THE ROMANCE ATTRIBUTED TO CARL MARIA VON WEBER

AND THE CONCERTINO OF FERDINAND DAVID:

INSIGHT AND INTERPRETATION

by

JOHN GAVIN SHANKS

CHARLES G. SNEAD, COMMITTEE CHAIR

CHRISTOPHER KOZAK
JOANNA BIERMANN
JONATHAN WHITAKER
NORMAN BALDWIN
STEPHEN PELES

A DOCUMENT

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts
in the School of Music
in the Graduate School of
The University of Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA

2014
Copyright John Gavin Shanks 2014
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 ABSTRACT

Certain pieces of music in the repertoire of any instrument stand above the rest. Young

players study them as a rite of passage, professionals perform them as standard repertoire, and

audition committees request them to assess the candidate’s musicality. For the trombone, two

such pieces are the Romance attributed to Carl Maria von Weber and Ferdinand David’s

Concertino. Despite the importance of these pieces in all phases of a professional trombonist’s

career, less scholarly attention has been paid to them than to the repertoires of other instruments.

The purpose of this document is to provide an interpretation of these works to be used as a guide

to successful performance. This interpretation will be informed by formal and historical

overviews.

The creation of this path to competency requires a thorough historical

investigation. This look at history is also interesting in its own right, as both pieces feature

interesting backgrounds. The Romance was likely not written by Weber or intended for the

trombone, yet it is known as the Weber Romance for trombone. Felix Mendelssohn originally

intended to write the Concertino, but passed that responsibility to his concertmaster, Ferdinand

David. If Mendelssohn had set a precedent by writing a trombone solo, perhaps the other great

composers whom Mendelssohn influenced would have followed suit. These facts can at the very

least provide the aspiring trombone soloist with a sense of context for preparation of these works.

The core of this document is a phrase-by-phrase interpretation of each work coupled with

the historical background. The process of combining this historical background with information

ii
about the structure of the piece, period performance practice, and the mechanical problems

specific to the trombone forms the base from which the successful performing musician works.

This “performer’s guide” is not meant to be a method book or a practice guide but rather an

informed application of music theory and historical knowledge to the composer’s musical

content in these pieces.

iii
 DEDICATION

This document is dedicated to my mother, Sharon. As a newborn I interrupted her

postgraduate study, and so I am very proud to have completed this doctorate in her honor. She,

my father Ed, and my grandmother Madeleine have worked hard to make sure that I’ve had the

time and resources to see this path to its conclusion. Thanks, Mom, for giving up your Master’s

for me.

iv
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am pleased to have space to acknowledge those colleagues and friends who have

contributed to this document. Pride of place must go to my committee members: Jon Whitaker,

Skip Snead, Joanna Biermann, Stephen Peles, and Norman Baldwin. I am incredibly grateful for

their guidance and insight. Linda Cummins, as well, has been a tireless resource both as an

educator and in her role as Director of Graduate Studies. I must mention Jon Whitaker again for

his role as applied professor, a role which we all know goes far beyond that of instructor. His

knowledge, support, and drive have really fueled the creation of both this document and my

career. Additional thanks in this area must go to Demondrae Thurman, whose complete

musicianship will forever inspire me. Thanks particularly to my family, without whom I could

never have pursued this dream of mine. I will be forever grateful. I can’t forget Orange Cat and

Black Cat’s contributions toward warming my lap, nor can I leave out Brienne the pit bull’s

enthusiasm and encouragement to get up and take a walk. Finally, I cannot thank my very new

fiancée Catie White enough for her daily patience, inspiration, and love. I could write a whole

document on that subject, but instead I’ll let the entirety of my life speak to my appreciation for

her.

v
 CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................ ii

DEDICATION ........................................................................................... iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...........................................................................v

LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................. vii

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF ROMANCE ......................4

CHAPTER 2: GUIDE TO INTERPRETATION OF ROMANCE ..............8

CHAPTER 3: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF CONCERTINO ..............27

CHAPTER 4: GUIDE TO INTERPRETATION OF CONCERTINO ......30

CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................56

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................58

APPENDIX A: Solo Part and Score of Romance ......................................60

APPENDIX B: Solo Part and Score of Concertino ...................................67

vi
 LIST OF FIGURES

1. Sections and Key Areas of Romance .......................................................9

2. Measures 11-18 of Romance with chord markings................................10

3. Emphasis points in measures 11-18 of Romance ...................................13

4. Emphasis points in measures 19-26 of Romance ...................................15

5. Sections and Key Areas of Concertino ..................................................31

vii
 INTRODUCTION

The solo trombonist is an uncommon sight. Historically the trombonist has been called

upon to play many roles, but the role of soloist has been the exception rather than the rule. Other

instrumentalists enjoy large and varied repertoires penned by some of history’s greatest

composers. Additionally, there exists a great deal of fine scholarship pertaining to solo literature

of instruments such as the violin and piano. Scholarly works such as these often focus on the

preparation and proper performance of this solo literature. These works often contain historical

context, structural overviews, and guides to interpretation. However, the solo trombonist lacks

these resources despite the fact that the repertoire for the instrument has exponentially expanded

in size and quality since the nineteenth century. In fact, the 1992 Pulitzer Prize was awarded to

the Concerto for trombone by Christopher Rouse.

Today’s aspiring trombone soloist has an expanding and vibrant world of new works to

explore but a lack of scholarship from which to draw. The Romance attributed to Carl Maria von

Weber and the Concertino by Ferdinand David make logical starting points for this scholarship.

These are among the first serious solo works that students encounter and as such are requested at

many college entrance auditions. They are also some of the most-performed pieces on college

and professional solo recitals, they are frequently requested at professional auditions, and they

form nearly the only points of contact with the output of the great composers. It is the aim of

this document to provide a guide to informed interpretation of these two solo works which draws

from historical context and structural content.

1
 The college entrance audition process is designed to provide a complete picture of a

student’s musical development. Most often the student is asked to prepare solo repertoire,

etudes, and a small selection of common orchestral excerpts. The committee will spend most of

its time listening to contrasting movements from the solo repertoire. Students encounter the

Romance and the Concertino early in their education and as such these works are very often the

ones that they elect to perform at collegiate auditions. Both of these solos are complete musical

works with several contrasting sections allowing for the musical variety that will help the

committee form opinions about the student’s progress. These works are also different from each

other, meaning that an entrance audition would be nearly complete if it consisted of the Romance

and Concertino alone.

Professional orchestral audition panels also want to hear a complete picture of the

candidate’s musical development. The committee generally asks for a large variety of orchestral

excerpts and makes their judgment of the candidate’s technical and stylistic expertise based on

these. However, at most auditions the list of required excerpts also includes at least one

movement of a standard solo. The purpose of this solo is to allow the committee to hear the

candidate’s musicality in a less restricted setting. The David Concertino is famous among

trombonists as an orchestral audition piece, particularly in Europe. Being a concertino, it visits

the standard range of 19th century German concerto styles in a shorter timeframe. This makes it

useful as an examination of different solo styles without having to spend too much time

exploring any one specifically. The Romance does not enjoy the ubiquity that the Concertino

does in European circles, but in my experience at recent American auditions it has been

requested increasingly often.

2
 These two pieces form an important part of a professional trombonist’s career. They are

studied for college entrance auditions, performed on student and faculty recitals, and asked on

orchestral auditions. The lack of scholarship on all trombone literature includes even these

essential pieces. This document is intended to address this deficiency by providing a clear path

to successful interpretation of the Romance and Concertino. While reading this document, it will

be helpful to refer to the full reproductions of the score and solo parts available in Appendices A

and B.

