Review

David Wilborn
Imagination:
2 B-flat trumpets, horn in F, trombone, tuba

, United States
Publisher: Wehr's Music House
Date of Publication: 2023
URL: http://www.wehrsmusichouse.com

score and parts.

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

David Wilborn holds degrees from the University of Texas and the Eastman School of Music. He studied trombone with Donald Knaub and John Marcellus and composition with Donald Grantham. He is currently Associate Professor of Music at Texas A&M University in College Station, where he teaches the low brass studio and coordinates small ensembles. As a clinician and trombone soloist, he has presented sessions and performances at conference venues throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe. His original compositions are performed and professionally recorded nationally and internationally. His Excursions for Six Trombones was selected as the winner of the 2003 Allen E. Ostrander Trombone Choir Composition Prize; his brass quintet Escapades was selected as one of the winning compositions at the Appalachian State 2004 Brass Chamber Music Festival Composition Contest, and his Three Movements for Brass Sextet won second place at the 2005 Humboldt Composition Contest for Brass Chamber Music. In February 2008, Wilborn performed the solo bass trombone part in the New York premiere of his Concertante Caprice with the Texas A&M University Wind Symphony in Carnegie Hall. Rorianne Schrade, a music critic for the New York Concert Review, praised the work for its freshness and excitement.

The composer writes the following:

“Imagination was commissioned in 2023 by the Tennessee Tech School of Music for the Brass Arts Quintet, the resident faculty brass quintet of Tennessee Tech University. The title Imagination is in reference to the creative possibilities and artistic goals the founders of the Brass Arts Quintet must have considered when they created the ensemble 60 years ago. It is likely each member that had visions of what the ensemble could achieve and how they might go about meeting their goals. Through their vision, the ensemble pursued the goals of entertaining and educating vast numbers of audiences. They performed music demonstrating the musical and technical abilities of each brass instrument. The ensemble succeeded in sharing the joy of brass quintet literature. Here's to the many visions of the Brass Arts Quintet. May they continue their quest for new artistic possibilities which is inspired by their own imagination.”

Cast in a single movement with a duration of c. 7 minutes, Imitation alternates between lyrical and rhythmically driving music. The harmonic, rhythmic, textural, and melodic materials are traditional and conservative, not ranging much beyond late 19th-century practices. The composer does make good and interesting use of ostinatos as well as textural variety. The latter by use of mutes as well as judicial duets, trios, and quartets within the five-part ensemble. There is also a wide variety of dynamics from fff to p and a good mixture of articulations and musical styles. The initial tempo marking describes much of the music - With driving momentum. The writing for each instrument is idiomatic and interesting with everyone getting a moment in the spotlight. It requires good technical skills from all five players. Although written for an established faculty ensemble, it is music performable by less experienced players. The paper, printing, and layout are first-class.