Jack Stamp wrote his piece Gavorkna Fanfare in 1991. This signature piece, written for wind ensemble, aided in creating a name for Stamp in wind band composition. First performed by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania wind ensemble, Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University, Bloomington) performed it in fall of 1991 for their "Band Showcase." The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps performed it in their 1992 show, popularizing Dr. Stamp's intense and powerful composing style. The piece was first recorded by the Keystone Winds in 1995's Past The Equinox: The Music of Jack Stamp.
Contents
Composition
The fanfare was a request from Eugene Corporon, an instructor at Michigan State University who was seeking a piece with the full instrumentation of a wind band. The beginning is characterized by a distinctly abrupt sound, meant to grab the audience's attention. The piece starts out with an ascending dissonant scale. The trumpets then play a fast monotone of sixteenth notes, followed by a slower ascending three note pattern. This repeats several times, the trombones adding to the trumpet double tonguing attack, then the band pauses with a chord fading to silence. Then, what sounds like churchbells make a repeating 3-note pattern. The flutes and clarinets then play repeating notes adding to the bells, and finally the horns enter with a sweet and majestic melody that sounds like the music used commonly in movies as the "love amidst a war theme" its sweet and majestic sound sound like the lovers being together against all odds, and the fast tempo, pounding drumbeat, frantic pulsing of flutes and clarinets, and the fanfare note patterns of the melody make the feeling of a war going on in the background. Once this melody runs its course, we go "back to the battle" and hear the trumpets fast tonguing. After this, all brass instruments play a syncopated monotone that ends in the final, sustained chord of the piece.
This composition was dedicated to Eugene Corporon.
Selected Recordings
Indiana University Symphonic Band, fall 1991