3
 CHAPTER 1

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF ROMANCE

Richard Wagner said of Carl Maria von Weber that “There never lived a more German

composer than you.”1 This high praise was quite appropriate as Weber was deeply involved in

the formation of German Romanticism. This Romantic spirit was deeply enmeshed into the

artistic sentiment in Germany at the time. Weber was a sort of proto-Wagner in that he was a

total stage director who paid attention to all parts of the production. He was not only a

composer, but he was a conductor, pianist, guitarist, and until a voice accident, a singer. He was

a director and also wrote about all of these experiences. This focus on the single artist’s

complete vision was also quite typical of Romanticism.

Weber was born on November 18 or 19, 1786, in the city of Eutin in the German state of

Holstein. His family was a musical one, and his father placed upon him the expectation of

becoming a child prodigy in the style of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In fact, Mozart was related

by marriage to the Webers (he married Carl’s uncle Fridolin’s daughter Constanze), so Franz

Anton Weber had personal experience with child prodigies. Carl was in fact successful as a

child, but never gained the level of fame that Mozart had at a similar age. Still, he was a singer

and pianist before he could walk, owing in part to a congenital hip defect that delayed this

development until the age of four. Young Carl was afforded much attention and instruction to

meet this goal of becoming a child prodigy, including counterpoint study with Michael Haydn at

the age of 11. Nearly all aspects of Carl’s early life were controlled by his father, an interesting
1
John Warrack, Carl Maria von Weber, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 9.

4
figure with no real claim to the nobility that the “von” in the family name signified.2 It was his

father who had begun his musical education, and also his father who introduced him to the

composer Johann Peter Heuschkel in the year before Carl began lessons with Haydn. Franz

Anton also attempted to market Carl as another Mozart through his early teenage years, but

despite Carl’s obvious talent and early successes there was only one Mozart. It is believed that

Weber himself was displeased with many of his childhood works and destroyed them himself.

This runs contrary to the story reported by his son Max Maria von Weber in the first biography

of Carl. In this biography, Max claims that the childhood works were destroyed by a fire at the

publisher Johann Nepomuk Kalcher’s establishment. However, a closer look at Weber’s life

makes this highly unlikely as he was still attempting to sell works supposedly destroyed in the

fire after having moved away from Munich where Kalcher was based.3

Weber went on to write over three hundred works that survive to the present, and yet in

the catalogue by Wilhelm Jähns of every surviving piece there is no mention of the Romance or

any other solo work for trombone. In my study of the incipits of all the works, no piece matches

either the piano introduction or the trombone solo introduction. Weber was aware of the

trombone as an orchestral instrument, being part of the standardized brass section.4 In his

orchestrations he was fond of “solemnly intoning horns” and in his solo works he “allows

himself demonstrative flourishes of a quasi-operatic kind that he would never have permitted his

singers in an actual opera.”5 These last three facts taken together allow for at least the possibility

of a trombone solo work such as the Romance (which does contain “solemnly intoning” as well

2
Michael C. Tusa, “Carl Maria von Weber,” Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press,
accessed August 8, 2013.
3
Ibid.
4
Warrack, 366.
5
Warrack, 367.

5
as “quasi-operatic” sections), however the fact remains that the Romance is not mentioned by

Jähns or any other Weber scholar, nor is a trombone solo work of any kind.

An even more compelling reason that this work likely was not written by Weber for the

trombone comes from a study of the piece itself and the instrument for which it was supposedly

written. The piece features notes in a range easily playable by the modern trombone with F-

attachment, however this instrument (then called the Tenorbaßposaune) was not invented until

the 1830s, well after Weber’s death. The straight Bb trombone of Weber’s day could not have

played these low notes. The oldest public domain edition of the work supplies a possible

explanation for this by providing alternate versions of some passages indicated for the bassoon,

trombone, or euphonium. Curiously, the very beginning of the solo line in the score is marked

for trombone, violoncello, or bassoon. The euphonium is mentioned within the musical score,

but the cello is not. The bassoon and euphonium are both capable of playing the low notes that

the straight trombone could not, but this explanation brings its own problems. It is very unlikely

that the composer made these markings as the euphonium, like the trombone with F-attachment,

did not come into being until at least the 1830s. This leaves either the possibility that the work

was written after the invention of the F-attachment and the euphonium and therefore was not

written by Weber, or that the work was written by Weber but for some instrument like the

bassoon or cello. It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which the work could have been written

by Weber for the trombone. An original published version of this work would greatly help

dispel the confusions listed above, however none seems to exist.

The Weber biographer John Warrack, when specifically asked about this work by British

trombonist Martin Harvey, found little to suggest that it is a work by Weber:

I have to say that I can see nothing in it [the Romance] which suggests any of
Weber’s stylistic individualities. The chromatic harmony is of a kind common to

6
 many composers, and the tremolo passage beginning on page 5 [of the piano
score] doesn’t have quite the ‘shudder’ one normally gets from Weber at such
points… It also strikes me as distinctly bland for something from Weber’s pen …
to me it seems as if for various reasons the piece must be of a later date (than that
of Weber’s death).6

The weight of this evidence seems to point strongly to the conclusion that this piece was

not written by Weber for the trombone. A more solid conclusion than that cannot really be

reached with the evidence at hand. Still, the work is an important one in the trombone repertoire

regardless of its original instrumentation, and so it deserves close study whether it was composed

by Weber or not.

6
Martin Harvey, “Weber’s Romance with the Trombone Over?” ITA Journal (April 1991): 14-15.

7
 CHAPTER 2

GUIDE TO INTERPRETATION OF ROMANCE

The Romance attributed to Carl Maria von Weber is typical of romances in its era in that

while the romance started as a strophic song-form, by the 19th century the term romance did not

carry any specific formal connotation. Such is the Romance attributed to Weber. It does not

readily fall into a formal category, despite being composed in discrete sections. On the largest

scale, there is an introduction, then two similar sections repeated in different key areas, and then

a coda. On a smaller scale, each of these repeating sections is made of three parts that repeat

with small accompanimental transition statements interspersed. The large scale, then, would be

understood as Introduction, A, A’, Coda, whereas the smaller scale could be understood as

Introduction, A, B, C, A’ B’, C’, Coda. See Figure 1 on the following page.

8
 Figure 1: Sections and key areas of Romance

Section Measures Key area(s)

Piano Introduction 1-10 C minor

Solo Introduction 11-29 C minor to Eb major
Transition 29-31 Eb major to D major
A 32-38 G minor to F major
Transition 38-41 F major to Bb major
B 42-51 Bb major
Transition 51-53 Bb major to Gb minor
C 54-68 Gb minor to Bb major
Transition 68-72 Bb major
A’ 73-79 C minor
Transition 79-82 G major to C major
B’ 83-92 C major
Transition 92-94 C major to Ab major
C’ 95-110 Ab major to C minor
Coda 111-116 C minor

9
 The Romance begins with a ten-bar piano introduction in C minor. It makes a brief

attempt at escape to the relative major key in measure 5, however after another bar the music

returns to C minor to set up the solo introduction. The solo introduction begins at measure 11

and firmly establishes C minor. See Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Measures 11-18 of Romance with chord markings

The first phrase is eight bars long, the first three two-bar segments of which are roughly

parallel. The first two bars set the tone for much of the musical material of the piece in that the

second bar’s tension comes from a suspension on the first beat resolving downward to the

second. This pattern of appoggiatura on the first beat resolving stepwise to the second is

10
repeated over and over throughout the work. Knowing that this pattern pervades the piece, the

knowledgeable performer will draw the audience’s attention to this figure at the first opportunity.

