Review

George Frederic Handel
Eight Duets:

Arranged by Russ Schultz

Two trombones

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2019
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 2 trombones

For this new collection of duets, Russ Schultz has taken works by Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) previously arranged for the combination of flute (or violin) and cello and adapted them for performance on trombones. The specific pieces have been previously published under the title Acht Stücke für Flöte oder Violine und Violoncello (Eight Pieces for Flute or Violin and Violoncello), which was collected and edited by Eric Guignard.

To adapt the works for trombones, Dr. Schultz simplified passages that are more idiomatic for flute/violin as well as transposed a small number of brief episodes up or down by octave. All eight duets are in their original keys and some repeats have been omitted. The tessitura of both parts make these ideal for a combination of tenor and bass trombone, although neither part ventures outside a workable melodic range for either instrument, c-c² in part one, C-f¹ in part 2, allowing for performance by any pair of trombones. It should be noted that one of the duets from the original collection was excluded, No.4 – Menuetto con 2 variazioni, and to compensate, the original Zwei (two) Menuette was divided into two separate duets with instructions that they be performed as a set.

This collection could certainly be performed complete or as a smaller group of selected movements. They are also ideal to play during lessons, specifically if a student needs reinforcement reading tenor clef.