Event Title
Two Sonnets
Performer / Ensemble
Don Bowyer (Trombone and Voice)
Date of Publication
3-26-2021
Document Type
Composition
Abstract / Program Notes
These two sonnets by William Shakespeare deal with the concepts of aging and longing, two areas items that have been on the mind of the composer recently. The short, two-movement work is meant to give the non-singing trombonist an opportunity to express the beauty of poetry while using the instrument to comment on the verse. In the Sonnet 65, the poet is contemplating aging and his own mortality. Time decays even rocks and gates of steel - what hope does the poet have to withstand the power? In the last two lines, he wonders if he might survive through his "black ink." The composer wonders the same. In Sonnet 97, the poet is expressing a longing for an absent lover: "How like a winter hath my absence been from thee..." The composer has spent most of the current pandemic separated from his beloved.
Biography
Don Bowyer is Dean of the School of the Arts and Professor of Music at Sunway University (Malaysia). With a career that has included teaching at every level from kindergarten through university in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, Bowyer received his Doctor of Arts from the University of Northern Colorado, Master of Arts from California State University-Northridge, and Bachelor of Arts from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Active in the fields of composition, music technology, and performance, Bowyer has published more than 60 pieces of music, developed an educational computer program that has been used in at least 120 countries, and has performed as a trombonist, bandleader, and conductor in more than 50 countries. Among other performing credits, he spent five years playing trombone on eleven cruise ships in the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Gulf of Alaska. The first ten didn’t sink. (Read about the eleventh at donbowyer.com/aground.) Bowyer and his wife have also served as foster parents, providing a home to eighteen foster children between 2003 and 2010. They are finishing their fourth year in Malaysia.
Keywords
William Shakespeare, Trombone
Description
Duration: 5:30. Instrumentation: Trombone (who also recites). Date of Composition: October 15, 2020.
Two Sonnets
These two sonnets by William Shakespeare deal with the concepts of aging and longing, two areas items that have been on the mind of the composer recently. The short, two-movement work is meant to give the non-singing trombonist an opportunity to express the beauty of poetry while using the instrument to comment on the verse. In the Sonnet 65, the poet is contemplating aging and his own mortality. Time decays even rocks and gates of steel - what hope does the poet have to withstand the power? In the last two lines, he wonders if he might survive through his "black ink." The composer wonders the same. In Sonnet 97, the poet is expressing a longing for an absent lover: "How like a winter hath my absence been from thee..." The composer has spent most of the current pandemic separated from his beloved.