[Trombone-l] brass duo/trio pieces?

[ALEX ILES]

Excellent suggestions.

I have performed a tonally accessible and fun-to-play  trio composed by 
Mark Wolfram. Not sure where and if it is published...?

I believe it won an award given by the horn equivalent of the ITA.


LX
================

On Jul 25, 2006, at 8:25 AM, David Guion wrote:

>
> 		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!
>
>
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