Opus [1]
Chromatic Fantasy (by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck) (1987)
for Band
Premiere: 1987; Kingsborough Band; S. Loring
Performance materials available from the publisher.
I had completed more than 80 compositions, and was in my 40s before attempting to write for band. I will admit that I was somewhat skeptical about the band as a medium for serious music; it took three friends to persuade me to give it a try. Of course, I was wrong about the existing repertoire and the potential for my own music, and I apologize publicly here and now.
However, I started by making an arrangement of the Chromatic Fantasy for organ by the late Renaissance/early Baroque Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the only transcription of music by another composer which I have ever written. It was rehearsed and performed at Kingsborough Community College, and then I finally felt ready to write an original work for band: Trinity, my Symphony No. 8, which I completed in 1988. (Notes by Arnold Rosner)