O rchestral S e c tio n a l
DENNIS
-1 4 -
BUBERT
Orchestral S ectional
n the last installment of this column, Ralph Sauer,
I Jay Friedman, John Kitzman, and Ron Barron each
chose a handful of passages they felt were overlooked
or perhaps underestimated in posing a challenge to the
orchestral trombonist. And with a combined 164 years of
experience playing principal trombone in high visibility
major orchestras, their thoughts on the subject are
particularly valid, and well worth your consideration.
Continuing in that vein, I’ve asked Douglas Yeo, bass
trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from
1985-2012 to list works he encountered which he felt were
both especially challenging for bass trombone, as well as
often neglected. Thank you, Doug, for helping me out yet
again, with taking on still another project, and sharing your
knowledge and experience with us.
I would also like to thank all of those trombonists who have
so generously contributed their thoughts and words to this
column since its inaugural appearance in the October 2000
issue. My gratitude as well as to those ITA Journal editors
who have put up with me— the late Vem Kagarice, Claire
Brantley, and Diane Drexler. The original intent was to
demonstrate to readers the degree of thought which goes into
a successful performance of these works, to give a greater
voice to the orchestral players in the ITA, and to provide
thoughtful and instructive commentary to those young
players who aspire to join the ranks of those musicians who
practice the art and craft of orchestral trombone playing. I
hope that the column has met those goals on more than a
few occasions; if nothing else, I can attest that what 1 have
gleaned from the contributors has been enormous. Now,
In t e r n a t io n a l T r o m b o n e A s s o c ia t io n J o u r n a l
UNDER
THE RADAR
PARI 2
OVERLOOKED PASSAGES FOR BASS TROMBONE
after seventeen years, this will be my final column as its
editor, and I thank all of you for indulging me along the way.
And with that in mind, I’ve included some of my own picks
as “obscure, but not forgotten” passages following Doug’s
comments. Best to all in 2017 and beyond. . . .
DOUGLAS YEO
Boston Symphony Orchestra (1985-2012, retired)
I began the serious study of the orchestral repertoire while a
student of Edward Kleinhammer in the early 1970s. At that
time, we worked mostly out of the two-volume Anthology of
Symphonic and Operatic Excerpts for Bass Trombone by Julian
Menken. Times have changed. Audition lists and orchestral
repertoire look very different now and the pieces listed
below are works, both old and new, that are increasingly
finding their ways into auditions and concert programs— or,
in some cases, very well may start appearing again for good
reason—and should be on your music stand. Over the course
of my long career, I played all of these pieces in concert and
have seen them all on audition lists even though some of
them seem to have fallen out of favor with today’s orchestras
and audiences. For instance, the tone poems of Franz Liszt
were, for many years, staples of concert repertoire but now
appear rarely. Karl Goldmark’s Rustic Wedding Symphony was,
for a time in the early twentieth-century, one of the most
frequently performed pieces of classical music on concert
programs, but audiences today hardly even know his name,
much less his music. Pieces come and go but good music has
a way of turning up again for new generations.
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INTERNATIONAL TROMB ONE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL O R C H E S T R A L S E C T I O N A L
And do remember this: while preparing excerpts for
auditions and performance, be sure to prepare every note
of a piece. I recall an audition I took for the Chicago Civic
Orchestra many years ago; Richard Wagner’s Ride of the
Walkure was on the audition list. I dutifully prepared both
the well-known B-minor and B-major sections but was
stunned to find neither passage called for at the audition.
Instead, Mr. Kleinhammer asked for a two-measure section in
C-major near the end of the piece. I was lost! I was prepared
for B-major but C-major was so simple it was impossible
because I had never seen it before. It was a lesson learned the
hard way. Use the full orchestra score in your preparation of
every piece. While it is good to build a library of scores that
you can refer to easily, you can find many scores on imslp.
org and others may be available through inter-library loan.
Remember, too, that mistakes abound in the parts to many
works. For instance, a wrong note in the bass trombone part
to Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel (seventeen measures after
rehearsal 19) has been played and recorded thousands of
times for over 100 years; it has only recently been corrected
by publishers (the note should be F-natural, not D-natural)
although it was correct in the score all along. A life-long
journey of score study combined with reading extensively
about composers and their music will add richness to your
knowledge of the orchestral repertoire and will greatly
enhance your understanding and performance of music you
work on for auditions and concerts.
