Review

Jeremy Niles Kempton
Cascades in Brass:
Brass quartet: 2 B-flat trumpets, F horn, trombone

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 1999 / 2021
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 4 brass

The title Cascades, as used here I think, has a dual meaning, indicating both falling water and the sequential structure of the piece. Scoring is for two B-flat trumpets, F horn and trombone, and it is set in the key of F major. This is a completely tonal piece, with only ten accidentals in the entire score.

The direction at the top of the score reads With Flair, quarter=76. It begins with trumpets, horn and trombone entering one beat apart, playing ascending F major pentachords formed with 16th and 32nd notes, and returning to their starting note via a descending major triad. These basic patterns are repeated and developed throughout the piece with variations and extensions, maintaining the sense of ebb and flow. The main section, marked Flowingly, develops the material already heard.

All parts are kept busy, with only four measures of rest in the first trumpet part, five for second trumpet, seven for horn and nine for trombone. The majority of notes in all parts are 16th’s and 32nd’s; many of their beams are solidified in the score, but are mostly distinct in the parts. First trumpet tops out at b², second at g² and horn at g². The trombone part is in bass clef containing many groups of 16th and 32nd notes. Alternate slide positions are indicated in some of them to eliminate long shifts; its overall range is c–b-flat¹.

Mr. Kempton was a trombone player and director of the Island Chamber Symphony in New York City. He died age 75 in January, 2020.