Review

Georg A. Wilkenschildt
24 Solo Pieces:

Copenhagen, , Denmark
Publisher: Edition Wilhelm Hansen
Date of Publication: 2010
URL: https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/publishers/edition-wilhelm-hansen/

Score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

This collection of pieces for trombone and piano, edited by Professor Niels-Ole Bo Johansen, first appeared as a 1957 edition by Palmer Traulsen to Anton Hansen’s 1941 Trombone Method. Like Hansen’s original, Traulsen’s version of the Method also did not include the piano accompaniment. Fortunately, this edition reunites the trombone and piano parts.
 
These 24 pieces range in length from one to two pages and present interesting soloistic and rhythmic turns. The beginning of the book should be within the reach of a good college freshman music major but the later etudes become quite challenging including cadenzas, wide leaps and, in the case of No.23, generous use of lip trills. The progression of key signatures throughout the book roughly follows a circle of fifths pattern, adding flats up to six and then taking away sharps from six back to none. The range, which begins somewhat conservatively reaches up to d2. There seems to be a conscious effort on the part of the composer to include rhythmic and metric variety from one piece to the next. Bass, tenor and some alto clefs appear and, in the case of No.21, change rapidly. The editor does make the comment, “...current notation and performance practice is followed in the present editions, which may be used as studies in clef reading.” Some etudes feature quite a few ledger lines below the staff in tenor clef. These will present significant reading challenges on a par with the Lafosse School of Sight Reading and Style, books C and higher.
 
The piano parts appear to be idiomatic but are challenging enough to require preparation.   Professor Johansen has recorded a triple CD album of all 73 pieces from Hansen’s original Method. In addition to the Wilkenschildt pieces there are the 25 Preludes by Axel Hildingsen and the 24 Improvisations by Axel Jørgensen. As is pointed out by the editor, these pieces can be combined in an ad hoc form to create suites for inclusion in a recital. They can also provide a challenge for top-tier sight-readers.

-Brad Edwards
Arizona State University