"T-Bone of Contention"

Trombone and Symphonic Band (or piano)

A few excerpts here... apologies for it being electronic (couldn't find the premiere recording)

This piece happened for a variety of reasons. First, I had a lot of free time on my hands. Second, I wanted to thank Don Snowden for hiring me the previous summer to work at Pensacola State College and for giving me a chance to get a new piece played by the Pensacola Civic Band. Third, I'd never written a solo piece for trombone before and thought this would be a great opportunity to take a shot at it!

One thing you may notice in this work is the prevalence of some, "Spanish," sounding rhythms, especially in the second theme group. This was because, in the Fall of '03, the University of West Florida was hard at work presenting "Man of La Mancha." I had just started writing this new trombone piece and, after attending part of a rehearsal, I couldn't get those castanet rhythms out of my head!

Full disclosure: Thanks to that show's influence on my writing plus the fact that I was writing the solo part for a guy named Don, this piece very nearly had a title involving some kind of Cervantes-inspired pun! Fortunately, that was too ridiculous... even for me! In fact, finding a good title for the work in time for its premiere became something of a bone of contention!

Wait... what? A bone of contention...? A T-BONE OF CONTENTION???

...

I'll let myself out now...

...

But not before mentioning that, "T-Bone of Contention," was premiered in the Summer of 2004 in Pensacola's Seville Square with Civic Band Maestro Don Snowden playing the heck out of the solo trombone part and Yours Truly on the podium waving the baton!

Scores

T-Bone of Contention

Trombone and Symphonic Band score and parts (PDFs) - $80

Trombone and Piano Reduction (PDFs) - $15