Copperwave
Item
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Score title
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Copperwave
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Composer
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Joan Tower
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Program note
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Copperwave (2006) was commissioned for the American Brass Quintet by the Juilliard School for its centennial celebration. This commission was supported by the Trust of Francis Goelet.
The work is dedicated with great admiration to the distinguished American Brass Quintet
My father was a geologist and mining engineer and I grew up loving everything to do with minerals and rocks. Copper is a heavy but flexible mineral that is used for many different purposes and most brass instruments are made of copper. The ideas in this piece move in waves, sometimes heavy ones and at other times lighter — also in circles, turning around on the same notes. Occasionally, there is a latin type of rhythm that appears, which is a reminder of my years growing up in South America where my father was working as a mining engineer.
— Joan Tower
Joan Tower