Trombonists reading this will all know of Andre Lafosse, who wrote 2 study manuals in 1921. In 1946 he wrote a third, and all 3 are regarded as excellent material on which to learn the entire range of trombone technique. In the third book there is a set of 12 studies, often used as exam and audition pieces to this…
Written after a visit to a Concentration Camp in East Poland (see also the ‘Pieces of Writing’ section). If you want a moment of utter gravity within your orchestral concert, this is it.
Or Bombasticity II, takes us back to the beginning of the recital. Genesis did an album in 1979 in which the opening returns at the end, and the way they did it always gripped me. This is a similar effort, to close this cyclic recital. So after drifting through the sky above the clouds, we sink right back to a…
The Scourged Back is the name of a photograph, taken in 1863. It's of the lacerated back of a Louisiana slave known as Whipped Peter, you can imagine how awful this photograph is. I can't show it here. This is the story of his escape from his plantation and arrival in Baton Rouge, where he joined the Union army in…
An African legend, of a young girl, her capture and escape from an evil ogre, and the hideous death inflicted on him by the girl's father. Lots of detailed storytelling, many scenes and atmospheres, and 'curtain calls' from the main characters at the end!
1. Fury. 2. All You Need is... 3. Moods of Echoes. The three are not really a suite, but work best each on their own as solo pieces with three very different inspirations behind them. Plus postage, they're £10 each one, or £25 if you want to play all three. Bargain!
There’s a glorious picture of Glastonbury Tor, and I’ve yet to find the photographer who took it. This piece is entirely based on this one incredible image, mostly bright orange, of the sunset mists across the fields, rooks rising from foreground trees, and the magnificent monument itself, just rising on its tor above the clouds.
