ALVIN ETLER "SONIC SEQUENCE:
Alvin Etler was born in Battle Creek, Iowa, in 1913. Before the age of twelve he had learned to play a few music instruments and had composed several elementary music pieces. By high school he had experimented with playing every instrument in the orchestra before specializing in oboe, the instrument he later played professionally with the Indianapolis Symphony.
Ether received three Guggenheim Fellowships, and studied composition at with Arthur Shepherd and Paul Hindemith. He taught at Yale, Cornell, the University of Illinois, and served as Professor of composition at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts from 1949 until his death in 1972.
Among Alvin Etler's twenty-two chamber music works are two pieces for brass - his 1963 Brass Quintet, and Sonic Sequence written in 1967. The Sonic Sequence derives from a five-note sequence introduced by the horn. The work touches on both non-strict serial techniques and microtonality, and explores wide ranging timbral and textural elements before it recedes into the ultimate silence from which it came.
Ether received three Guggenheim Fellowships, and studied composition at with Arthur Shepherd and Paul Hindemith. He taught at Yale, Cornell, the University of Illinois, and served as Professor of composition at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts from 1949 until his death in 1972.
Among Alvin Etler's twenty-two chamber music works are two pieces for brass - his 1963 Brass Quintet, and Sonic Sequence written in 1967. The Sonic Sequence derives from a five-note sequence introduced by the horn. The work touches on both non-strict serial techniques and microtonality, and explores wide ranging timbral and textural elements before it recedes into the ultimate silence from which it came.
Sonic Sequence (1967) for Brass Quintet
Duration 05' 03"
Duration 05' 03"