The broad sketches of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s (born 1970) life and career can be gleaned from the opening paragraph of his website:
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), DBR has worked with artists from Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones to Lady Gaga; appeared on NPR, American Idol, and ESPN; and has collaborated with the Sydney Opera House and the City of Burlington, Vermont. Acclaimed as a violinist and activist, DBR’s career spans more than two decades, earning commissions by venerable artists and institutions worldwide.
See more about him at Wikipedia, Sozo Artists, the Yale School of Music, and Subito Music.
DBR wrote the Hip-Hop Studies and Etudes, Book I in 2006. The 24 short studies (one in each major and minor key) are presented on three staves without any specification of which instruments to use. DBR elaborates on his intent in his program notes, found in the score:
Hip-Hop Studies and Etudes, Book I are small, intimate, musical vignettes (one in each key) that explain, examine, and express aspects of hip-hop music, from rhythm to timbre to form. What began as a response, a composer’s response, to the musical and cultural needs of students at the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City (where I once served as chair of the Music Theory and Composition Department), these works now represent my own hip-hop, techno, ambient, and rock-infused response to Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier and Philip Glass’s Music in 12 Parts.
The scores are designed to be performed by one musician to any number of small or large instrumental ensembles. If performed by one musician, simply pick the line and/or clef of music that is best for your instrument and makes for the most complete idea. If performed by a small or large instrumental ensemble, all musicians should read from the score and should assign those parts that are best for their instruments. Tempo indications are suggestions only; feel free to play these works at any speed you desire, with or without a conductor.
I welcome the re-arranging (or remixing) of any part of this music–feel free to edit, move, delete, repeat, or imagine the music in any manner that you deem fit.
To make clear the subtext here, this is not specifically wind band music, but it can be freely adapted into music for ensembles of any size and makeup. So, in the time of COVID-19, why not make it work for flex band?
Recorded performances of the Hip-Hop Studies are relatively hard to come by, and no complete recording seems to exist. Here are a few excerpts:
B-flat minor, as a duet between two student violinists, with a guest spot by DBR:
C# minor, featuring a trio of live musicians with electronic backing:
C# minor again, as performed by a student string orchestra:
D minor, for piano and electronics:
D# minor, done as a duet between DBR and a young violin student:
D# minor again, this time as a professionally-recorded piano solo with electronics:
See more about the piece at Subito Music and J. W. Pepper.
You say you don’t know much about hip-hop? It is currently one of the most popular styles of music globally, and has been for decades. For a thorough (if America-centric) musical overview, from 1979-2017, check out this video below. Contains explicit language and content:
This was taken from a Kennedy Center educational resource page on hip-hop.
Finally, it is worth looking at DBR’s non-hip-hop inspirations. Here is the first book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier:
And Glass’s Music in 12 Parts (this video is parts 1-3):