Review

Ted Vives
Quintet No.1:

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Publisher: Advance Music
Date of Publication: 2023
URL: http://www.survivesmusic.net

Manuscript

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

Ted Vives is a composer, trombonist and conductor who currently resides in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Composed in 2003, this brass quintet is a twelve-minute, three-movement work. The first movement marked Presto features multiple meters including 10/8 and 13/8. The composer writes that this movement was inspired by his son learning to walk and, while not intended to be programmatic, involves multiple starts and stops to evoke this image. The second movement is slower, marked Broad and develops some of the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic ideas introduced in the first movement. The third movement starts with a Grave section, which builds in intensity to the conclusion of the work.  

The first trumpet part calls for piccolo trumpet, straight, cup, and Harmon mutes. Trumpet 2 and trombone require straight and cup mutes, and the horn part calls for mute.
The intricate nature of this work makes it quite difficult requiring an advanced group. Parts were not submitted for this review. The piece is available at http://www.survivesmusic.net.

-Patrick Lawrence
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point