The purpose of this paper was to explore historical perspective of brass music. There
is a brief history of brass bands in Britain. Furthermore, the paper examines the differences
between two brass band pieces in the repertoire, A Western Fanfare by Eric Ewazen and Brass
Symphony by Jan Koetsier. Both of these pieces were compared and contrasted against the
author’s newly composed work for brass, Two Companion Pieces for Brass Ensemble. The
paper covers different techniques commonly used in brass writing and points these techniques
out in all three pieces.