Redirect for solo trombone
2011, 6-10 minutes
Commissioned by Ben Hofer Lanz
If you are not automatically redirected shortly... According to wikipedia, a redirect is "a page which has no content itself, but sends the reader to another article, section of an article, or page, usually from an alternative title."
Ben asked me to write this piece for him to play in the music-mining portion of the Cross-linx festival, an attempt to marry avant-pop and avant-classical. I was pleased to share the bill with Berio's Sequenza V and a new piece, Pendula, by Philip Scheussler.
The title has several layers of meaning. To start with, because I didn't have long to write the piece, I used a theme that I had just used in an aborted attempt to write for violin and piano. (When I realized I didn't have time to finish what I had been working on, I started over and composed Something Else (Music for Sleeping through Winter), instead.) So the older material was redirected to another use.
More imporantly, though, the score itself is based on the idea of redirection. The theme is presented straightforwardly, but as variations follow, the trombonist is instructed to jump from variation to variation between each phrase. Basically, each double bar represents that webpage with no content but great meaning. Each variation has its own process and tone color, so that it's easy to pick up both the connections and ruptures that emerge from the skipping around.
Finally, the title Redirect refers to the skips and jumps that characterize the musical material itself, which is constantly leaping in register. Which has led to a facetious subtitle: "Harder than Xenakis"
Redirect has also been arranged as a "pocket concerto" for solo trombone with flute, percussion (vibraphone and snare drum), violin, and double bass, called Redirect, Redirected.
Scores
If you are interested in a score for Redirect, please contact Nissim.
Performances
- Premiered on February 17-20, 2011 by Ben Hofer Lanz at the Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn in Utrecht, at the Muziekgebouw Frits Philips Eindhovenin in Eindhoven, at De Oosterpoort in Groningen, and at De Doelen in Rotterdam - all in the Netherlands, as part of the Cross-linx festival.