Interview with

FEBRUARY 2006: Commissioning news from Bruce Westwind Brass 619-501-3562 [email protected] Broughton

TOP STORY Three American Portraits BY BARRY TOOMBS We sat down with Bruce Broughton the other day as he was finishing up composing “Three American Portraits” for Westwind Brass. Broughton (b. 1945) is an Emmy Award-win- ning TV and film composer whose more than 60 film scores include Silverado, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Three Muske- teers, Tombstone, Lost in Space and Bambi II. Among his 10 Emmys are awards for “Warm Springs,” “Glory and Honor,” “O Pioneers!,” “Tiny Tunes Adventures,” “The First Olympics,” “Buck Rogers,” and “Dallas.”

What part of the country did you grow up in?

I was born in Los Angeles, but raised throughout the western USA. I grew up in San Francisco, Washington State (Wenatchee, Walla Walla and Seattle), Denver, Phoenix and graduated high school in Honolulu. Bruce Broughton www.brucebroughton.com How did you get into music and composing?

My family worked for The Salvation Army, which has a big music program. When I was a little kid, around age 7, I went to summer band camp and learned to play a trumpet. My grandfather was a band composer, an uncle was a songwriter and an aunt was a pianist. My parents both were amateur musicians and my brother is a professional trombonist/ar- ranger/composer. The family was thick with music. My main instrument was piano, which I started around the same time as trumpet, and I studied composition at USC. Three American Portraits was made possible by a generous grant from the James Irvine Foundation. www.irvine.org FEBRUARY 2006: Commissioning news from Westwind Brass 619-501-3562

Who gave you your first break/ What is your role as board The idea for the title actu- breaks starting out? member for ASCAP? ally came about after I was well into the piece. Both the After college, I went to work I’m one of twelve writer first and second movements for CBS-TV as a music supervi- members, elected by the mem- were already in progress, but it sor. My first commercial writ- bership for a two-year term, seemed to me that they each ing began there, for shows like whose job it is, along with had a quality that I couldn’t Gunsmoke and Hawaii Five-O. twelve publisher members, to quite define. Identifying them help focus and determine the with the specific individuals What was your best moment course of the organization. I actually helped get the pieces in your professional life? find the ASCAP board enor- completed. Though the piece mously interesting, challenging musically is not in any way I really couldn’t answer and of fundamental importance “Americana,” the three individu- this one. There have been too in the way music is used and als portrayed all exhibit a very many surprises and exciting perceived in this country. archetypal American quality, times. that of never giving up. Concerning the composition What has been your greatest “Three American Portraits,” how thrill in orchestral composing and did you decide to agree to write a who are your heroes and influ- piece for the brass quintet? ences? I decided to write the quin- I remember that the score to tet because I was comfortable Young Sherlock Holmes caught with writing for brass, and me by surprise. It sounded thought I could come up with a lot better than I thought it something more interesting would. That recording session than the brass quintet I wrote was probably the most exciting as a student nearly forty years time I’ve had in a studio. earlier.

My influences are literally What intrigued/interested you everyone, dead or alive, known most about the commission? or unknown. There’s no one that I listen to that I don’t pick That it would get performed out something, either that I like well. Napoleon or don’t, which includes the music of my friends. Though there are some composers Hill whose music I greatly admire, I was an American author who was can’t think of any whom I would one the earliest producers of the consider a “hero,” though there modern genre of personal-suc- are one or two I find almost cess literature. His most famous unapproachable musically, like work, Think and Grow Rich, is one Bach, Wagner or Debussy. Or Napoleon Hill Calvin Coolidge William T. Sherman of the best-selling books of all Bartók. I like many composers time. What characteristics of Hill’s for many different reasons. Your subject for this piece did you focus on in this composi- “Three American Portraits” is an tion? What was is like winning your unlikely trio of Americans: Napo- 10th Emmy (for “Warm Springs”)? leon Hill, Calvin Coolidge, and Wil- I associate Napoleon Hill with liam Tecumseh Sherman. How did the power of positive thinking. In Surprisingly exciting. you decide to pick a salesman, a fact, the marking for the move- politician and a solider for char- ment is “with a positive mental acter studies in this piece? attitude,” known to anyone who has read Hill simply as PMA. 2 THREE AMERICAN PORTRAITS

