Cheetham -- Heroes

[BVD Press]

Sheet music and clips can be found here:

http://www.booneslickpress.com/brass_ensembles.html

[Kutz]

Hi. "Heroes" by John Cheetham was commissioned by myself and Anne Jelle Visser last year and was premiered at te Ottawa Chamber Music Festival (on an all Cheetham concert). It is a great piece to play and we found that using 2 marimbas (marimbaists?) worked well to create a stereo background for the two tubas. Reminiscant of the William Penn (in sections), it is written (and subtitled) For High Tuba, Low Tuba and Marimba, but AJ and I both used F Tubas with great success. The piece is divided in three sections (F-S-F) and the tuba lines are well intertwined so the listener is not always aware of who is playing. The finger work in some of the fast sections is challenging, but not out of reach. A very friendly piece for audiences I believe. Anne Jelle and I have plans (future) to record this work, but this may take a bit of time due to scheduling. I do have a recording of the premiere but it is not clear and would likely not be of any help to hear distinctive parts. Contact John, he is very open and wants to have his works played! Hope this helps.
DK