This item is the score and complete parts.
Besetzung
Solo Bass Posaune
Alt Flöte
Klarinette in B
Percussion
Viola
Violoncello
Kontrabass
PROGRAM NOTES
Concerto for Bass Trombone and Six Players (2006) was commissioned by the Carnegie
Mellon School of Music for the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble, Walter Morales,
director. The work is dedicated to trombonist Jim Siders, for whom the solo part was written.
The work is scored for solo bass trombone with an ensemble of primarily "dark" instruments
&ndash, alto flute, clarinet, viola, cello, contrabass, and percussion. The solo bass trombone is the
focal point of the musical discourse, acting throughout largely as a protagonist &ndash, with much
material best described as bitterly lyrical. The work maintains a generally dark, obsessive,
and bitter tone throughout.
Unlike some concerti, however, the work is not about an aggression between soloist and the
rest of the ensemble. Rather the bass trombone is "first" among a collection of like minded
individuals &ndash, all expressing the same sentiments and aggressions.
The opening section is marked "spasmodic." Quiet nervous twitches serve as a backdrop to a
melodic unfolding of the basic material and interval content. The end of this part "breaks
apart" to reveal a section marked "slow, otherworldly." The harmonic material starts modal,
open, and "distant" in feeling (perhaps a recollection of a distant past) before becoming
gradually gnarled again.
The trombone leads towards the next section: an ever-building athletic "moto perpetuo." This
reaches its peak in an aggressive and horribly angry climax &ndash, with a wide-ranging trombone
part marked "wildly raving, insane, ugly", obliterated by bass drum hits and shrieking
hammer blows from the other instruments.
A nervous and timid interlude returns to the nervous twitching of the opening &ndash, though
everything is slightly slower and more hushed than before, finally breaking off into an
enigmatic coda.