Review

John Kenny
Secret House:

Coventry, , United Kingdom
Publisher: Warwick Music Publishers
Date of Publication: 2003
URL: http://www.warwickmusic.com

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - unaccompanied

Secret House is the composer’s fifth sonata for solo trombone. It calls on a female performer to play trombone, sing into and without the trombone, strike multiple percussion instruments, pitched and non-pitched, read poetry in English, and move in scripted fashion through three movements of indeterminate duration. Dozens of notational indications are utilized on multiple staves, incorporating bass clef, tenor clef, treble clef and non-pitched percussion clef. Some sections are metered and others are freely interpreted. Challenges include extensive trombone range, from BB-flat up to f2 and voice, a to a-flat3, multiple articulations and effects: doodle, slap tongue, sibilant/consonant breath sounds, use of Harmon and plunger mutes, and numerous events occurring simultaneously as well as in quick succession.

A full page of introductory remarks describe the original concept for the work as well as detailed instructions for setting up the various instruments and performing. One might question the composer’s contention that male performers are incapable of performing this work without transposing and subsequently altering the intended effect. A few typographical and notational questions arise as well, in printed remarks and within the composition: “memorise,” “world-side” in place of “world-wide,” entrances for crotale that suggest damping without indicating it, and vague descriptions of some effects. But the overall presentation is well laid out and printed clearly.

Originally composed and choreographed to be performed in a specific location as part of a much larger work, one must wonder how effective it could be in isolation and without a dancer.  Multiple-instrumentalists might utilize this work to showcase their capabilities and teachers could present this to students as a study for extended compositional concepts and performance techniques.

-Bradley J. Payne
Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra