Roger Steptoe

New York Fanfares

Although the 'ripieno' and 'concertante' elements are played equally by each of the five instruments in turn, this fast, virtuosic and pithy work is essentially a mini-concerto for brass quintet. Cast in three main sections with coda, the work takes as its starting point the notion of 'fanfares'. Fanfares in many forms and guises, loud, soft, rhythmically charged and lyrically quiet and discrete. The middle, slower section is the most sustained in terms of atmosphere, with a rocking, accompanying motif passed around the five instruments against snippets of 'fanfare-like' material heard elsewhere. The work ends as it begins.