Art music for brass: Aspects of brass chamber music and its performance practice

Miller, John Adamson (2025) Art music for brass: Aspects of brass chamber music and its performance practice. Doctoral thesis (PhD by Published Works), The Royal Northern College of Music in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The following critical appraisal of submitted published works presents me with an opportunity to track my activities as a performer-scholar, to bring new knowledge of my subject field to music students and scholars and add a practical dimension to the archival resources of RNCM, that now includes the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble Archive and the papers of Elgar Howarth (1935–2024). My monograph, The Modern Brass Ensemble in Twentieth-Century Britain (2022), is the first detailed account of a branch of music making that has been active for half a century. In addition, a selection of sixteen audio recordings in which I have played significant performing roles breaks new ground in several ways; these recordings are integral to my thesis as evidence of my arguments in regard to performance practice, viewpoints of contemporary music composers, concepts of virtuosity, reception of brass music, and historically informed performance. The earliest submitted recording, Pictures at an Exhibition (LP, 1978) captures a performance given by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble that marked a point of change in performance practice and reception, and to many an epiphany. Likewise, Peter Maxwell Davies: Music for Brass (CD, 2015) captures The Wallace Collection’s performance of his Brass Quintet, op. 100 (1981), a key work that received acclaim as an important chamber music work of its time. A further fourteen recordings document historical re-creations of original works and transcriptions for brass from the long nineteenth century. This branch of music making has grown significantly since the 1990s and my thesis will refer to my contribution to this development. Overall, this thesis underlines my concentration on maintaining dialogue between performance and scholarship and intends to contribute towards the cause of enhancing live art music-making in the widest sense.