related works
Concerto d'un bon esprit : pour piano et orchestre de chambre / Marijn Simons
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Piano and orchestra
Scoring:
fl(pic) ob(eh) cl fg(cfg) h trb 2perc str(5.4.3.3.1.) pf-solo
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Trombone and orchestra
Scoring:
trb-b-solo picc 2fl 2ob eh 2cl 2fg cfg 5h 3tpt 2trb trb-b timp 4perc hp str
Bass Trombone Concerto : for bass trombone and orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Trombone and orchestra
Scoring:
trb-b-solo 2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 4h 2trp trb timp perc pf str
Cosmic Dancer : for tenor trombone and orchestra / Benjamin de Murashkin
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Trombone and orchestra
Scoring:
trb-t-solo 3fl(fl-a picc) 2ob(eh) 2cl(cl-b) 2fg(cfg) 4h 3tpt 3trb(trb-t trb-b) tb timp 2perc str
composition
Concerto comique : pour trombone et orchestre / Marijn Simons
Other authors:
Simons, Marijn
(Composer)
Contains:
Air cocasse (Fernandel)
Humour caché (Jacques Tati)
Mimique élastique (Louis de Funès)
Description:
On a concert tour in September 1999, I met the well-known French trombonist Jacques Mauger in Palermo. We both had come to Sicily at the invitation of the Orchestra Sinfonia Siciliana, Jacques appearing as soloist in the trombone concerto by Henri Tomasi and me in the second violin concerto by Darius Milhaud. I had with me the almost finished score of my piano concerto "Concerto d'un bon Esprit”, commissioned by Jean-Bernard Pommier. Jacques was so enthusiastic about my work that he asked me to compose a trombone concerto. The Dutch Fund for the Performing Arts later took over this commission.
The film comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were the inspiration for "Capriccio for Stan & Ollie" from 1996. The cinematographic source of inspiration is not nearly exhausted, as evidenced by my trombone concerto "Concerto Comique". The first movement, "air cocasse" (funny face), is subtitled Fernandel. The character parts of this French master actor are interwoven in this movement. "Le Boulanger de Valorque" and the many Don Camillo films appealed to my musical imagination. The stubbornness, the bustle, the unforgettably ludicrous facial expressions, and the occasional fist fights were transposed into a stirring opening movement. After a fierce scuffle between the soloist and orchestra, the accordion - representing the French sound very prominently - comes in as a soothing third party. It brings peace and begins the second movement with a low, long octave. "Humour caché" (quiet, hidden humour) is overflowing with melancholy and is dedicated to Jacques Tati. To compare this undisputed master of quiet humour with Charlie Chaplin is obvious. However strange this may sound, I instead thought of a comparison with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - one eye laughing, the other crying. Tati's acting is perhaps the funniest in "L' école des facteurs". He is more poetical in the satiric part of Monsieur Hulot in Oscar-winning "Mon Oncle", a film which inspires the harmonic structure of the almost transcendent middle movement. The transition to the third movement, inspired by Louis de Funès, "mimique élastique", is made again by the accordion’s previous octave with a diminuendo to silence, immediately followed by the bongos and congas with fast semiquavers, giving the final movement an ecstatic speed. In his unparalleled way, Louis de Funès plays a selfish little man who is never at rest. Think of "Le gendarme de Saint Tropez" and "Les aventures de rabbi Jacob". There is no holding of the orchestra and the trombone anymore. - MARIJN SIMONS