Barumba is an original composition by former iTromboni Bass Trombonist Kenneth Pearce. It was the very first original composition written for the ensemble.

Barumba is a light hearted, playful Bossa Nova which attempts to capture a bit of the droll humour of its composer!

This 3-minute composition is scored for 4 Tenor Trombones, 1 Bass Trombone and is suitable for medium-advanced performers. Trombone 1 contains a repeated 16 bar improvised solo and Trombone 3 contains a high D!

This work is featured on the iTromboni album There Goes the Neighbourhood

Arranged by Matthew Parunak
Orchestrated for Trombone Quintet - 4 tenors and 1 bass trombone part.

These TWO SUITES were composed in response to a request form Heini Schneebeli, the musical director of ?TROMBONANZA 2017?. Santa Fe in Argentina is the backdrop for this exciting annual event involving many hundreds of student and professional players.

The FIRST SUITE has three movements and is intended for a trio of younger tenor trombonists working with a teacher on bass trombone who will add richness and depth to the ensemble sound.

It is my hope that this piece will encourage, entertain and challenge student players and provide useful concert material for use in the promotion of this unique and versatile instrument.

John Frith - 2017

This work is appropriate for younger performers at an intermediate level all in bass clef. The three movements total about 5 1/2 minutes in length and have the following titles:

1. Totem Tango

2. Full Steam Ahead

3. Clowning Around

Phil Brink's new work for unaccompanied Bass Trombone is in three contrasting movements:

1. Harmonies - subtitled "The Trombone Strikes Bach" is pensive in mood and in the style of an Unaccompanied Prelude by Bach.



2. Balooze - subtitled "A Sort of Soliloquoy" is in a swung blues-style including a free cadenza-like introduction. It also includes a foot tapping accompaniment and multiphonics, reminiscent of Bernstein's Mippy II.



3. Rhythmus - "Movement At High Speed", the finale is in a Presto tempo with lots of technical wizardry for the performer.

This very fine work of about 7-minutes in length is appropriate for advanced performers.

The Bordogni vocalises have been used by generations of low brass performers to learn legato technique, phrasing, endurance, bel canto style, expression, and breath control. They sound beautiful and are fun to play!

Ran Whitley has beautifully arranged another ten of the Melodious Etudes, numbers 41-50 for Trombone Quartet. All in bass clef, these are appropriate for intermediate to advanced performers. The entire melody line is in part 1 with parts 2, 3, and 4 accompanying.

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.

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.

Petros Shoujounian, an Armenian/Canadian composer has written Twelve Duos for Trombones based on the folksong collection of the Armenian priest Komitas, known as the founder of the Armenian national school of music and one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology. Below are comments from the composer about his inspiration in writing these Twelve Duos for Trombones.

My interest in the collected works of Komitas's ethnographical songs was aroused when I was introduced to Bela Bartok's similar works followed by Alan Hovhaness's huge creative world. Bartok completed his project having at his disposal a large collection of ethnographic music, while Hovhannes studied the wealth of Komitas's music with great interest. It is difficult to say to what extent the Armenian underpinning of Hovhannes's works is nurtured by Komitas's musical world, but his classical interpretation of the Armenian ethnographical music created a huge interest in the listener. Needless to say, there is also Aram Katchaturian's legacy, which at its core has the ardent presence of the Armenian spirit, nurtured by Komitas's very existence.

Komitas has left a collection of about 3,000 cleaned versions of the ethnographic song and dance pieces, of which 1,700 have reaches us, about 400 of which have been activated. I believe that in those beautiful musical fragments reside the power to be revived, once we enrich them with colorful musical instruments and unbounded polyphonic imagination.

This is the motivation behind my own work and these Twelve Duos for Trombones: to make the essence of our ethnographic music accessible through Komitas.

These Twelve Duos are appropriate for advanced performers and may be performed on Alto, Tenor, and Bass Trombones.