8 March 2002
Chicago Botanical Garden, Chicago, Illinois
Millar Brass Ensemble

tpt.tpt.hn.trbn.tba

12'

This piece is a medley of tunes from the opera Shining Brow. It was composed for performance in the lobby (or on the street in front) of theaters before, during the interval, and after productions of the full opera. The original performers were to have been Hagen's friends in the Wisconsin Brass Quintet. However, they happened to be playing in the Madison Symphony Orchestra in the pit for the world premiere of the opera and couldn't reach the lobby in time to perform this piece.

The suite has four sections: Part I is called the 'Hymn to Nature' in the opera. Pert II begins at measure 58 and is based on music from the Act One, Scene 2 'Workers' Chorus.' Part III begins at measure 96 and consists of music sung by a Runyon-esque barbershop quartet of drunken newspapermen. At measure 160, Part IV begins with a return of the melody of the 'Hymn to Nature' combined with a variant of the barbershop quartet tune and a jig in the trumpets. The suite closes, and the coda begins, at measure 192, with a reprise of the 'Hymn to Nature.'

Set aside for nine years and forgotten by both composer and publisher, the manuscript of Music from Shining Brow resurfaced during a routine cataloguing at E.C. Schirmer in Boston in 2002 and was quickly put into print. The first performance known to the composer took place at the Chicago Botanical Garden in Chicago, Illinois. The Millar Brass Ensemble performed the work there on 8 March 2002.