Virtual Quartet Performs Palestrina's “In Festo Transfigurationis Domini”

Safari: Please use pop-out ⇗ button.

Concord Band Virtual Quartet

After the Concord Band brass quintet virtual recording of Die Bänkelsängerlieder early in the pandemic, Concord Band members Peter Norton (trombone) and Cam Owen (horn) looked around for more music they could collaborate on virtually, and found a four-part hymn by the Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni da Palestrina: “In Festo Transfigurationis Domini”, arranged for three trombones and horn.

An interesting thing has happened during this pandemic year, as musicians turned from large-ensemble playing such as the band. During the fall and early spring, small ensembles have rehearsed and recorded outdoors. The winter months call for truly virtual groups, with individuals recording their parts indoors at home. With this situation has come the learning of new technology, and creative opportunities such as Peter taking on all three trombone parts. For this virtual performance we utilized an audio editor, Audacity, to bring together the different parts, and a video editor, Pinnacle Studio, to combine the finished audio, video recordings for each of the parts, background photos and other effects.

The far greater challenge than the technology, however, was working out the musical part of this project, getting away from the rigidity of the mechanics and finding a means to bring the give and take of an expressive performance, attending also to aspects of performance such as intonation and balance that come automatically and dynamically with a live performance. It took many iterations and a lot of experimentation and elbow grease!

On the music side, we take a lot of pleasure with the mixing of the four voices. This is a quiet work, rich in musical color and interest as parts come in and out. There are passages that start with the horn and dovetail to one of the trombone parts, which come through so nicely that there is only the change in timbre with the transition from horn to trombone. For us, the images forming the background should be rich in color, and soft—the grasses and early spring growth of our area.

Sicut Cervus by Giovanni da Palestrina

Peter Norton

Musicians from the Concord Band have been finding ways to keep their music going. Here is a story from trombonist Peter Norton:

“During the pandemic, I have partly made up for the loss of playing live music by taking part in recording projects with the Concord Band and other groups. I was introduced to Sicut Cervus a few years ago at an event where I sang it in a group informally. I kept my copy of the music thinking it would make a good 4-part instrumental, and had entered the score into Sibelius [music scoring program], but didn't get a chance to play it with anyone before the pandemic. I was then able to transpose it on the computer to a range where I could play all four parts on trombone.  I made the recording using the [recording studio] program, Audacity. I recorded each part as a separate track, and then went back to re-record parts of it that needed more work. What made it a rewarding experience was that once I had some tracks recorded, playing new ones gave a sense of playing with other people.”

Sicut cervus is a motet for four voices by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The motet is a setting of Psalm 42:2-3 “My soul thirsts for God,” written for four voices, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.

Meet the Trombone Section

From a rehearsal in 2002, left to right: Glenn Garvey, Mark Vincenzes, Peter Norton, David Tweed, Sam Reynolds and Andy Nichols.

The Concord Band recently presented an award to the longest-tenured member of the Band, trombonist Andy Nichols. Andy has played with the Concord Band for a full, and is retiring from the Band this season. Until we have a solo feature for Andy, here's a reprise of the article featuring the trombone section. Amazingly, ten years since this article was published in Notes from the Concord Band, at Andy's retirement the section was still 100% intact!—ed. 

When it comes to proficiency, many would agree that among all instrument sections of the Concord Band, our Trombone section ranks very high—right at the top, in your editor's opinion. What makes this so impressive is that, while players of all wind instruments must form a proper embouchure (position of the mouth—lips, tongue and teeth) to play each note, instrumentalists other than trombonists need merely depress the proper key or keys on his or her instrument to do so. Trombonists, on the other hand, must position their slides (which can travel almost two feet) to an accuracy of 1/8 of an inch! Perhaps you're not as impressed with this as is your editor (who plays only non-melodic percussion instruments, which need merely to be struck—some would say banged—at the right moment), but if you've managed to get this far, please read on.

The Concord Band's six trombonists have been with the Band an average of more than 16 years [in 2002—ed]. Four have been with the Band for fifteen years or more; a fifth, nine years. All but one were born in the Northeast (Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania); the sixth hails from Arkansas. All began their trombone studies as children and played in school ensembles at every stage of their education. Today, four play in more than one musical group. A few play more than one instrument; one even admitted to having played the accordion!