Review

Peter Henderson
Rückblick:

San Francisco, CA, United States
Publisher: Ascenda Music Publishing, LLC
Date of Publication: 2023
URL: http://www.ascendamusic.com

Piano score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

David Henderson holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University, and is currently an Associate Professor of Music and Artist-in-Residence at Maryville University, Principal Keyboardist of the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra, as well as Principal Keyboardist of the St. Louis Symphony. He is also a composer, lecturer, and recording producer. He wrote the following about Rückblick:

it is dedicated to my friend and frequent musical collaborator Gerry Pagano, former bass trombonist of the St. Louis Symphony. The German title Rückblick means “backward glance,” but it can also connote reminiscence. Departure, the first album Gerry and I recorded together, features a performance on bass trombone and piano of a song cycle by Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). The musical seed of Rückblick is a slightly altered melodic motive from Mahler’s final song of that cycle, “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (The Two Blue Eyes of my Beloved). This remembrance of Mahler, which appears only in the final moments of Rückblick, was the springboard for the piece and the source of its title. The first sketches were composed at Maryville University during the summer of 2018 and was first performed by Gerry Pagano and me on August 31, 2018 in a recording session for Gerry’s album Solitude.

Two versions are available, the musical material is the same. To better accommodate the differing ranges, the bass trombone/tuba version is in the key of A, the tenor in D. It is a study in legato, covering a range of two and one-half octaves with a duration of 3:45. Listening to a recording will give the reader an insight into the musical language.