Piano,Tuba - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.533704 Composed by Carson Cooman. Concert,Contemporary,Standards. Score and part. 38 pages. Musik Fabrik Music Publishing #3039001. Published by Musik Fabrik Music Publishing (A0.533704). Sonata for Tuba and Piano (2007) was commissioned by and is dedicated to tubist MarkNelson for premiere at the 2007 Southwest Tuba and Euphonium Conference. The work isin three movements, each using the same basic musical material. Throughout the work,there is an integration of the total chromatic spectrum (represented through row-likeconstructions) with triadic and tonal elements, particularly connected to the interval of aminor third.The first movement, Speaking of Sunsets, is bold and dramatic throughout. The musicalmaterial is subjected to a series of circular paths that loop back on themselves until themovement ends. (The title refers to American poet James Tate’s poem Never Again theSame and also Charles Wuorinen’s musical setting of that text.)The second movement, Build Me a Garden, takes its title from an original song I overheardwhile planning this work. It sung by a homeless man who was then sitting on the banks ofthe Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. His song (bearing both textual and musicalresemblance to various folk songs and African-American spirituals) spoke of hopes anddreams:Build me a garden, far ‘cross the seaBuild me a garden, a place I can beThe water is wide, the journey is long.I’ve put all my sorrows into this song.The movement opens with a slightly modified version of the song, which is developed overthe course of the movement. Connections are made between the first movement’s materialand the pentatonic melody (with its opening intervals of minor thirds).The third movement, Rising at Dawn, is a moto perpetuo. The ideas from both previousmovements are put together in new, dancing combinations. Coming out of the darker firsttwo movements, this movement continually seeks places of joy. The dance breaks down,and a recollection of the first movement leads to a bright coda.
