Guilmant, Ferro, Bozza, Schittino: Daybreak, Contemporary Music for Trombone and Piano

Description

The trombone descends from some of the most ancient musical instruments, and has a rich history encompassing function, symbol and art. Functionally, it is an instrument with a very powerful and yet rich and mellow sound; it has nothing of the trumpet’s occasional shrillness but possesses the same capability to pierce space. Thus, it has frequently been employed for aural “signals”, and wherever the need was to carry the sound through a particular area. Symbolically, it became a symbol for the “numinous”, for the mysterious and divine, particularly in the northern European countries, and particularly after Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, where the Latin “tuba” was rendered as “Posaune”. Artistically, the trombone has been employed as a solo instrument by not many of the most famous composers; yet, all of them demonstrated their fascination with this instrument by employing it in a powerful, meaningful and significant fashion on some of the most impressive occasions in their musical output. In chamber music, it is most frequently found in combination with other wind instruments, especially with brass; when paired with the piano, the trombone acquires a role as a soloist and a protagonist, and displays its full potential as regards virtuosity, expressivity and colour. Particularly in recent times, when the study of the timbral possibilities of the instrument has been explored by performers and composers alike, the trombone has revealed itself as possessing a fascinating variety of sounds, and an almost inexhaustible expressive potential. The piano is a particularly suited partner for the trombone, being its perfect complement: unable to match the sustained tones and seamless emission of a wind instrument, the piano provides the harmonic structure and the brilliancy of sound and articulation which the trombone lacks.
This Album offers a thorough view and a multifaceted perspective on the twentieth- and twenty-first-century repertoire for trombone and piano, almost as if encapsulating in a CD some examples from most of the main styles and techniques of modern and contemporary music. The first piece on the tracklist, Hommage à Bach by Eugène Bozza, opens the album perfectly: while employing a thoroughly modern language and a very personal style, it looks back to Bach and to his music, drawing idiomatic motifs and compositional elements from the great Baroque composer’s style. This work is full of variety, and comprises brilliant and dance-like moments along with very effusive and emotional passages; Bach is not seen by Bozza as the serious and severe master of form, but rather as the inspirer of a polyphonic dialogue, whose technique is handled with secure gestures by Bozza, and whose relational dimension is never missing. Bozza was particularly attracted by the sound of wind instruments, which inspired many of his most successful works; curiously, however, he was not a virtuoso player of wind instruments, favouring the violin instead. Similarly, Alexandre Guilmant was an organist, who moonlighted as the editor of forgotten Baroque works. His Morceau Symphonique represented almost a challenge: Guilmant had been asked, probably by Dubois, the Director of the Conservatoire de Paris, to provide the compulsory work for the final exam of the trombone students. The piece was particularly appreciated by the performers, and it quickly rose among the favourites of the French repertoire for the trombone.
More than a century divides it from Madcap Musings at Honeysuckle Square, a piece only recently written by composer Joe Schittino. Tailored on the personality of Vincenzo Paratore, it is a piece whose inspiring features are those of the divertissement, light, sparkling, fanciful and cheerful, but also with a visionary vein: it has been defined as “glancing at the [groupe des] Six and to P. G. Wodehouse”, the undisputed master of British humour. Its first section features complex rhythms and a high-spirited character, ironically reminiscent of military parades with a touch of slapstick comedy; this is followed by a touching section, where, at first, the trombone gives its best as an expressive instrument, and later attempts to compete with the piano in brilliancy and agility. The dramatic element increases in the following cadenza, where the tone becomes extremely serious: the composer purposefully plays with the audience’s perception, leading listeners to wonder about what is seriously meant, what is parody, what is a parody of the parody.
Another young composer is the author of Daybreak, the first of the four pieces constituting the Tetralogy of the Sun. A trombone player himself, Nicola Ferro has conquered the attention of the most important performers worldwide, and this Tetralogy has even become the subject of an American thesis. Its author, Bradley James Keesler, found Daybreak “simple”, by comparison with other works by Ferro; however, Joseph Alessi, one of the most famous American trombonists, expressed his appreciation for its “beautiful, singing tune”. This singing style is related by Keesler to the world of Italian opera, specifically mentioned by Ferro himself as one of his main sources of inspiration (from Puccini’s Tosca to the unforgettable tone of Pavarotti’s voice). The style is deeply emotional and profoundly touching; in Keesler’s words, Ferro “combines these musical foundations with his personal passion of life”, which is due, in turn, to his own “free-spirited” and “emotional” personality (in Alessi’s view). The piece, as the others in the Tetralogy, is profoundly inspired by the idea of the Sun, the source of life: “The Sun is the most important aspect to life on Earth, and […] the sun is beautiful and ever-present”, as Ferro himself said. Each of the Tetralogy’s four movements embodies a moment in time and how the sun appears at that time: the result is “perfect”, for Alessi, since Ferro “wrote the exact kind of music that vividly captures beautiful, picturesque images”. If Puccini provided Ferro with inspiration, Carmenaria by Jean-Michel Defaye is even more evidently linked to the world of opera. It is a catchy pastiche, a combination of tunes excerpted from among the most famous melodies of Bizet’s acclaimed Carmen. The trombone is given ample opportunity to display its singing style, and it demonstrates its capability to evoke both lightness and power, expressivity and humour. The following piece brings us back to Eugène Bozza, with a work predating by more than a decade his Hommage à Bach; similar to Guilmant’s Morceau Symphonique, the Ballade was commissioned by the Conservatory of Paris, which actively sought to renew and refresh the solo repertoire for the less common instruments. Here too the solo trombone has the opportunity of displaying the full palette of technique and musicianship: a series of seemingly unrelated sections, which masterfully intertwine with each other, provide variety and stimuli to the performer’s skill. Its origins as a test-piece are demonstrated by the frequent references to the orchestral literature, whose most famous excerpts are cited throughout the work. A great variety of inspirations is found also in Prelude and Dance by John Glenesk Mortimer, a Scottish composer who weaves a high number of musical idioms in the fabric of his piece. Here too moments of effusive lyricism are blended with humorous passages, and with hints to the most beloved dance styles. Mortimer’s piece was written when the composer of the last piece on this CD, Carolina Calvache, was just two years old: her Trombonsillo (2017) is a piece whose origins spring from two places, i.e. Colombia and New York. In fact, the germinating principles of the work and the first musical ideas behind it were conceived by the composer when she still lived in her home-country, Colombia, while the entire work was completed only twelve years later. Trombonsillo is notable for its spiky tunes, which are characteristic for the popular songs on a pasillo rhythm. This idiomatic feature of Colombian music is interpreted by the composer as a symbol for her country. This compilation, therefore, invites the listener to an itinerary encompassing different styles and perspectives, all revolving around the timbre, sound and qualities of this extraordinary instrument, the trombone.
Liner Notes by Chiara Bertoglio