Review

Elizabeth Raum
The Secret of Ben Søgen:
Trombone and piano

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2019
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Prolific Canadian composer Elizabeth Raum has vast experience writing music for trombone. She has composed over twenty works featuring the trombone, including her well known Concerto for Bass Trombone (2008). Her extensive knowledge about the trombone is evident in the idiomatic way she writes for the instrument. The Secret of Ben Søgen is a beautiful composition that explores the trombone's lyricism in long, melodic lines with constant motion. 

In a neo-classical style, the piece displays constant tonal and modal shifts; it features fluid and long phrases resembling  Romantic concert-pieces for oboe by Schumann or Strauss. The piano part is also active and fluid, keeping the piece in constant forward motion. Although the composition contains plenty of slide motion and offers technical challenges, both piano and trombone parts lay well on the instruments. The most significant demand for the players are polyrhythm effects, manifested in metric modulations, regular meter changes, and juxtaposition of meters. For instance, at first, the piano part is placed in 6/8 meter, while the trombone is cast in 4/4 with a half-note tempo marking of 56 bpm. The meter shifts a few times, and, eventually, both instruments are in the same meter, only to split again. The back and forth changes are confusing at times, but feel natural after some practice.

The work is in one continuous movement with three, distinct, large parts and recapitulation. Effects include descending falls and glissandi. Raum does not specify positions for the glissandi, which implies the performer's discretion to choose the best slide combinations. The piece does require moderate mechanical proficiency and stays in a reasonably comfortable range, ranging between high a¹ and low F. 

The Secret of Ben Søgen is an excellent recital piece; it has a Debussy-like beauty and flair. Pedagogically, it offers a rare balance of fair technical challenges without demanding too much stamina. Elizabeth Raum once again delivers a notable contribution to the repertoire.