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Curtis Biggs, Tenor and Bass Trombone, T-Horn
Recording Engineer: Jason Graham
Photography: Melody Hadfield
Photo Editing: Brian Hadfield
The T-Horn was named by trombonist and composer Norman Bolter. It is simply the bell section of the trombone with the mouthpiece inserted into the part the slide would normally go. Bolter used this instrument in his quartet “Persian Immortals” to make an ancient battle horn type of sound. I discovered that by using the thumb valve, it creates a unique sounding scale. And then if you pull out the F slide, it lowers all the notes using the valve a half-step, making kind of a “minor” version of that scale.
This piece is made of seven variations with two short interludes. My use of the T-Horn is more melodic than Bolter’s but you can hear the battle horn quality in the two interludes.
The piano repertoire has a rich history of concert etudes, but there is very little repertoire for the trombone in this genre. It is an expressive piece meant to be played in concert, and as an etude it also has a technical focus for improving an aspect of trombone playing.
The technical focus in this piece is lip slurs, moving across overtones to play different notes without using the tongue. There are standard lip slurs, lip slur melodies, overtone glissando, slurs from the pedal range, lip trills, reverse lip trills, and across the grain playing. A version with an alternate ending is included as a bonus track.
This work expresses a search for inner calm and stillness in times of unrest. The beginning of the piece expresses a longing for something unknown. A hunting horn call enters, representing the pursuit or search. After a period of unrest and turmoil, there is calm. The piece ends with mental, emotional, or spiritual calm and stillness.
In a sense, the bass trombonist plays two different horns in this piece. The first is the open bass trombone sound. The performer also attaches a length of tube to one of the valves to create a second horn. This second horn has a drastically different timbre and is used to create a delicate, distant timbre at softer dynamics, as well as intense and harsh effects at louder dynamics. At the end of the piece, a fluttering effect is achieved by rapidly moving the valve to switch between the two horns.
“I Know I Am Breathing In,” “Lotus Flower,” and “The Witness” are three movements from a seven movement work. These three are the movements that were completed at the time of recording, and I plan to make a new recording at a later time of the complete work. I wrote this piece as I was learning about Buddhist meditation and Yoga philosophy, reading books and listening to lectures by Paramahansa Yogananda, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Nishanth Selvalingam. The titles to the movements reflect concepts found in Eastern philosophy.
The process to writing this piece was unique. I played meditative improvisations for a period of time most evenings before bedtime. When I felt I had an idea I wanted to save, I used it in an improvisation that I recorded on video and posted on social media. After I had a collection of these videos, I selected some of them and transcribed them, mostly as I originally recorded them but with some changes. This became the “Trombone Meditation Book.” The entire piece is played with the wah-wah mute, and features extensive multiphonics (singing through the instrument while playing). Some of the movements also use circular breathing.
In addition to it’s aesthetic value, this piece is meant to be an actual meditation practice, both for the performer and the listener.
My wife and I took our two boys to visit family in Utah during a winter break in December and January of 2019/2020. Going through one of the mountain ranges, we heard the wind singing through the canyon. A melody came through the pitches in the wind. After driving through, my wife and I both made recordings of ourselves singing what we could remember. After letting the experience sit in my mind for a few months, I took the recordings out and used them as the pitch material for this piece. The opening of Part 1: The Canyon Speaks is a note for note transcription of the recording I made. The opening of Part 2: Wind Meditations is a transcription of the recording my wife made. The music throughout the piece evokes the moods and feelings of hearing the wind singing through the canyon.
This piece was also partially inspired by another unaccompanied trombone piece, Meditative Longing by Norman Bolter. Both are meditative in nature, and end using the same unique combination of techniques. The ending has a long sustained drone using circular breathing. While the drone is being held, the performer sings the opening melody through the trombone. At the same time, the left hand is used to improvise timbre changes with the wah-wah mute. These techniques are uncommon for the trombone, but they imitate techniques that are commonly used in didjeridu playing.
