Eine Alpensinfonie is Strauss's final and largest scale tone poem. Composed in 1915 (during WWI) Strauss puts into music his feelings of joy and mystery about the glory of nature, especially the mountains. He so loved the mountains that he built a home in the Bavarian Alps with stunning views.

The original work is scored for an enormous orchestra of at least 125 musicians and is about 50 minutes in length. This fantastic 6-minute arrangement by Randall Malmstrom, appropriate for advanced performers is for an 8-part Trombone Ensemble (1 alto, 5 tenors, and 2 bass trombones) and features excerpts from the work that highlight the trombone section's glorious chorals.

Dimensión is a tango that wascomposed based on two simple piano pieces destined to young pianists: the firsttheme is "Langostango" andthe second one "Continuando".When joining to build up "Dimensión",additional elements came into the game, such as an important secondary melodyand a few transitions.

Dimensión is therefore a clearexample of a successful composition: a couple of good ideas and a lot of workto achieve that nobody notices how much work lies behind it.

About the title, it obeys to my (slightly excessive) concerntowards finding names that can be understood in any language of the places Iusually am related to (i.e. in Spanish, English and German). In the case of "dimensión"it is a transparent word, understandingas such the words that are practically identical in any language while keepingtheir meaning (there exist words that are quite similar in different languages,but mean different things, in Linguistics these are called false friends.) Among my titles one finds several of such transparent words.

In September 2002 I began to conductthe Orquesta No Típica at theUniversity of Bremen, Germany, a chamber group of variable instrumentationdevoted to tango music. Dimensión wasthe first piece that I composed especially for this group, in January /February 2003. The original version of Dimensiónis therefore for Sextet: flute, clarinet, violin, guitar, bass,piano.

Sincethat first version (performed several times in Germany and Argentina) I wrote along dozen of arrangements for different instrumental groups.



Dimensión for trombone octet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Uq4_PSlPI

Here is what the arranger, Ross Holcombe says about his great scoring of this wonderful and unique work by Ives.

Ives finished the majority of his Concord Sonata, from which this movement is excerpted, in 1915. According to Ives, the piece reflects on the old Alcott house in Concord, MA, but I feel a greater struggle in this work than a mere journal about a piece of architecture. The fact that Ives quotes Beethoven?s 5th Symphony so extensively makes me wonder about his views on destiny, fate, the future, and the creative process.

The piece starts serenely but quickly devolves into uncertainty, doubt, and anger. A floating interlude brings us back to distant memories where we remember that we are shaped by our past, but have control of the direction of our future. Building on that realization and quickly gaining steam, the piece ends with a powerful and joyful climax. The angry Beethoven theme is transformed into one of power, hope, and light. A feeling of calm and contentment ends the piece, finally coming to rest on one simple C major chord.

This work is scored for 10 trombones: 1 alto, 7 tenor, and 2 bass trombones and is appropriate for advanced performers.