Thomas Bough

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I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in June of 2022. As my friend Chad Dempsey would say, "you joined the club that no one wants to join.cancer patient". Indeed, this is not the "club" I would have chosen, yet I have found overwhelming grace, kindness and patience from my students, family, colleagues, and folks across the country.  I must thank my wife Erica for her care, not only of me during treatments and recovery and her incredible support of our two children, but also her help in running the NIU Huskie Marching Band and the NIU Wind Ensemble.  Her work with both ensembles truly made all the difference.  Chad Dempsey continues to inspire me with his relentless positivity, and his faith in my work as a composer.  A huge thanks is owed to Dr. Saul Torres, who was kind enough to offer the premiere of "Ring the Bell" at TMEA in February of 2023 with his band from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.  
The title of the piece was inspired by a poem found in many cancer treatment centers, which reads: "Ring this Bell, 3 times well, its' toll to clearly say: My treatment's done, this course is run, and I am on my way".    A chime will sound periodically throughout the piece, in honor of all those who have walked the path of cancer before, and who are walking alongside me right now.  My mother's favorite hymn, "Morning has Broken", is woven throughout the piece, to represent hope, and healing, and the start of a new day.  This music is for all of us!

Ring the Bell

Concert Band Score & Parts

This fun and funky pep band tune is perfect for bands with limited instrumentation or younger players.  The drum parts lay down an exciting groove that will get your bleachers rockin' in no time!  The optional sing-along section near the end adds to the fun!

Spirit Jam

Marching Band Score & Parts

I am indebted to the Alliance Brass Quintet for providing inspiration for this piece of music.  They invited me to compose music to be used on a substantial tour in the middle of the United States in the coming year, and specifically asked for thematic material that might be well received in that area.  
Meanwhile, the Ives “Variations on America”  was bouncing around in my head, after performing it with the NIU Wind Ensemble during the fall of 2024.  Inspired by Ives, a few more variations on this theme began to take shape in my mind.  Other “Americana” themes offered themselves alongside “America”, thus “Made in America” started to take shape.  Some of my earliest memories of music were the hymn songs sang by my mother around our home, and of these, “Great is Thy Faithfulness” fit nicely with the patriotic music.

Made in America for Brass Quintet and Band

This composition is a great way to feature your viola section!  The parts are well within the range of an strong middle school string orchestra, but the beautiful melodies have enough musical substance to interest high school players.  This is a great way to feature the viola section, and encourage them to play strongly at the same time!  Grade 2.5 - 3.

Viola Berceuse

String Orchestra Score & Parts

Your audience (and your players) will enjoy trying to count how many traditional Christmas songs are woven into this clever arrangement.  Drumline parts were created by the prolific percussion composer Josh Gottry, so they are both musical and fun to play! Add this to your library for your next holiday performance!

Traditional Christmas Medley

Allow me to offer a huge “Thank you” to Mr. James Colombo, the band director at Hauser Junior High School.  I first met his students during the Spring of 2020 during a virtual clinic that Mr. Colombo arranged to introduce his students to professional performers on all the instruments during the quarantine period.  I had the honor of working with the tuba and euphonium students.  Further discussions led to the idea of writing music for his outstanding band, so in the fall of 2021 I composed this piece specifically for Hauser Junior High School.  Mr. Colombo suggested that we use the hymn “Chester” as a starting point for the composition.  I was familiar with the well-known version of the hymn composed by William Schuman, so I wanted to both honor that work and create a distinctly different piece of music.  While sketching ideas for our version of “Chester”, I realized how similar it was to the hymn known as “Diadem”.  The lyrics to the two hymns were written during the same decade, the 1770’s, at the start of the Revolutionary War.  I hope the students enjoy this energetic piece of music.

Chester's Diadem

This piece meaningfully utilizes frequent changes in time signatures to create a fun and funky groove that both your students and audience will enjoy!

