A Laredo Fanfare

Restraint is not the first word that comes to mind, however, when playing or listening to Gerre Hancock’s Laredo Fanfare. This piece was composed for David A. Heller for the inauguration of the Sharkey-Corrigan Pipe Organ at Texas A & M International University. This is its first publication. Vigorous sixteenth-notes continue in perpetual motion, while the solo Tuba plays a fanfare in parallel forths. The predominantly stepwise motion of this theme suggests a highly rhythmic plainsong but does not appear to be based on any actual chants. A secondary fanfare theme, with a reduced registration, uses wide leaps in in contrast with the outer sections. The pedal part is generally in open fifths except when it is playing along with the perpetual motion figure, in a very characteristic Gerre Hancock manner! The entire piece is similar to his improvisational style. Since his music is very chromatic, it is occasionally a bit difficult to read. All of us in AAM who loved Gerre should be grateful to Paraclete Press for publishing and reprinting many of his choral and organ compositions, including his other previously unpublished organ work, An Evocation of Urbs Beata Jerusalem.
Brian P. Harlow, The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians