Secret Love Songs

The title 'Secret Love Songs' works on two levels depending on emphasis. Secret Love Songs would be a contemporary analogue of the troubadour song where friendships that remain close and long but which, for whatever reason, never cross the line into romance, are celebrated. Secret Love Songs is in six movements that are grouped into two groups of three where the first two in each group are played without a break. Songs 3 and 6 quote a Rondeau. Phrases and chords from Song 1 re-appear in various guises throughout all the other songs and so generate a theme and variations in parallel. The first three songs make considerable use of glissandi and other specifically trombonistic effects whilst the last three use glissandi sparingly, but do exploit several different types of mute in a meaningful sort of way. All titles and texts apart from de la Halle's are from 'One Two' and are used with Eva Salzman's kind permission.