Gavorkna Fanfare

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Jack Stamp wrote his renowned piece Gavorkna Fanfare in the early 1990’s. This signature piece, written for wind ensemble, led his way to an increased level of fame in wind band composition. First performed by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania wind ensemble, The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps performed it in their 1992 show, popularizing Dr. Stamp's intense and powerful composing style. The piece was first recorded by the Keystone Winds in 1995's Past The Equinox: The Music of Jack Stamp.

Its distinct and abrupt beginning grasps the audience’s attention as the mind is attacked by a compilation of dissonant chords. It was created for two primary reasons: The first of which was the request of Eugene Corporon, an instructor at Michigan State University who was seeking a piece with the full instrumentation of a wind band. Secondly, the work was inspired by several games of Giants baseball. Stamp wrote of his first time attending a Giants baseball game at World Series in 1962. That experience caused him to compose a fanfare based slightly from the National Anthem and classic song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” However, the original melodies are scarcely heard, as Stamp used varying meters, immense amounts of syncopation, and intricate rhythms throughout this difficult piece. Stamp used the numbers of notable players’ uniforms to number the measures throughout his piece causing such awkward placement of measures and phrases. The piece starts out with an ascending dissonant scale. This grabs the attention of the listener, and keeps it when the scale is repeated. The trumpets then play an extremely fast monotone of sixteenth notes, followed by a slower ascending three note pattern. This repeats several times, then the band pauses with a chord fading to silence. Then, what sounds like churchbells make a repeating 3-note pattern. The flutes and clarinets then play repeating notes adding to the bells, and finally the french horns enter with a sweet and majestic melody that sounds like the music used commonly in movies as the "love amist a war theme" its sweet and majestic sound sound like the lovers being together against all odds, and the fast tempo, pounding drumbeat, frantic pulsing of flutes and clarinets, and the fanfare note patterns of the melody make the feeling of a war going on in the background. once this melody runs its course, we go "back to the battle" and hear the trumpets fast tonguing. after this, all brass instruments play a syncopated monotone that ends in the final, sustained chord of the piece.