Graveside trombone solos?
  • Geremia
    Posts: 269
    What are some good solo trombone pieces suitable to be played in a cemetery at Catholic burials?
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,088
    The tradition is 3 or 4 trombones, not trombone solo. And I assume this is really solo, not with accompaniment. which reduces it further. My inclination would be to look at the sacred solo literature instead of the trombone literature, and then do it unaccompanied. Maybe something like "I know that my Reedemer liveth" from Messiah.
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,934
    If you can find a bass soloist, perhaps the Tuba Mirum from Mozart's Requiem? Then again there's no real good cut-off point . . .
  • Geremia
    Posts: 269
    Mozart's Tuba Mirum would need some rearranging.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,094
    "The tradition is 3 or 4 trombones, not trombone solo. "

    Are you thinking of the March and Canzona for four trumpets from Purcell's music for the funeral of Queen Mary (II) done an octave lower?
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,802
    There's the obvious sarabande w/o double stops, and then the even more obvious Gregorian melodies, used in another solo cello work together with double-stopped commentary.

    At all costs keep the 'other' sequenza for a non-liturgical occasion.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Years ago (and I mean years ago!), I wrote an "Entrance Antiphon" (yes, that long ago) on the text "O look at me and be merciful"] with a distinct chorale style to the setting. I had dusted it off in 2002 and set it as the opening (and closing) Chorale of a Trombone Quartet I was writing. The style of the chorale might well be appropriate for four trombones playing at a funeral (there is also a higher transposition for two trumpets and two trombones, and of course there is something approaching the original 4-part vocal setting).

    As a side note, Liam might well have sung the original when he was in my choir at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. He can attest that the time frame was (relatively speaking) eons ago!

    The trombone/ATBB version is attached.

    Chorale-O Look At Me-ATBB.pdf
    56K
    Chorale-O Look At Me-ATBB.mp3
    2M
    Thanked by 2Incardination Schönbergian
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,088
    No, mostly the German aequale tradition, or the related Moravian trombone choir.
    https://imslp.org/wiki/3_Equali%2C_WoO_30_(Beethoven%2C_Ludwig_van)
    https://imslp.org/wiki/Equale_(Seyfried%2C_Ignaz)
    https://imslp.org/wiki/Aequale%2C_WAB_114_(Bruckner%2C_Anton)
    https://imslp.org/wiki/Aequale%2C_WAB_149_(Bruckner%2C_Anton)

    Obviously not for a funeral, but a fun notion for a wedding:
    https://imslp.org/wiki/Wedding_March_No.1_(Gounod%2C_Charles)
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Liam
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Thanks, Jeffrey ... I was going to mention the Bruckner Aequale but didn't get around to it before you!!
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