Review

Joseph Canteloube
Danses Roumaines: for trombone and piano

Arranged by Ralph Sauer


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

Piano score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Joseph Canteloube was a French composer and musicologist active in the early Twentieth Century. He was an active collector and arranger of French folk music. His Danses Roumaines, written for piano and published in 1930, uses Romanian folk songs collected by Michel Vulpesco. This relatively obscure work contains seven movements and takes around 18 minutes to perform, although a selection of movements could easily be chosen for a shorter performance.

Ralph Sauer’s arrangement is definitely for advanced performers. Sauer does a good job of creating rests for the trombonist, but performing all seven movements could be an endurance challenge for many students. Range tends to stay in the upper middle register, with extremes of B to d2. Tempos are uniformly brisk and even though the fifth movement, Hora Miresei, slows a bit, it contains fast runs in most measures. Excellent slide technique is required throughout and double tonguing is needed in some movements. However, there is real excitement and energy to these songs. This arrangement could be an excellent recital closer or encore piece, especially if a selection of movements is played.

-Chris Buckholz
University of New Mexico