Alien Loop de Loops

“Alien Loop de Loops” by Howard J. Buss is a playful and capricious fantasy piece designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences. The title refers to both programmatic and technical elements in the work. The composer envisioned a performer outside in an open area during an air show by an alien craft. During the opening section he/she is playing unaccompanied, but then is joined by the recording which contains sounds generated by traditional instruments as well as an “alien” voice, the spacecraft, and various electronic effects. Technically, the title refers to how the recording was made. It consists of numerous sound loops combined to form an imaginative and picturesque sonic tapestry. The general tessitura of the work also allows it to be performed on a tuba. This work is also published in a version for trombone (or bass trombone) and electronic recording, which was winner of the 2015 American Trombone Workshop National Composition Competition sponsored by the U. S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own.” The publication includes the sheet music and a CD (attached to the inside of the back cover) that contains reference performance tracks and the accompaniment track.