Review

Ben Kon
A Moving Sea Between the Shores: for brass quintet

Winter Park, Florida, United States
Publisher: Wehr's Music House
Date of Publication: 2014

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

Ben Kon is a trombonist, composer, keyboardist, and triple cello steel pan player from Central Florida. He holds a degree in music, with selected studies in Mathematics, from Stetson University. He has worked as a trombonist and musical director for Royal Caribbean International. His compositions have been performed in England, Haiti, and the USA, with some published by Wehr's Music House.

In the composer’s own words:

A Moving Sea Between the Shores was composed in 2010 for my sister, Elizabeth Holmes, and her husband Jonathan Holmes. The title is a reference to a passage from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. The work consists of a slow, lyrical melody, set above a rising and falling ostinato in the lower voices, mimicking the steady undulation of ocean waves. A more lively dance-like section briefly interrupts this, before settling back down and quietly coming to a close.

The writing is for the most part quite lyrical, with simple rhythms and conservative, tonal harmonies and melodies. It is playable by a student group; advanced ensembles could sight-read it without much difficulty.