A slight crescendo climaxing on the second of the repeated Ebs and a subsequent decrescendo on

the resolution to the D will serve to do this. This resolution is doubled in the piano

accompaniment in the right hand, so using a decrescendo on the resolution does not remove the

musical interest. Continuity is served by treating the segment comprising measures 13-14

similarly even though the first beat of 14 is not completely identical. A crescendo through the

end of bar 13 to the downbeat of bar 14 and then back to piano by the end of that measure will

serve the music. However, as this is essentially a restatement of the first two bars, something

must be different about it. The first two bars are marked piano and presumably the second two

bars are to be played at that dynamic level as well, however in the interest of musical line and

interest the second two bars should be played just barely perceptibly louder. By the end of

measure 14, however, the music is served by returning the dynamic to a true piano in preparation

for the mezzo-forte that arrives, barely foreshadowed in the piano part by a short crescendo, on

the downbeat of measure 15.

Here the tessitura is the highest yet encountered. This will immediately attract the

audience’s attention to this new phrase segment. The previous segments predictably followed

one another; this one contrasts starkly. The high G which begins measure 15 will sound flat if

played in the usual second position, and will need to be adjusted to sharp second position. The

note will need to be adjusted slightly higher than its normal sharp-second position because it is

the fifth of the C minor chord present in that bar. The measure also presents another technical

concern after proceeding down the C minor arpeggio from the G to the Eb to the C: a short lip

trill. Even though there is no known publication date for this piece and the composer was very

11
likely not Weber himself, this is still certainly a Romantic-era piece, and so the trill should not be

approached from above but start directly on the C. Ideally the trill would be between a C and a

D (with the grace note B-natural to C added at the end) but as this is ostensibly a trombone piece,

the lip trill will, of necessity, end up being more between a C and Eb. In any case, care must be

taken not to spend so much time worrying about the ornaments as to disrupt the tempo of the bar

and the melodic line. There is no printed crescendo in measure 15 into 16, however an increase

in intensity through the downbeat of measure 16 and its high Ab will allow this last note to act as

the endpoint of this rising phrase. This Ab should be played full-length, only allowing for a brief

breath if needed to re-set the embouchure for the low F on beat two. This F is marked forte and

will need to be brought out significantly to seem more intense than the high Ab before it. Unlike

the previous two phrase segments, this Ab is in the chord of the bar and not a suspension or

retardation, and also unlike these previous segments the end of measure 16 flows directly into

measures 17 and 18. This means the F on beats two and three of measure 16 should not die

away, but keep its singing quality all the way through the eighth notes that follow it to the middle

C that makes up the second half of beat one in bar 17. Bar 17 outlines a V 6/4 resolving to 5/3 at

the very end both in the piano part’s straight eighth notes and the solo part’s arpeggiated and

then scalar sixteenth and thirty-second note runs. This measure will likely take a considerable

amount of practice, and fortunately for the trombonist is marked rallentando. This should not be

a sudden change, but should begin on the second half of the held middle C. Thirty-second note

runs at this tempo are quite difficult for the trombone, so this early start at the rallentando is

welcome. As the performer navigates past the thirty-second notes to the held low G, the

temptation will be to rush. Subdivision is key here, as the rallentando is still happening. The

quarter note should be mentally subdivided into sixteenth notes to spread out the rallentando

12
evenly among the last two beats. Measure 18 brings the return to C minor on the downbeat and

the return to the normal tempo on beat two. This low C should be the target of the entire phrase,

and as such should receive the greatest emphasis. The soloist is holding a half note at this point

and would be well served by the knowledge that the accompaniment returns to tempo with two

quarter notes on beats two and three to set up the next entry on beat four.

Figure 3: Emphasis points in measures 11-18 of Romance

The notes that have been suggested as emphasis points in Figure 3 above should grow

throughout the eight-bar phrase to provide a sense of flow. Playing them all at the same dynamic

level provides the opposite effect.

In addition to the sample points of emphasis, Figure 3 also shows another choice that the

performer must make. In measure 17, there is a choice to be made between the upward-stemmed

and downward-stemmed notes. The prevailing opinion among trombonists is that the upward-

stemmed notes represent an easier choice should the thirty-second notes present too much of a

technical challenge. In the edition of the score available on public domain, originally published

by Muzgiz in 1932 and edited by Nikolay Sergeyevich Zhilayev, there are markings indicating

the instruments that the editor felt would be better suited for these choices. The trombone,

13
euphonium, and bassoon all appear as possible markings. In measure 17, the editor suggests that

the lower notes be played on the bassoon. While there is no original publication, an informed

guess could be made that these markings were not present in the first publication if the piece was

written by Weber or a contemporary. While the bassoon was certainly extant in Weber’s time,

the euphonium did not exist until well after Weber’s death. The more likely explanation is that

these markings were made by a later editor.

14
Figure 4: Emphasis points in measures 19-26 of Romance

The introduction continues in bar 19 with another eight-bar phrase. See Figure 4 above.

This begins as the first phrase did with a set of two two-bar phrase segments which should be

related to each other in some way to make musical sense. The harmony shifts to Eb major here

and the main harmonic action of each two-bar segment is a motion to I. The main melodic

action of each bar is a scalar descent of Eb-D-C-Bb. In each case there is an escape up to an Eb

between the C and Bb, and the difference in treatment can make for an opportunity to wring

music out of the repetition. The Eb at the end of bar 19 should be unaccented, allowing for the

emphasis of the two-bar phrase to fall on the Bb. Measure 21 is more complicated, as there is a

turn to navigate before the Eb is reached. The turn should not affect the time, and the simplest

way to execute this is to play the D in fourth position, allowing for a natural slur from the C to

the D back to the C and only requiring a legato tongue between the C, the B natural, and back to

the C. From a subdivision standpoint, the turn should be treated as thirty-second notes occurring

on the second half of the quarter note that precedes the marking. The quarter note Eb ending

measure 19 has been replaced here by a dotted eighth-sixteenth figure leading to another quarter

note Eb on the downbeat of measure 22. Obviously the composer wants to emphasize the Eb the

second time around, and to enable this only the quarter note on the downbeat of measure 22

should be emphasized, not the dotted eighth-sixteenth. Also, the Bb that immediately follows

15
should serve as a release from the accented Eb and not the arrival point as its analogue in the

earlier segment was.

