8498-MCD

� 2012

Mark Masters • 10815 Bodine Road • Clarence, NY 14031-0406phone: 716.759.2600 • fax: 716.759.2329 • www.markcustom.com

• Sam Woodhead, solo and principal trombonist of The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own”Concert Band and chairman of the Eastern Trombone Workshop, for his support of thisproject by inviting us to perform at the 2009 ETW in Washington, DC, and for his contributionto the liner notes for this CD.

• A very special thank you to Doug Bristol, Aaron Dale, William Kraft, Perry Goldstein, GregDanner, Christian Lindberg and David William Brubeck for their special support of this project.

• Mark Morette, Dave St. Onge, and all the folks at Mark Custom Recording for theircontinued support of our musical efforts down here in Tennessee.

• Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, and the Department of Musicat TTU (http://www.tntech.edu/music) for administrative and logistical support.

• TTU Faculty Grant Program, without which funding for this project would not havebeen possible.

• TTU Administrators, whose continuing support allows for us as music educators tocontinue to strive for excellence as performers in order to inspire our students. Currentadministrators: Philip Oldham, President; Mark Stephens, Provost and Vice President forAcademic Affairs; Matthew R. Smith, Dean, College of Education; Jennifer Shank, Chair,Department of Music.

Recorded May 2009 in Wattenbarger Auditorium, Bryan Fine Arts Building,Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee.

Produced by: Mark J. MoretteRecording Engineer: Mark J. Morette Tonemeisters: Greg Danner, Paul Deatherage, Eric Harris, and R. Winston Morris Editing: Dave St. Onge, Joshua Hauser and Eric Willie Mastering: Matt KissGraphic Design & Layout: Jason Boldt, MarkArtPhotos: Buddy LaFeverCover Art: Karen ShortProgram notes and booklet: Joshua Hauser and Eric Willie.

Notes by composers when available. Additional notes by Sam Woodhead.Compositions specifically for edge: Doug Bristol, Greg Danner, Eric Willie (congas

on Miami)

Introductory Notes:

This project is definitely a labor of love. As trombonists and percussionists, we arealways looking for new repertoire to include on recitals and for school concerts. Ericand I both had a lot of fun choosing repertoire, exploring tonal possibilities, andworking with all of the composers involved in these works to come up with what wehope will be a valuable resource for trombonists and percussionists alike.

One of the first people we spoke to about this was Greg Danner, TTU Professor ofComposition. Greg had written solo works for both of us in the past and we knew thathis creativity and sensitivity would produce a great duet. We also wanted to include atleast one existing work and Karen and Tom Ervin's seminal recording of William Kraft'sEncounters IV was long out of print on LP. This gave us a great start, but we neededmore music to finish out the program. Eric suggested a work by one of his friends fromhis graduate work at the University of Kentucky, Aaron Dale. I had met Doug Bristol afew years back and knew his aesthetic would produce a piece that we would be proudto include. Our saxophone professor, Phil Barham, suggested that we look at PerryGoldstein, a composer whose work he had enjoyed.

The remaining two works came frominternet searches. When we looked forTrombone and Percussion SheetMusic, Christian Lindberg's namecame up. As a truly monstertrombonist, attempting to performone of his compositions seemeddaunting, but when we saw the pieceit soon rose to the top of our list.

Eric and I perform together regularly inthe TTU Faculty Jazz Combo and wewanted to include something lighter inthe recording. David William Brubeck's

section part reaches higher. As a genuinebass part emerges, it sets the stage for a 3part section- a tenor voiced melody, basshits, and a melodic horn response in theupper regions of the bass trombone.After a climactic interchange, the timbareturns to coax the horn line to arhythmic finale.

Although this was originally intended forunaccompanied Bass Trombone, theperformers decided in consultation withthe composer that an additional congapart would help to set the stage for the work and bring out the dance aspects of thecomposition. The newly added conga part was composed by Eric Willie expressly forthis recording.

-Joshua Hauser and David William Brubeck

Credits & AcknowledgementsThanks

• R. Winston Morris, colleague, friend, and TTU Professor of Tuba for his indispensable“tonemeistering” and “telling it like it is whether we wanted to hear it or not.”

• Greg Danner, colleague, friend and TTU Professor of Composition for“tonemeistering” and for contributing a great piece to the project.

• Paul Deatherage, friend, TTU Alumnus and adjunct Instructor of Drumset at theUniversity of Kentucky for "tonemeistering" and for all his percussion insights. It turnsout there is a difference between the best mallet for the hall and for the mic!

