Brobdingnagian mouth organ (2019)
trumpet (harmonica), organ (harmonica) | ?m
written for Sam Gustavson
The Brobdingnagians are a fictional nation of giants in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Naturally, a mouth organ (harmonica) belonging to one of these giants would be massive. It was my intent to express the basic capabilities of a harmonica, but heightened with the added range and timbres of pipe organ and trumpet. The result is a piece with a fresh library of sounds.
”…how contemptible a thing was human grandeur,
which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I.”
The Brobdingnagians are a fictional nation of giants in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Naturally, a mouth organ (harmonica) belonging to one of these giants would be massive. It was my intent to express the basic capabilities of a harmonica, but heightened with the added range and timbres of pipe organ and trumpet. The result is a piece with a fresh library of sounds.
[score]
The score can be downloaded for free. Please note that the music is protected by copyright. If you'd like to play the piece, feel free to get in touch with me [here].
TO DO
• The harmonicas need to be amplified.
• Spend more time developing 16th-note material
>use more than one note on the harmonica at the beginning of this material to help it assert itself.
• The ending w/ rhythmic in/exhale has the capacity to be
more joyous. Lean into this.
• Do you need to rely on piccolo trumpet at the end?
• more lip slurs from the trumpet.