Hill just does not allow for any- has always seemed to me emo- strategy, and criticism for the thing more than a positive at- tionally flat. His father, a no- harshness of the “scorched titude. This movement seemed tary public, swore him into the earth” policies he implemented in to me to be essentially ener- presidency after the death of conducting total war against the getic and positive, and repeats Warren Harding, whose “return enemy. Military historian Liddell the same motive over and over, to normalcy” program Coolidge Hart famously declared that just like Napoleon Hill. It didn’t carried out. This movement Sherman was “the first modern seem too much of a stretch to portrays, if anything, consis- general.” What part of Sherman’s identify the music with his per- tency, relying upon no dynamic life did you focus on when writing sonality. or harmonic modulation, and the third movement? depends upon the positive mo- tive from the Hill movement as Sherman was relentless. an ostinato underpinning for the While reading U.S. Grant’s entire movement. memoirs, it was obvious to me that Sherman was the one gen- It should be noted that un- eral that Grant could rely upon der Coolidge’s administration, for getting a job done. Though the country became enormous- it was Sherman who famously ly prosperous. said, “War is hell,” I made no attempt at trying to reconstruct the terror or emotional content of that statement. It was the unrelenting energy I was mostly interested in.

As a former brass player, how do you feel about writing for brass instruments alone versus Calvin orchestral scoring? To write for brass is to Coolidge work with a specific sound. An orchestra has more varied was the 30th president of the textures. I think of myself as United States and known for having been a mediocre horn his dry Yankee wit. His frugal- player. Though I never gained, ity with words earned him nor was I interested in, the the nickname “Silent Cal”. same proficiency as a brass Coolidge was “distinguished player that I had as a pianist, for character more than for he- William my experience as a wind player roic achievement,” as a Demo- gave me a sense of line and of cratic admirer, Alfred E. Smith, phrasing that I doubt I would wrote. What trait of Coolidgeʼs Tecumseh have had if I had never played dominates in the second move- that particular instrument in ment of your composition? Sherman bands and orchestras. Whenever I think of or read was an American soldier, What do you feel are the limits about Calvin Coolidge I’ve businessman, and author. He of brass quintet to be, and what noted more his consistency, to served as a general in the kind of instrument is it for you to the point of dullness, than any United States Army during the work with? other quality. Taciturn “Silent American Civil War (1861–1865), Cal” could never be caught achieving both recognition for his I grew up with English style laughing or expressing himself outstanding command of military brass bands and am aware of in any enthusiastic manner. He the technical facility of brass, 3 FEBRUARY 2006: Commissioning news from Westwind Brass 619-501-3562 [email protected] www.WestwindBrass.org

which is far greater than com- In terms of concert music, I perience will be to see how well monly realized. Having said have commissions for a trum- I solved the problems when I that, the brass quintet itself is pet piece for Malcolm McNab, hear the piece played. a pretty specific organization a chamber orchestra piece for with specific limits, especially the Sunflower Chamber Mu- with regard to range, sonority sical Festival in Kansas next and texture. It also has some summer, and a trio for horn, limits in the emotional results viola and piano. WESTWIND it can produce. There is a basic Commercially, I rarely know aggressiveness very far in advance what’s next, BRASS in the sound that although at least one theatrical has to be taken motion picture and a TV movie will premier into account are high on the possibility list at Three American whenever one the moment. writes for it. Portraits on How is the brass quintet dif- What was best about this May 1, 2006 • 7:00 pm ferent from other small chamber experience and how did Three groups that your have been com- American Portraits fit in with the The Neurosciences Institute mission to write works for? overall “arch” of your career? 10640 John Jay Hopkins Dr. San Diego, California 92121 I think of the brass quintet as being less pliable than some I’m not sure what the overall other chamber combinations. “arch” of my career is, except For tickets call to be able to write as well as The brass sound has an im- possible in as many media and 619-237-7982 mediate quality and, as men- styles as I can and to hear as [email protected] tioned above, a certain aggres- much of what I write performed. www.WestwindBrass.org siveness, even when played For me, every piece of new mu- softly. And though brass instru- sic is a new set of problems to ments can be technically agile, solve. The best part of this ex- it’s a very different sort of agility as compared to a woodwind, string or percussion instrument. With a brass quintet one has to be prepared to make a state- ment. It’s not enough to just make a gesture.

Do you plan to write other works based on historical figures, and in general what’s next for you? The use of historical figures in this piece came about be- cause I was trying to determine the character of the music I was working on. In general, I find that sketches, portraits or other real life association puts one on rather shaky musical ground. 4