Fanfare for the Victims of a Mismanaged Pandemic
Fanfare for solo Trumpet (with Flügelhorn), electronics and tape. Live version for 4 trumpets and effects.
Four overlapping passages are played by the trumpet soloist. The first three being sampled whilst played by the soloist and added progressively under each subsequent passage.
A middle Flügelhorn solo is accompanied by the continuation of processed TV and Radio news reports and a choral compilation made of samples re-synthesised from recordings that are pre-1952. The first three trumpet passages are repeated and a fourth added to bring the piece to a close.
To be performed in a large acoustic, a church or better cathedral with a reverberation time of over 9 seconds. The tape samples should be placed above and away from the soloists so as to sound etherial in nature.
A middle Flügelhorn solo is accompanied by the continuation of processed TV and Radio news reports and a choral compilation made of samples re-synthesised from recordings that are pre-1952. The first three trumpet passages are repeated and a fourth added to bring the piece to a close.
To be performed in a large acoustic, a church or better cathedral with a reverberation time of over 9 seconds. The tape samples should be placed above and away from the soloists so as to sound etherial in nature.
This piece is written during November of 2020 when the pandemic is still very much present in all of our lives. Alongside the saddest of aspects and obvious political and moral failings of a UK government charged with the job of protecting a population, it is difficult not to be saddened, frustrated and even angry.
Though the UK is no longer my home, I care and have an opinion about what happens there. No doubt the future may hold an examination of the circumstances surrounding the seemingly negligent sacrifice of human life for whatever miserable reasoning, maybe it won't. In any case may this piece give a voice to haunt the responsible and a cry for a lesson to be learnt.
Anthony Gustav Morris, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, November 2020