Review

Martin Yates
Slide 8:
6 tenors, 2 basses

Seckington, Tamworth, United Kingdom
Publisher: Warwick Music Limited
Date of Publication: 2021
URL: http://www.warwickmusic.com

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 8 trombones

Martin Yates is a distinguished, internationally acclaimed, British conductor and composer. He studied conducting, composition, piano and horn at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music in London. He has conducted many major symphony orchestras and opera companies, including the Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and major opera houses in Paris, Vienna, Dresden, Rome, Tokyo, and London. Yates has recorded over 80 CDs of symphonic repertoire.

As a composer, his output has included a ballet, two musicals, four string quartets, a Harpsichord Sonatina, Divertimento for oboe, bassoon, and double bass, a considerable amount of music involving the flute, and a Brass Quintet. His very popular arrangements of the two Gershwin classics SWonderful and I Got Rhythm for horn quartet are played all over the world. The Guardian newspaper described Martin Yates as, “a composer of confident and engaging music that has a style and colour that is both immediately appealing and rewarding to listen to.”

Slide 8 is scored for 8 trombones, divided into two choirs; three tenors and one bass in each choir. Its length of 4’30” is cast into an A B A formal design, with the B section acting as a legato, lyrical contrast. The composer uses as his model the Venetian double choir pieces of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. Typical of that style are imitative statements between the choirs and alternation of duple with triple time. Yates incorporates a wide variety of dynamics as well as articulations and textural contrasts. This is a short, interesting, expertly crafted work. It is tonally, texturally, melodically, rhythmically, and structurally in a traditional and conservative style. Technically it is readable by a college-level ensemble. Printing and layout are first-class.