Review

Camille Saint-Saëns
O Salutaris:

Arranged by Jean-Louis Couturier

2 trombones, organ

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2020
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Chamber Music
Secondary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 2 trombones

The correct title of this piece is O Salutaris Hostia. It is a communion motet for two male voices and organ written in 1884, the fifth of six settings of this text by Thomas Aquinas that Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) composed between 1860 and 1884. It is given in its original key of E major; trombone parts are in bass clef, range for first is a-g-sharp¹, and for second e-d-sharp¹. The music is well-suited to the trombone and there are no significant difficulties. As in the original score, no registrations are indicated in the organ part, which is on two staves only.

A single line played on the organ is joined by first trombone in m3 and the organist’s left hand in m7. At m11 there is a key change to C major and second trombone plays to m.18, when it is joined by first, now back in E major. The music becomes harmonically more complex and there are some quite daring dissonances. At m39 it returns to pure diatonicism, ending quietly on an E major chord.

There are few other published arrangements for two trombones and organ and only one original work that I could discover, Choral & Canons by Bernard Reichel, a Swiss composer who lived from 1901 to 1992. M. Couturier, b.1963 in Annency, is a trumpet player, conductor and composer, with more than a hundred published works, including arrangements, to his name.