Orange Rondo

Minor Groove was commissioned by Mr. Doug Smelser, the band director at Herculaneum High School, in Herculaneum, Missouri.  I like to write music especially suited to each band program that commissions me, so I took advantage of the particularly strong euphonium players and horn players in his band.  Both instruments are featured prominently in this composition.  Likewise, the opening timpani solo reflects the strong timpani player I heard in his band while doing clinic work there in 2021, the Spring prior to the completion of the composition in early 2022.  Minor Groove makes extensive use of the 2-3 clave rhythm, which occurs throughout the piece.  It is fun and funky, in a word."groovy".

Minor Groove for Concert Band

Instrument Family

This workout is a great way to incorporate all 12 major scales into the daily training for your band, or your studio.  Ranges for each instrument are carefully chosen to develop skills for the players.  Each ascending scale pattern ends in a fermata, to allow students time to think about the next key, and to prepare their minds, fingers, and mallets accordingly.  This workout is fun, in the sense of "accomplishing something important", not in the sense of "amusing."  Pacing is important!  If you learn one key each week, you can learn all 12 keys in less than a semester!

Major Scales, Chromatic Order, Ascending

Flexible Instrumentation Score & Parts

This exercise becomes progressively more difficult.  Fingerings or slide positions are provided for the brass section, since in the longer finger combinations the students must use alternate fingerings to perform the notes as a lip slur, i.e., to stay within a single harmonic series.  Some brass players may need assurance that the notes called for are in fact   possible using the fingerings/positions specified.  Fingerings are not provided for the French horns, due to the difference in fingerings between single horns in F and double horns in F/Bb, both of which are widely used.  However, students holding a double horn could utilize the same fingerings as the trumpets, if they play all the exercises while holding down the thumb (Bb) valve.  Otherwise, horn players can simply finger the exercise.  For the first three segments, the brass perform arpeggios using lip slurs while the woodwinds play descending chromatic passages, based on the starting note of each lip slur in the brass.  Starting with the fourth segment, woodwinds and brass are scored in unison.  Although the rhythmic values indicate rapid velocity, in fact slow tempos will be more appropriate for most ensembles.  Until a smooth lip slur is achieved by the brass at a slow tempo, going faster will not develop the appropriate skills in the players.  In fact, going too quickly will invite bad habits, such as excessive jaw shifts or large movements of the instrument.  Once they have mastered the required fingerings, the woodwind section can provide the brass with an ideal sonic model for this exercise: smooth slurs, performed without accents, supported by a constant airstream at a moderate dynamic level.

Flexibility for Band

Scale Ladder Challenge, Descending

Build your skills as a performer by playing the major scales in ascending, chromatic order!  Your fluency in each key signature will grow as you navigate this intriguing pattern of scales.

Scale Ladder Challenge, Ascending

Western Music consists of more than scales....it's formed of scale patterns of all sorts! This supplemental technique book provides more than 200 measures of scale patterns in a single key, to help your students master the entire tonal center, not just play the scale. Add your own variations on articulation to even more training. Or, play all the patterns in each of the three minor scale types provided for an even more thorough experience.

Scale Fluency in Ab

Here's a companion work-out to "Major Scales, Ascending".  As the title suggests, this drill puts the scales in chromatic order, this time in a descending pattern.  This is a great            
training drill for strong JH or MS bands, and certainly high school groups.  If you simply add one key signature each week, you can get through all 12 keys in less than one semester!         It works, if you work it!

Major Scales, Chromatic Order, Descending

Flexible Instrumentation Book

This familiar melody is a great way to get your developing players thinking and moving together as an ensemble! The percussion parts are especially interesting.

Are You Sleeping

Scale Fluency in G

Western Music consists of more than scales....it's formed of scale patterns of all sorts!  This supplemental technique book provides more than 200 measures of scale patterns in a single key, to help your students master the entire tonal center, not just play the scale.  Add your own variations on articulation to even more training.  Or, play all the patterns in each of the three minor scale types provided for an even more thorough experience.

Scale Fluency in Bb

Global Sections - CORE [DO NOT TOUCH]*

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