Instrumentation
picc.1.1.ca.2(II=bcl).1.cbsn - 4.2.2.btbrn.1 - timp* - perc (3* crot/glsp/tbells/xyl/2 cowbells/3 tins/3 wdblk/tamb.BD/drum kit: china cym/hi-hat/tamb/3 tins/4 tom-toms/kick drum) - harp - strings (double bass require low C extention and half of players require a low B) *2-player percussion set up is possible if timpani takes on additional percussion. Please see score for details.
Availability
Score and parts in preparation
Programme Notes
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Tapias was my first concerto. When I wrote the first version of the piece in 2008, I conceived it as something of an ‘anti-concerto’. And to this day, is it still quite deliberately subtitled ‘music for trombone and orchestra’. But I had long wanted to return to this youthful piece and, at the urging of Ian Bousfield, have now created what I consider to be the definitive version. The title Tapias (‘Walls’) suggests some of its preoccupations: graffiti, various kinds of dance music, and the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Revisiting the work now, I have assimilated material from the original third movement into the first and composed a new finale, which is a kind of lament. The trombone is my own instrument, and even in 2008 I wanted to bring to the fore the lyrical and delicate aspects of its character. Though still a work of contrasts and extremes, this new version emphasizes these underappreciated facets of the instrument and presents everything more directly and expressively.
FC