For those interested in learning more, music to— and my
extensive commentary for—each of the following pieces,
along with 100 other works including many that are under
copyright and cannot be found legally in other sources,
is found in my newly published book, The One Hundred:
Essential Works for the Symphonic Bass Trombonist (Encore
Music Publishers).
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Adams’ relentless machine is exceptionally taxing for the bass
trombonist and increasingly is appearing on auditions. The
piece combines a lengthy staccato rhythmic motive, a driving
(and tiring) bass line marked secco in the valve and pedal
register, and long, sustained notes, all done at exceptionally
loud dynamics.
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances
from West Side Story
With the explosion of “pops’’ concerts on symphony
orchestra schedules, West Side Story is increasingly found
on audition lists so a player can demonstrate fluency in
commercial, popular and jazz styles. The “Mambo” and
“Cool” sections require diligent attention to rhythm and you
Orchestral S e c tio n a l
will want to become comfortably conversant in the way jazz
and dance figures are interpreted. A good place to learn the
“rules” of this style is Alan Raph’s Dance Band Reading and
Interpretation (Alfred Music).
Leo Delibes: Mazurka from Coppelia
This piece used to be very common on audition lists and
for good reason: it features a long succession of melodic
eighth notes without a good place to breathe and provides
an opportunity for the player to implement— to use Edward
Kleinhammer’s oft repeated phrase— several of the important
“unwritten laws of rhythmic pulse.” It is just a matter of time
before orchestras notice this challenging piece again and start
adding it to audition lists and concerts once more.
Cesar Franck: Le Chausser Maudit
Franck’s tone poem, The Accursed Huntsman, employs the
dotted eighth/sixteenth note rhythmic motive of Wagner’s
Ride of the Walkure in a faster tempo and requires nimble
slide technique and precise tonguing. This appeared on
audition lists frequently in the 1970s and has been largely
forgotten as orchestras play less of the “light classical” genre
of music that used to be so popular. Do not overlook this: it
certainly will be rediscovered and you will be glad you had a
head start on preparing Franck’s dramatic masterpiece!
Charles IvesAVilliam Shuman: Variations on “America”
Originally written for organ solo, Ives’ variations on the
familiar tune that accompanies the song My Country, 'Tis
of Thee (known first as God Save the Queen/ King) has been
skillfully arranged for both orchestra (by Shuman) and
concert band (by William E. Rhoads). Shuman turned two
important lines near the end of the piece that were originally
for the organ pedals into challenging parts for bass trombone
and tuba. Clear articulation, good rhythmic style, and clean
valve work make this an excerpt that appears on auditions
from time to time and on pops concerts more frequently.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini
This musical portrayal of Francesca and her lover Paolo—
doomed to spend eternity amidst the buffeting winds of their
passion lust in the second circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno— is
a tour de force for bass trombone and appeared for many
years on audition lists, often used in the section round along
with the tuba player. Rhythmic precision within syncopated
figures requires great concentration, and the piece also
contains a slow, broad, lyrical melody in the middle register.
Long popular on audition lists along with Franck’s Le
Chausser Maudit, it is sure to return because it requires the
application of so many skills by a player.
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Orchestral S e c tio n a i INTERNATIONAL TROMBONE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL O R C H E S T R A L S E C T I O N A L
DENNIS HUBERT
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, “From the Diary of Anne Frank,”
with its extended cadenza-like recitative for bass trombone,
this 1991 work, based on entries from the 13-year-old Anne
Frank’s famous diary, is a highly dramatic and atmospheric
piece for narrator and orchestra. It made the round of
American orchestras pretty quickly after its premiere with
the composer and his newly founded New World Orchestra,
and is notable for the extremely prominent bass trombone
solo, which is the most significant instrumental solo in the
piece. I thought for sure it would become a new addition
to the audition repertoire, but for whatever reasons . . .
copyright, I assume . . . it failed to ignite.
