Review

Arnold Schoenberg
Six Little Pieces, Op.19:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer


Vancouver, BC, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2014
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

piano score and trombone part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Ralph Sauer must be insanely busy since his retirement from the Los Angeles Philharmonic – he is constantly creating new arrangements for trombone, trombone with piano, trombone ensemble and so on. It’s all to our benefit, since the arrangements are of a consistently high quality. The present work consists of the six pieces in the title, all short and quite challenging. Generally the range demands are not too bad, although in the first piece there is a passage that goes up to f-sharp2 in sixteenth notes; an alternative is given an octave lower. Other than that passage, range demands are not extreme; the need for flexibility and lightness, on the other hand, do verge on the extreme, along with great demands for speed at times; pieces 1 and 4 make such demands, at least if the performers adhere to Schoenberg’s tempo indications. A number of passages use octave displacement to keep the lines within a reasonable range. The requirements for flexibility, extended range, and fast passages place this arrangement squarely in the arena of faculty/professional players.

-Philip Brink
Mahidol University College of Music