Review

Marco Bordogni
Melodious Etudes 21-30:

Arranged by Ran Whitley

3 tenor, 1 bass trombone or tuba

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

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 4 trombones

Ah, the Bordogni vocalises. They are time-tested and available in so many versions, including sets edited by Alan Raph, Michael Mulcahy and Benny Sluchin. Duet parts have been composed by Tom Ervin, David Lawrence Ritt and Arthur Leiby. There is even a Bordogni Suite for three trombones and tuba arranged by Andrew Heading. In this publication, Ran Whitley presents us with arrangements of some of these etudes for trombone quartet.

In each of these arrangements, the original etude appears in the first trombone part and, as such, has the same range as the original, roughly c to b-flat¹. The bass trombone part sits in the C to f range mostly laying down chord roots. It could work nicely as a basic harmonic duet part. The second and third parts provide countermelodies that occasionally go higher than the melody line as well as providing rhythmic interest during sustained notes in the melody. It does not appear that these quartets are designed to be played with the piano accompaniments for these etudes although the harmonies should work for the most part.

The parts are clean and well laid-out. My review copy is in pdf format. According to the publisher’s website, a physical version is also available;  etudes 1-20 are available as a separate publication. I don’t know why this set has only 10 etudes as opposed to the 20 etudes in the first set. Perhaps this is due to the greater length of these etudes. The idea is a clever one and seems well-executed.