Review

Howard Skempton
2 Melodies for Trombone and String Quartet:
trombone, string quartet

Coventry, , United Kingdom
Publisher: Warwick Music Publishers
Date of Publication: 1997
URL: http://www.warwickmusic.com

Score and parts

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

This production, for some reason, is not up to Warwick’s usual high standard. Printing of the score lacks clarity and there is a tempo marking of quarter = 84 for the second melody appearing only on the trombone part. There is no indication of the date of publication, which I think was before 1997.

Skempton was born in the historic English cathedral city of Chester in 1947, six months after I was born just 11 miles away, on the other side of the Welsh border. He has written more than 300 pieces of music, many of them miniatures for piano of great apparent simplicity, influenced by LaMonte Young and Morton Feldman, and by his teacher, Cornelius Cardew. He is extensively published by Oxford University Press. In these Melodies, musical material is used economically. The first, which is chromatic, is 46 measures long; the second, based on two modal scales, comprises 33 measures without repeats. Both are slow, range is narrow, g-sharp to d1 in the first melody, d–g1 in the second; few intervals are larger than a minor third and movement is mostly stepwise. Dynamic is a uniform mezzo piano throughout. Both pieces begin and end dissonantly, giving the impression of a small part of a larger whole. Harmonically, as in many of his works, Skempton exploits major-minor juxtapositions, and movement in successive chords is often semi-tonal or even enharmonic. The apparent simplicity however belies a subtly complex structure and careful craftsmanship, and performance requirements are actually quite demanding.

This is a point of view devoid of drama, virtuosity or sharp contrasts. Skempton’s music, asking only for perfect beauty of tone, offers moments of stillness and reflection in our often agitated world.

-Keith Davies Jones
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada