Lebewohl
General Info
Year: 2012
Duration: c. 7:00
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Composer
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown
Instrumentation
16 brass divided into two antiphonal choirs:
Choir 1:
6 horns in F
2 tubas
Choir 2:
Piccolo Trumpet
3 C trumpets
4 trombones
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Lebewohl, the German word for farewell, takes its musical inspiration from the Beethoven piano sonata of the same name. Beethoven inscribed the word over the first three notes of his op. 81a and dedicated it to a patron, Archduke Rudolph, on the occasion of his departure from Vienna preceding Napoleon’s invasion. I have quoted the opening four measures of that work in this short piece, and used his three-note motive as the generating material for the entire composition.
The piece is scored for 16 brass instruments divided into two choirs and spaced antiphonally. The first choir, of the conical bore brass instruments, consists of 6 horns and 2 tubas; the second, of the cylindrical bore brass, consists of 4 trumpets and 4 trombones. My Lebewohl was composed on the occasion of another departure; it marks the retirement of a long-serving Dean from the Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty of Arts.
Lebewohl was premiered by the brass of the Hong Kong Baptist University Symphony Orchestra conducted by Johnny Poon on March 7, 2012 , at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall.
- Program note by the composer
Media
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
Works for Winds by This Composer
- chrysalis: in memoriam Olivier Messiaen (2015)
- Dark Gardens (1999)
- A Jazz Funeral (2005)
- Lebewohl (2012)
- The Post-Apocalyptic Blues (2016)
- The Snake Oil Peddler (2010)
- Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (2010)
- Threnody (1979)
Resources
- Rachael Coleman website Accessed 10 January 2021
- Lebewohl