Review

John Davison
Quintet for Trombone and String Quartet:

Newton, IA, United States
Publisher: TAP Music Sales
Date of Publication: 1986

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Chamber Music
Secondary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with orchestra

John Davison (1930-1999) received degrees from Haverford College, Harvard University, and a doctorate in composition from Eastman. His composition teachers included Randall Thompson, Walter Piston, Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson and Alan Hovhaness. He wrote for most of the standard media, as well as for unusual instruments such as koto, cimbalom, and bagpipe. The recipient of numerous commissions, prizes and fellowships, his music has been published, recorded and widely performed in the United States, Europe and Asia. He was on the faculty of Haverford College from 1959 until his death. Davison's idiom was rooted in the Western classic-romantic tradition with numerous Baroque, Renaissance, modal, hymn-tune and folksong references. Aside from the Quintet, his works for trombone include the Sonata for Trombone and Piano (1957), Sonata for Trombone, Tuba, and Piano (1986) and the Suite for Six Trombones (1986).  The lyrical Sonata for Trombone and Piano was originally recorded on vinyl LP by Henry Charles Smith and more recently by Michael Davidson (Emeritus Recordings) Jemmie Robertson (MSR Classics) and Brent Phillips (Potenza Music).

The Quintet was commissioned by David Fetter and composed in 1970. Initial performances were given in 1972 by trombonist David Rupp and the Amado String Quartet and in 1973 by trombonist David Fetter and an ad hoc quartet. In a handwritten letter to Bill Stanley, trombone professor at the University of Colorado, John Davison stated the following about the Quintet:

This piece exemplified especially strongly my belief that freshness can come from a return to old stylistic roots and a new synthesis of these roots.  Specifically, the Quintet, turning away from 19th and 20th century chromatic styles, finds its inspiration in folk music, Renaissance polyphony and rhythmic intricacy, and Classical sonata style.  The abrupt contemplative interjections in the folk-like festive dance of the last movement seem to me akin to things Beethoven was doing in his late quartets, and were perhaps suggested by them.  The middle movement is a set of variations on a tune I made up as a lullaby for my then infant son.  The rhythmically very complex variation near the end has a reference to planetary cycles in it.     . . . I often use the trombone as a kind of cantus firmus around which the strings play in faster rhythm in a highly contrapuntal texture.

Cast in three contrasting movements, fast, slow, fast, the writing is conservative harmonically, melodically, rhythmically and formally. The trombone part presents no formidable technical challenges. Range, rhythmic and musical requirements are modest and endurance is also not a problem. A good college level player can easily manage the part. The string quartet writing is also traditional and is well within the technical and musical capabilities of a good conservatory (university) level ensemble. What could be a problem in a live performance is balance between the trombone and strings. This is especially true in the contrapuntal passages in which the trombone acts as one of the voices, rather than as a soloist.  

The Quintet has been recorded by Joe Burnam (Gaydou CDCM 01) and a performance can also be viewed on YouTube featuring trombonist Adrian Head.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GgAKox8vwc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeO1OwoOo1I&NR=1

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico