[Trombone-l] brass duo/trio pieces?

[David Guion]

		The trio literature is not as extensive or as good as the quintet literature, but there are a number of pieces. I did a trio by [Robert?] Marek on my senior recital lo these many  moons ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's published by Robert King, and I assume it's still in print. For trumpet and trombone duets, the Dialogues by [David?] Borden enjoyed a vogue back in the '60s and '70s. I don't know if they're still played as much any more, but they're certainly something to keep in mind. I also recall a fun piece by [David?] Van Vactor called Economy Band. I don't recall the instrumentation. It may require either four brass or a piano, but again, it's something to keep in mind. I have not had opportunity to play that kind of music for years, so I haven't kept up with the repertoire.

At home, I have some resources that discuss other specific pieces. Let me know privately if  you are interested, and I will scan relevant pages and send them to you. Again, I can't tell you about anything less than thirty years old. You can check the ITA web site and look for literature reviews and/or recording reviews to learn about more recent literature. Keep in mind that there are trios for two trumpets and trombone and  other combinations besides trumpet/horn/trombone. If even one of you can play more than one brass  instrument, it will make more literature available and make your programs more varied for your audience.

Checking the library catalog here, I did find a bibliography that you might look for (on interlibrary loan, if nothing else): A bibliography of music for three heterogeneous brass instruments alone and in chamber ensembles / compiled by Richard G. Decker (Oneonta, N.Y. : Swift-Dorr Publications, c1976.) It's 82 pages long. Obviously it's not much more recent than what I have at home.

The borrowing is good and pretty easy. If you are in such a small department that you can't put together a quintet, then your library surely does not have any "monuments" series, but perhaps you live in reasonable commuting distance of a library that does. Any three-part Renaissance or Baroque music for unspecified instrumentation is fair game so long as the ranges of all the parts match your instrumentation. Many of the older sets (Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich, Denkmaler deutscher Tonkunst, etc.) are old enough to be public domain, and there is plenty of music by great composers like Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, and Isaac that is begging to be heard. For later music, investigate string trios (either violin/viola/cello or 2 violins/cello). If you have access to a dedicated music library, or a large public or academic library with a music specialis on staff, the librarian will be  happy to help you identify suitable volumes. 

I have criticized the major professional brass quintets for abandoning genuine brass quintet literature and relying entirely on transcriptions and arrangements, but the reality is that you can't avoid transcriptions and arrangements and keep an audience. The Poulenc Sonata is a lot of fun, but hardly anything else in the brass trio literature is as good, and not much at all is by a composer anyone but other brass players has ever heard of. (I checked the catalog here and found one by Carlos Chavez.)

So to make your trio viable--that is, to attract enough of an audience to keep coming back to hear you play--you need to have a mixture of trios written for brass instruments, transcriptions of music by great composers, and arrangements of various kinds of "popular" music, such as rags, show tunes, etc.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
David Guion

The early bird may get the worm, 
but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese!