Karlheinz Essl

exit*glue

for electric guitar and trombone
2016

Commissioned by Coleman Goepfert

Performed by Ensemble Supernovæ
Agustín Nazzetta (electric guitar) and Adríán Albaladejo (trombone)
BKA-Theater Berlin (26 Sep 2023)

About

This composition is a drama in sound, performed by two protagonists – a trombone and an electric guitar – that do not have much in common: a breath-driven brass instrument and an electrified plucked string instrument are probably the most diverse instruments on can think of. Nevertheless, both actors try to develop various strategies to approach each other in an attempt to fuse their specific sound worlds (GLUE), followed by situations where they try to break free, showing their idiosyncratic and individual abilities (EXIT).

In this piece, the amplification system of the electric guitar is modified so that its sound characteristics come closer to that of the trombone. Instead of a common guitar amplifier, a device called Talkbox is used: a small stomp-box like device with a built-in amplifier and a small loudspeaker which sends the sound waves through a flexible plastic tube. The end of this hose is attached to a trombone bell that is mounted on a microphone stand.

Requirements

Guitar

electric guitar with Humbucker pickup in bridge position
Talkbox (Dunlop MXR M 222) with a trombone bell attached to the tube, mounted onto a mikrophone stand
volume pedal (Ernie Ball), connected between guitar and Talkbox
EBow
bottleneck

Trombone

bass/tenor trombone (F/B^b)
wah-wah mute
plunger mute

Videos

Juna Winston (trombone) and Coleman Goepfert (electric guitar) performing exit*glue
Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, imCUBUS
Graz, 6 Dec 2016

Morten L. Pladsen (trombone) and Stefan Östersjö (electric guitar) performing exit*glue
InterArts Center: The Expanded Body - Concert III
Malmö, 11 Apr 2017

Listen

Juna Winston and Coleman Goepfert performing exit*glue
Graz, Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten (6 Dec 2016)

Score

The score of exit*glue can be downloaded for free. Please note that the music is protected by copyright.

Excerpt from Karlheinz Essl's exit*glue (2016)
© 2016 by Karlheinz Essl

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Updated: 28 Sep 2023