Music for Brass
Sokol Fanfare – Leoš Janáček
Brass Choir Arrangement – Sokol Fanfare
General Information
- Year of Composition: 1926
- Duration: c. 2:15
- Difficulty: Advanced
- Price: See Below
Look/Listen
Instrumentation
- B-flat Trumpet I
- B-flat II (2 players required)
- B-flat Trumpet III (2 players required)
- Horn in F I-II-III-IV
- Trombone I-II-III
- Euphonium
- Tuba
- Timpani
- Alto Sax (optional sub for Horn III-IV)
- Tenor Sax (optional sub for Trombone II)
- Baritone Sax (optional sub for Trombone III)
Purchase Options
Sokol Fanfare brass choir
Program Note
Sokol Fanfare was originally one of a few different fanfares Janáček composed for the Sokol Slet (loosely translated as “Falcon Festival”), a gymnastic meet first created in Prague in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. The event, which continues to this day, was based upon the principle of “a strong mind in a sound body.” Today, most people recognize the Fanfare as the first movement of Janáček’s Sinfonietta for Orchestra. Janáček originally scored it for nine C trumpets, two bass trumpets, two B-flat tenor trombones, and timpani.
This version reflects edits for American instrumentation, replacing the C trumpets with B-flat trumpets and re-orchestrating the bass trumpet parts into the horn and low brass sections. Additionally, the meter has been altered to better represent the overall phrasing of the work. However, the music still preserves Janáček’s original intent: all the notes and rhythms remain exactly as he wrote them.
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) was born in Moravia (present-day Czech Republic) in 1854. Janáček drew inspiration from Czech, Slavic, and Moravian folk music, and from these roots he developed a musical style marked by derived melodic lines and complex modal harmonies. Many now rank him alongside fellow countrymen Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, and view him as one of the most substantial and original opera composers of the 20th century.