Description
Samsara, Alma Nox is Derek Holden’s first solo tuba composition. Musically, the piece explores the biting, vicious quality of the tuba in certain registers at certain dynamics. In the process of exploring this quality of the tuba, the piece has a musical and emotional trajectory that takes the listener from the silent, pitchless depths of the tuba to the most roaring, chaotic heights. From these heights, the piece rapidly cycles back to an area similar to where it began. Although the ending is certainly conclusive, the piece does feel as though it could start itself over, continuing in an infinite, unceasing loop. Samsara, Alma Nox was finished in late 2012 and premiered by Corey Sherman in 2013 at the University of Alabama.
– Derek Holden
Solo Parts Included: Tuba