Measure 23 begins the second half of this eight-bar phrase and again it is composed of

two parallel two-bar segments. Some editions of the score, including the public domain version,

present a choice of octaves for the last two eighth notes of measure 22 as well as a passage

marked ossia or ad lib differing by a third in tessitura and an additional sixteenth note in the

arpeggiated descent in measure 23. When presented with these choices, every effort should be

made to extend technique and range to make the more musically complete choices possible. The

“easier” choices appear to be merely simplified versions of the intended content. The range in

the figure bridging measures 22 and 23 requires an F attachment, as does the figure bridging

measures 17 and 18. These examples are worthy of specific mention as they provide specific

evidence that this piece was not written by Weber for the trombone. The F attachment was not

invented until after Weber’s death. Logically, it follows that if Weber wrote this piece, he could

not have written it for a trombone with F attachment. If the piece was written for trombone with

F attachment, it could not have been by Weber. Regardless, the piece is currently part of the

repertoire for trombone with F attachment, and as the lower notes are possible on this instrument,

they should be played. The figure ending on the low C to begin measure 23 should be played

with direction and the low C should resonate rather than blast. The performer should strive for

length on this quarter note, breathing only in the time necessary to adjust the slide from being

extended nearly the full length of the instrument back to first position for the high Bb on beat

two. This note change takes a strong embouchure and a high degree of coordination. The arrival

on the high Bb will be heard as sforzando as marked without any extra effort required of the

performer. The figure will be surprising enough given that the tessitura jumps nearly three

16
octaves. Instead of landing with force on the high Bb, it should merely be played full-length and

lead into the descending C dominant arpeggio. The accent in measure 23 should briefly land on

the upper neighbor Db on beat four. The beginning of measure 24 should be allowed to unfold

from this high point. The quarter rest on beat three allows for a full breath before beginning the

final two-bar segment of this eight-bar phrase. Measures 25 and 26 should be approached the

same way as 23 and 24 but with more intensity as it a repeated figure sequenced up a step from

the previous one. This greater intensity builds momentum leading into the new phrase.

The next phrase beginning at measure 27 is only four bars. It dissipates intensity rather

than bringing the built-up momentum to a climax. The marked mezzo-forte should be observed

even though the accompaniment is at a piano. The moment brings attention to the soloist alone

as he or she seemingly decides to halt the progress of the momentum. The key to selling this

decision is to foreshadow the eventual ritard by using the entire allowed length of the held notes.

A large breath in the quarter rest in measure 26 will accommodate this tactic. The quarter note

beginning 27 should be played full-length and lead directly into the second beat’s dotted eighth,

which should crescendo into a natural slur up to the Eb sixteenth note. The accent on the

following Eb quarter note should be one of weight rather than sharp attack. The descending

sixteenth notes on the fourth beat are all marked with accents and again these should be played

with a weighty feel. There is an opportunity for a catch breath if needed at the very last moment

during the G quarter note in measure 28. Finally in the second beat of this measure the marked

ritard begins. The dotted-eighth D should be played like the similar figure a measure earlier

with a crescendo to the sixteenth note. The Bb quarter note on beat three should, as the marked

crescendo indicates, be the musical target of the bar. The remainder of the bar and the G quarter

note in measure 29 should relax from this high point. In measure 29 the piano accompaniment is

17
marked a tempo and has a brief moment alone in the spotlight before surrendering again. The

end of the phrase is a simple D 6/4 to 5/3 resolution with its own fermata, and then a tutti fermata

on the quarter rest making up beat three. The soloist should allow ample time for the air to clear

before entering on beat four.

The “A” material begins with a pickup to measure 32. The section is ten bars long if the

transitory material is included or six (plus a resolution beat) if only the solo material is counted.

For the purposes of this document, the solo material and transition material will be handled

separately. The solo material in this section begins much as the previous phrases have: two

analogous two-bar segments. The first starts with a dotted eighth-sixteenth pickup into measure

32. The emphasis in the first bar should be on the downbeat quarter note D to provide a point of

stability as the measure transforms from a D major chord in first inversion to a D dominant

seventh chord in first inversion. The emphasis in bar 33 should also be on the downbeat quarter

note, in this case a C, but here the emphasis is set up by a crescendo through the triplets on beats

two and three of measure 32. The harmonic function is also different, as this is another example

of an accented non-chord tone on beat one. The underlying harmony is G minor, and the

accented C should relax down to the chordal Bb. Measures 34 and 35 should be accented in the

same way for similar reasons. Measure 34 begins this section’s flirtation with Bb major as the

harmony is F major changing to F dominant, and measure 35 is a resolution to Bb major.

However, measure 36 brings a return to G minor by way of its dominant, D major. The soloist

has a part to play in this subversion of expectation as well, and the solo part bears this out as

well. Rather than another set of two related two-bar segments, the next solo material, while

repeated and related, repeats on a two-beat timescale rather than a two-measure one. Beats one

and three are accented upper neighbors to the underlying harmony and so should be brought out,

18
allowing the common-tone Ds on beats two and four to relax into the harmony. Measure 37

brings another harmonic shift. The first half of the bar is in C minor, making what was a chordal

common tone D in the previous bar now an accented upper neighbor on the first beat. The rest of

the bar in the solo material fits the C harmony, so the rhythm must provide the musical interest.

The second beat is a high G, which should be approached with energy by using a crescendo

through the dotted eighth-sixteenth on beat one. The underlying harmony changes to a C

dominant seventh in preparation for the next bar’s F major, but as the soloist is holding a G, no

adjustment is needed, just awareness. This high G was the target of these two bars, and should

be allowed to relax down to the repeated Cs that follow on the last eighth note of measure 37 and

the downbeat of bar 38.

The transitional material between the A and B sections starts in measure 38 and continues

through measure 41. The solo material leaves the harmony at F major, and aside from some

chromatic explorations in the accompaniment, it stays there through measure 40 before setting up

Bb major by the end of measure 41. The new B material starts in the solo voice in measure 43,

but the accompaniment shifts from eighth notes and half notes in both hands to a tremolo in the

new key of Bb in measure 42. The feel is that of a shift in the music providing a one-measure

introduction to the new solo material.

The B solo material begins in measure 43 in the key of Bb major. This material runs

from measure 43 to the downbeat of measure 51 and eschews the trend that the rest of the solo

material had exhibited. This material does not start with two related two-measure segments, but

rather is an eight-bar phrase where the first four bars are not related and the last four are roughly

analogous to each other. The first measure should begin at a true piano and be played with

sustain, allowing the dynamic to rise and fall slightly with the outline of the tessitura, and the

19
point of emphasis of the segment is the Bb on the downbeat of measure 44. This Bb is another

accented suspension as the harmony shifts to an F dominant seventh chord. This means that the

A natural that this Bb relaxes into must be lowered slightly as it is the third of the chord. The

last three sixteenth notes of the bar are an F major arpeggio rising to the chordal seventh on the

downbeat of measure 45. This note should be intense but not as a stopping point of its own. It

should lead into the F on beat three, which itself begins a downward scalar passage which

redirects at the last minute to the chordal third of I on the next bar, measure 46. A look at the

piano part will tell the soloist all he or she needs to know about the function of measure 46 – the

piano has a quarter note on beat one and then a sudden dynamic shift and fully voiced and rolled

IV chord as a dotted half note starting on beat two. The solo part by itself may seem to flow

from beats one to two, but there is actually a break in the music at this point. The D, even

though it is a dotted eighth leading to the tonic Bb sixteenth at the end of beat one, is the target of

this entire four-bar phrase segment. The Bb sixteenth note is a rhythmic device used to spring up

to the high G on beat two rather than an important melodic or chordal step, so if a breath is

needed, it should be taken before the Bb sixteenth note at the end of beat one. The leap up to the

high G will naturally sound accented, so the sforzando and accent markings are somewhat

unnecessary. This G must also be carefully tuned as it is the third of the Eb major chord

underneath it. The rest of this bar steps down in scalar fashion and relaxes in dynamic into a C

in measure 47. The next three bars have the same rhythm: a half note tied to an eighth note, then

three more eighth notes descending. Bar 47 should crescendo into bar 48, and the decrescendo

that starts immediately thereafter should be continued all the way through the bar so that measure

49, essentially a restatement of measure 48, sounds different. The eighth notes at the end are

different in that while measure 48’s are a downward F dominant arpeggio, measure 49’s descend

20
in scalar fashion. The underlying harmony in the two bars is the same, and so highlighting the

large difference in dynamic and the slight difference in the printed notes alleviates any sense of

boredom from the nearly-repeated measures. Bar 49’s eighth notes descend in scalar fashion to a

Bb dotted half note which encounters a turn before the last beat of measure 50. This should be

executed as a set of four sixteenth notes on beat three. The Bb in measure 50 should not be

treated as a resting point as the harmony underneath is a V 6/4 moving to 5/3. Instead, this Bb

should drive through the turn and the last two eighth notes to arrive at the actual Bb tonic chord

on beat one of measure 51.

