Mini-AltEtudes, Op. 188 (2025)

Program Notes:

This piece is the eighth in a series of Christmas gifts for my dear friend Noah Lauziere.

Noah acquired an alto trombone two years ago for a performance of Mozart's Requiem. Last year, I wrote him a book of challenging alto trombone etudes entitled AltEtudes. In the course of researching the highest peak of each continent, I encountered the concept of prominence (how far down the land dips to a point known as the "key col" before rising up to another peak) and prominence chains (determining the prominence parent of each hill to create a chain up to the highest peak in the region). In Britain, the prominence parent of peak A is defined by locating all peaks in the vicinity that are more prominent than A. Beginning with the most prominent peak, find the key col and trace the streams running off from either side until they meet or reach the sea. These streams define that peak's territory. Repeat the process with the next-most prominent peak. Continue until A is the most prominent peak. Whichever peak's territory A falls in is its prominence parent.

The hills of the British Isles are very well-documented, and I had the idea to create a beginning etude book for the beginning alto trombonist (although assumed to already have tenor trombone/music reading experience) based on these less-intimidating peaks. The Marilyns are hills in Britain or Ireland with a prominence of at least 150 meters, but for this project I decided to go with HuMPs - hills with at least a HUndred Meter Prominence. There are several chains that are 12 hills long; I selected this particular chain as Ashley Hill is the lowest of these peaks.

Source: More Relative Hills of Britain: Hills in Britain and nearby islands with 100m of prominence grouped by their parents by Mark Jackson