View Inside

Listen to an Excerpt  Xđ

for solo tuba

by John M. Crabtree

Lead time before shipping:  2 days

Beasts in the Window

Duration: approx. 6 minutes.

Composed by John Crabtree, for solo tuba. 1 Full Score.  Contemporary Classical. 5 pages. 8˝ x 11 inches. Booklet Format. Published by John M. Crabtree.

Beasts in the Window was composed for flautist Iwona Glinka and dedicated to the composer’s two cats, Princess and Euridice.  However, this version has been extended and arranged for solo tuba - which the composer believes better represents the programmatic ideas in the piece as the lower registers are prominently featured. 

The title comes from seeing these two cats sitting contently on a windowsill on a daily basis.  Although both cats look harmless and innocent while they enjoy the sunlight from outside, their true alter ego (“beasts”) is only revealed during the night.  The brief piece attempts to capture the curiosity of the two cats during their prowling “beasts” activities.  It also tries to portray the actual sounds of a cat through breathing in and out of the instrument, and by using a flutter technique to represent a cat’s purring (although extremely exaggerated in the piece).  There are also small ornamental effects such as key clicks and pitch bends that portray the restless activities of these two cats – noises that the composer often hears as he’s trying to sleep at night. 

This challenging upper-level tuba piece will not only demonstrate the strong skills of the tuba performer, but it will also expose his knowledge and technique in contemporary music.