Review

Elizabeth Raum
Fantasy for Trombone:
Trombone and piano

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 1981 / 2020
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Elizabeth Raum was born in New Hampshire in 1945, grew up in Boston, and is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. Since 1975 she has lived in Regina, Saskatchewan. From 1983-84 she studied composition with Thomas Schudel at the University of Regina, and from 1986-2010 she played principal oboe in the Regina Symphony. She is a prolific composer; her works to date include three operas, over 60 chamber pieces and several major works for trombone, including the Olmutz Concerto for alto trombone and orchestra written for Christian Lindberg in 1995.

Fantasy was written in 1981, and was previously published by Warwick Music (1998). It is dedicated to her husband Richard (Raum), who recorded it with Janina Kuzmas in 2006. It was recorded again by Gordon Wolfe and Vanessa May-Lok Lee in 2015. It is written in a lyrical and extended tonal style,  in three distinct sections: Allegro agitato ♩=144, Andante con moto ♩=88, and Moderato (Tempo 1, Largamente). Development flows from the basic three-note motive stated in the opening measure and re-stated in the final measures, and the piece has quite a satisfying overall structure. Its initial tonality is ambiguous, evolving through the central sections, in which the melody that emerges is of great beauty, to a return of the opening statement in m.124. The final Largamente section is in B-flat, the final chord an emphatic B-flat major.

The trombone part is given in tenor and bass clefs as appropriate; its overall range is E-flat–c-sharp². The piano part is of moderate difficulty; the largest chord span required is an octave.

Changes from the earlier edition are few and minor; six courtesy accidentals have been added in the piano part and there is one clef change affecting four measures in the trombone part. System spacing has been slightly increased; the new edition covers nine pages of score rather than eight in the Warwick edition. Page-turning issues are not affected either way.