• Eric Harris, colleague, friend and TTU Associate Director of Bands for jumping in to“tonemeister” and help on Conversation.

• Arthur LaBar, colleague, friend, and former Chair of the TTU Department of Musicand Art for his ongoing support and encouragement throughout this project.

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Stereograms work great by themselves, with a groove that makes you want to dance.Miami lent itself perfectly to adding a conga part and Eric wrote a great duet part to gowith Brubeck's existing piece.

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell one quick story about the rehearsal process forthis. The equipment for the Kraft includes a set of tuned mixing bowls. Up until the lastweek of rehearsals, we had not found a C# bowl, so during one of our lunch breaks, Ericand I visited several local stores, hitting every metal bowl in the cooking section with amallet and a tuner, checking pitch and intonation. We got some very strange looks, butwe found it!

We had a lot of fun putting this together and we hope that you enjoy it as much as weenjoyed selecting and performing the music!

-Joshua Hauser

About the Music:

Written for Tennessee Technological University faculty members Joshua Hauser and EricWillie, Conversation by Doug Bristol is a single movement duet for trombone andtimpani. The piece holds true to its title by giving each instrument equal importance.Comprised of 4 main sections, a slow melodic section, a moderate tempo section in11/8, a faster 7/4 section, and an even faster 6/8 final section. This piece is written in amore traditional melodic and harmonic style and often has the timpani mimicking thetrombone’s glissandos and the trombone mimicking the timpani’s use of repeated notesand patterns. Bristol takes advantage of the wide range of dynamic possibilities offeredby these two instruments more often found in the back rows of the orchestra.

-Sam Woodhead

Passive At One by Aaron Dale was awarded first prize in the 2001 Oswald Research andCreativity Contest at the University of Kentucky. It pushes the high range of thetrombone and is rhythmically challenging for both players. A few sections allow forimprovisation, but the rest of the piece should be played as written. The percussion

Smooth is a slower tempo movement that utilizes bucket and solotone mutes for thetrombone and bowed vibraphone in addition to the use of mallets. Cutting opens withan introduction section that requires the trombone to play into the vibraphone tocreate sympathetic resonance and moves into an allegro vivo tempo that remains to thefine. This final movement also uses many extended techniques like lip smacking, wideslide vibrato, changing the vowel sound of the note, flutter tongue, and rips through theovertone series. The vibraphone also is required to play with the stick ends instead ofthe mallet heads.

-Sam Woodhead

Trobotubrevalkmah by Christian Lindberg was written in 2006 for the Vib’Bone duo inItaly. As a trombonist himself, Lindberg has built this piece partially on tonal materialdrawn from great orchestral literature for the instrument. These themes are transformedin many ways, through fragmentation, inversion, mirror image and in combination witheach other so that they are often unrecognizable or only in snippets. The main sourcesfrom which the composer draws are all hinted at in the title of the work. Lindberg’spercussion writing for this work was largely inspired by Ringo Starr of the Beatles. Theodd collection of instruments, including Woodblocks, Timpani, Bass Drum, Glockenspiel,and Vibraphone, are played in such quick succession at times that the percussion setupis reminiscent of a drum set, with the percussionist performing a ‘dance’ in order to workout the timing of the switches between equipment.

-Joshua Hauser

A Stereogram is a visual medium whereby a viewer is mentally tricked to see a 2dimensional picture as a 3 dimensional picture. Originally done through use ofbinocular type of device that showed a slightly different picture to each eye, basstrombonist David Brubeck has created a set of musical works that create a similar effectwhere the trombonist plays two to three separate parts within a single ‘melodic’ line.The opening of Miami features the use of a timba (typically a left-hand piano figure),punctuated by percussive horn accents. As the listener’s imagination absorbs andinternalizes the rhythm of the timba, a smooth, deep baritone melody emerges. Thismelody relies upon the use of quarter note triplets and is contrasted in mood by theinterjection of sharply accented horn figures. Next, the timba returns and the horn 6 3

part requires vibraphone, medium toms, and a five-octave marimba (alternate notesprovided if a five-octave is not available). The title, Passive At One, comes from acomment made by my roommate, Brad Kerns, during our first year at school (Universityof Kentucky). A good friend of ours would often stop by our room and wake us up totalk, usually between midnight and 1:00 a.m. Brad once said to him, “Man, you aredealing with probably the two most passive guys on campus.” We were also awakenedmany times by phone calls from a couple of Brad’s girl friends back home, both namedLaura. I wrote this piece after reflecting on experiences we all had that year.

