Review

Kai Ono
Three Thousand Circles Around Hamburg:
Four tenor, two bass trombones

Queens, New York, United States
Publisher: kaionomusic.com
Date of Publication: 2019
URL: http://kaionomusic.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 6 trombones

Kai Ono is a composer and pianist born in Irvine, California, a recent graduate of the University of Kansas, currently living in New York City. This work was commissioned by the 2019 KC Trombone Workshop. It is marked Carefree and confused, and characterised by repeated note patterns, frequent changes of meter, and some unusual technical requirements such as slide while tounguing rhythm (sic) and omega wide vibrato, which the composer explains to mean "a comically wide, melodramatic vibrato."

The composer attributes the inspiration of this piece to his experience of getting lost in Hamburg while driving around looking for a performance venue; I am sure many of us can relate to this with similar experiences in many other cities. Starting out from the ‘certainty’ of unison C’s, the writing moves quickly into complex cross-rhythms and chromaticism. Back in C major, the venue seems to have been found, but it is the wrong place, and the music explodes in highly dissonant and heavily accented annoyance. Then it is around the block again, and Molto accelerando down another wrong turning. The search continues, sometimes a single line, then a densely busy passage, many agogic accents, finally the sought-for destination. We’ve arrived; we’re a bit late - diminuendo to piano. The final chord is ambiguously bi-tonal.

Range in first part is c–b-flat¹ and in second part A–g¹. Bass trombone 2 goes down to AA-flat. All parts are in bass clef. This highly original piece presents  interesting challenges, including a bit of theatre, and I think it will be quite entertaining in a good performance. Score and parts are available from kaionomusic.com.