Review

Rodrigo Lima
Elegia em Azul:

, United States
Publisher: Rodrigo Lima Music
Date of Publication: 2012
URL: http://www.rodrigolimacomposer.com

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 8 trombones

Brazilian composer Rodrigo Lima (b.1976) holds degrees in composition from the University of Brasília and the Art Institute of the University of Campinas State in São Paulo. He is presently Professor of Music at Escola de Musica do Estado de São Paulo. His music has won prizes and has been performed by prominent ensembles and soloists in Brazil, Chile, France, England, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Mexico, the USA and Spain.
 
His other works for trombone include:
Matiz IV for solo trombone
Matiz I, homage a Edgard Varese, for trumpet and trombone
Paisagem Sonora No.1 for solo trombone
Sonancia for trombone quartet
Sonatina for trombone and piano
 
The composer writes the following about his trombone octet:
The deeper the blue the more it beckons man into the infinite arousing a longing for purity and the supersensuous… The work’s title is based on the above words from the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky - in his own description of the color blue. Elegia em Azul was conceived in honor of the great Brazilian trombonist Radegundis Feitosa - who passed away in 2010. The composer imagined the work as many brief parts (or landscapes) - each one of them revealing different textures and sonorities from the trombone octet. Three chords, based in Fibonacci's numeric sequence, are the basis of the music and the composer combines them as if he was mixing colors. He looks to find not only new sounds but also to recreate them all completely. In this process, rhythm is a powerful partner molding the profusion of the sound parts as well as creating a dynamic relation between the sections...
 
The work was commissioned by Trombone Contemporaneo Brasilerio and is dedicated to their leader, Carlos Freitas. It was premiered in São Paulo in 2013. There is an excellent performance on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhgsQROwB8
This elegy is a well-crafted, inventive, colorful and emotional work, in a serial, atonal language. It is technically and rhythmically challenging, but not beyond good university/conservatory level students. The use of mutes, especially plunger, and extensive use of dynamics create a deeply felt world of textures and colors. While not as easy to put together as the latest arrangement of 76 Trombones, it is well worth the effort in terms of musical rewards.

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico