
To listen while following along with the scores, click here: Scenes & Amusements │ 8 Pieces for Brass Quintet │ Dr. Daniel Thrower (youtube.com)
This fun collection of eight brass quintet pieces of varying lengths provides a short story to brass quintet concerts. Each composition was meticulously crafted as a soundtrack to a scene or a time lapse video. The music expertly captures the feel and sentiment of the video footage. The music is challenging to musicians, and with proper introduction, provides a picturesque moment to a concert in practically any setting.
Alfredo’s Demise, Op. 149-A, for brass quintet was completed om 29 Dec 2023. Alfredo was a snowman built after a late spring snowstorm in Bellevue, Nebraska, at the beginning of the Covid shutdowns in 2020. The time lapse video was captured on 18 Apr 2020. The first half of the composition underscores time lapse footage of the rapidly melting snowman, syncing precise sforzando punctuations to moments of falling chunks. The sunset remains were gleefully decimated by our six-year-old James, also included in the time lapse YouTube video, released 30 Dec 2023. Duration: 1:15. Follow the QR code to watch the video.
Shuttle from Haneda, Op. 149-C, for brass quintet. The video was taken 21 Jan 2024 after a delayed return from a trip to Washington, D.C. The music and YouTube video were completed 28 Jan 2024. The video was much faster than a side-view time lapse in a vehicle should be, but it was a grand experiment, and elicited a fairly dormant atonal compositional style from me. The atonality depicts well the hustle and chaos of a city as enormous as Tokyo, but with a lovely view of the Bay about midway through the work. Duration: 0:50.
Petite Wave, Op. 149-B, for brass quintet was completed on 8 Jan 2024 and posted on YouTube. During the holiday season of 2023-24, I decided to create a series of time lapse videos with original brass quintet music as soundtracks. This piece was composed to accompany a time lapse of me hanging of a three-panel canvas print of the woodcut art “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai in 1831. This art was featured on the cover of Claude Debussy’s “La Mer” when it was published in 1905. In allusion to that, my short film score ends with a quote from “La Mer.” Video was captured on 3 Jan 2024. Duration: 0:30.
Fast Food to Fitness, Op. 149-D, for brass quintet was started and completed on 29 Jan 2024 and posted as my first YouTube Short video. The video itself consists of a pan of nine fast food ads on a sheet given to me at the Newcomer Brief upon arriving at Yokota Air Base in Japan. The very bottom ad promotes “BeFit 360,” which I thought was hilarious. The music has a series of exciting flourishes, akin to butterflies in a hungry tummy upon surveying all the tempting restaurants represented. Then the joyful music morphs into a dark, sinister chord with all the instruments in the low range as the last ad puts a damper on the caloric prospects. Duration: 0:18.
Pigeons, Op. 149-E, for brass quintet was started and completed on 3 Feb 2024. On my way walking to work on 25 Jan 2024, a substantial flock of pigeons was contentedly pecking at the yellow grass under a tree. Wishing I had a dog to scatter them and enjoy seeing them flutter away, I did the next best thing: I pulled out my iPhone and started rolling a video while I slowly approached them, occasionally causing a little stir. Once they finally had enough, the flock took flight to find a distant, less threatening spot of ground to peck. The scene presented some fine opportunities for musical underscoring, so I did just that. Duration: 0:45.
Blue Snowman Group, Op. 149-F, for brass quintet was completed on 8 Feb 2024. A rare Tokyo snow dumped inches of wet packing snow for most of a day. I enjoyed an early release from work, and when I got home, my ten-year-old had already started rolling the base of a snowman. The 21st-century dad in me didn’t help him, but rather, I whipped out my cell phone and started a time lapse video! Mom came out and built her own, with creative ideas! Armed with a spray bottle full of water and food coloring, the two snowmen turned blue in the cold and lived happily together for a couple of days. Duration: 1:00.
Autumn Fuji Puzzle, Op. 149-H, for brass quintet was completed on 29 Feb 2024. Some tightly crafted moments in this short piece include the loud chromatic run in measure ten to a key change when, in the video footage, the puzzle’s edges crimp together. The sudden shift from relative minor back to major, with a climactic crescendo in measures 18-19, marks the moment of completion, which sentiment lingers as the high-quality image of the completed puzzle is featured. The sinister lead-in to the key change at measure 24 alludes to the relative minor again as the puzzle begins to deconstruct. But no, the melody returns in the major chromatic mediant, cheerfully highlighting the youthful arms of the boy taking the puzzle apart. Like the puzzle’s end, the melody also deconstructs into loose pieces for the final measures and ends precisely on the double thumbs up. Duration: 1:00.
Outing in Japan, Op. 149-G, for brass quintet was completed on 27 Feb 2024. The music for the YouTube video of the same name was crafted to highlight key moments of the time lapse of running errands in the northwest Tokyo area. There are many subtle and obvious key moments in this work that aurally augment visually stimulating moments, including blinking turn signals, passing traffic, turns, vehicle approaches, parking at destinations, and many more that the listener can have fun discerning. Duration: 2:00.
Gilded Music Press specializes in brass music and pedagogical materials composed and crafted by Dr. Daniel Thrower. His expertise and experience in the music world are now available in printed or PDF format for the music world's benefit.
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"You and your compositions deserve first rate ensembles, they’re that good! It’s an honor to know you and, from time to time, celebrate your wonderful accomplishments."
Dr. Daniel N. Thrower
Owner
"Gilded Music Press" was created specifically to make Dr. Daniel Thrower's high-quality music available. Dr. Thrower has been composing music and writing educational supplements for decades. He describes his music as a "personal musical journal". From his work with military ensembles to faculty and students of all ages, his music and teaching materials are created to edify audiences, professional colleagues, students, and himself. Through "Gilded Music Press" the global music community benefits from his excellent research, experience, and creative output. Many have enjoyed and benefited from his work throughout the world, and you will too once you discover his phenomenal products!