Visioning on the vacant air

for trombone quartet

Composing for choir will always be my first love, but there are undeniable limitations to what a vocal ensemble can accomplish. Unless all singers have perfect pitch, the composer must include logical paths by which to find notes. And conformity to a text restricts certain rhythmic liberties. When I was presented with the opportunity to write for trombone quartet, I saw an ensemble with a distinctively choral timbre that is free from both these particular constraints. So I set out to write a choral piece that no choir could ever sing.

I am particularly drawn to the low brass chorales in the symphonic repertoire, and decided that this piece should be built around a chorale tune. While this melody was the first thing I composed for the piece, it only emerges in full chorale form at the conclusion, a fulfillment of hints and scattered phrases left throughout the piece. I wanted to work like an archaeologist: dusting off my little chorale fragments and slowly piecing together a larger narrative.

In a similar vein of looking to the ancient, the piece incorporates inspiration from medieval techniques of Notre Dame polyphony and isorhythm. In the midst of my musical archaeological dig, I came across a poem by Thomas Hardy that perfectly expresses my fascination with how the past, both near and distant, echoes in the present. It is from this text that the title is drawn.

• Matthew Thomas Brown