The Voices of Air
What does air sound like? Because the trombone is an instrument that depends on air, it made me think about the many voices of air and how we experience it as musicians. The first movement, “Breath,” focuses on the contrast between meditative long, deep breaths and agitated short breaths and how our breathing expresses our emotional states. The second movement, “Airplay,” is an homage to two great jazz trombonists and their recorded works: Urbie Green’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” and Carl Fontana’s “Beautiful Friendship.” I was fascinated with their virtuoso playing and the playful spirit of their music. The title of the third movement, “Floating on Air,” describes a serene and weightless sensation, and the fourth movement, “Breathless,” is just the opposite – turbulent, vigorous and unsettled.
“The Voices of Air” is dedicated to trombonist JoDee Davis, with gratitude to her and to the Curators of the University of Missouri who commissioned this work.
-----Victoria Bond, October 2019

10' | Recording | Sheet Music

Musicians are traditionally called upon to entertain at important functions, the most common being weddings, familiar to all cultures, and Bar Mitzvahs, the Jewish coming of age celebration. The ambiguity of these occasions prompted the choice of a Yiddish folk song Hat ein Man eine Weibele

For Shakuhachi, Violin and Cello

10' | Recording | Sheet Music

10' | Recording | Sheet Music

10'

30' | Recording

15'

Psalm 84 has appealed to me ever since I encountered it in the Brahms Requiem when I sang in the chorus during my undergraduate years at the University of Southern California. It expresses the profound appreciation I feel for the natural world and the exaltation that sweeps over me during walks when I contemplate the beauty of our planet. When I was commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria to compose a psalm setting as part of the organization’s psalms project, I immediately thought of #84.

7'

5' | Recording

21' | Recording | Sheet Music

Based on a poem by Whalt Witman from Leaves of Grass, this work for SATB, chorus, and piano was commisioned by the Manhattan Choral Ensemble in 2019. This score is available from Theodore Front

Music: Victoria Bond

Text: Jonathan Fink

SATB Chorus.

"Your Voice is Gone"  was commissioned and premiered by the Manhattan Choral Ensemble in 2011 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911. 

I chose a letter from a young woman who worked at the factory to her mother in which she writes of her longing for home. She is lonely in New York without her family and dreams of them being together again. The poem ends with the tragic line “but even in my dreams your voice is gone.”

17' | Recording | Sheet Music

10' | Recording | Sheet Music

22' | Recording

Thomas Jefferson's words come alive with Victoria Bond's "Soul of a Nation."

20' | Recording | Sheet Music

3'25" | Recording | Sheet Music

4' | Recording | Sheet Music