Review

Armand Russell
Perplexing and Perilous Pieces:
Trombone and piano

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

Score and solo part.

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

“Perplexing and Perilous Pieces!” Perhaps no title has ever been more apropos to our present circumstance. Armand Russell, now retired, had a long and distinguished career as a theory and composition professor at the University of Hawaii. He now presents to us a two-movement work for trombone and piano targeting the intermediate level trombonist.

“Perplexing Prelude,” marked Lento molto tranquillo, features simple, brooding, motivic lines based on four-note clusters. The solo part unfolds the cluster, first descending, then followed by an ascending answer. The melodic writing is confined to a narrow range of a third or fourth. The movement closes with a melodic ascent still based on the clusters but now expanded to an octave. The mood is uncertain but not without hope. The piano part is not difficult. It features triads with chromatic motion around a common tone and open quartal and quintal harmonies.

The second piece is entitled “Perilous Pursuit.” The quarter-note and half-note motion of the first piece is now supplanted by rapid eighth and sixteenth note motion. The solo part remains motivic, but the range gradually widens, and the speed intensifies. The effect is frenetic but still accessible to an intermediate player. The rapid pursuit ends abruptly on high a¹ and the movement closes with a sparse Molto meno mosso, at first pianissimo and then finally and dramatically, fortissimo. The piano part in this piece is quite a bit more difficult—many syncopations and accidentals within the sixteenth-note motion. However, patterns do emerge, and an advanced intermediate pianist will be able to conquer it.

Perilous and Perplexing Pieces is a grade three level composition. Its range is appropriately narrow, C-a¹; most of the writing remains within an octave range. The more difficult sixteenth passages in the second piece are repetitive and stepwise. They will be challenging but not frustrating for younger players. Other challenges include reading many accidentals corresponding to modal shifts and acclimating the young ear to a more modern idiom.

Frankly, I wondered how a young trombonist would respond to this work, so I tried it out on one of my pre-college students. He responded quite positively, especially to “Perilous Pursuit.” It is gratifying to have a mature composer intentionally write for younger players, and Perplexing and Perilous Pieces will be a profitable introduction to modern musical syntax.