Deploration for brass quintet

(1988) 9'

Composed for the Chestnut Brass Company
Recorded on Albany Records (Troy 233)
Published by Theodore Presser Co.

Program note

When Vincent Persichetti passed away in 1987, many of us who knew or studied with him composed pieces in his memory. Shortly after his death I began work on two pieces for brass quintet simultaneously, Variations on a Hymn of Persichetti and Deploration. Few composers have inspired as much love, admiration and music as Persichetti did in his decades of writing and teaching. As I considered a piece, Josquin’s moving tribute to his contemporary, the great Renaissance composer and teacher Johannes Ockeghem came to mind. Deploration is a lament that features the horn as the leading, expressive voice of the ensemble. After an opening section, the piece builds to a clangorous, bell-like climax that eventually subsides into a quiet, muted trumpet solo that quotes a folk lament from Southern Italy. After a chorale-like section with horn descant, the work ends as the horn intones the syllables of Persichetti’s name in long-spaced tones. Deploration was premiered by the Chestnut Brass Company at the First Presbyterian Church, Phila. PA, and published by Theodore Presser Co.