Possibly Brahms was written for Andy Kozar, with his virtuosity and musicality in testing early versions of the piece (then title Deviations from a Theme by Brahms, from 2014 onwards) ultimately infusing so many of my creative decisions. The electroacoustic part, though fixed, invites reinvention on each performance since the score aligns only loosely with the media. In this way, the piece encourages a dynamic conceptual interplay between the performer and the electroacoustic part — the latter being a fabric of harmonically and timbrally distorted Brahmsian allusions. They entice the player to connect with them, as snippets of known musical contexts, now understood as disembodied sonic artifacts. The result is a melding between known Brahms (in the electroacoustic fragments) and speculative Brahms (in the trumpet writing which is composed outward from selected passages of Brahms’ 12 Etüden für Trompete oder Horn (12 Etudes for Trumpet or Horn). The authorship of the “12 Etudes” has thwarted scholars’ ability to ascertain. But Possibly Brahms argues for the 12 Etüden für Trompete oder Horn’ Brahmsian provenance.

[iii-22]