for trombone and fixed media

performed by the composer

That trombonists tend to have hundreds of bars rest in between notes is such a banal observation that it seems an uninteresting topic for a piece - but the demand to produce the perfect note out of the blue involves a unique kind of anxious anticipation and catastrophisation. This fixation on a single note is responsible for the deployment of all kinds of techniques to mitigate the risk of any potential mispitching: furiously honking silent bursts of air through the instrument in a desperate attempt to warm it up; making sure for the third/fourth/fifth/sixth time that the water key has done its job; drenching the slide in far too much oil; etc. This short piece, shifting the focus away from central/‘idiomatic’ modes of trombone sound production, captures many of these neuroses, from the act of assembling the instrument all the way up to the fudged note in question.

on the anxieties of being an orchestral trombone player (2023)

Ed Driver