Review

Bill Reichenbach
Streets of Paris: for trombone and piano
Trombone and piano

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2016
URL: http://www.CherryClassics.com

Score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Streets of Paris was commissioned for solo trombone and wind ensemble by Riverside City College, California State University, Fullerton College, Irvine Valley College, Mount San Antonio College, Ohio University, University of Redlands, and Upland High School. This work is for advanced players. It is written in a jazz-inflected style with some characteristically French insouciance, mostly in 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4 meters. Its harmony is richly chromatic and sometimes bi-tonal with frequent juxtapositions of major and minor tonalities. The trombone part is given in bass clef, range G–d²; its tessitura lies mostly above the staff. It has 114 full measures of rest out of a total 398 measures. In the other 284 measures there are a lot of notes, mostly at tempi of quarter=130/140. The cadenza is challenging and includes four consecutive measures of triplet 16ths in 4/4 meter at quarter=80. No mutes are needed. The piano part isn’t difficult, but is best suited to a pianist with larger hands, as many chords span a 10th.

Though playing continuously, the piece breaks down into five distinct sections, which are indicated by changes of tempo or meter. Much of the first part has a Caribbean flavour; here we could be on the rue de Bagnolet. The slower section that follows is a leisurely stroll on the boulevard St. Germain. The fast section beginning at measure 200 suggests to me the traffic circle at Place Charles de Gaulle. I think the composer has happy memories of time spent in Paris, as I do, and has written quite a successful piece. It is dedicated to Larry Zalkind, who gave the world premiere at Riverside City College in March 2009.