Mass for Trombone Quartet Composer Tim Risher Performance by LaCrosse Trombone Quartet

This is a performance from the La Crosse New Music Festival on 11/14/2002. The quartet is James Wheat, Marc Williams, Mark Lakmann Tenor Trombone; Ross Lewton Bass Trombone. The work is in 3 movements: Requiem, Kyrie Eleison and Dies Irae. The Requiem is very busy--never really finding rest with persistent ostinati in all parts. The composer uses fortepiano chords to emulate tolling bells. The Kyrie intersperses aleatoric sections with chant. A variety of extended techniques, partial tonalities and mutes (particularly wa-wa) are employed to 'ask the Lord for mercy'. The Kyrie goes immediately into the Dies Irae, which for my money is the most frantic and disturbing setting of the Dies Irae in the classical canon. Polyrhythms and mutes are used to drive the piece to a unison statement of the chant and ultimately to its violent conclusion.