2007:Soundwork

Bendicho juez de la verdad

Eldad Tsabary

2000/7:40 MIN./for trombone and electronics

Despite its familiar sound, the title Bendicho juez de la verdad is noticeably not in Spanish (Bendicho rather than Bendecido). It is a Jewish Ladino funeral blessing meaning ˝Blessed is the Judge of Truth˝ or ˝Blessed is the Righteous Judge˝. This blessing represents acceptance of God´s word - good or bad - with joy.

The piece comprises three sections, the first and last representing birth and death respectively and being essentially similar although set in opposite directions. Life is represented in the middle section, which is, therefore, more linear, lively, humorous, intellectual, emotional, and capricious. Throughout the piece, the trombone melody is either extracted from, based upon, or in the spirit of the original Sephardic chant melody of this blessing.

The first and third sections´ electronic part of the piece consists of pads based upon noise shaping techniques such as phase shifting, decorrelation, wave-reversal, pitch shifting, delay, reverb and voice-layering. The trombone played by Haim Avitsur, floats above the pads and vocoded (Hebrew) text of the chant. In the mid-section the electronics part becomes more involved (and gradually more complex) with the trombone part (rhythmic unison, mirror-relation) and eventually resolves into the third section´s detachment - similar to the first´s.