Brass Quartet in 4 Movements

[Daniel Zarb-Cousin]

Video(listen in 1080p):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxbL0po3QQ4&feature=youtu.be

Written using Sibelius and Noteflight MIDI.  

This started off as a submission for a public commission, but was denied as this was not what the person was looking for.  I liked what I had started on so I kept on it anyway, and I really like how it turned out.  I appreciate any feedback or criticism.  Thanks for taking the time to listen!

Scores attached, 4th movement's score is in the comments.

[Daniel Zarb-Cousin]

Movement 4 Score

[Quinn Mason]

Look pretty awesome to play. I'd advise you to go easy on the pedal tones on the bass trombone, however, as those require a great amount of air from the trombonist and since you've already got busy passages going on, those wouldn't come out so clean. The pedal tones are best used for effect and to accent notes (for example, doubled in octave with the tenor trombone which is not so good with pedal tones), so use those sparingly. The score could benefit from a little extra cleanup (including transposition). Other wise, pretty nice work here.

[Daniel Zarb-Cousin]

Alright, thank you for the feedback!  I really do not know much about the instrument so I am glad you told me this.

Quinn Mason said:

Look pretty awesome to play. I'd advise you to go easy on the pedal tones on the bass trombone, however, as those require a great amount of air from the trombonist and since you've already got busy passages going on, those wouldn't come out so clean. The pedal tones are best used for effect and to accent notes (for example, doubled in octave with the tenor trombone which is not so good with pedal tones), so use those sparingly. The score could benefit from a little extra cleanup (including transposition). Other wise, pretty nice work here.

[Rodney Carlyle Money]

Yes, with the bass trombone in your piece, I would not go lower than the low C two ledger lines below the bass clef staff. So those parts need to be written up an 8va where they go too low. I only use pedal tones for long notes like whole notes and not fast notes. The first movement does need some work with the notation and beaming of your music. I am a brass player, and I was having a very hard time reading it.

[Rodney Carlyle Money]

Flutter notation, btw, 3 slashes with fllz written above. 1st movement, 2nd trumpet has a low F which is out of its range. The only way we can play that is kick out our 1st and 3rd slide most of the way out to turn the horn into an A trumpet.

[Daniel Zarb-Cousin]

Alright, thank you for the feedback!  I really do not know much about the instrument so I am glad you told me this.

Rodney Carlyle Money said:

Yes, with the bass trombone in your piece, I would not go lower than the low C two ledger lines below the bass clef staff. So those parts need to be written up an 8va where they go too low. I only use pedal tones for long notes like whole notes and not fast notes. The first movement does need some work with the notation and beaming of your music. I am a brass player, and I was having a very hard time reading it.

[Rodney Carlyle Money]

Please refer to this chart for possible glissandos for trombone: http://www.islandtrombone.com/Glissinfo.pdf

[Daniel Zarb-Cousin]

alright thanks.

Rodney Carlyle Money said:

Please refer to this chart for possible glissandos for trombone: http://www.islandtrombone.com/Glissinfo.pdf