Review

Matthew Durrant
Sonata for Trombone and Piano:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2008
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Piano score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Durrant is an emerging American composer who pursued graduate studies in composition at the University of Utah. Donated for review by Cherry Classics, excerpts of the score and a live recording of the first movement are available at www.CherryClassics.com. Synthesized audio for all three movements are available on the composer’s website Musically Inclined www.musinc.net. 

The piece is well-written and serves as significant recital repertoire for the advanced trombonist. The composer describes the large-scale forms of the three movements as being in sonata-allegro, arch, and modified rondo forms. There are multiple meter changes throughout the first movement but the use of a constant eighth note pulse makes these changes readily accessible. The work ascends to c2 in the second movement and descends to F in the third movement. Given the overall tessitura, I am surprised that the trombone part is solely written in bass clef. Although there are nine triple and one quadruple fortissimo passages that rival Spinal Tap’s amplifiers, which “go to 11,” performers must make sensible decisions to balance dynamics and endurance. 

The second movement employs glissandi in two exposed passages. While some of the glissandi are well-written, mm. 33-35 and mm. 78-80 are problematic. The glissandi oscillating between e-flat and g-flat could be accommodated by changing the glissando to span e-flat and f, coupled with shortening the duration of the glissandi to the final sixteenth note of each measure so that the f will not conflict with the piano accompaniment. The glissando spanning a minor seventh, e-flat to d-flat1, might be best navigated with a harmonic rip, shifting from third to fifth position to sound as many pitches as possible. Although I identify minor issues, I look forward to seeing additional works by Durrant.  

-Peter Fielding
Mahidol University