6 Fragments for 4 Trombones

About

At my farewell from the conservatorium (June 2003) I spoke to Kari Lassauer, Philip's first trombone teacher in CH and he said if I were to write something for trombone quartet he would be pleased to perform it with his group (in St Gallen where he also plays in the St Galler Oper). I was pleased to have a new performance possibility and set to work straight away using the 'Gaol Bird' as a starting point. At much the same time I heard a new work by Rudolf Kelterborn in which longish movements were separated be short and often sparsely orchestrated fragments. What stayed with me in the end were these fragments and so came the idea for this suite. Apart from the song-like second movement ('Gaol Bird') and the clock-like 3rd movement the pieces are abstract but try to use typical trombone sounds with glissandi, big dynamic changes and wahwah mutes.