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The Devil's Dermish

Copyright: 1994

The Devil's Dermish (1994) is a fiendishly virtuosic concert piece written for trombonist Brian Diehl. A dermish (or "drmes") is a Croatian folk dance containing dance steps which, at times, go "against the grain" of the music. The piece has two main types of music, one in the lower range of the instrument, with quick, tongued notes, and the other a "limping" waltz in 5/8 time, more scalar and legato, exploring the higher ranges and allowing for expressive use of tone color and vibrato. The cadenza-like section of the piece employs techniques such as the harmonic glissando in one slide position, and singing one note while playing another.

The Devil's Dermish
22 sec excerpt WAV format (247K)
full length piece (9:59) Real Audio format (5.2MB)
full length piece (9:59) MP3 format (9.3MB)

Performers
Brian Diehl, trombone
Scott Nicholas, piano

Recorded May 9, 1995 at Marsh Chapel, Boston University


(requires RealPlayer 8 Basic -- a free download)