Far from home
(2023) 23' / for trombone quartet or brass quartet and two pianos, two percussion
The first version of the work was commissioned by the SWR Symphony Orchestra as music for trombone and orchestra and premiered on 13 February 2011 in Stuttgart, with Mike Svoboda (solo trombone) under the direction of Peter Rundel.
The revised version — now for four trombone soloists and under a new title — was premiered on 13 February 2022 in Mannheim, performed by Mike Svoboda, Jürgen Schaal, Ilja Danilov, and Jonas Becker together with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Mario Venzago.
The version for four trombones, two pianos, and two percussion was premiered on 27 May 2023 in Oslo by the Nordic Trombone Quartet. In autumn 2023, Tetra Brass Munich recorded the version for brass quartet.
recording with Tetra Brass
composer's note
Are we not all quietly hoping and curiously wandering, persistently searching and ambitiously advancing and slightly deviating and persistently striving and steadily expanding and stubbornly confronted with and repeatedly trying to find a hopefully redeeming place we can call home?
persistently searching, curiously wandering, ambitiously advancing, slightly deviating, persistently striving, repeatedly trying, quietly hoping, steadily expanding, stubbornly confronting, hopefully redeeming
Far away from home is for those who quietly hope, curiously wander, persistently search, ambitiously move forward, slightly deviate, persistently strive, steadily expand, stubbornly confront, and repeatedly try to find a hopefully redeeming place we can call home.
Instrumentation
4 Solo Trombones
or
Brass Quartet:
Trumpet in C (also piccolo trumpet in B♭)
Trumpet in B♭ (also flugelhorn in B♭)
Tenor trombone
Bass trombone
2 Pianos
2 Percussionists
Percussion 1
Glockenspiel
Small triangle
Clave on a cloth-dampened table, played with hard xylophone mallets
2 flexatones — one with and one without buttons — played with a triangle beater
Megaphone
Percussion 2
Glockenspiel
Large ride cymbal
Medium triangle
Clave on a cloth-dampened table, played with hard xylophone mallets
2 flexatones — one with and one without buttons — played with a triangle beater
Megaphone
Percussion 3
Vibraphone
Bass drum, played with mallets, a rod, and a wide brush with stiff bristles
Clave on a cloth-dampened table, played with hard xylophone mallets