Search results for: 'six pack'

with Piano

In his lifetime, Tchaikovsky wrote over 100 short lyrical pieces for voice and piano called “Romances”. Nearly all of them were published in groups of six. This set is a compilation of six of his finest and most powerful Romances spanning his entire career. Plucked from their original sets, these six have been placed in such and order that they tell an entirely new musical story.

The romances included in this set are:

“It Was In the Early Spring” from 6 Romances, Op. 38, No. 2
“The Fearful Moment” from 6 Romances, Op. 28, No. 6
“Why?” from 6 Romances, Op. 6, No. 5
“Reconciliation” from 6 Romances, Op. 25, No. 1
“Once Again, Like Before, I am Alone” from 6 Romances, Op. 73, No. 6
“Does the Day Reign?” from 7 Romances, Op. 47, No. 6

This duet book comes in both a low and high key and can be played by various combinations of low brass instruments.

This book seeks to provide low brass players with useful, enjoyable materials that can be used effectively as both pedagogical tools and performance pieces. By incorporating a variety of keys, articulations, meters, phrase structures, and styles, these duets present countless opportunities for musical and technical development without feeling so exercise-like as to preclude them from having a place on recital programs.

While thinking about this project, I received a number of messages from tubists, euphoniumists, and trombonists—performers and pedagogues alike—lamenting the various challenges they face when searching for duet literature. For example, trombonists looking for materials to play alongside their tuba students face a dilemma: most tuba duets are too low for the trombone, while most trombone duets are too high for the tuba. Others remarked that some tuba duets ignore the upper tessitura, making them unhelpful to players looking to build range and facility, or pointed out that many trombone duets are either musically fulfilling or technically accessible to non-professional players, but not both. The quality of low brass duet literature also varies widely, with little overlap between works that make useful teaching tools and those which are musically compelling enough to perform.

To address some of these issues, the duets in this book present a variety of technical challenges without losing sight of the importance of sound, pitch, phrasing and musicianship. Whether addressing technical issues like range, articulation, or velocity, each piece also requires that players pay attention to style, tone production, and ensemble playing. Moreover, each duet appears in two different keys, separated variously by a perfect fourth, tritone, or perfect fifth in order to avoid extreme ranges or particularly unwieldy key signatures. This allows players to learn each piece in the more comfortable tessitura first (tuba players beginning with the lower-keyed version, for instance), empowering them to subsequently approach the more challenging tessitura already armed with a musical plan of attack and command of the melodic lines and intervals.

Although some of the pieces in this book will undoubtedly be more or less challenging than others, depending on the combination of instruments and experience levels possessed by the performers, the hope is that each one adds value by providing opportunities to hone our musical and technical skills, allowing teachers to perform alongside their students, or allowing students to play with one another. I am grateful to all of those who reached out with thoughts about this project and hope you enjoy these Six Concert Caprices.

with Piano

Zero to Sixty encapsulates the thrill of driving the fastest street-legal car in the world: the Tesla S P100D, which can go from zero to sixty mph in under two and a half seconds. The work is a tour de force for the soloist, demanding a great deal of flexibility and dexterity. Zero to Sixty was written for and premiered by Preston Light, at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2017. Buckle up!

Steven Darling is currently the Adjunct Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at Wright State University. As a composer, his works have been performed at conferences throughout the country. Many of Steve’s original works, arrangements, and transcriptions have received publication from Cimarron Press. In 2015, Steve’s work Til Human Voices Wake Us for Pierrot Ensemble was selected as a finalist in the Seattle Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition.

with Piano

These settings for bass trombone of the Marcello sonatas for cello follow my similar arrangements of the bassoon sonatas by Johann Ernst Galliard (1687-1747), which were published by Potenza Music in 2014. The impetus for these projects was a perceived need for more "intermediate-early advanced" solo literature for the bass trombone, as well as more settings of Baroque-period works for that instrument. While the sonatas are playable on the bass trombone in their original keys, by setting them in lower keys I have endeavored to make them useful for developing tone quality and technique in the low and valve registers, while not going so low that clarity and facility might be compromised. The new keys for each of the sonatas are closely related to the original ones, in every case down a perfect fourth or perfect fifth, so something of the "sound" of the original keys is maintained. These new keys are also quite suitable for the bass tuba and might be especially useful for players just learning the F or E-flat instrument.

- Micah Everett

with Piano

These settings of the Galliard bassoon sonatas grew out of a perceived need for more “intermediate-early advanced” solo literature for the bass trombone, as well as more settings of Baroque-period works for that instrument. While the sonatas are playable on the bass trombone in their original keys (whether at pitch or down one octave), by setting them in lower keys I have endeavored to make them useful for developing tone quality and technique in the valve register, while not going so low that clarity and facility might be compromised (as can be the case when playing in the original keys down one octave). The new keys I have chosen for each of the sonatas are closely related to the original ones, in every case down a perfect fourth or perfect fifth, so something of the “sound” of the original keys is maintained. Other than the key changes I have made very few adjustments to the intervals in the solo or left hand keyboard parts; in the places where I have done the most editing I have provided cues for the original intervals and/or rhythms so that the player can choose whether to perform the simplified part I have provided or something closer to the original.

The new keys (as well as copyright considerations) necessitated that I provide entirely new figured bass realizations for the accompanist’s right hand. These are entirely my own, though in the early stages of this project I did consult with Professor Stacy Rodgers, my colleague and collaborator at the University of Mississippi. I have provided more than a simple harmonic accompaniment in my realization; each movement has a number of short melodic passages to provide interest in the keyboard part for both performer and listener. Still, I have been purposefully reserved in writing these parts, and in no case should the keyboardist feel obligated to strictly adhere to the part as I have written it. I have left the figured bass in the score so that the performer can modify and/or build upon what I have provided, particularly in the repeats (as Professor Rodgers did when playing and recording one of the sonatas with me). I have labeled the accompaniment part simply as “keyboard” with the understanding that these sonatas were originally intended for performance with harpsichord (assisted by cello or bassoon) or organ, though I am sure that the vast majority of performances of these arrangements will have piano as the accompanying instrument. My “keyboard” part has thus been written with that instrument in mind. If performing with harpsichord assisted by cello or bassoon those players will need to make adjustments in places where the bass lines extend below the ranges of their instruments.

While I am confident that my right hand part is a faithful realization of the harmonic structure indicated by the composer, no attempt has been made either in my keyboard realization or in my light editing of the solo part to adhere to present scholarly conventions regarding the interpretation of “early music.” I have constructed these arrangements to meet the needs of twenty-first-century student (and professional) bass trombonists, and thus I have provided the interpretive markings which I believe will yield the most pleasing performances on that instrument. That said, I have sought to be modest in my indications of tempo, dynamics, articulation, and ornamentation, as these sonatas will admit varying interpretations in those respects. Performers and teachers are welcome and encouraged to experiment in order to find the interpretations which they think most effective.

Although I originally created these arrangements with the bass trombone in mind, I am sure that they will work equally well on tuba. Due to range considerations similar to those I mentioned above for the bass trombone, they might be particularly better-suited to performance on the F or E-flat tubas than previous editions of these sonatas. I am looking forward to using these arrangements with my students on both instruments, and hope that others will find them useful, as well.