Measure 51 marks the beginning of the short transition between sections B and C. This

transition serves to move the tonal center from Bb major to Gb major. All that the trombone

soloist must hear to inform his or her next entry is the last two beats in measure 52 resolving to

the downbeat of measure 53: a vii fully diminished of V to V 6/5 to I. This firmly establishes the

new tonality of Gb major, and the remained of measure 53 is essentially a piano introduction

with a tremolo in the right hand and quarter notes in the left hand wavering back and forth

between Gb major and F diminished.

The last beat of measure 53 marks the entrance of the C material in the trombone line.

This is marked con anima as opposed to the B material’s dolce or the A material’s espressivo, so

even though the underlying accompaniment is very similar rhythmically to the B material’s, this

section must sound different. This difference arises not only from the key area but, as marked,

from the tempo and feel. This is the longest section and is made of multiple phrases. The first

phrase occurs over six bars and is largely repetitive. This phrase is made up of two related three-

bar segments, the first of which begins with the pickup to measure 54. The Db on the downbeat

of measure 54 should receive the initial emphasis, and after the rest of that bar unfolds from the

21
high Gb the subsequent Db on the downbeat of measure 55 should be approached with a sense of

return rather than novelty. The true emphasis of the three-bar segment should fall on the

downbeat of measure 56, however. This is another example of the accented suspension found so

often in this piece, and the Ab that does fit into the chord should be relaxed into from the tense

Bb downbeat. The second three-bar segment begins in the second half of measure 56 as a pickup

to measure 57. This three-bar segment should be treated just as the previous one was, but in this

case the eventual emphasis at the end of the phrase does not fall on a suspension. Instead,

measure 58 flows directly into a resolution on beat one of measure 59.

The second part of the C material’s first phrase begins with a pickup to measure 60 in the

solo line and an abrupt shift in harmony in the accompaniment. The soloist would be well served

by the knowledge that this is essentially a circle-of-fourths progression by bar, with an F#

dominant 7 in measure 60 resolving to B minor in measure 61 and an E dominant 7 resolving to

A major in measure 63. This four-bar segment is made up melodically of a similar series of two

related two-measure segments. The performer should think of the C# in measure 60 as a leading

tone to the eventual D on the downbeat of measure 61. This C# should crescendo through the

second half of measure 60 to arrive at this D. The middle of this bar would be a good place to

take a breath if needed, but most performers should be able to make it through without breathing.

The emphasis on the second two-bar segment falls on the familiar downbeat suspension in

measure 63. In the second half of the bar, the piano accompaniment suddenly changes in both

dynamic and rhythm, setting up the entrance of the second half of the C material. This wrap-up

of the C material also wraps up the first half of the piece and so this material is less “procedural”

than the rest has been. An example of this novelty is the material that begins with the pickup to

measure 64. The very first note after a pickup of a sixteenth note is a fermata, and as such all

22
motion ceases while the tension builds on this held note. The tension relaxes as the sixteenth

notes that follow step down, with only a slight re-take of tension as the Bb on beat three acts as

an accented upper neighbor to the As that surround it. The dynamic should be allowed to relax

as measure 64 progresses into measure 65 which does the same into measure 66, and in the last

two beats of measure 66 there is a slight swell as the chromatic descent gives way to an escape

Bb which returns back down to the E that it came from. This E, rather than continuing the trend

of chromatic descent, acts as a leading tone to what becomes the root of an F dominant chord in

measure 67. Measure 67 features a return to a familiar Bb tonality as the F dominant seventh

resolves to Bb on the downbeat of measure 68. The performer should not lose focus on tuning as

F octave leaps in this tessitura are notoriously difficult to tune. Depending on the performer’s

instrument the lower F may be in tune all the way in or in slightly flat first position, and the high

F will need to be adjusted to slightly low or significantly low first position accordingly to make a

true octave. As this is the root of a structural chord, the octave should ring true.

There is a brief section of piano alone before the second half of the piece begins.

Measure 68 features what is essentially an echo of the solo part’s material in measure 67 in a

different rhythmic configuration. Measure 69 is the same but down an octave. Measures 70

through 72 step down chromatically to land on a Bb dominant seventh chord under a fermata at

measure 72. After this fermata, beat three is a quarter rest in all parts which is also under a

fermata. Significant time should be taken here, as after this, the A B and C sections repeat with

minimal changes.

The pickup to measure 73 uses the same material as the A section but a fifth lower. The

key is different by the same amount as well, as measure 32 is V in the key of G minor, whereas

measure 73 is V in the key of C minor. The soloist’s responsibilities are similar to the first A

23
section up until measure 77, where this A’ section differs. In the analogous measure in the A

section, measure 36, the material repeats Eb to D twice, In measure 7, the material does step

downward from Ab to G in the first half of the bar, but in the second half a Db steps down to C.

In the first half of measure 78, in a place where the A material stays on the D the previous bar

stepped down to, there is a further leap up to a G stepping down to an F. This pattern of

accented suspensions should be emphasized: Ab and Db in measure 77, G in measure 78, and the

high C in measure 78. Measure 78 is an opportunity for music-making. First, the ritard must be

observed. The G should be emphasized both with weight and length, and this length will help

solidify the beginning of the ritard. The C sixteenth note after the F dotted eighth on beat two

should be played with more weight and length than the rest of the sixteenth notes have been in

similar figures, and this energy will help the octave leap to the high C happen with minimal

chance of an over- or under-shoot. The octave should ring true. This high C should be given

significant length, but it is not the final target of this phrase and so should not be played the

loudest. This C jumps down a tritone to an F# on beat four which leads to a G quarter note on

the downbeat of measure 79. This G is the target that the phrase has been looking for, and

should be played full-length and resonate into the silence that follows.

The piano accompaniment picks up a tempo on the pickup to beat three of bar 79. There

is a brief transitional section reorienting the key to C major by the downbeat of bar 83. Unlike

the transitional section between the A and B sections, this transitional section features an actual

written key change at the tremolo bar before the solo part comes back in.

The B’ section begins in the solo part at measure 84. Of the three sections of the second

half of the piece it is the most similar to its first-half analogue. There are no changes of the

material except that it is in C major rather than Bb major and so the solo part is written up a step.

24
The turn figure at the end of the B’ section is easier than the one at the end of the B section

simply due to the slide positions used in the new key. It is possible to execute the whole turn

using natural slurs by using fourth position for the D. This is much simpler than the mix of

natural slurs and legato tongue that the similar figure in measure 50 requires. The transition

section between B’ and C’ is also identical except for the difference in key: Gb major vs Ab

major.

