Review

Johann Sebastian Bach
Adagio & Fugue BWV 564:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer

Trombone Octet: eight trombones: 6 tenor, 2 bass trombones

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2021
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts.

Primary Genre:

The manuscript of this work, written for organ sometime between 1708 (Mülhausen) and 1717 (Cöthen), has not survived. It is now considered most likely to have been composed at Weimar in 1712. This arrangement for six tenor trombones and two bass trombones is in the original key of C major.

The fugue is in four parts, and with its largely step-wise progressions, and no interval larger than a sixth, it is a ‘natural’ for the trombone. Parts are quite extensively doubled, but with the arranger’s customary skill, clarity is maintained throughout; the full ensemble is used only in the last eight  measures. Parts 1-4 are given throughout in tenor clef; parts 5-8 in bass clef. First part contains b¹ in the first measure, and tops out at c². Second goes up to b-flat¹. Trombone 8 goes down to BB-flat and seventh part to C.

Production is adequate, but many of the beams on groups of 16th and 32nd notes are solidified in the score, which is of necessity somewhat crowded, and also in the parts, where there is ample space for measures to have been adjusted to eliminate this problem.