Review

James Wehr
Chorales For Brass Quintet:
2 trumpets, horn in F, trombone, tuba

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Publisher: Wehr's Music House
Date of Publication: 1991
URL: http://www.wehrs-music-house.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

Jamie Wehr composed these eight chorales for colleagues in a military brass quintet with which he performed. Four of the chorales include dedications to those individuals, though none are identified in any detail. The chorales are highly contrapuntal, freely chromatic, persistently syncopated and rhythmically asymmetrical. They explore a variety of keys and meters. The trumpet parts reach extremes; first climbs to high printed c-sharp3, second drops to low printed g, while the trombone only has to reach low F-sharp and high f-flat1.  

The example available for review, published in 1991, appears to have been produced with obsolete notation software and a dot matrix printer. As a result, the score and parts are rife with flaws, including awkward page turns, mismatched note head and stem lengths, amateurish binding (adhesive tape) and significant typographical errors throughout. Improper number of notes per measure, incorrect clefs, dubious use of accidentals and dynamic markings, time signatures printed ahead of key signatures, and what appears to be an improper transposition of the horn part. This presents questions that defy explanation. The horn part is particularly problematic. Printed key signatures appear to be correct, but the last two movements indicate bass clef. As printed, this voice produces severe tonal confusion whereas removing it indicates tonal harmony between the remaining four voices. Unfortunately, the absence of program notes or printed explanations from the composer leaves the reader to speculate how to resolve these questions. Updated editions may have corrected these anomalies.

-Bradley J. Payne
Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra