A Night on Bald Mountain: Brass Quintet Score & Parts

David Marlatt has captured the relentless energy and visceral drama of Mussorgsky's witches' sabbath without sacrificing the piece's theatrical impact in this quintet setting. The writing sits idiomatically for brass while maintaining the harmonic and rhythmic menace that makes this work such a crowd-pleaser. Programming this gives you an undeniable showstopper with serious artistic credentials, the kind of piece that auditions well at festival and lands with your audience every single time.

Witches swirl in a frantic, malevolent dance across a mountainside at night. The music lurches between moments of eerie calm and explosive, almost chaotic energy, with angular harmonies and relentless rhythmic drive creating a sense of supernatural chaos. By the climax, all five voices lock into a hypnotic, thundering unison that feels less like music and more like dark magic made audible.

Advanced brass quintets preparing for festival competitions, pops concerts, or Halloween-themed programming will find this arrangement both musically substantial and audience-friendly. The "Difficult" grade level demands secure technical execution, confident intonation in high passages, and ensemble awareness from all five players. Directors looking for a work that impresses peers and audiences while offering genuine interpretive challenges will return to this often.

• Establish a clear pulse at the unison octaves that open the work; the quintet relies on rhythmic precision to build momentum through the driving sections.
• Balance the upper voices against the tuba line during the climactic passages so the harmonic foundation remains audible without drowning the melodic material.
• Shape the dynamic surges with intent. This piece thrives on contrast between the eerie, sparse moments and the full, relentless fortissimo climaxes.
• Treat the shorter note values as a single elastic phrase rather than stopping for each beat; continuity of line drives the supernatural character throughout.

This works beautifully as a finale to a pops or Halloween concert, where its theatrical appeal and immediate impact serve as the perfect closer. It also functions as a compelling festival selection that showcases technical command and interpretive maturity. Pair it with earlier romantic masterworks or contemporary brass music to frame it as both a historical landmark and a living part of the repertoire.

• Rhythmic precision and independence across multiple simultaneous figures
• Intonation control during extended high-register passages
• Dynamic control and phrasing in both sparse and densely voiced textures
• Collaborative awareness and balance between melody, harmony, and foundational parts