Augusta Read Thomas - Augusta Read Thomas: Illuminations Fanfare Sinfonia (2023) for 9 brass, solo timpani and 3 percussion

Augusta Read Thomas is one of the most active composers in the world, with commissions, performances, recordings, awards, and honours, but she is also a long-standing, exemplary citizen of the Profession at large with an extensive and deeply committed history as a generous colleague in the profession. She is without question one of the best and most important composers of our time. Her music has substance, depth, and a sense of purpose. She has a lot to say and knows how to say it, and in a way that is intelligent yet appealing and sophisticated. Illuminations, Fanfare Sinfonia is an optimistic, colorful, virtuosic, and vivid Gratitude Fanfare. Encoded in the music are the rhythms of words. For example, the first two notes of the piece encode Thank You! There are many two-note thank you figures played throughout the composition whereby each player keeps adding onto the collection of thank you messages. The three-short-note-motive encodes the word Grat-i-tude. The timpanist plays a main motive for which the encoded words are We give you our gratitude. The composition, full of variations of the timpani motive, portrays an accumulation of appreciativeness.