Review

Ernst Bloch
Prayer “From Jewish Life, No.1”: arranged for tuba or bass trombone and piano

Arranged by Gordon Cherry


Vancouver, BC, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2013
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Primary Genre: Solo Bass/Contrabass Trombone - with piano

Ernest Bloch is most well known among trombonists for his Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra, commissioned by one of the instrument’s first champions, Davis Shuman.  However, in the music community at large, Bloch is widely regarded as one of the most prominent Jewish-American composers and music educators, having held positions at the Mannes School of Music (theory and composition), Cleveland Institute of Music (founding director), and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (director). Bloch’s From Jewish Life (1924) is a set of three brief sketches for solo cello and piano; the first, Prayer, is arranged here.
 
Bass trombonists familiar with the popular vocalises by Marco Bordogni, especially low editions, will find many similar challenges in approaching Bloch’s Prayer. Gordon Cherry has reduced the range of the original version to a manageable C to d-flat1; however, the performer must possess great breath control and sustaining ability to navigate long phrases that contain rests no longer than a quarter plus a sixteenth. Prayer is legato or tenuto throughout, though it also contains numerous technically challenging upper-neighbor grace note figures in the manner of the famous trumpet excerpt from Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle (Pictures at an Exhibition). Some figures lie well for execution with a valve, while others necessitate a fast legato tongue. Lastly, many performances of the original cello version contain even more rubato than Bloch marks, which are substantial. The accompaniment is relatively simple.
 
Cherry’s transcription allows bass trombonists to experience a beautiful work by Ernest Bloch that they might otherwise miss. While not nearly as involved as the Symphony for Trombone, Prayer comes from the heart of the composer’s Jewish period of work from which he is known. While many cellists perform it as an encore, this will work equally well following an opening selection or even starting a second half.

-Erik Shinn
University of Florida