Concert Band

Mercury Rising

Grade 6 | 13 Mins

Mercury Rising was commissioned by sinfonischen blasorchester wehdel (Thomas Ratzek, conductor) to celebrate their 50th Anniversary in 2018. They gave the premiere in their anniversary concert on 2nd November 2018 in the Bremerhaven Stadttheater.

Designed as a virtuosic and effervescent opener, Mercury Rising opens with nervous energy and driving, syncopated rhythms in a blaze of colour. The horns and saxophones then introduce a broad melody, which the trumpets subsequently take up after a change of tonality. A quieter moment introduces a distant fanfare on muted horns over bubbling 16th notes in the low clarinets. This is interrupted by a passionate tenor melody but soon returns on the full brass section, accompanied by echoes of the opening woodwind figuration, and is extended to bring the piece to a triumphal close.