©1995 Beau Sharbrough
My second composition assignment at UNT was to write a baritone quartet. This piece was difficult because they made me find some musicians to play it and I learned about the great gap between thinking about music in my mind and making it here on earth. Musicians have very little time to rehearse, the more of them you need the less their schedule will match, and the good ones have even less time than the bad ones.
I'm grateful for the efforts of the volunteers who played this piece in recital on 9 Dec 1995 at North Texas.
French Horn, Elisabeth Lowry Trombone, Will Jayroe Tenor Sax, Michael Carey Cello, Arnold Friedman Percussion, Rich Calderon
My goal in writing the piece was to try to capture "natural" rhythms, and to contrast them with steady musical rhythms. I chose as my theme Milner Pass, a place in Rocky Mountain National Park where one is surrounded by mountains and forests. I have enjoyed hiking there with my wife Susan and my friends Dale and Victoria LeMaster. I thought of ants and elk and critters in between. I thought of mountains and big spaces. Maybe you'll hear them.
Download the MP3 file (5.3MB, added 20 Sept 2001)