Trombone

with Piano

The Bone of Lucifer was written in November 2010 for the wonderful bass trombonist Nuno Martins to play with Mr. SC and the Wildbones Gang. I tried to write a piece that leaves the bass trombonist room to play both with full power and adroit phrasing. Although it traverses a variety of sections, feels, and characters, the piece is essentially a passacaglia over an ostinato of nine pitches that I found to be particularly demonic.

– Jon Hansen

with Trombone Quintet

From the arranger:

In early 20th-century Russian choral music, few figures loom as large as Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944). Trained at both the Moscow Conservatory (where he later taught choral conducting) and the Moscow Synodal School before their merger, his compositions number around five hundred. Do Not Reject Me in My Old Age (Opus 40, No. 5) is somewhat unusual among this output. Rather than being a traditional SATB choral work, it is a sacred concerto for oktavist (a term for a male voice with an extreme low range, sometimes used interchangeably with the term basso profundo) and chorus. It is based on a passage from Psalm 71, in which the psalmist begs God not to abandon him in his old age. While some of the text is rather bleak, the passage Chesnokov uses ends with “But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.”

This arrangement preserves Chesnokov’s original key. The solo bass trombone part follows the original vocal solo line, showing the range Chesnokov expected of his singer. Breath marks in the score and parts are designed to line up with the original text in most cases. Tempo makings may be adjusted by the performers to suit needs of breathing while playing brass instruments. Throughout, the piece benefits most from a dark, singing sound from the sensemble.

Solo Trombone with 8 Trombones and 4 Bass Trombones

An inventive tema e variazioni arranged by James Kazik. As recorded by Joseph Alessi and the Juilliard Trombone Choir on the Naxos recording 'Return to Sorrento.'

Soloist with 12 Trombones

Composed for Joseph Alessi

Soloist with 8 Trombones

Composed for Joseph Alessi and the Trombone Collective and premiered at the 2009 Slidefactory. A real show stopper!

Three for Two (or One or Three) is a versatile composition for trombone(s) and/or euphonium(s) with optional percussion (bongos, snare drum) on any or all  movements.

A 6-8 minute work playable with a tenor-bass “trigger” trombone, challenging for but playable by a college senior. Three for Two teaches jazz stylistic characteristics that are not normally encountered in standard classical solos.

The three movements can be performed entirely or independently, and with variances in instrumentation from solo trombone or euphonium (TC euphonium parts included) to duos including bass trombone or percussion or trios including the same. All notes are playable without a trigger-horn, and the duo version is easier for the brass-performer than the solo version. An optional percussion part includes the highly portable instruments of bongos and snare drum so that staging is easily accomplished for a horn/percussion duo or trio.

The title of the piece refers to the three movements scored for duo, solo, or trio (ordered so within the title since it rhymes with the popular title “Tea for Two”). One can generate fourteen instrumentations of this composition, as indicated on the cover sheet of each part.