Jonathan Shaw

     My first composition consisting of entirely brass, this one was inspired out of Bach’s Fugue in A Minor BWV 904 – specifically an interpretation made my Stephen Malinowski with his Music Animation Machine (which is an excellent visualizer for music). This was written also during my time at college. I wanted to teach myself how to write for brass (something I still have to teach myself as of writing in 2016!) and this was my earliest piece in an attempt to do this. Of course, by treating the brass instruments simply as voices in a fugue was not an entirely idiomatic attempt at scoring for brass.

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     I was surprised on listening to it again to find the subject alone in the tuba at bar 54. And the chromatic excursions that take place as the instruments slowly return was directly influenced from Bach’s above mentioned fugue. There is a little 'false ending' similar to the end of "C.6 - A Four's Fugue".

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     After writing the next piece, I added "Small" to the beginning of this title.