Motorbike Odyssey

Motorbike Odyssey is the Trombone Concerto No. 1 by Swedish composer Jan Sandström. The concerto for solo tenor trombone and large orchestra, written in 1989, is sometimes called Motorbike Concerto. It was dedicated to the trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg. The piece is meant to be a musical telling of a modern Odysseus, traveling the world with his trombone.

The orchestration is complex, calling for a large orchestra with additional piano, harp, full percussion section and virtuoso metal plate striker. The solo part, at almost 24 minutes in length, is highly complex, spanning the bass, tenor, and treble clefs and calling for considerable extended technique.

Lindberg's world premiere serves as the guideline for how the piece should be performed. The audience sits facing the stage and the orchestra tuning. Suddenly, there is a loud engine sound, and a white motorcycle rolls onto the stage, driven by Lindberg. He is dressed in full, light red leathers and generally makes a very impressive sight. Wasting no time, the orchestra begins with haunting chords, shrieking lower and lower, and the concerto begins.

In the first movement, the soloist imitates the sound of a motorcycle changing gears. The extended trombone technique of flutter tonguing is used in combination with a plunger mute to create this effect. As the trombone section takes over this sound, the soloist shifts into a complicated passage of very high, and very fast notes. This eventually subsides into the cessation of the soloist's playing, as he physically draws out the parts of the globe with his trombone slide.

Movement two is an evocation of the Florida Everglades. The soloist begins by playing the "crocodile chorus", a multiphonic passage that requires the soloist to produce chords with the trombone, as well as sing. This section also includes growling sounds, and other various extended trombone techniques.

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