Year composed: 2005
Duration: 20′
Instrumentation: amplified trombone quartet with live electronics
Movements:
I. Nature Is, quartet for alto, 2 tenor, and bass trombones
II. The opening, for alto trombone solo
III. Nature is, trio for alto, tenor, and bass trombones
IV. Chorale, duo for 2 tenor trombones (or tenor and bass trombone)
V. Nature is, quartet for alto, 2 tenor, and bass trombones
VI. Xibalba, for bass trombone solo
Commissioned and recorded by the Continental Trombone Quartet on the album Nature Is (Albany Records). Premiered at the Florida State New Music Festival, 2005.
Notes:
Presented in six movements, the quartet explores our physical, spiritual, and psychological need for the feminine—a principle shunned as “Xibalba”, the underworld in the great collection of Mayan mythology, The Popul Vuh. The poem links it with the feminine through the hermetic architecture of the great western cathedrals, and issues a challenge to the complacency of Western institutionalized religion:
Nature is
and our nature is
The opening of a woman leads to Xibalba
The doors of the church must open to her
Movement one, Nature is introduces the full quartet of alto, two tenor, and bass trombones. It uses samples of piano resonance and large, fortissimo bass clusters. At the end of this movement, moving into the second, appears the first half of the text: “Nature is…and our nature is”. Movement two, Chorale, is a solo for alto trombone, tracked by sampled trombones and crotales. Nature is returns for movement three, a hard-driving, motoric, and witty play for trio of alto, tenor, and bass trombones, and accompanied by interactive repeated note figures featuring sampled trombones with a variety of different mutes and dynamic markings. Movement four, another chorale, is a contemplative duo in a faux-Bach chorale setting, with the trombonists singing and playing simultaneously, and a mysterious recorded resonance behind it. Movement five, the center post of the piece, Nature is yet again, is for the full quartet. After an introductory blizzard of impossibly fast music, the entire text of the poem appears, and the movement ends with a coda of transcendent, reconciliatory material. The final movement, “Xibalba” is a solo for bass trombone, set for pedal tones accompanied by sampled and processed bowed cymbals and tam-tams. The text “The opening of a woman leads to Xilbalba” leads to the end.
The interactive electronics use a Max/MSP patch created by John MacCallum at the Center for New Music and Audio Technology (CNMAT) at UC Berkeley. The piece may also be performed using a prerecorded tape mix. The poet, John Campion, reads the recorded and processed text. This piece was commissioned and premiered by the Continental Trombone Quartet and is dedicated to them.