The founder of The Brass Press (publishing company acquiered in 1999 by Editions Bim), Steven Glover, originally approached me about writing a new unaccompanied piece for trumpet. Cascades was the result. The piece was a gift to all International Trumpet Guild members as a supplement to the ITG Journal in 1981. The opening 2 bars of the piece present a motif I used to play for fun in high school. Compositionally there are 3 basic ideas presented, the angular and intervallic opening, the valve pattern / cross accent 16th note phrases and the cantabile section. The  3 ideas are developed and recapitulate throughout. As a trumpet player I was able to explore and present musical lines in the piece that appear nearly impossible on paper but prove to be quite playable and exciting.

This current edition contains new markings that more clearly indicate my musical intentions as well as suggesting resting points. It was never my objective to present a piece that is difficult for the sake of being difficult. Originally I thought fewer markings would encourage individual interpretation of the music, which I highly encourage. Over time it became obvious that more information on the page would be of help to most performers, hence the new editorial information.

The name, Cascades comes from both the visual picture of water sliding down a rock escarpment and from the magnificent mountains of the same name visible out my window here in the great American Pacific Northwest. I composed 20 other etudes in the same time period that are also very interesting and very difficult. They are published in a collection called Advanced Etudes (Editions Bim/ The Brass Press, ref. TP.182)

Allen Vizzutti, November 23, 2009, Mercer Island, WA, USA