Lointain

3 Trumpets in Bb (Trumpet (3) doubling Piccolo Trumpet)

Trumpets with practice mute and straight mute,
Trumpet (1) and (2) with harmon mute .

1 Flugelhorn

1 Horn in F

3 Trombones (Tenor Trombones)

Trombones with practice mutes if poss.

1 Bass Trombone

1 Tuba

Mixing in microtonal intervals from the Cantonese opera traditional yi-fan mode which portrays despair and sadness, the piece takes several impression of brass instruments into consideration as starting point: the long-stretching wandering harmonies, the short and piercing declamations of the trumpets, the low foundations of the trombones and tuba, as well as the softer ‘variants’ of the group, and develop the character of evolving distant traumatic memories through a transformation of the heterophonic microtones to a richer harmonic form. And interspersed by several short episodes of brutal and stormy atmospheres, the music steers through a metamorphosis of a fictional distant memory, thus the title Lointain. Idea-wise, it is an extension of my string quartet piece Oblivion, yet in a different interpretation and medium. You not only see the memories being corroded, but rotten into something new and dystopian.