I was approached by members of a trombone octet on campus who wanted a piece that was “hard and fast”, and with complete creative license, I wrote a piece based on my ideas of Dante’s Divine Comedy. I borrowed the moods of the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, telling a story of one thrown into the depths of hell, who travels through a brief and somber purgatory before reaching the great shining gates of heaven. Their paradise is short-lived, however, as they are plucked from the heavens and are forced to race against the ever burning and rapidly encroaching hellfire in order to escape eternal damnation.

Hellfire will be premiered in March at the 2020 American Trombone Workshop in Arlington County, Virginia by the West Texas A&M University Trombone Choir, under the direction of Dr. John Shanks.

Hellfire for Trombone Octet

Randy Stagich