Lyell Cresswell

Programme Note

The Kaea was a Maori wooden war trumpet, somewhere between four and six feet in length with a diameter of about one inch at the blowing end widening to about eight inches at the bell. It was made of hollowed out sections of wood lashed together with flax cord. Wedges of wood were glued to the bell to amplify and direct the sound. Inside the bell end it was fitted with a tongue or vibrating reed. The sound was loud and booming and it was used to raise the alarm in times of danger or to terrify the enemy by shouting curses through it. Kaea is also the Maori word for the leader of a flock of parrots, and hence used to denote the leader of the haka, or posture dance.

KAEA (Trombone Concerto) is in one continuous movement comprising fourteen sections. Traces of a four movement of fast movement, slow movement, scherzo and trio, and fast finale can, however, be detected. It is as if these four movements are played simultaneously taking various turns to come to the fore. For those who would like the form spelled out, it is as follows: A B C c D A C c C B c B A D [A = slow movement, B = first fast movement, C = scherzo, c = trio, D = fast finale]. This scheme, though, can be misleading because it is riven with cross references and transformations of the musical ideas.

In the slow introduction the piccolo plays a descending melodic line covering only a limited pitch range. This material, in various guises, acts as a thread throughout the work and is used extensively at its core - the slow middle section.

The concerto neither uses or imitates Maori music, descending lines covering a small range and drooping cadences are typical of Maori chant.

© Lyell Cresswell, 1997.