Review

Stanley M. Hoffman
Naomi's Lullaby:

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Publisher: Wehr's Music House
Date of Publication: 2008
URL: http://www.wehrs-music-house.com

Primary Genre: Solo Bass/Contrabass Trombone - with piano

Lullabies are often beautiful pieces of music, enjoyable to hear and performed by musicians of all abilities. Unfortunately, Naomi's Lullaby, by Stanley M. Hoffman, seems to miss the mark of truly redeemable and enjoyable music. Written mostly in F major, it has a melancholy feeling and there are moments of interesting and attractive harmonies and melodies, but elementary rhythms combined with the relatively narrow range, C to f, unfortunately limit the effectiveness of the writing. The composer recommends a tempo of 84 beats per minute in 3/4 meter, for an overall length of 3:30. 

The difficulty level of Naomi's Lullaby makes it most appropriate for an inexperienced bass trombonist or tubist. Its technical demands on just such a bass trombonist are minimal, in that there are relatively few notes from F to C. Taking this further, only four notes are played in this range: F, E, D and C. There is some educational value in exploring which trigger and trigger combinations should be employed with specific notes. Therefore, this piece has value as an educational tool and as a musical outlet with which to demonstrate technical advancement, as opposed to doing so only with unaccompanied etudes or exercises. The difficulty level of the accompaniment appears to be on par with that of the solo part. In the end, and regardless of its shortcomings, at $4.00 Naomi’s Lullaby is a relative bargain.

-Casey Thomas
Iowa City, IA