of its 200th anniversary. This piece has music appropriate to such an event: fanfares, a march, and heartfelt and fervent songs. The concluding section divides the underlying pulse into three parts, the tempus perfectus of the ancients.
World Premiere Performance
May 26, 1985
St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis Brass Quintet (1985)
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet; Arthur Brooks, horn;
Wayne Wells, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone,
To listen Tap > Below:
(There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.)
May 26, 1985
St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis Brass Quintet (1985)
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet; Arthur Brooks, horn;
Wayne Wells, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone,
To listen Tap > Below:
(There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.)
Douglas Allanbrook's Seven for Seven (1987)
A Seven-Part Piece for Seven Players
December 4, 1987 World Premiere Performance
Alfonso Pollard, percussion
Douglas Allanbrook, pianoforte
The Annapolis Brass Quintet
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet; Arthur Brooks, horn;
Wayne Wells, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone,
A Seven-Part Piece for Seven Players
December 4, 1987 World Premiere Performance
Alfonso Pollard, percussion
Douglas Allanbrook, pianoforte
The Annapolis Brass Quintet
Bob Suggs, trumpet; David Cran, trumpet; Arthur Brooks, horn;
Wayne Wells, trombone; Robert Posten, bass trombone,
|
A Tribute by Elliott Zuckerman
to Composer Douglas Allanbrook, Pianist, Harpsichordist and St. John's Tutor To listen Tap > Below: (There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.) Duration: 03'58" |
World Premiere Performance
Key Auditorium, St. John's College Annapolis, Maryland - December 4, 1987 To listen Tap > Below: (There may be a 10 to 20 sec. delay before sound begins.) Duration: 29'08" |
Douglas Allanbrook compositions for the Annapolis Brass Quintet
*(L#000) - ABQ Collection at Oberlin Library Number
- Symphony No. 5, 1976 for brass quintet and orchestra received its world premiere on February 20, 1977 by the Annapolis Brass Quintet and Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Leon Fleisher, Conductor. Subsequent ABQ performances include the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and the Dublin Radio Orchestra.
- Night and Morning Music, 1977--Premiered by ABQ at Chautauqua Festival, June 30,1978 (L#358)*
- Invitation to the Sideshow, 1980--Premiered by ABQ In Annapolis, April 26, 1981 (L#486)
- Five Marches for the Quick and the Dead, 1982--Premiered by ABQ at IBQF, July 1982 (L#484)
- Two Tennyson Settings, 1984 for chorus, brass quintet--Premiered in Salisbury, April 20, 1985 (L#737)
- Commencement Exercises, 1985--Premiered by ABQ at St. John's College, May 26, 1985 (L#691)
- Seven for Seven, 1987 for brass quintet, piano, percussion--Premiered at St. John's, Dec. 4, 1987 (L#809)
- Who's Who, 1990 (?) for brass quintet, piano, percussion (L#935)
*(L#000) - ABQ Collection at Oberlin Library Number
Douglas Allanbrook was an active composer until his death in 2003.
Allanbrook's extensive catalogue comprises seven symphonies, two operas, choral works both sacred and profane, four string quartets, numerous chamber pieces for everything from brass quintets to piano-percussion duos, and, of course, innumerable piano and harpsichord works.
Allanbrook's extensive catalogue comprises seven symphonies, two operas, choral works both sacred and profane, four string quartets, numerous chamber pieces for everything from brass quintets to piano-percussion duos, and, of course, innumerable piano and harpsichord works.
All of Douglas Allanbrook's compositions listed above along with the entire Annapolis Brass Quintet Music Library are available for study and performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
For direct access to the ABQ Special Collections at Oberlin,
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For direct access to the ABQ Special Collections at Oberlin,
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FOSTERING BRASS CHAMBER MUSIC