Review

Camille Saint-Saëns
Adagio from Symphony No.3:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer


Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2012
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 8 trombones

Twenty-five years after his previous attempt at composing a symphony, Camille Saint- Saëns decided to try once more, this time combining the genre with his love of the organ. In the Poco Adagio sub-movement of the work the organ appears with quiet grandeur. Ralph Sauer has created a sublime arrangement of this Poco Adagio for eight-part trombone ensemble with an optional ninth contrabass trombone part.

In researching trombone ensemble arrangements of this work, I found that there are two others in existence: one for trombone quartet arranged by Ken Murley and another for trombone octet by Terry Greenawalt. Murley’s quartet is often performed by larger trombone ensembles with each part multiplied. It is a fine arrangement, but only presents the first portion of the movement’s melodic material. Greenawalt’s arrangement is written for a larger ensemble and covers most of the material in the movement. For some reason, he opted to leave out the string pizzicato triplet figures that establish a sense of motion in the middle of the movement. Sauer’s arrangement is the most authentic as he has included all content from the original. The organ chords transfer beautifully to the timbre of the trombone ensemble as does the melodic content from the movement’s famous excerpts that orchestral trombonists know well. 

The piece is arranged as a double quartet, with Trombone 5 acting as first trombone of the second quartet. The top part in each quartet frequently reaches b-flat1 with one d-flat2 at the end of the piece. Both bass trombone parts go down to C. The optional contrabass trombone part enters in the last third of the work and reaches down to DD-flat. Tenor clef is used for the top two parts of each quartet. The publisher’s website notes that it can be performed by a moderately advanced trombone ensemble.

-Cory Mixdorf
University of Arkansas