fanfare for brass and percussion (2021)
Duration ca. 3’
4 hn, 1 picc tpt, 2 tpt in C, 1 fgh, 2 tbn, tba, 2 perc
Program Note
I am grateful and honored to have been commissioned to write a fanfare for Odessa College’s 75th Anniversary Celebration. When Eric Baker asked me to write the fanfare, he told me to keep in mind the community. What immediately came to my mind were musical cultures you find in Odessa, the marching & concert band culture, the mariachi & Hispanic music culture, the Midland Odessa Symphony & Chorale culture, and the everyday Odessan who might enjoy a little celebratory brass music, even if they’ve never intentionally sought brass music. Case in point: brass music is nearly everywhere in Odessa. And I was happy to contribute music in this way. With “Nuevo Amanecer” or “A New Dawn”, I wanted to write my answer to the fanfares of Aaron Coplan, Joan Tower, and John Williams while incorporating subtle elements of marching band percussion riffs (my nod to percussion master Jimmy Olague), mariachi trumpet voicings, and Spanish pasodoble motives - even if they may not be perceptible at first listening. This is what I find joyous about creating music, I can use all these influences along with my compositional mind to create something new, and in this case, something new just for the community of Odessa and Odessa College. The title “Nuevo Amanecer” is my continual hope for our society as a whole, our society as a country, and then the world in general, in that we can use whatever situation is given to us for the opportunity to do good and to strive to live in harmony with one another.
- Gilbert Galindo, August 2021
World Premiere: Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Odessa College Community Band
Administration Parking Lot, Odessa, TX