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Cades Cove was written in June of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. This piece is the composer’s attempt to musically portray the feeling of being homesick and having fond memories of a cherished place while stuck hundreds of miles away. Unlike many unaccompanied works for trombone, this piece is a slower, lyrical piece that would work well as a change of pace on a recital.

Cades Cove is located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and my family would often make the drive from nearby Oak Ridge, TN, to spend a weekend day picnicking by a stream, driving through Cades Cove looking for black bears, and enjoying the beautiful mountain terrain. I highly encourage any performer of this work to visit Cades Cove at once in their life, or to at least do a quick internet search of photos and videos from Cades Cove if unable to travel to East Tennessee anytime soon.

This work was originally intended for bass trombone and has been transposed up a perfect fifth from for tenor trombone. This version replaces the previous version that was in the same key as the bass trombone version but made octave adjustments. The tenor trombone version uses both tenor and bass clef, the range is from C2 (just below the bass clef staff) to Eb5 (Eb above the tenor clef staff) with optional 8vb markings that would make C5 the highest note, and the duration is around 4-5 minutes depending on tempos. File includes the bass trombone version as well.