Brass

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The brass section of the orchestra has a particular association with military music given the use of bugles and brass bands in military history.

Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man

This famous piece was written in 1942, just after America’s entry into World War II.

Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man

Williams: Hymn to the Fallen (from Saving Private Ryan)

The soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s epic film about the D-Day landings epitomizes the use of brass in military-related music … here in the emotive Hymn to the Fallen.

Williams: Hymn to the Fallen

The Last Post

This bugle call has been quoted in various pieces to evoke a tone of remembrance. This includes Patrick Hawes’ The Great War Symphony and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 3 “A Pastoral Symphony” (at 14:55).

In Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, the Last Post after the movement “Charge” leads straight into the movement “Angry Flames” about Hiroshima.

Jenkins: The Armed Man (the Last Post is at 35:07)

Forward to The Russo-Japanese War