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Dzunukwa's Aria    - 2011                        

7min+-

 

Trombone and Organ  

 

Composed for and commissioned by Alain Trudel.

 

  • Premiere: January 16, 2011, Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, Toronto/Ontario, Alain Trudel - Trombone, Patrick Webb - Organ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  Dzunkwa's Aria for Trombone and Organ was composed for Alain Trudel and Patrick Webb.  The music is derived from a theatrical work for solo trombone/actor and trombone choir.  The aria is the cry of the Dzunukwa - something that is both savage and ogre-like, but also emotional and filled with yearning.

 

 The organ plays the part of the dark forest - of both its beauty and terror.

 

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Review:
 

Globe and Mail - January 18, 2011 - Robert-Evert Green

Alain Trudel, trombone a heavenly pair

 

Dzunukwa’s Aria, a new piece by Scott Good, announced something else entirely, a kind of majestic bestial reality that the composer, speaking just before the premiere, linked to a “powerful ogress” of native legend. Good swiftly transformed the church’s mighty Casavant organ into a mysterious generator of tones that at times might as well have been something from an electronic music studio. A very deep pedal tone introduced some murky chromatic rumblings in the bass end of the keyboard, followed by a broad fortissimo bark that seemed designed to scatter all the minor creatures in the forest. Trudel, armed with a plunger mute, entered with a truly primeval sound, like that of an animal calling from the deepest part of the woods. Even as the music became more angular, its feral quality remained fascinatingly strong.

From Wiki: Dzunuḵ̓wa, also Tsonoqua, Tsonokwa,is a figure in Kwakwaka'wakw mythology . She is an ancestor of the Namgis clan through her son,  Tsilwalagame. She is venerated as a bringer of wealth, but is also greatly feared by children, because she is also known as  an ogress who steals and carries them home in her basket to eat

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