Walter Ross

Walter Ross

~ Prelude, Fugue, and Big Apple

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Prelude, Fugue, and Big Apple

  1. Prelude ~ mp3
  2. Fugue ~ mp3
  3. Big Apple ~ mp3

After I had written my concerto for tenor trombone, several bass trombonists asked me for a work specifically for bass trombone. Since I had written other pieces for solo instrument and tape, I decided to try the same combination with the bass trombone.

The idea of Prelude and Fugue is very old, but when I decided to write a work for solo bass trombone and tape, I felt the addition of a dance would help "complete" the work. I searched for several months and finally found a woman in her 50's who remembered the Big Apple dance and demonstrated it to me. After her demonstration, I finished the composition within the week.

In this work the Prelude is aggressive and comic and the tape and trombone alternate fanfares. The Fugue is more contemplative, and the trombone and tape share melodic lines. In the Big Apple (a dance popular in the late 30's) the tape accompanies the trombone and provides occasional interludes. This movement is somewhat like a practice session for the trombonist as he tries out a few "licks" (the next-to-last is a version of the fugue subject) until the final form of the dance which finishes the movement.


Prelude, Fugue, and Big Apple, for trombone solo and electronic tape, has been recorded by Per Brevig, trombone soloist on COMPOSERS RECORDINGS, INC: CRI-340

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

For archival quality scans of scores and parts, or lossless audio recordings please ask here.


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