Brandon Warner - Parallel Waves for Solo Euphonium and Mixed Electronic Media [$15]
Grade III
Download the Video/Audio component HERE Download the Audio only file HERE
Program Note:
Brandon Warner is an educator, composer, and performer based in Madison, WI. He studied music composition with Dr. Jeff Herriott at UW-Whitewater where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education. He has been commissioned to compose music for student films as well as solo euphonium and electronics for Justin Weis.
His compositional style is influenced by Jazz, Minimalism, atonality, and electronics in music, drawing from both classical training and an interest in modern music.
As an educator he has a private studio of brass and piano students and teaches elementary general music in the Madison Metropolitan School District.
As a performer he plays solo cornet in the Madison Brass Band and is a frequent substitute for the brass quintet Brass Knuckles. He is a member of the feminist improvisational trio 4th Home alongside Margo Harms (percussion) and Taylor Boegel (saxophone).
Parallel Waves is a 2-channel electroacoustic work for solo euphonium and pre-recorded electronics, with the option of pre-recorded video. The piece was originally conceived as a purely electronic piece while on a retreat at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI. Audio recordings of water and people playing were used and heavily modified with extensive delays, reverb, chorus effects, pitch shifting, and panning to create an eventual feeling of immersion in varying textures.
When Justin Weis commissioned an electroacoustic piece for Euphonium Parallel Waves was reworked to include a wandering melody that ebbs and flows in and out of the mysterious electronic texture. The melody is meant to sound improvisational and somewhere between familiar and strange. This effect is accomplished by having the melody inspired by traditional arias and their expressiveness with the use of rubato, dynamics, and vibrato, but using through-composed and atonal note choices.
In the beginning the soloist is closely married to the gestures of the electronic accompaniment. As the piece progresses the soloist ascends and descends further and further astray until finally reaching a fierce climax. Losing strength, the melody descends deep below the surface with the accompaniment.
