When Buzz Brass performs at the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium on Thursday, January 22, at 7:30 p.m., the ensemble will represent an important Canadian legacy. Much of the music performed in concerts presented by the Valley Concert Society has a long and venerable history. This season you will hear music from as early as the 16th century Renaissance through the Baroque, the Classical, and the Romantic periods right up to the present. By comparison, the brass quintet has made a very recent appearance in the musical world.
Brass instruments had fairly limited applications until the mid 1800s when the invention of valves and slides enabled them to play all the notes of the chromatic scale. Even then brass chamber groups were much less common than pianos, string quartets, and the like.
The brass quintet as we know it today was not formed until just after World War II in New York. A few quintets came into existence in the next two decades, but it was the founding of the Canadian Brass that led to the popularization of this form around the world.
Formed in Toronto in 1970, the Canadian Brass performed thousands of concerts around the world and arranged, commissioned and recorded many hundreds of works. Since then, brass quintets have flourished.
Over half of the concert performed by Buzz Brass will be arrangements of delightful works by well-known composers from Bach to Erik Satie.
They will also have music from a newer generation composed particularly for brass quintet including an Intermezzo by the Danish composer Axel Jørgensen and Three Dance Impressions by the Canadian Morley Calvert.
All of this great music will come to life with the group’s inimitable style and entertaining commentary.
Tickets are available online at www.valleyconcertsociety.com at $32 for adults and $20 for students. Call 604-289-3377 for more information.
John Wiebe
President
The Valley Concert Society