Review

Simon Wills
Tingueley’s Fountain:

Coventry, , United Kingdom
Publisher: Warwick Music Publishers
Date of Publication: 2008
URL: http://www.warwickmusic.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 9+ trombones (choir)

Simon Wills, prolific London-based trombonist and composer, brings us this musical representation of a mechanical water fountain found in Basel, Switzerland. This fountain is comprised of several machines that disperse water in various directions and distances.  The instrumentation is written in twelve parts, distributed into four “clumps,” with each clump representing a different machine. Each clump is comprised of two tenor parts with one bass. Wills by no means intends for this piece to be performed by only twelve trombonists as he refers to the piece as, “A twitter for unlimited trombones.”

The piece is relatively short, but exciting. Each clump presents material independent of the others, yet all with a certain amount of madness, incorporating many glissandi and contrasting rhythms. It gives the trombone ensemble a great chance to play a little rudely, even misbehaving at the composer’s request! This intermediate-level piece works well for college level trombone choirs. The piece does contain one impossible glissando from c-sharp to A and also has some floating or poorly placed glissandi in the parts. Tingueley’s Fountain was commissioned by the ITA and was premiered at the 2006 ITF in Birmingham, England. The combined range of all parts is AA-flat to d-flat2. 

-Cory Mixdorf
Georgia State University