Recital - 20 August 2024

Modern classical music of
American composer/
trombonist Don Bowyer

(Svensk version här)

Free Admission!

20 August 2024
7:00pm

Equmeniakyrkan Östhammar
(Svarvaregatan 6)

Concert Program

All compositions by Don Bowyer (b. 1958)

Lockdown Miniatures (Selected Movements)

13-26 January 2021
(Trombone alone)
Notes and Texts

One-Man Sideshow

19 November 2023
(Trombone with hi-hat cymbals)
Notes

Two Sonnets

15 October 2020
(Trombone with Shakespeare sonnets)
Notes and Texts

Improvisatory Images

16 October 2020
(Trombone with audience participation)
Notes

Trombone Rhymes

18 March 2020
(Trombone with audience participation)
Notes and Texts

Swedish Strawberries

19 August 2024
(Trombone with three trumpets – world premiere)
Magnus Bohlin, Therese Bohlin, and Cecilia Berg trumpets
Notes

Notes and Texts

Lockdown Miniatures [return]

During the third Covid-19 lockdown in the Kuala Lumpur region of Malaysia, Don Bowyer committed to composing a new Lockdown Miniature each day for fourteen days (13-26 January 2021), then performing it each evening in a FaceBook Live streaming event called Rooftop Trombone in the Age of Covid-19.

Each miniature is less than two minutes in length.

Text - Lockdown Miniature, #3, "In the Lockdown," by Don Bowyer

You know downtown is a ghost town in the lockdown.
There's no Motown playin' uptown in the lockdown.
So pipe down and cool down in the lockdown.
In the lockdown! Lockdown! Lockdown!

Feelin' run down gonna lie down in the lockdown.
Leave your meltdown on the playground in the lockdown.
So settle down no ball gown in the lockdown.
In the lockdown! Lockdown! Lockdown!

Text - Lockdown Miniature, #13, "A Red, Red Rose," by Robert Burns

O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That’s sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry:

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only Luve
And fare thee well, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

[return]

One-Man Sideshow [return]

This composition, in four short movements (5 minutes total), is for trombone and hi-hat - played by one player. The hi-hat is played mostly with the pedal, but occasionally with the fingers.

The first movement combines chromatic patterns, diminished scales, and blues licks. The hi-hat adds kicks and color.

The second movement is a blues progression that swings, with backbeats on the hi-hat.

The third movement attempts to obscure tonality through the use of chromaticism. It should be played very freely (rubato), with the hi-hat again adding color.

Only one minute in length, the final movement treats a four-measure melody as a theme and variations reminiscent of Arthur Pryor solos of the early 20th century.

[return]

Two Sonnets [return]

This is a setting of two sonnets by William Shakespeare for solo trombone. The performer recites the sonnets, while providing musical “commentary” between stanzas. This gives the non-singing trombonist an opportunity to express the beauty of poetry while using the instrument to comment on the verse.

The piece was created as part of the composer's Rooftop Trombone v2.0 series during the second lockdown in Malaysia due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The sonnets deal with aging (#65) and longing (#97), two topics that were often on the mind of the composer during the pandemic.

In Sonnet 65, the poet is contemplating aging and his own mortality. Time decays even rocks and gates of steel - what hope does the poet have to withstand the power? In the last two lines, he wonders if he might survive through his "black ink." The composer wonders the same.

In Sonnet 97, the poet is expressing a longing for an absent lover: "How like a winter hath my absence been from thee..." The composer spent much of the pandemic separated from his beloved. "...thou away, the very birds are mute..."

Text - Sonnet 65

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?

O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?

O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?

O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

Text - Sonnet 97

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness everywhere!

And yet this time removed was summer's time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:

Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;

Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

[return]

Improvisatory Images [return]

This composition is entirely improvised. The performer improvises a “commentary” on a series of ten images shown in a PowerPoint slideshow. The performer will not have seen the images prior to the performance. Each slide advances automatically after 20 seconds. The performer is expected to respond to each new image by changing the ongoing improvisation in either subtle or dramatic ways.

Before the performance, audience members are invited to submit images to be used in the piece. From these submissions, an algorithm built into the supplied PowerPoint file randomly selects and loads ten images.

The piece was created as part of my Rooftop Trombone v2.0 series during the second lockdown in Malaysia due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Improvisatory Poetry is a companion piece involving poetry submitted and read by the audience.

[return]

Trombone Rhymes [return]

The lyrics for these six songs are silly rhyming verses appropriate for children, originally composed for soprano and piano. This adaptation for solo trombone and audience participation uses the same lyrics with new music. In each song, the soloist plays trombone, then recites a line of the lyric that is repeated by the audience one or more times. After additional trombone playing, the soloist completes the verse.

The original songs for soprano and piano have also been arranged for unison children's choir (or solo soprano) and chamber orchestra and for SATB chorus.

Text - Merle the Squirrel

The Earl of Byrl was a Squirrel named Merle
Who had a bushy tail that would not curl.

He did not care his tail was just a lump of hair
Until...

Text - Tony the Pony

The accent of Tony the Pony was phony
And everyone knew it but Joanie,

Who thought it was sweet when he said:
"Would you care for a bite to eat?"
But he onlyever fed her...

Text - A Monkey in the Zoo

A monkey in the zoo, by the name of Bobbie Sue,
Had an uncle of one hundred and two.

She asked him, “Does it hurt?”
“To be older than dirt?”
"And to be..."

Text - Donna the Iguana

Donna the iguana said that she was gonna
Get some sun and fun in Tiajuana.

But when she missed her flight,
In the middle of the night,
She knew she’d have to wait...

Text - Laura Belle, the Gazelle

Laura Bell the gazelle wasn’t feeling very well
When she heard what her friend had to tell.

“You know, I’ve been tryin’,”
Said Ryan the lion...

Text - Claire the Bear

Claire the bear went up the stair
To look for something that she could wear.

But she found nothing clean,
And later was seen...

[return]

Svenska Jordgubbar [retur]

This short chamber work for three trumpets and one trombone was a late addition to this recital. After arriving in Sweden last month, I decided I would like to include some of my favorite Östhammar trumpet players in the finale. There are occasional hints of tonality, but the work relies primarily on parallel diminished and augmented chords.

[retur]

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