Program Notes

In 1996, I enrolled in junior high band and took a seat in the back row, among friends and holding in my hands a new trombone, an instrument which has since guided me toward a life in music. Now, ten years later, I feel a great swell of pride in having written a piece for trombone octet while satisfying the need to compose, an urge I discovered not long after hearing those first young sounds.

As my ideas for this piece took shape, they began to express two separate sound worlds:  one introspective and contemplative, and the other more retrospective, panoramic in nature. With these two kinds of “-spectives” in mind, I had found my title and could begin to write. While this piece lives in our century, its influences are Classical:  I took much inspiration from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 and Brahms’ First Symphony, a part of which appears, somewhat twisted, in the music that follows.

Intro, the first movement, begins with an outburst of masculine energy from which a single note (B-flat) emerges. Following the introduction, each musical episode combines moving harmonies with a static B-flat in increasing tension until a climax is reached. Throughout this movement, repeated contrasts of stasis and change create a series of inward-looking gestures until even time itself pauses for an introspective moment.

Retro, the second movement, follows the first without a pause. Short thematic ideas, presented by bass trombones, repeat and begin to mask an uneasy, nervous silence while tenor trombone sounds echo and move through the ensemble. The music grows until the full power of all eight trombones signals the beginning of a retrospective journey, moving backward into material from the first movement, and forward with the momentum of an incessant ostinato. Along the way, outward-looking material combines with introspective gestures and the sustained B-flat from the first movement until harmonies, rhythms, and thematic ideas converge in a triumphant conclusion.

Performances

Victor Barranco, Jeremy Wilson, Bill Haugeberg, Lauren Husting, Carl Lundgren, Ross Patterson, tenor trombones; Jason Hausback, Ben Polk, bass trombones;
Mark Scott, conductor; October 16, 2006

Victor Barranco, Jeremy Wilson, Bill Haugeberg, Lauren Husting, Carl Lundgren, Ross Patterson, tenor trombones; Jason Hausback, Ben Polk, bass trombones;
Mark Scott, conductor; October 24, 2006

Victor Barranco, Jeremy Wilson, Bill Haugeberg, Lauren Husting, Carl Lundgren, Ross Patterson, tenor trombones; Jason Hausback, Ben Polk, bass trombones;
Mark Scott, conductor; October 25, 2006

The Iowa Trombones, Bill Shepherd, conductor; July 19, 2007