DubStop UnderDrive
(2017)
for tenor trombone & pipe organ
for Kye Milne & Peter Taurian
premiered by Kye Milne & Peter Taurian on 24 March 2017 at the Bowral Autumn Music Festival, Bowral, NSW, Australia
featured in DubStop UnderDrive
score available through The Australian Music Centre
duration: 4’30”
genre: Chamber - Small
category: Ambrosia, Utile Dulci
When asked to write a piece for trombone, organ and teenage boys, I was immediately struck by how distant the cultural resonances of the two instruments are from today’s typical adolescent experience. Young people, religious or otherwise, rarely come across traditional liturgy featuring a pipe organ, while the trombone is likely associated with ‘adult’ idioms involving some kind of jazz fusion. And of course, they are both acoustic oddities in a world of teen-orientated digital sound.
On the other hand, the musical preferences of well-off adolescent males – as much as that can be generalised – don’t exactly stem from their own reality either. Neither the ghetto fantasy of contemporary hip-hop nor the ecstatic nihilism of London-club dubstep really reflect the reliable comforts of home and school. At best, they speak to the hormonally fuelled aspirations of biology, which are almost always redirected with age into more socially acceptable ambitions.
With this multilayered irony in mind, I decided to take the situation one step further and invent an aesthetic in which, against all reason, the trombone, the organ and demographically resonant musical genres happily coexist. The result is a work at once fun and fantastical.
Many thanks to Myee Clohessy and the Bowral Autumn Music Festival for this marvellous opportunity. It should also be noted that the two fine gentlemen for whom the piece was written are far from standard teenagers, which explains their stellar interpretation and performances.
