''Loose Id'' is a single-movement composition for

brass quintet A brass quintet is a five-piece musical ensemble composed of brass instruments. The instrumentation for a brass quintet typically includes two trumpets or cornets, one French horn, one trombone or euphonium/baritone horn, and one tuba or bass t ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

—later expanded for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

—by the American composer Steven Bryant. The original brass quintet version premiered November 1995 at the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...

and the full orchestral version premiered at

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on April 1, 1997, with conductor Jeffrey Milarsky leading the Juilliard Symphony. The piece was Bryant's first composition for orchestra. Bryant, Steven
Steven Bryant: Loose Id (1995)
''StevenBryant.com''. Retrieved April 28, 2015. Bryant, Steven
Steven Bryant: Loose Id for Orchestra (1996)
''StevenBryant.com''. Retrieved April 28, 2015.

Composition

In the program notes for the work, Bryant described the inspiration for the work, writing:

Instrumentation

The brass quintet version of ''Loose Id'' is scored for two

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

, bass trombone, and percussion (

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

and

ride cymbal The ride cymbal is a standard cymbal in most drum kits. Its function in the kit is to maintain a beat,Schroedl, Scott (2001). ''Play Drums Today!'', p.7. Hal Leonard. . "It's called the ride cymbal because you 'ride' on it--that is, you maintain a ...

). The orchestral expansion of the piece is scored for piccolo, two

flutes The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, two

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

s, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four French horns, three trumpets, three trombones (two tenor trombones and bass trombone),

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

, three percussionists, and strings.

Reception

The composer Samuel Adler lauded the piece as being "orchestrated like a virtuoso" and said "it out-'Infernal Machines' 'The Infernal Machine,'" referring to the second movement from Christopher Rouse's triptych '' Phantasmata''.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

praised the composition as "an exhilarating piece of writing that, in its short, four-minute timespan isn't likely to wear out its welcome under any circumstances."

References

{{Italic title Compositions by Steven Bryant 1995 compositions 1996 compositions Chamber music compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra 20th-century classical music