Cherise D. Leiter, Composer

Capers (2008)

Medium: trombone and piano

Length: ~11 min

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Capers for trombone and piano was commissioned by Michelle Batty Stanley for trombonist Bill Stanley. The entire piece requires both technical precision and musical sensitivity from the performers. “Prelude” gives the trombonist a chance to improvise in increasingly longer segments between a fixed chordal progression in the piano. The “Air” requires the trombone to ‘sing’ and to interpret the melody musically. “Fugette” is the result of the composer’s fascination with counterpoint. “In Fourth” is a sarabande, and the trombonist is required to play the entire movement in fourth position, using the natural tuning of the overtone series, including the partials that are ‘out of tune.’ The “Gigue” is simply marked ‘very, very fast.’ It is in mixed meter, and passes the primary theme between trombone and piano. The difficult trombone passages in Capers may be blamed on the fact that the composer is the child of a trombonist, and this piece is affectionately dedicated to the first trombone in my life, my father.

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