The C’ section begins with a one-beat dotted eighth-sixteenth pickup to measure 95. As

already mentioned, this section begins similarly except a whole step higher. This section should

be played similarly to the C section until measure 108. The analogous spot in the original C

section is measure 67 resolving to 68. In these two measures which end a section in Bb major,

there is a simple F dominant seventh to Bb major resolution. In measures 108-109, which should

expectedly end this Ab major section, there is an exploration of C minor which continues on to

resolve into C minor in measure 110.

The coda section that ends the piece begins with a pickup to measure 111. The main

melodic material is taken from the beginning of the A section with one important harmonic

distinction. Here the emphasis on the downbeat quarter note continues, but finally this initial

quarter note is not a suspension or other non-chord tone. The downbeat quarter note in measure

111 is the fifth of the F major chord and the second beat’s quarter note is the root. The downbeat

of measure 112 is the fifth of the C major chord and the second beat is the root. The downbeat

quarter note in measure 113 is the fifth of the F major chord and the second beat’s quarter note is

the root; the downbeat of measure 114 is the fifth of the C major chord and the second beat is the

root; and measure 115 works the same harmonically as measure 114. To the soloist this fact

should imply that now the second quarter note is at least equally as important as the downbeat

25
and deserving of at least as much emphasis. While the entire coda takes place in the soft

dynamic range, it is a common mistake to play it too softly. Keeping enough intensity of sound

to carry the phrase is important. To differentiate this section from the rest, not only should the

emphasis be equal between the downbeat and second beat quarter notes, the second beat quarter

notes should not taper into the rests. Rather, they should be played at least the full duration of

the quarter note, and if they happen to be allowed to leak into the rest, then that is more desirable

than ending early. The idea is to emulate a string instrument’s tendency to resonate into rests

after the bow has been removed from the string. This slight difference will inform the audience

that there is something different about this section, and that difference turns out to be that the

piece is ending. The literal end of the piece should be approached with a small amount of ritard

in the penultimate and ultimate bars, particularly in the last dotted eighth-sixteenth. Finally the

resolution to I comes on the downbeat, so the performer should take this last opportunity to make

as much of this motion as possible.

The Romance may or may not have been written by Weber and may or may not have

been written for the trombone, but almost certainly was not written by Weber for the trombone.

Still, it is one of the most important pieces in the trombone repertoire and provides, if not an

authentic work by a master composer, an important link with one of the masters. The form is

typical of a late romance in that it does not follow a typical form, but it does provide an

opportunity to explore some of the technical and expressive heights of the trombone. In

particular, the piece tests the performer’s expressive ability in the Romantic style. Owing to the

dearth of trombone solo works of this vintage, this piece is one of the few extant works that can

serve this function.

26
 CHAPTER 3

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF CONCERTINO

Ferdinand David is largely known to history as a virtuoso violin soloist first,

concertmaster under Mendelssohn in the Gewandhaus orchestra of Leipzig second, and a

composer as a distant third. Because of his close association with Mendelssohn (the famous Op.

64 violin concerto was written for him), David’s own compositions are greatly overshadowed by

his friend’s. The two men’s lives overlapped from the very beginning, as David was born one

year later than Mendelssohn in the very same house in Hamburg. He took the position of

concertmaster of the Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipzig in 1835, the same year that Mendelssohn

became the conductor. He also gained a faculty position at Mendelssohn’s newly founded

Leipzig Conservatory in 1843.7 The friendship between these two men, then, was nearly

certainly a factor in the genesis of David’s Concertino. The work was actually originally

promised to Karl Traugott Queisser by Mendelssohn upon his arrival at the Gewandhaus, but due

to his hectic life and courting of with Cécile Jeanrenaud he asked his friend Ferdinand to write

the work instead. The work, originally promised in 1835, was premiered in 1837 by Queisser.

Karl Traugott Queisser is an interesting subject, as he was famous not only as a trombone

soloist of extreme virtuosity, but also as a multi-instrumentalist. This was not altogether unheard

of at that time, but was still a significant accomplishment He appeared with the Gewandhaus

orchestra as trombone soloist, but his primary employment by that orchestra was as principal

viola. More apocryphal reports say that he could perform on everything from piccolo flute to
7
David M. Guion, Carl Traugott Queisser and Musical Leipzig (Greensboro, NC: All-Purpose Guru, 2012), 237.

27
bass trombone, but the fact that he was an extremely accomplished performer on both the viola

and the recently invented Tenorbaßposaune is well supported in the literature.8

The Tenorbaßposaune was an instrument of the same length and therefore the same key

(Bb) as the standard tenor trombones of the day, though the bore size was closer to that of the

bass trombone. The defining feature of the Tenorbaßposaune was an innovation by Friedrich

Sattler called the Quartventil, or “fourth down valve”. This was a thumb-activated valve that,

when closed, pitched the instrument in F, thereby allowing for the entire chromatic range from

the pedal register upward to be used. On a standard Bb trombone, there is a gap of a tritone on

the second partial as the distance between the first and second partials is an octave, yet the slide

can only make adjustments of a tritone in length. Sattler’s Quartventil allowed players to fill in

this gap and also extended the lowest possible ”pedal” note from E1 in seventh position to C1 in

extended seventh position + F-attachment. This made the Tenorbaßposaune capable of covering

the entire range of both the tenor and bass trombones of the day, and its versatility lent itself well

to virtuoso players like Queisser. His virtuosity was all the more stunning because it was self-

taught. His obituary mentions that “the instrument was in a very low state of development in the

town band and no one could show him anything more than the slide positions…”9

The friendship between these two men (David and Queisser) is an inspiring example of

the collaboration between composers and soloists. David, a soloist himself, wrote a dignified

and complete Romantic-era work for Queisser the musician, and the fact that Queisser was a

trombonist has given the trombone community one of its standard repertoire pieces. It is

tempting to wonder what a Mendelssohn Concertino would have done for the development of

trombone literature in the 19th century and beyond. Still, the David Concertino is rightly

8
Guion, Queisser, 151.
9
Ibid., 146

28
regarded as one of the best and most important solo pieces written for the trombone and deserves

its place of prominence.

29
 CHAPTER 4

GUIDE TO INTERPRETATION OF CONCERTINO

The form of the Concertino does not set itself apart from other solo works of the era. The

first and third movements are in fairly typical sonata form (albeit with typical concertino

modifications) and the middle movement is a simple ABA funeral march. This concerto is

typical of its name, being a shorter, freer concerto form. See Figure 5 on the next page for an

overview of the form of the piece.

