Concerto of Colours, A

From Wind Repertory Project
Stephen Goss

Stephen Goss


Subtitle: For Guitar and Wind Ensemble


General Info

Year: 2017
Duration: c. 16:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Stephen Goss
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown


Movements

1. Albuquerque Turquoise - 3:35
2. Still Black
3. Green Movement - 3:25
4. Nocturne in Blue and Gold - 3:27
5. Red Rocks


Instrumentation

Full Score
Solo Guitar
Flute
Oboe
English Horn
Bassoon
Contrabassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet
Horn in F I-II
Bass Trombone
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion I-II, including:

  • Conga
  • Glockenspiel
  • Marimba
  • Slapstick
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tam-Tam
  • Temple Blocks
  • Triangle
  • Vibraphone
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

The impetus behind A Concerto of Colours is the vivid, resonant landscape of the American Southwest. There are five short, highly contrasting, movements.

Albuquerque Turquoise attempts to evoke the wide-open skies and the dazzling bright light of New Mexico. The Zuni and peoples of the Rio Grande pueblos associated blue turquoise with Father Sky and green turquoise with Mother Earth. Clifford Still’s monolithic black paintings made a profound impression on me when I first saw them in Denver. The bleak canvases are sometimes broken up by small areas of intense colour — it is this contrast that I wanted to reflect in Still Black. There are other references here too — Mark Bradford’s politically charged artwork inspired by Still and the opening pages of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood.

Green Movement celebrates the beauty, but also reminds us of the fragility, of the Southwestern terrain. The title Nocturne in Blue and Gold is taken from a painting by Whistler, but this section of the concerto also alludes to the blues and to the American gold rush. The distant trumpet line suggests Miles Davis.

The finale, Red Rocks, is named after the concert venue in Colorado located in a spectacular natural setting. The musical material is based on fragments borrowed from King Crimson’s album Red.

A Concerto of Colours celebrates contrasts and contradictions.

- Program Note by composer


Commissioned by Andrew Zohn and Jamie Nix through a consortium of American university wind ensembles and guitar professors. The first performance took place in Columbus, Georgia on 28th September 2017.

- Program Note from publisher


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

  • Capital Region Wind Ensemble (Albany, N.Y.) (Brett Wery, conductor) - 26 March 2023
  • California State University Northridge Wind Ensemble (Lawrence Stoffel, conductor; Steve Thachuk, electric guitar) – 10 March 2020
  • Eastman School of Music (Rochester, N.Y.) Wind Ensemble (Mark Scatterday, conductor; Nicholas Goluses, guitar) – 18 October 2019
  • Oregon State University (Corvallis) Wind Ensemble (Chris Chapman, conductor; Cameron O’Connor, guitar) – 2 December 2018
  • Illinois State University (Normal) Symphonic Winds (Anthony Marinello, III, conductor; Angelo Favis, guitar) – 15 November 2018
  • University of Miami (Coral Gables) Frost Wind Ensemble (Robert Carnochan, conductor; Rafael Padrón, guitar) – 26 April 2018
  • University of Texas (Austin) Wind Ensemble (Jerry Junkin, conductor; Adam Holzman, guitar) – 23 March 2018
  • University of Southern California Thornton Wind Ensemble (Sharon Lavery, conductor; David Steinhardt, guitar) - 9 February 2018
  • University of Washington (Seattle) Wind Ensemble (Tim Salzman, conductor; Michael Partington, guitar) – 7 December 2017


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

  • Goss, S. (2018). A Concerto of Colours: For Guitar and Wind Ensemble (2017) [score]. Les Éditions Doberman-Yppan: Lévis, Québec,