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O rchestral S e c tio n a l

DENNIS

BUBERT

Orchestral S ectional UNDER THE RADAR PARI 2 OVERLOOKED PASSAGES FOR BASS TROMBONE n the last installment of this column, Ralph Sauer, 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.

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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,

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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.

Orchestral S e c tio n a l

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

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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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. . . .

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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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