Claire McCue: After the Before [download]

15 minute piece for trombone and string quartet, composed in 2013.

Computer typeset score and parts (74pp) saved as PDF files for immediate download.

“After The Before has no specific narrative, but more of an overall feel of a journey from dark to light, with a time of contemplation in-between. The title alludes to this and also the fact that I wrote the movements in an atypical order: the 3rd movement first, the 1st movement second and the 2nd movement third.

In the first movement the quintet play as equals together rather than with trombone as a prominent soloist against a string quartet, but in the second movement the trombone takes on this role more in what is almost like a soliloquy. My intention was to expose the sincere and beautiful sonority of the trombone which is often passed over in favour of the more dynamic or comical qualities that are readily associated with this instrument. As strings and trombone share the ability to make very natural glissandos, I chose to feature this in the third movement.”