Review

Various
Festival Classics for Trombone: 22 Solo Pieces with Piano Accompaniment

Arranged by Larry Clark


New York, NY, United States
Publisher: Carl Fischer
Date of Publication: 2014
URL: http://www.carlfischer.com

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

The following is a description of the contents printed on the back page of the publication:
Festival Classics is a progressively graded collection of classic solos with piano accompaniment. The book contains a fine mix of transcriptions of familiar classics along with solos written specifically for the trombone. Many of the pieces in this collection are on state contest/festival required music lists and cover performance levels from grade 2 through 5. There is a wide variety of music from all style periods and by some of the greatest composers of all time. As an added bonus there is an included data CD that contains MP3 audio files of the piano accompaniments to make practicing more fun. The data CD also includes all of the piano accompaniment parts for all of the pieces in the collection as printable PDF files.
 
The following solos are included:
To a Wild Rose - Edward MacDowell/Merle J. Isaac
Country Gardens - Traditional/A.R. Ranger
Spanish Eyes - Everett J. Evans
Day Dreams - Al Pinard
Arioso from Cantata No.156 - J.S. Bach/H.R. Kent
Artemis Polka - Herbert L. Clarke
Italian Romance - Carl Bohm/William F. Kretschmer
The Two Grenadiers - Robert Schumann/W. Lewis
Song to the Evening Star - Richard Wagner/Charles J. Roberts
Andante Cantabile - P.I. Tchaikovsky/P.X. Laube
Romanza Appassionata - Carl Maria von Weber/P.X. Laube  
Phantasy Piece, Op.10, No.2 - Burnet Tuthill	
Inflammatus - Gioachino Rossini/H. Wannamacher
Andante et Allegro - Joseph Guy Ropartz/A. Shapiro  
Elsa's Dream - Richard Wagner/Theodore M. Tobani
Berceuse - Benjamin Godard/Charles J. Roberts
Sonatina - Warner Hutchinson  
Song of the Toreador - Georges Bizet
Nocturne - Felix Mendelssohn
Allegro Moderato - Louis Hassler/P.X. Laube
Piece Concertante - Marcel Samuel-Rousseau
The Wild Rose Polka - Hale A. Vandercook
 
This collection will serve students well all the way from middle school through early college. Not only are a wide variety of styles and difficulty levels represented, but from a teaching standpoint a great diversity of articulations, dynamics and musical directions are too. Solo parts are all given in bass clef. The layout, printing and physical appearance are all first class. While one might have minor quibbles about the contents, even about some of the editing choices, it is a tremendous bargain. If bought individually, these solos would far exceed the price of this collection, which sells for $14.99. And not only do you get the piano and trombone parts, but also an MP3 audio file of the accompaniment.

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico