Endless Discovery

       This post is about this brass quintet called Brass Ensemble ROSE , which I had a heck of a time trying to find anything online about. That was rather frustrating, but despite that, I still feel the group very much deserves a mention in this blog. So here is what I have managed to learn. There are 3 different album covers I have managed to find, and I will show them in this post. Two of them are available on Spotify. First is the most prominent one and easiest to find online.       This is the album cover for their 20th anniversary of the group called "With You." I like that the title is a play on their name, having rose as well as signifying the growth of the group, thanks to its audience. I'm not sure that was their intention, but it's still neat regardless. Also, I just want to say, one of the prettiest and beautiful brass quintet album covers I have seen. I love the design a lot. The album was released in 2022, so that should mean that t...

In class today, we were listening to music from underrepresented composers, and one piece that grabbed my attention was Invictus by Anthony Barfield . Watching it in class, I realized this isn't the first time I've heard the piece before. I had actually watched this during the pandemic during my time in undergrad through word of mouth. He says in the video that he wrote the piece to represent the state of New York during 2020. As someone who was living in New York during the pandemic, I can attest to a lot of what he was saying. The Black Lives Matter movement and the changes to the city from COVID-19 were very much present. I don't know if you saw photos of Manhattan and Times Square during the pandemic, but those photos were very much real. It was very polarizing to see a city that is always bustling and feeling overpacked at times, to be almost completely barren, like straight out of a dystopian video game.  During the pandemic, there were different ways musicians had t...

    I was listening to the Italian Brass Band playing Traviata Overture , which was very interesting. When looking into the group and the recording, I learned this piece is from an album the Italian Brass Band made, where they played various Overtures from Giuseppe Verdi’s Operas, but arranged for brass band. For a little synopsis of the opera La Traviata , the story is about Violetta Valéry, who is ill and will die very soon. She is introduced to Alfredo Germont at a party, and we find out that for a long time he has actually been interested in Violetta. She falls in love with Alfredo for various reasons, and Alfredo at the end of this party, confesses his love for her. This leaves Violetta conflicted between her current life and this potential true love. She ultimately chooses a life with Alfredo, and wanting to provide for Violetta, he goes away to Paris to get money. While he is absent, Alfredo's father attempts to convince Violetta to leave Alfredo, and while refusin...

       In a similar vein to my post about The Crazy Angel Company, this group, I feel, also leans more into the entertainment side of music and brass. This group is called " MOS ," which stands for  Music Omotenashi Sisters. If you've seen them before, it might have been on season 18 of "America's Got Talent." They were semi-finalists on the show back in 2023, and they have garnered a following in Japan since. They also gained a lot of popularity for their cover of a song from the anime JOJO's Bizarre Adventure during the pandemic. This was from users' use of songs and sounds on TikTok started becoming a prominent way to trend online. I feel like the group strays from the normal constraints of instrumental groups and has become more of a pop band of sorts. This is a quote from their 'about me' page: "They advocate neo brass band music and perform 'bladan,' a fusion of brass and dance, to bring the wonder of Japanese brass band mu...

       This one is going to be a bit of a cultural crossover between Japan and Colombia. First, what led me to start this post was from discovering a video Sarah Willis posted in 2018 titled "Horns in Kimonos!" It is the horn section for the Pacific Music Festival that is held in Sapporo, Japan every year. This festival was founded by Leonard Bernstein in 1990 and gathers young musicians around the globe to spend around a month in Japan. During this festival, they hold a Kimono Day, and in the video, they are performing in Kimonos. The crossover comes from the piece they perform, which is an arrangement of "Ruth la Moabita," a Colombian song by one of the horn section members, Kevin López. By looking into the piece, I was able to find a recording of "Ruth la Moabita" online by the Cruzao Ensemble. I suggest checking both videos out. It's very interesting to compare them both and see how the arranger chooses to interpret the piece and give it to the va...

 Honestly, I couldn't have a Japan-related blog without talking about anime at least once. There's a show called Hibike! Euphonium and it's about a girl named Kumiko Oumae who plays the euphonium. She chooses to give up music after her experience at the National Music Band Competition during middle school. High school for her has other plans as despite her efforts, she ends up being roped back into doing band once more. The Kitauji High band, despite being a former national placing group, is a shell of its former self. Thus, this begins the journey of trying to get the band to nationals.  The episode in particular I want to talk about is from season 2, episode 7. The episode is called "Station Concert," and much as the title suggests, the band is performing at Takarajima Station. There are a couple of solo moments in the alto saxophone and baritone saxophone, but it's a very upbeat and fun piece. The one part of this piece that always stands out to me is the r...