Octet (Haas)

Georg Friedrich Haas

Subtitle: For 8 Trombones
This work may be found under its title in German, Octet für acht Posaunen.

General Info

Year: 2015
Duration: c. 20:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Universal Edition
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental

Instrumentation

Full Score
Trombone I-VIII

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

The Octet was written for the eight trombonists of the Trombone Unit Hannover, a well-established ensemble in northern Germany.

Octet is dedicated to his wife, Mollena Williams, and has a duration of 20 minutes. Its premiere took place at the Basel Munster in Switzerland on September 11, 2015.

My involvement with audiotapes played by Giacinto Scelsi entailed a surprising realization: that melodies -- singable melodies in the traditional sense -- are also possible in the smallest micro-intervallic steps. The comparatively rough transcriptions of Scelsi’s works, most of which are notated no more precisely than in quarter tones, made this quality of the music unrecognizable. (Unfortunately, the tapes are all but inaccessible to the public).

As with my Ninth String Quartet and my piece for solo trumpet I Can’t Breathe. I am also attempting to compose micro-melodies in my Octet for eight trombones, almost didactically approaching quarter tones and sixth tones up to eighth-tone steps, which must be intonated meticulously.

The piece is composed for a space with a long reverberation time. The musicians must stand closely together so they can hear themselves precisely. The work is not conceived as a polyphonic tissue; rather, it is a largely homophonic mass of sound, only occasionally splitting up

- Program Note by composer

Commissioned by the Trombone Unit Hannover.

Media

Audio: Reference recording. Hanover Trombone Unit
Audio CD: Donaueschinger Musiktage

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Basler Münster (Swit.) - 10 September 2015
Trombone Unit Hanover – 11 September 2015 *Premiere Performance*

Works for Winds by This Composer

antiphon (2008)
Octet (2015)
Ritual (2005)
Saxophone Quartet (2014)

Resources

"OCTET (2015) for 8 trombones by Georg Friedrich Haas (Austria)." WASBE. Web. (Featured as WASBE’s Composition of the Week, 19 October 2020). Accessed 14 January 2023