Impressions of Seurat - Brass Band - LM482

COMPOSER : Chris Cobon

1 - Stone breakers

The Suite opens with the only picture, of the five, which is not in the pointillist style. Several pictures were produced on the Stone Breaker theme, painted in oil on small panels called croquetons. The subjects in the art are breaking stones for use in road building. Musically the piece starts canonically alluding to the repetitive nature of the labour. A more direct, rhythmic link of three hammer blows, are first heard in the opening passages in the percussion. These hammer blows are also built into each third bar of the cannon and, therefore, become embedded into the opening section. Arising from the flurry of activity are two, three bar legato phrases in a majestic style until it falls to a more dramatic sounding of the legato phrase over a resounding of the cannon in a new textural order. This leads to a short, new section, featuring a trombone trio underneath rising scales in the cornet section.

2: Bathers at Asnières

Bathers at Asnières was Seurat’s first major painting…The canvas is of a suburban, Parisian riverside scene. Isolated figures, with their clothes, piled sculpturally on the riverbank, together with trees, austere boundary walls and buildings, and the River Seine are presented in a formal layout. This moment aims to capture the tranquillity of a summer’s day in the park. This painting led the development of the pointillist technique whereby the colours were applied as small dots that combine to form a picture when viewed at a distance. The trombones capture this idea in the opening bars with their carillon-style entries. The 2nd/3rd cornets make a more direct link by individual picking out single notes of a melody being sounded on Baritones and trombones at C. The use of mutes adds a subtle darker side to this movement which nods to the industrial working-class aspects of the painting.

3: White Dog

White Dog features a few characters relaxing in the sun, and a white dog with its tail held high. Having two dogs myself, I’ve taken the idea of an excited dog with a waggy tail as the basis for this short, middle, movement.

4: Sunday Afternoon

on the Island of La Grande Jatte Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is arguably Seurat’s most famous work.

5: Parade de Cirque

Circus Sideshow Parade de Cirque encompasses a circus scene's boisterousness, vitality and chaos. However, the painting, constructed with the new pointillist technique, also portrays stillness, calmness and precision. As expected from looking at the picture, the trombone takes centre stage in various locations on either side of the calming circus waltz and pointillist section (I).