Review

Salvatore Sciarratta
Bright Call:
3 tenors (3 in tenor clef), 2 basses

Seckington, Tamworth, United Kingdom
Publisher: Warwick Music Limited
Date of Publication: 2022
URL: http://www.warwickmusic.com

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 5 trombones

Salvatore Sciarratta is an Italian composer and active performer in various ensembles on trombone/euphonium in Sicily. He holds degrees from the Alessandro Scarlatti Conservatory in Palermo, and the Arturo Toscanini Conservatory in Ribera. He has composed and arranged music for orchestras, bands, big bands, chamber ensembles, and pop groups and is also the author of an innovative set of exercises based on unusual scales in irregular time signatures aimed at improving rhythmic perception and technique, fostering relaxation, stimulating the mind while reading, and maintaining concentration. 

Bright Call for trombone quintet (3 tenor, 2 bass) won the British Trombone Society Composer’s Competition in 2021. It received its international premiere at the Trombone Festival in July of 2022 at the University of Arkansas. There is a recording on YouTube of that performance, conducted by Deb Scott. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4BnaVTZDWM

Bright Call, is a 3 minute 30-second-long Adagio. The tonal, melodic, contrapuntal, and rhythmic compositional styles are traditional and conservative. The texture is quite full, as there are only four measures out of a total of 45 where the entire ensemble is not playing. Loud dynamics (f, ff, fff) predominate in 18 measures, as opposed to 7 measures of p, pp. The scoring for trombones is idiomatic and the technical demands are modest; sight-readable by a good university-level group. The layout and printing are first-class.