What's Your Trombone? By Emily Owen
Last weekend, I watched a programme about the composers
Vaughan Williams and Holst.
The programme detailed the life and work of the two
composers. They were opposites in many
ways, and yet their love of music brought them together.
Holst suffered from weak lungs all his life and learned to
play the trombone when he was young, in the hope it would help. As a composer,
he took the unusual step of giving the trombone section of the orchestra
opportunity for solo parts, as well as giving the same opportunity to other
sections. Unusual, because the trombone
section tends to have more of a supporting the whole role.
I thought, what’s my Trombone Equivalent? What have I had to
learn to do as a result of (perceived) weakness?
For me, one answer is rest.
I am unable to keep going as much as I might like to, which used to
frustrate me. Ok, if I’m honest, it
still does frustrate me at times. But, by treating rest as Holst treated his trombone
section, it frustrates me less. Rather
than constantly being in the background, vying for my attention but never
scheduled in, it gets its solo part and then it hands over to another
section: writing, speaking, whatever it may be.
Trombones come in different shapes and sizes. So, I think, do Trombone Equivalents. They may well be different for us all. Things that are constantly in the background
but never really acknowledged, and so never able to hand over to another
section.
Holst’s weakness invited the trombone section to know new
strength.
When we acknowledge and offer our weaknesses to God, we
invite His strength.
Holst didn’t only give prominent sections to the trombones. He shared them out among the instruments. At
the end of his life, in a letter to Vaughan Williams, Holst wrote that he ‘liked
the impersonality of orchestral playing’ because it was not about individuals.
It was about each section playing what the composer had
written for them, to the best of their ability, and so, acknowledged and together, producing
something beautiful.
Something written by the Writer...
Something written by the Writer...
Thanks Emily. Some good thoughts to ponder.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Eileen. The programme really made me think, too.
DeleteDon't know why it says 'unknown'! - Emily
Delete