D a v i d   V e s s

Dusk is a curious piece for me. This quintet was written for the Brockton Symphony Chamber Series for a concert at the beginning of 2020. I wrote it very quickly, it all seemed to come together much faster than I normally write. It was of a somber and darker nature than my usual optimistic brass music. It feels very inspired by some of the darker moments in the music of Shostakovich, almost like hearing the sound of winter. When we premiered it, I did not quite grasp what this darker piece really meant. That was, until the following month, when I learned of the passing of my dear friend and family member, Chrissy Hebert. I had very much unknowingly written my first piece of funeral music. Dusk begins with a solo horn, which establishes an almost vocal-like melodic frame, using very simple stepwise motion, slow and at times trying to be triumphant. The horn solo leads us to a passage marked "Somber Bell Tones," which features the odd sonority of muted trumpets and horn. From there the work picks up tempo with a feeling of defiance: angry brass fanfares and broken accompaniment. The main melody is stretched and emerges frequently, but never finds true resolution. The music works its way through the cycles of grief. The section marked "Defiant" sees the low brass stubbornly reasserting the same notes — as if trying to force order back into their world — leaving the upper brass to scramble. The climax reaches a moment of true nostalgia, marked "Small, but Hopeful," where a cascade of memories bursts through the music, finally able to forget the weight of grief for just a small moment. But the moment passes, and solemnly we return to the somber bell tones in the muted high brass. The emotion builds again into a final anger that leads to the penultimate section marked "Raw and Torn." The music comes to rest in the same place where it began, wholly transformed, yet somehow unresolved. As the work slowly burns out like an ember, we are left staring up at the cold, uncaring sky of Dusk.