Description
Il Sorriso del Diavolo —The Devil’s Smile— is a composition for solo bass trombone by Ricardo Mollá, dedicated to the Thailand International Trombone Festival and Martin Schippers.
The piece is set in a nocturnal, carnivalesque Venice, during the final hours of Carnival, when Piazza San Marco begins to empty and, among alleyways, water reflections, and masks, a mysterious figure appears: Arlecchino. Through theatrical, virtuosic, and ironic music, the trombone becomes narrator, character, and mask, guiding the performer through a scene full of seduction, dark humor, and devilish energy.
The piece combines virtuosic writing with theatrical elements and extended techniques, such as dramatic glissandi, multiphonics, vocal effects, foot stomps, theatrical gestures, physical movements by the performer, and passages in which the trombonist must integrate bodily action into the musical discourse. All of this turns the work into not only a musical experience, but also a visual and dramatic one.
This edition includes the PDF score with personalized password, watermark, and signature.
Year of composition
2026
Movements
Single movement.
Duration
Approximately 4’.
Orchestration
Solo bass trombone.
Additional information about Il Sorriso del Diavolo
The work was composed on the occasion of the International Competition of the Thailand Trombone Festival 2026, Open Category. Its language combines the virtuosity characteristic of contemporary trombone repertoire with a clear theatrical inspiration linked to the Commedia dell’arte, the Carnival of Venice, and the figure of Arlecchino.
Throughout the piece, the performer must take on an almost theatrical role: not only playing, but also suggesting, seducing, shouting, turning, stomping, and transforming the sound of the bass trombone into a dramatic presence. Il Sorriso del Diavolo thus seeks to expand the expressive limits of the instrument, turning the soloist into the absolute protagonist of a small Venetian scene suspended between the comic, the grotesque, and the diabolical.
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