Release the Beast! (2023) - for Trombone Sextet
**Runner up for the 2024 International Trombone Association Composition Competition**
Release the Beast! is a programmatic work that was commissioned by the KC Trombone Workshop in early 2023. Release the Beast! portrays an apocalyptic scenario in which a gigantic creature (the titular Beast) emerges from beneath the Earth’s surface, destroying the planet as a result. The piece is in ternary form (ABA) with a brief coda at the end. Each section represents a different stage of the Beast destroying Earth:
A Section: Marked “Surging”, this portion of the work symbolizes the Beast surging up from the Earth’s core almost 2,000 miles below a high rate of speed, getting closer and closer to the surface…
B Section: Marked “Ethereal, Slowly”, the Beast has now breached the Earth’s surface and has all of humanity staring at the massive creature in shock and awe. I aimed to convey through music what it must feel like seeing something so incomprehensibly large rise from the Earth.
A Section (reprise) and Coda: This recapitulation of the original material and the “Faster” coda at the end represent the panic and chaos of people scrambling to figure out how to escape their impending doom before a powerful fff tutti B-flat in octaves signifies the final explosion of Earth.
**The extended version of Release the Beast! for trombone octet is also included. This version named the runner up for the 2024 ITA composition competition.
Sextet duration: Approx. 4 minutes 15 seconds
Octet duration: 5 minutes
Difficulty: 3/5
Format: PDF Score and parts of both sextet and octet version and reference MP3 files of both versions:
Sextet version (4 tenors, 2 basses)
Octet version (6 tenors, 2 basses)
Copyright © 2023 Ian Lester