The Black Carillon

The Black Carillon was written as a request by Jeffrey de Seriere, director of TBC: The Brass Choir, a group based in Long Beach, California. Jeffrey wanted a fanfare that depicted the character Khan from the most recent Star Trek film. Having never seen the film before, I went off of a description instead: powerful, agile, and evil. Much of the piece revolves the interval of a perfect fifth, which creates a great sense of power when combined with the thunderous sound of the brass. The driving tempo and sixteenth note subdivisions bring agility and dexterity to the fanfare, especially in the technically demanding low brass parts. The piece was composed with the idea of large, ominous bells in mind. The carillon, an instrument comprised of a chromatic set of bells and housed primarily in church towers, fit this vision perfectly. Just as medieval carillons were used to notify people of fires, storms, wars and other events, The Black Carillon is a signal for impending doom. The piece was premiered at the 2013 Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in Denver, Colorado.