A Natty Rag for Trombone, Piano and Orchestra

Fun for 3 minutes!

This piece was commisioned and composed for an excellent trombonist. To my shame, he never performed it. He played his solo part to me, and yet I have not received the honour of hearing the piece with an orchestra.

It is composed for fun - for the common ear, the unmusical ear. It's entertaining you see!

Hope you like it!

(NOTE: THE PDF LINK IS UPDATED AND THE SCORE IS IMPROVED. DOWNLOAD IT AGAIN!)

Can you post a link to a mp3 so as I can listen with out the general midi?

It sounds neat, but general midi sucks.

Ron

I don't have an mp3 recording. Only MIDI. Sorry! Any advice?

(PS: the trombone solo is playable. It was written for a viruoso and he played it well for me - without an orchestra of course! )

It is nice. Why didn't he perform it?

I don't know why he didn't perform it. He played it for me, but that is that. He should have performed it in August but then... I don't know what happaned. Any advice?

That's fun. Score looks very nice too. Could you explain the reason for the G doublesharp for piano in the first two measures for me? I'm a bit rusty.

Sorry about your trombonist. Have you asked him/her about the lack of participation? Any community volunteers willing to step up?

The G# is just for the fun. Rather G# than A neutral (considering a is a flat in the piece).

Trombonist. I wonder if any orchestra could perform it for me. Hmmm. Anyhow... any ADVICE? I'm starting to get desperate!

Without listening the piece or checking the score.

It's VERY DIFFICULT to get an orchestra to play your piece. It means that they will have to find a slot to put your piece in. And 3 minutes is not very long, thus it's difficult to get it in. Longer pieces, however, are even worst, since they would take up 1/3rd or 1/4th of the program in order to fit in, and very few people/orchestras are willing to bet on a new, unpublished, unknown composer!

QCCowboy, who is above 40 and has had many pieces performed, I'm not too sure if he's had AN ORCHESTRA play a piece of his. I'm 31, finishing my PhD in composition, and never had an ORCHESTRA perform any of my pieces. Gardener is a fabulous composer (don't know how old though), and he hasn't done so (have you Jannis?).

If you do make some name in your country, then you might hope for a commission. It's the only way that the orchestras will feel surer on what they will receive in the end. Otherwise who knows what "rubbish" they might be getting.

Another idea would be to contact local amateur orchestras, or befriend people, and so on... Networking in other words...

Hope it helps a little.

I'll be back with comments on the piece (score, if I recall is too big for my taste, but this was done in a few secs viewing, so don't take it into account).

Thank you Nicolas! I will keep that in mind. The only amateur orchestra's in South Africa is at the universities. I will try the Pretoria University orchestra.

PEOPLE! I NEED ADVICE!!! (now starting to get really desperate!)

Hold on a sec...

What kind of advice are you looking for? Are you looking for info on an exact orchestra that will play your work? Didn't you read my above post? It simply is NOT that easy.

It's like trying to find a company to hire you as a pilot (even if you DON'T have a diploma for being a pilot). No matter how hard you want it, you still have to go the legal ways and then you may find a job. Nobody will tell you "There, this company will let you fly".

For the record, I can't listen to midi files (due to soundcard issues), but the score looks a bit of a mess and simply NOT professional. I wouldn't put my reputation in line, and nor will anyone else.

My advice? Fix the score. Make the staves smaller, make teh % page smaller. Fix ALL crossings, make sure everything is coherent. Stuff like Gx do not belong there, spelling wise. Nor do 3 dotted 8ths (bar 26 for example, piano). Many many things to fix and don't have time right now to let you know.

but trying to find someone to perform an ORCHESTRAL piece, with such a score seems too far fetched.

Sorry