Launy Grondahl - Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra

Program Notes of February 6, 2010

LAUNY GRØNDAHL
Born Ordrup, Denmark, 30 June 1886. Died 21 January 1960, Copenhagen.
Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra
Composed in 1924 in Italy. The score calls for solo trombone, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, horn, 2 trumpets, piano, and strings. The work lasts approximately 16 minuets.

The trombone is a relative newcomer to the orchestra. Its dark, rich tone quality would have overpowered the delicately balanced classical symphony. Mozart used it at times for special effect, such as for the "Tuba Mirum" of his Requiem, in which the trombone punctuates the dramatic line, "The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound through the sepulchres of the regions, will collect all before the throne." Most famously, Mozart uses the darkness and power of three trombones in his opera, Don Giovanni, at the entrance of the ghost of the murdered commendatore, when the spirit comes to take Don Giovanni to hell.

If the classical composers used the rich darkness of the trombone for special effect, the romanticists wanted that sound as a staple of their expanded orchestra. By the twentieth century, the trombone had become a standard color in the symphonic palette. Because of its late arrival, though the number of trombone concertos in the symphony repertoire is still relatively small.

Launy Grøndahl learned to play the violin as a boy and was playing professionally at the age of thirteen. He studied in Paris, Vienna, and Italy, and while in Italy composed his trombone concerto, which he dedicated to his friend, Vilhelm Aarkrogh. Grøndahl served as conductor of the Royal Orchestra in Copenhagen from 1925 until 1956. His compositional style is both angular, influenced by the new harmonic language of the Twentieth Century, and expressive, able to use the warmth of the trombone to achieve a lush lyricism. The combination of abstract angularity with a natural singing quality give his trombone concerto its appeal.