There are three movements. I call it a theme and two variations; though variations ofthe original theme are only present at certain points of each movement. Acquaintance -Here, the primary theme of the composition is introduced with an improvised section bythe performers. The improvisation stays within the mood of the rest of the piece.Lauras - The original theme is present in the marimba during the first section. Two mainfeelings are represented which should be very contrasting in performance. The Dance -The opening trombone motive is based off a song called I Saw Your Face by NickNafpliotis. He would play it on guitar and occasionally do a crazy dance. The originaltheme is present in the trombone and vibraphone at various places.

-Aaron Dale

William Kraft's Encounters IV is subtitled Duel for Trombone and Percussion. Thecomposer writes “…Encounters IV is based on medieval warfare. The first movementStrategy (the manner in which one engages the enemy) consists of a series of attacksand counter-attacks, the trombone being the aggressor, the percussion respondingfrom a fixed position, as did defenders in the Middle Ages. The opening has thetrombone approaching and spelling out in Morse code an idea rather popular duringthe Second World War, 'Make war to make peace,' while the defending percussioniststrengthens his position with a growing ostinato. Then there are twelve attacks andcounter-attacks,” the order of which will be determined by the performers.

“The second movement is the most explicit commentary in the piece. It is titled Truce ofGod after the medieval convention supervised by the Pope wherein fighting wassuspended from Thursday sundown to Monday sunrise. The ineffectuality of the

convention against man’s evidently strong predilection for combat is represented bya variation, which distorts the conductus ‘Beata Viscera’ by the 13th century composerPerotin, accompanied by interspersed bell sounds of gongs, vibraphone, and stainlesssteel bowls, along with various other comments from the percussion.”

“The third movement, Tactics (the way in which the battle is fought) is 'all-out war' withthe combatants locked in virtuosic battle climaxing in the defeat and retreat of thetrombone, who spells out ‘peace’ as he departs.”

-William Kraft

Postcards from Rio by Perry Goldstein was composed in 2002 for Stony Brook Universitydoctoral students, trombonist Jeffrey Liang and percussionist Jennifer Wang, to whomthe piece is dedicated. While there are no quotations from Brazilian music, nor have Iattempted to be too literal in referring to that locale, the piece reflects my youthfulinfatuation with the spirit of Brazilian jazz and popular idioms. The first movement,marked “Luminous, melancholic,” then “Sensual and swaying,” begins with a slowintroduction in the marimba, which then sets the recurring bass line “passacaglia.” Theentire movement is characterized by the swaying alternation of two and three beatpulses, an undulating dance rhythm. Five choruses of the main theme frame twochoruses of jazz-inspired solos by the trombone. The second movement, marked“Energetic,” recycles various short rhythmic motives and builds them into tunes. A briefwaltz emerges and a legato tune in the trombone, suggested in outline previously inmore staccato music, signals the piece’s end, a codetta of repeating figures driving thepiece to its conclusion.

-Perry Goldstein

Another piece written for the Tennessee Technological University faculty membersJoshua Hauser and Eric Willie, Edge is a 3 movement piece for trombone andvibraphone. The movements are a play on the title of Edge and the first initials of theperformers’ names. The first movement would read as On Edge and has a basic A-B-A1form. The A sections are made up primarily of rapid succession of 16th notes that passbetween the 2 instruments and the B section is much slower and features multi-phonicsin the trombone done entirely in octaves, but is dominated by the vibraphone.4 5

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� 2012

Mark Masters, 10815 Bodine Road • Clarence, NY 14031-0406Ph: 716 759-2600 • www.markcustom.com • Support Music, Don’t Copy.WARNING: All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.

1. Conversation for Trombone and Timpani (2009) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Doug Bristol (b.1961) 5:59

Passive at One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aaron Dale (b.1973)2. I. Acquaintance 3:503. II. Lauras 3:084. III. The Dance 1:12

Encounters IV: Duel for Trombone and Percussion . . . . . . . . . . . William Kraft (b.1923)5. I. Strategy 5:306. II. Truce of God 6:347. III. Tactics 8:11

Postcards from Rio for Trombone and Marimba (2002) . . . . Perry Goldstein (b.1952)8. I. Avenida Atlantica (Melancholic, luminous, ad lib.) 7:289. II. Rua Jardim Botanico (Energetic) 3:30

Edge for Trombone and Vibraphone (2008) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Danner (b.1958)10. I. On 3:1811. II. Smooth 4:3412. III. Cutting 2:52

13. Trobotubrevalkmah (2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christian Lindberg (b.1958) 11:05

14. Miami (Stereogram #11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David William Brubeck (b.1966) 2:19