30
 Figure 5: Sections and key areas of Concertino

Movement 1: Allegro Maestoso

Section Measure range Key area(s) Comments

Accompaniment Exposition 1-41 Eb major

Solo Exposition 42-67 “
Transition 68-82 “
Secondary Theme 83-101 Bb major
Closing Theme 102-130 “
“Retransition” 130-159 “ “development”
Cadenza/Recitative 160-168 Bb major to C minor

Movement 2: Marsch Funebre

Section Measure range Key area(s) Comments

A 1-28 C minor
Transition 28-30 C minor to Ab major
B 31-51 Ab major
A’ 52-65 C minor

Movement 3: Allegro Maestoso

Section Measure range Key area(s) Comments

Introduction/Transition 1-12 C minor

Solo Exposition 13-38 Eb major
Transition 39-53 “
Secondary Theme 54-72 “
Closing Theme 73-96 “
“Retransition” 97-106 “ “development”
Coda 107-130 “

31
 The first movement of the Concertino is not marked with any sort of programmatic title

but only features the description Allegro maestoso, a marking which is nonetheless rich with

interpretive meaning. Seemingly in contrast with the majesty implied by maestoso is the

pianissimo dynamic of the opening material in the accompaniment. The soloist would be well

served to see this as the setting of a scene, or the beginning point from which the

accompaniment’s agitation grows until the soloist’s own entrance. This very quiet beginning

proceeds fairly predictably in the key of Eb major. The subtle chromatic touches are not atypical

of the era. Measure 20 brings a rather abrupt change of character from the long, flowing lines of

the first nineteen bars. The dynamic changes to forte while the harmonic rhythm doubles. The

rhythmic changes are highlighted by interspersed chromatic passing tones in the bass line and

running sixteenth note decorations in the right hand. The agitation continues through the rest of

the accompaniment exposition, with a strong return to the dominant on the downbeat of 38

marking the beginning of the setup for the soloist’s entrance. Measure 38 sees a crescendo and

all registers in either straight eighth or sixteenth notes rising to the fortissimo Eb major downbeat

at measure 42. The trombone solo enters here as well on a fortissimo Eb.

The first trombone entrance sets the character for the majority of the outer movements.

The expository and recapitulatory segments of these movements can be understood as an

interplay between this first style and the smooth, legato style that nearly immediately follows in

the pickup to measure 44. This smooth, legato style is more implied than expressly asked for,

but in the interest of musicality, as the first entrance is marked with accents and staccato notes

and as the second entrance has slur markings and tenuto marks, it logically follows to make as

much contrast as possible while staying within these guidelines. The entrance at measure 42

32
should be immediately full volume and not pull back during the duration of the half note or the

dotted eighth note that it is tied to. The following sixteenth note and eighth note triplets are

marked staccato and as such should be played separate, but not necessarily short. Any necessary

truncation of the possible full duration of the figure should come from the sixteenth and eighth

note triplets rather than the tied half and dotted eighth. This fits the fanfare-like nature of the

figure; any diminuendo on the sustained notes will not express the strength of the figure. The

figure will look even stronger when every effort is made to make the next two bars different.

The dynamic is marked piano and the first slur in the trombone part appears over the second half.

The differences are very clear: dynamic, articulation, and character. In the most common edition

there are a pair of crescendo and diminuendo markings indicating an arrival on the G on the

downbeat of measure 45, and this is a good marking. An emphasis on this non-chord tone

provides a point of reference for the analogous figure two bars later on the downbeat of 47.

These next two bars are merely a sequence upward, but emphasizing the retardations early on in

the piece provides the listener something to reference when similar figures return later. The

original character returns at the mezzo-forte pickup to measure 48 where the figure is again

accented and angular, and this should again be played in a sustained, rather than swelling,

manner. This sustain again comes into play during the half notes in measures 49 and 51. These

notes should be sustained until the rests that follow. This practice does bring up an issue with

the crescendo written under measure 50 and the forte in measure 52, namely that it is easy to

overshoot the dynamic if there is not a “re-take” of volume somewhere in the figure. Luckily,

the scalar triplet passage rising to the Eb on the downbeat of measure 52 provides just this

opportunity. The tessitura gives the necessary emphasis on the G on the downbeat of measure 53

as the high point of that scalar passage, so no additional volume is needed. A similar fact is true

33
of the descending passage in measure 53 in that nothing overt need be done with the dynamic to

provide the re-take of energy necessary for the octave leap in measure 54. Care must be taken to

sustain the high Bb and clearly articulate the descending Bb dominant arpeggio to end the phrase

on the downbeat of measure 55 with the same character as the initial entrance in measure 42:

strong and clear.

The accompaniment takes over in measure 55 with a chromatically decorated

exploration of tonic and the dominant seventh. Of note to the performer is the ascent in the right

hand at the end of bar 58 to highlight a new note, G, throughout bar 59. Indeed, the downbeat of

measure 60 is the same material from measure 42 but now briefly in G major. This high G is

easy to play low on the pitch for several reasons. The primary reason for this flatness is that the

seventh partial of any brass instrument will be significantly flat and that is the partial on which

this note lies. Another reason is that in the rest of the piece up to this point, the G has been the

third of the Eb major chord in most of its appearances, and so would be lowered to suit that role.

Here, though, it is the root, and care should be taken to play it exactly in tune with the

accompaniment’s G ostinato the bar before. The entrance at bar 60 should be executed with the

same stylistic characteristics as the entrance at measure 42 throughout the next four bars. The

secondary, “connected” character does not start until the pickup to measure 64, so any softening

of affect must occur only via the diminuendo from measures 61-62.

The phrase in bar 64 is of special note. This is an opportunity to set a precedent

that will apply during the entire piece. This self-reference provides an aural marker for the

discerning listener to remember. This is a similar figure to measures 45 and 47, but here most

editions add a crescendo that seems to place the emphasis in a different place. Specifically, the

high point of the phrase should be the G on the downbeat of measures 65 and 67. The dynamic

34
may rise and fall slightly with the tessitura in bar 66, but drawing the listener’s ear to these notes

provides a valuable sense of structure.

The pickup to bar 68 begins the transition using material from the primary theme

in an upward sequence. The half notes in measures 69 and 71 should be held at least their full

printed duration, as the primary full, accented style is again prominent here. The triplet figure in

measures 72-73 can present a significant challenge to even a seasoned performer. The student of

this piece would be well served to employ fifth position for at least the third through eighth notes

in measure 73, though it is theoretically possible to leave the slide in fifth position from measure

72 through the ninth note of bar 73. The intonation challenges inherent in playing high notes in

extended positions are enough to warrant using traditional positions, however. The rest of the

transition figure is straightforward and clear. An admonition to keep the dynamic down from

measures 76-79 (while still observing the crescendo) to allow room to grow between the high

point of measure 79 and the high point of bar 80 would be well placed, however. If bar 79 is

understood to have grown to a certain absolute dynamic (and traditionally a healthy, strong one

by this point), then bar 80 would be either a mere repeat of measure 79 or louder than the style

dictates. The figure between measure 81 and the downbeat of measure 83 is a sticking point for

many students in that the music slows and so the dramatic emphasis can be understood to be the

target of this slowness (the downbeat of measure 83), however the dynamic is loudest just before

the diminuendo on the downbeat of measure 82. The descending triplets should be played longer

as the line gets lower and slower, no matter if the poco rit is slight or more extreme.

The second beat of measure 83 marks the beginning of the secondary theme and

an expected move to the dominant key area. The accompaniment gives a modified version of the

theme to begin in its highest voice. The version of the part of the theme that occurs in bars 89-90

35
does not occur in the solo part, only the accompaniment. In fact, it is this material that begins the

entire piece, only in a different key. The solo voice enters in measure 91 in a soft, singing style.

