SKU: CY.CC3136

ISBN 9790530111055. 8.5 x 11 in inches.

This fine work has sat dormant for many years and has now come to light thanks to the efforts of Charlie Vernon, Bass Trombonist of the Chicago Symphony, who performed this virtuoso work as a young performer. The concerto is in the standard three movement form: Fast, slow, fast. This publication is a reduction from the original orchestral version (to be released at some point in the future). Here is a description of the Concerto by the composer, John W. Ware. I started on the trombone concerto in my junior year studying composition at Indiana University. While working on it, I learned of an opportunity to make it sort of a thesis piece (though students didn't write a thesis in composition while an undergrad). The original version was for trombone with string orchestra, and it was performed by the IU String Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Arthur Corra, with Robert Priez, trombone, as part of my senior composition recital. I thought the performance was quite good (Priez played extraordinarily well), and the piece received a newspaper review in the Indiana Daily Student, in which the reviewer wrote that the work was almost too exciting. I thought at the time that he had given me and my music a fine compliment. I made a piano version of the accompaniment, shortening and tightening the first movement, for performances in 1966; I made a second revision in 1967 for a performance by E. J. Eaton, trombonist at the University of Tennessee at Martin, arriving at the form in which the work exists now. The first movement is in fairly normal sonata-allegro form, in the key of A minor. It alternates between assertive and more thoughtful moods. There is no introduction; the soloist enters immediately and dominates much of the movement. The main theme is--by some manipulation--a source for most of the other themes, and all of the themes are used in close proximity to each other, including contrapuntal combinations, especially near the end. Originally the movement included a lengthy fugato, now much shortened and including a stretto that builds and subsides before a cadenza leading to a coda based on both the principal and secondary themes. Key relations in this movement, as in the other two, are quite free and often chromatic, with frequent third-relations; but returns to the tonic at the end are emphatic. The writing is challenging for both soloist and accompanist; the piece is substantial, requiring technique and stamina. The second movement is in F minor and is also built on both contrast and close relationships between the main and secondary themes. The main theme is heard in the piano part before the soloist enters. The mood is more lyric than in the first movement, but with dramatic episodes also. In this movement are some definite derivations from themes in the first movement. The ending is a sort of lengthened shadow of the opening. The finale returns to A minor, with themes slightly related to polonaise rhythms, but with strong echoes of first-movement themes. Here, too, dramatic and lyric episodes alternate, with dotted rhythms frequently propelling the music forward. The introduction is a brief and simple preparation for the solo entry. Later in the movement, a very brief, slightly slower section is soon overtaken by the original tempo. Toward the end, there is a second cadenza, again leading to a swift and energetic coda. The work is about 20 minutes in length and is appropriate for advanced performers.

SKU: PR.114423120

UPC: 680160689477.

MONUMENTS was commissioned by the Resonate project, a collaboration of the Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, Bowling Green State University, the Carr Center, Michigan State University, Oberlin College Conservatory, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University.The trombone part was written for David Jackson, professor of trombone at the University of Michigan.The title occurred to me when a friend living in Philadelphia told me she had toured monuments in that city on Memorial Day, 2021. By that time I had already written what I call a “noble, lyrical melody” for trombone to serve as the main theme in the composition.MONUMENTS was finished on September 11, 2021. Other awesome monuments had been created on that date twenty years before.–Adolphus Hailstork.

SKU: CY.CC2543

Granados was a Spanish composer whose music had the unique style of his homeland burned into his soul. He was also a very talented painter in the style of Goya.

The Two Dances, 1. Oriental and 2. Fandango are taken from the 12 danzas espanolas, volume I from 1890, for Piano.

Mr. Sauer has brilliantly taken the solo Piano part and divided it between solo Trombone and Piano.

Trombonists will enjoy working on this style of Spanish Nationalist music of which there is none in the solo repertoire.

The Two Dances (in tenor clef) are about 6 1/2 minutes in length and can be performed by advanced musicians.

The mp3 sample is an excerpt of the Bass Trombone version taken from a live performance at the 2012 Academy of the West Festival performed by David Hagee and Luis Ortiz, Pianist.

SKU: FL.FX071159

As the light whose reflection in the water is sometimes broken by the waves, I used ascending and descending movement in the melody. The pervasive use of syncopation also enabled me to exacerbate the impact felt by the ebb and flow.