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The works of composer 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 Douglas Allanbrook and the Annapolis Brass Quintet met 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. {< RETURN }
~ Excerpted from biography by Edward Komara, June 22, 2020