Stellar Mettle

The title of Stellar Mettle is a play on the name of the brass quintet that commissioned it, Lone Star Brass. The piece is a fresh take on time-honored musical traditions: its structural transparency and rhetoric – the use of themes, phrases, and thematic development – stem from the classical era. Moreover, the outer movements are based on classical structures, in a deployment resembling a classical symphony. The first movement is an adaptation of the classical sonata allegro, with a thematic exposition, development, and recapitulation; the last is adapted from the classical rondo, where a recurring theme alternates with contrasting material. The influences of these antecedents, however, are far from solemn: the attitude is decidedly modern and playful, not taking itself too seriously.