Spargens was commissioned by trombonist William Lang. Its title, “spargens,” is a Latin word meaning “scattering.” It is a piece about a musical continuity being affected by various interferences, thereby creating paradoxically scattered sonic images out of such continuous musical gestures.

Many thanks are due to George Lewis for his initial inspirational remarks on trombone writing at the time I started to work on this piece. Also many thanks to the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbertide, Italy, where the creative process on this piece truly blossomed.