Review

Mike Svoboda
Concert Etudes:

Berlin, , Germany
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes - Bote & Bock
Date of Publication: 2014

Primary Genre: Study Material - etude
Secondary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - unaccompanied

Virtuoso trombonist and innovative composer, Mike Svoboda, grew up in Chicago and came to Germany with the help of a BMI Award to Young Composers in 1982. Eleven years as trombonist with Karlheinz Stockhausen, during the 80s and 90s, proved to be of decisive importance in his musical development. Major festivals have invited him to be artist or composer-in-residence. Often involved in his works as a soloist or with his own Mike Svoboda Ensemble, he composes across the borders between popular and classical music, high culture and entertainment, combining - through the use of text and various musical styles - both traditional and avant-garde. Svoboda has premiered over 400 works for trombone at festivals throughout the world. Numerous compact discs, document Svoboda’s art both as an interpreter and composer. In 2008 he was awarded the Praetorius Prize for Innovation in Music from the German government. He is also professor for contemporary chamber music and trombone at the University of Music in Basel, Switzerland.
Composer’s note:
These are the first five in a projected series of ten concert etudes for trombone solo in which each piece focuses on specific techniques of playing the trombone…Searching for a balance between a pedagogical purpose and an artistic merit, these pieces should introduce advanced young trombone players to new technical possibilities on their instrument, preparing them for works for trombone of the 20th and 21st century, such as compositions by George Aperghis, Luciano Berio, John Cage, Vinko Globokar, Heinz Holliger, Nicolaus A. Huber, Giacinto Scelsi, Karlheinz Stockhausen, or Iannis Xenakis, as well as many more recent compositions by younger composers active today.
 
Etude 1 (Fanfare), with a recurring pedal B-flat, is a study in alternate positions, flexibility, dynamic control and multiple tonguing. There is also a version for bass trombone included as an appendix. Etude 2 (Wawa) is extensively muted with use of multiphonics and vowel formations to change timbre. Etude 3 (Tube) alternates the sound of the normal trombone with the open F-attachment and its microtonal possibilities. Etude 4 (Dampen) is a preparatory study to the Berio Sequenza V, emphasizing all manner of multiphonics and the use of the plunger mute. Etude 5 (Slide) is based on various overtone series found on both the B-flat side and the F-attachment. Microtonal scales are juxtaposed with natural overtones. These are etudes for the virtuoso trombonist, exploring techniques for the instrument that have become more and more common place since the 1960s, with countless new range, timbre, coloristic and expressive possibilities. They are the 21st century equivalent of the 19th century Liszt Transcendental Etudes for piano and the Paganini Caprices for violin. This is a much needed and important addition to the trombone repertoire.

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico