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ANTHONY BRAXTON'S COMPOSITION #19 AND ME
I first learned of Anthony Braxton's Composition #19 for 100 Tubas as an undergraduate music student at Ithaca College in the early 1970s. I used to regularly pour over the unparalleled magazine for experimental music SOURCE, MUSIC OF THE AVANT GARDE. In issue #10 an Anthony Braxton piece was published. What I noticed first, however, was the photograph of Mr. Braxton, in which he was in rehearsal, the only instrument seen being a tuba. In the list of his compositions (short in 1971), two tuba pieces are listed, his tuba quintet from 1968 and his piece for 100 tubas from 1971, which must have been newly written at that time. I don't remember if I tried to get these pieces (something I was to do regularly with composers beginning a few years later).
It wasn't long before I procured the double LP THE COMPLETE BRAXTON 1971, which included the tuba quintet as well as other delicious low pieces for or including the contrabass clarinet and contrabass saxophone. By this time I knew that Anthony Braxton loved low sounds and that he was a friend of the tuba.
Fast forward to 2005 when Anthony asked me to join the Anthony Braxton Sextet, which started performing all over the world. One of the first things I asked him about was his 100 tuba piece, or Composition #19. By this time I had read about the piece in Anthony's Trillium Writings, learning that it was for 4 marching tuba bands. He told me that the music was lost but he would be happy to reconstruct it if a performance could be arranged. I approached my friend David Lang of the Bang-on-a-Can organization to see if we could set up a performance during one of their yearly marathon concerts. The stars all seemed to align and before I knew it, there we were, marching around the Wintergarden in downtown New York to open the 6/4/2006 Bang-on-a-Can Marathon Concert.
One aspect of the piece that took everyone by surprise, I think, was the look of the piece. Tubas come in all different shapes and sizes, from the smaller tenor tuba (or euphonium) to the large bass tuba, which includes the over-the-shoulder sousaphone. Some bells went to the left, some to the right. Some were bent, some went straight up. It was a phantasmagoria of brass.
Organizing and participating in the performance of Composition #19 was one of the most satisfying events of my musical life. It seemed everyone loved Composition #19; performers and audience alike. As they say, a good time was had by all. ----- Jay Rozen 29 July 2011
CONDUCTOR: ANTHONY BRAXTON
Allen, Brian
Altieri, John
Buttery, Gary
Carlsen, Eric
Davila, Jose
Dorn, Jonathan
Gillmore, Stewart
Grego, David
Jami, Hakim
Krush, Jay
Lang, David
Mandel, Josh
Regev, Reut
Robinson, Scott
Rozen, Jay
Washburn, Chris
Winograd, David
CONDUCTOR: TAYLOR HO BYNUM
Blacksberg, Dan
Burbank, Gregory
Bush, Jeffrey
Buzzart, Monique
Christianson, Michael
Cifarelli, Michael
Collins, Ernie
Cox, Ian
Daley, Joe
Dorbin, David
Erway, Chris
Furman, Jeff
Moore, Scott
Weisz, Deborah
Wright, Ben
CONDUCTOR: JAMES FEI
Evans, Wiley
Felkner, Gerry
Fenlon, Andrew
Hendricks, Darryl
Hofstra, David
Holmes, Bud
Keady, Joe
Koci, Nathan
Kulik, Sam
Lanz, Benjamin
Malloy, William
McCurty, Greg
Meeder, Christopher
Schleifer, Daniel
Yakata, Hitomi
CONDUCTOR: MATT WELCH
Dulman, Jesse
Lambiase
McFaden, Sheila
McFaden, Francis
McFaden, David
Parton, Jack
Pass, Matt
Pedulla, Frank
Pleshar, Rob
Press, Gary
Quartaro, Melissa
Rhindress, Stephen
Rodgers, Andy
Sasamura, Ken
Scott, Evan
Silver, Debra
Sopko, Beth
Stewart, Mark
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