In 1962 - while we were still studying at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm - Jan Bark and I were asked to make a program for Sveriges Radio about unconventional playing techniques on brass instruments. Since we were both trombonists with a jazz background, it was natural for us to take many of our musical samples from jazz recordings. At the end of the program, we decided to try to show how these playing techniques could be applied in a contemporary compositional context, but we certainly did not want to achieve some kind of "third stream" mixing of the two musical cultures. We picked out the playing styles from their jazz environment and worked them into a four-part graphic score of the kind we used in the 1960s. By adding two parts, Jan and I could play all four parts ourselves. The radio program attracted a lot of attention and we were asked to perform this new composition for four trombones live. We named the piece "Bolos" and composed a new ending. On the radio it had ended with a simple fade-out, but in its stage version the piece was escalated towards the end to a level where we felt it was no longer possible to continue with sound alone. That's why we let it explode and move on to other, more scenic ways of expression. We formed a trombone quartet just for performing Bolos. We called it the Culture Quartet to distinguish it from other quartets. Afterwards we composed new pieces for trombone quartet and performed them internationally at contemporary music festivals in the 1960s and 70s: ISCM, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Warsaw Autumn, Zagreb Biennale, etc. We also made several TV productions both in Sweden and abroad. However, Bolos is the only one of these quartets that was published in score form. It has also been performed by other trombone quartets, especially in the United States February 1997, revised. 2005-12-28 (Jan Bark &) Folke Rabe
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