80 Trombones and 30 Basses

Henry Brant/Gerhard Samuel - 80 Trombones and 30 Basses

Henry Brant - ORBITS

ORBITS was recorded in St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, California, on February 1979.

Credits: Bay Bones Trombone Choir and assisting artists; Will Sudmeier and Billy Robinson, directors; Henry Brant, organ; Amy Snyder, voice; Gerhard Samuel, conductor

From the liner notes:

Berlioz is said to have exclaimed "No instrument can lift you from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven as can the trombone." Perhaps this was after hearing the sinister unisons of pedal tones on eight trombones in his Requiem, notes previously unknown or thought impossible by trombonists. But what might Berlioz have thought of a complete orchestra of trombones, eighty strong, playing at times in eighty real parts, and spanning a better than five octave gamut, comprising soprano, alto, tenor, bass and contrabass trombones?

This is what HENRY BRANT has undertaken in his ORBITS, and the present CRI recording was made during the first performance on February 11, 1979, described in the following account of the concert in Time Magazine's issue of March 5, 1979.

"The scene at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco was vaguely surreal. In the pews was an audience of 1500, sedate as any church-goers. Ranged about them in a huge semicircle was a gleaming array of 80 trombonists, as if a parade had lost its way and sought sanctuary.

"But when the music began, the sound was a far cry from Sousa. Separated by staccato commentaries from the cathedral's pipe organ, densely dissonant sonorities clashed and blended over the listeners' heads. Full-throated blares, splintery muted phrases, the crooning tones of the soprano trombone, the rumble of its contrabass relative - all seemed to accelerate in a circular motion, spinning into the cathedral's 190-foot cupola like an earthly echo of the music of the spheres."

Gerhard Samuel - WHAT OF MY MUSIC!

WHAT OF MY MUSIC! was recorded in the Ralph Corbett Auditorium of the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati on July 1979.

Credits: Nelga Lynn, soprano; 36 string basses from the International Summer School for Double Bass of the International Society of Bassists (Barry Green and Paul Ellison, soloists); Allen Otte, James Culley, and Michael Hakes, percussion; Gerhard Samuel, conductor

From the liner notes by the composer:

WHAT OF MY MUSIC! was written between March 13 and 29, 1979 at the request of Barry Green on behalf of the International Society of Bassists which holds an annual summer school at the College-Conservatory.

WHAT OF MY MUSIC! requires a lyric coloratura soprano, two solo double basses, (also two solo basses in the ensemble), twenty-eight tutti basses and three percussion players playing flexatone, vibraphones, marimbas, tam-tams, suspended cymbal, triangle, crotales, snare drum, chimes, thermos-shell and gourd. On a basic level the soprano represents the exterior manifestation of Emily Dickinson's intense quest for reaching 'the sole ear I care to charm'; the basses carry the interior monologue. But, as always when talking about music, this is gross oversimplification, since fundamentally WHAT OF MY MUSIC! is, after all, my reaction to Miss Dickinson's poem.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Henry Brant - Orbits {21:07}

Side 2

1. Gerhard Samuel - What of My Music! {15:10}

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