Review

Shelley Foster Gurin
Interleague Action (Trombone and Tuba Baseball Duet):

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Publisher: Shelley Foster Gurin Printing
Date of Publication: 2014

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 2 brass
Secondary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 2 trombones

Dr. Shelley Foster Gurin holds three degrees from Northwestern University, including the DM in composition and MM in Trombone Performance. She was involved in the Chicago radio and television commercial recording industry for 15 years, first as a trombonist then as a composer/arranger/producer. Currently on the faculty of Northeastern Illinois University, her compositions have been performed and conducted by artists such as Walfrid Kujala of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Jan Gippo of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Ensembles that have commissioned and performed her music include the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University Ensembles, the Michigan State University Children’s Choir, DePaul University Wind Symphony, Northshore Concert Band, as well as symphonic bands in Missouri, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Sweden. She was the winner of the Sadie Rafferty National Composition Contest for her Jazz Band piece Absolutely!.

Fanfare for 8 Trombones was commissioned by the Atlanta Trombone Ensemble, Gil Estes, director, and was premiered April 6, 2014 in Atlanta. Scored for six tenors and two bass trombones, it also works well for trombone choir. The musical language is rhythmically, harmonically and melodically quite conservative, mixing traditional functionality with both the whole-tone scale as well as quartal harmony. Its range and technical requirements are within the grasp of a college level group. As can be expected from a trombonist, it is scored quite well to take full advantage of the sound capabilities of an ensemble of trombones. It makes for a rousing concert opener.

Interleague Action is a duet for tenor trombone and tuba. The programmatic reference is to an interleague major league baseball game. It is a total of 18 short, interesting and well-crafted duets, in a variety of meters, tempi and colors. The writing is conservative, as are the technical and range demands for both instruments. This work is fun and interesting to perform even without the program. But baseball fans will have extra incentive to perform it even though there is little to connect it with a baseball game if not for the composer’s program notes. Some fun, extra-musical additions might be added to solidify the connection: wearing baseball caps, props on stage, adding an announcer, etc. As the composer states:

"There is a palindrome structure to the piece in that the nine innings will become shorter as they progress toward the fifth inning (longest) and then increase in length toward the ninth inning. Innings one and nine are exactly the same length, two and eight the same length, etc. Musical material coincides within these innings as well. Also, as in baseball, some innings do drag on a bit, thus the slower tempos. As in the game, certain innings have a musical rhythmic interplay between the teams where timing is everything. 
Numbers: The number three is an important number in this piece, as it is in baseball: three strikes per out, three outs per inning etc. Musically the major and minor third intervals are used to differentiate between the Cubs and the Sox within each inning. In certain innings it is the perfect versus the augmented/diminished interval that plays the difference. (Mutes/coloring will also play a role.) The fifth is the only inning written in five beat measures. Though the ninth inning uses material from the first, the meter is changed from a 4/4 to a 9/8 meter to not only have nine beats per measure but to bring about the important number three in an extended rhythmic feel."

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico