Frost Fire

Born in 1954 in Cleveland, the “unabashedly atonal” composer Eric Ewazen studied at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School with teachers including Milton Babbitt, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner, and Gunther Schuller. He has received many awards and prizes and is particularly well-known for his music for brass.

Frost Fire, which the American Brass Quintet commissioned for their 40th anniversary season, has been performed worldwide and is a staple of the brass repertoire. As Ewazen describes the work,

Marked “Bright and Fast,” the joyous first movement, in classic sonata-allegro-form, is full of buoyant melodies and rich chords. The second movement, marked “Gentle and Mysterious,” has a waltz-like feel. In a ternary (A-B-A) form, the outer sections consist of ribbons of melodies being gently passed from instrument to instrument. The middle section is a stately fugue which builds in intensity, volume, and rich-sounding resonance. The final movement, “Tense and Dramatic,” brings back material from the first movement, but sets it in a much more turbulent and frenetic environment. Although this movement is based on the skeletal outlines of a sonata-allegro form, it is much freer and more erratic, with shifting meters and contrasting, interpolated passages, ultimately leading the way to a heroic and dynamic conclusion.