Edgar Cosma

Concerto For Trombone And String Orchestra

When Jean-Pierre Mathez asked me to write this concerto for trombone, I was perplexed: what kind of music should I write for such an unusual solo instrument? Then I remembered J.C. Higginbotham* and his incredible choruses, which so delighted me in my adolescence with their irresistible “punch”... and I had my first movement. The second movement is night music, evoking the sea coast, the seaweed in the undulating waters, the sound of the blues coming in bits and pieces from far away. For the last movement I thought again of my first sight of New York from an airplane: it was a sunny day, and there was the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, the bridges, the islands... the piercing cries of imaginary seagulls... My (American?) concerto should capture all that, but it is first of all a musical construction which is built around an interval (guess which...), certain rhythms, a mode and some flexible motifs, as well as a “modern” use of the trombone... But let’s leave analysis to the specialists. Edgar Cosma