Igor Stravinsky, “Agon”
Written as the composer was in stylistic transition from
Neo-classicist to dodecaphonist, “Agon,” for orchestra and
twelve dancers, was premiered by the New York City Ballet
in 1957. I first played it during a NYC Ballet residency in
Fort Worth in the early-mid 1980s, and in the midst of a
part that had almost nothing to play, was shocked to find a
half-page of bass trombone writing that unnerved me at first
sight, knowing nothing about the piece beforehand. In one
of two pas-de-trois, Stravinsky gives the thematic material
to four players, concertmaster, principal and bass trombone,
and marimba, sparsely accompanied by low strings and (I
think) violas. The two trombone parts are florid, rhythmically
complex, and angular. Over the years we probably played
this twenty times with the Balanchine inspired Fort Worth
Ballet, and it has remained, in my mind, as one of the most
rewarding moments for the bass trombone in all of the
orchestral literature.
Ornette Coleman, Symphony No. 2, “Skies of America”
I mention this piece because it has actually had a fair amount
of play in Europe, and was even performed by the New York
Philharmonic, apparently with Kurt Masur on the podium,
something I find surprising, to say the least. And then, just
within the past few years, the New York Times published a
glowing review of “Made in America,” the film biopic of Mr.
Coleman’s life and work, making special mention of the Fort
Worth Symphony’s c. 1983 performance of this 1972 piece.
As I recall the trombone parts were some dozen pages of
running eighth notes, angular, rangy and with an accidental
in front of every single note. There were only two parts, but
the orchestra hired an extra player in order to double the
parts, presumably in the hope that at any given moment,
somebody, whether by accident or intent, would land on a
“correct” note. I’m not sure it would have mattered. . . .
In t e r n a t io n a l T r o m b o n e A s s o c ia t io n J o u r n a l /
Michael Nyman’s “DGV (Danse a grande vitesse)”
This piece was new to me when we performed it over
two weeks with the Texas Ballet Theatre last fall. The ballet
score was apparently adapted from Nyman’s commissioned
work “Music a grand vitesse,” written in 1993 for the
opening of a high-speed train in France. Judging from
trombonists’ signatures on the back cover, as well as
comments from colleagues in New York City Ballet and
the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, the piece has been
making the rounds with dance companies, more perhaps
in Europe than in this country. Utilizing a large orchestra
with full percussion, the score also calls for a concertante
group of 13 instruments within the orchestra, including
three saxophones, electric bass . . . and bass trombone. The
bass trombone part includes extended passages of thematic
material in the valve and pedal register, characterized by big
dynamics, extremely fast tempi, the possible need to double­
tongue in a legato style in the low register, and, perhaps
the most challenging, the fact that no matter how carefully
thought the seating arrangement, the bass trombonist will
almost inevitably not be able to hear an instrumental voice
he is doubling at a critical time. This is definitely not
something you want to try to read on the first rehearsal.
Peter Maxwell Davies, “Salome”
Described by Gramophone magazine as “one of the most
substantial and rarely heard” works in the composer’s
catalogue, “Salome” was commissioned by Danish
choreographer Fleming Flindt as a vehicle for his wife in
the Fleming Flindt Circus Company. One of the leading
proponents of the Bournonville method of Danish classical
ballet, Mr. Flindt later became the artistic director of the
Dallas Ballet, and revived this work perhaps in response
to those critics who felt his productions were too . . .
cautious. His production of “Salome” proved to be anything
but cautious. The large orchestra played from a catwalk
suspended across the width of the stage and some forty
feet above it. Conductor Anshel Brusilow (formerly
Music Director of the Dallas Symphony, and, prior to
that, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra) had
admonished the orchestra to not look at the stage. In the first
place, if you took your eyes off of the part or the podium,
you would be immediately lost, and, two, in Vivi Flindt’s
1978 premiere performance, she had danced the Salome part
. . . nude. Extremely demanding parts for all instruments,
huge percussion section, one of the most difficult scores I
remember playing. Oh, and she wore a body stocking in
Dallas. (Sorry, Anshel; I peeked. Quite a lot, actually.)
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