Dynamic markings are present in most editions, however these are not to be pronounced or

overdone. Emphasis in the first four bars should lead to the D on the downbeat of measure 94

and the dynamic should be again piano at measure 95. The most popular edition shows a slur

between the target of the next four bars (the downbeat of measure 98) and the quarter note at the

end of the bar, but it makes much more sense to break that slur and take a breath instead, thereby

making the D quarter note a pickup to the phrase beginning at measure 99. As there is no extant

urtext edition, certain choices must be made about the composer’s intent, and it is my assertion

that this is the most logical place to take a breath. A breath is naturally necessary somewhere in

this vicinity anyway, and the Eb rather than the D is the most likely note to be the target of the

previous four bars for both melodic reasons (it is the high point) and harmonic reasons (the

arrival here is on Eb major in first inversion: the missing Eb from the sustained bass is in the solo

voice). Bar 99 includes a turn that benefits greatly from alternate positions. Slurring “against

the grain” using D in fourth position gives the ornament a much higher chance of coming out

cleanly. The motion to and from the B natural must still be legato tongued, however. The high

Bb in measure 100 is the logical high point of the phrase that closes out this theme, but also the

D in measure 101 must be emphasized. The articulation in measure 101 can be confusing, as

staccato under a slur is not a usual marking for the trombone. This should be understood to be

the primary, more marcato feel returning, and as such the Bb that starts measure 102 should be

held full strength and full value.

The closing theme begins at measure 102 and features more triplets than any other theme.

The character is similar to the first theme in that all non-staccato notes are held for their full

36
value. A key difference, though, was just stated. Staccato notes, while not short to the point of

absurdity, must be clearly separate from each other, and in this theme playing them somewhat

more lightly gives the agility the figure demands. The phrase at measure 102 is in two sections

of two measures, the second being a piano repetition of the first’s mezzo-forte. The figure is

clearly marked with accents on the notes that outline the melody’s rise and the surprising escape

from that expected rise on the third accented note (the F). Care should be taken, then, to shape a

slight growth in dynamic between the Bb and C particularly, as the rise in tessitura will

emphasize the F. As the D which is the target of these two bars is not marked with an accent, it

is tempting to de-emphasize it, but this is not correct. It is a full length quarter note on the

downbeat and at the end of a phrase, so agogic stress comes into play. Also, the expected next

accented note after the Bb and C would be D, and the F is merely an interruption. This, then,

means that the D should be given an emphasis not through any special immediacy or crispness of

attack, but through fullness of air delivery throughout. A string player holding the note for its

full length would be able to let that string resonate into the rest, but a brass player does not have

that option. The way to emulate this effect is to hold the note for its full duration and grow ever

so slightly in intensity toward the end. This creates the perception that the note is continuing to

vibrate even though the player has stopped. The next entrance is a piano echo of the same

phrase, but the final D is an eighth note rather than a quarter. The effect here is that the next F is

again an interruption of what was expected. The descending triplets and diminuendo of 106 are

echoed in the accompaniment in bar 107. The same is true of measures 108 and 109 which are

the same material one step higher. The rhythm in measure 110 is difficult for some students to

execute correctly. Most often the second articulated note in the measure is late, which throws the

remaining triplet notes out of time with the accompaniment. The player is advised to keep the

37
entire composition under consideration and not just his or her own part. A look at the score

provides a complete picture of the bar. On beat one the echo from bar 109 concludes, while on

beat two the soloist enters, holding an F. The attack of beat three is given solidly in the

accompaniment in the form of a dominant chord in 4/2 inversion. If the player hears this attack

as the first part of the triplets he plays for the remainder of the bar, it is quite difficult to miss. If

the player is only thinking about his own line, it is quite easy to miss. The rest of the phrase

from measures 110-113 is marked by triplet motion gradually rising while decorated with

chromatic lower neighbor tones and brief eighth rests in triplet subdivision. It is advisable to

take caution while breathing in these rests, as it is very easy to take too much time to breathe and

thereby reenter too late. Rather, it is safer to breathe before the entrance in bar 110 and then

again in bar 114, breaking the tie between the first two beats and turning the first eighth note of

the triplets on beat two into a rest. The ear will be drawn to the triplets on beat one in the

accompaniment, then to the trombone on its triplets on beat two, back to the accompaniment’s

triplets on beat three, and back to the trombone on beat four. Taking advantage of this tendency

to create an opportunity to safely breathe is a better tactic than trying to sneak breaths into the

very small spaces afforded by the rests in measures 111 and 112. The same is true of the rests in

bar 115. Filling up in measure 114 provides the momentum the player needs to blow past the

tempting rests in bar 115 and finish out the phrase at the downbeat of bar 118. If needed, a

similar breath can be taken not just between the first and second beats of measure 114, but

between the third and fourth as well.

The figures from bar 119 to the end of the closing theme provide a challenge for the

performer, but harmonically they are not difficult to understand. Measures 118-119 are in C

major, or V of V in the key of Bb. The fast arpeggiated passages in the trombone are difficult,

38
but understanding the harmonic function of these bars will help the performer to place the slide

in the right places to make the string of notes sound like a true C major sonority. The same is

true of the F major section at measures 120-121. The sixteenth notes move by too quickly to

consciously think about individually adjusting each A down by fourteen cents, but keeping the

idea of the harmonic function in mind allows the sonority a chance to occur anyway. The next

breath after the entry in measure 121 should be between beats three and four in measure 123 in

preparation for perhaps the most challenging two bars in the piece. Measures 124 and 125 would

be much easier on any modern instrument other than the trombone, but successfully executing

these two lip trills is a virtuoso skill for a trombonist, and as such this technique is at home in a

piece written for the foremost virtuoso trombonist of his generation. It is not that inaccessible of

a skill today, but it is still not an easy task. The F trill in measure 124 should be played in

somewhat sharp fourth position and trill to the G one partial above. The grace notes at the end of

measure 124 should be played in their normal positions, as this allows for a natural slur from the

F to the E, requires only one legato tongued slur from the E back to the F, and then allows for a

natural slur from the F to the F# on the next bar. This F# trill is to be executed on sharp third

position and trill to the G# above. Standard positions again work the best for the grace notes at

the end of the bar, as a natural slur is possible from the F# down to the E# in first position and

again back to the F# in third position. A legato tongued slur is required to move from the F#

grace note to the G arrival in bar 126. This G, while only an eighth note, should be played for its

full length and with the awareness that it is the major third of the Eb chord that underpins the bar.

This means that the normally very sharp second position required for the note will need to be

adjusted a little more toward where second position usually lies. The rest of the bar is an Eb

major scale which leads to bar 127, but now this Eb arrival on the downbeat sets up c minor (ii

39
6/5 in Bb) in preparation for the return to Bb. The trombone part in measure 128 through the

first half of measure 129 is a decoration of a held G which largely acts as an upper neighbor to

the F which makes up part of all three chords going on underneath in the accompaniment – V6/4,

vii diminished 6/4, V7. In the second half of bar 129, the G finally gets to fall to the F it was

seeking but only as the beginning of a scalar (and virtuosic) descent to the tonic of Bb. The V7

nature of bar 129 is reinforced with the eighth note entrance on the last full beat preparing the

accompaniment for its very high arrival on Bb major in bar 130.

Bar 130 marks the location of what would be the development if this movement was in a

less free sonata form. As this is a concertino, the form is in fact somewhat more free and this is

instead best understood as a retransition. The solo voice is absent, and the accompaniment uses

parts of the main material like a fully fleshed development would, but the departure from the

dominant of the movement is never firmly established. In fact, the section will ultimately

establish the dominant of the key of the next movement rather than the dominant of the current

one. There are sequential statements of the initial theme in measures 130, 132, 134, and 136, a

brief establishment of F major using the material from bar 64 in the primary theme from bars

138-141, and a sequential rise through bars 142-145 to a C which forms the third of an ostinato

pattern around Ab major. The bass is repeated sixteenth notes on Ab major while the treble

involves an octave-leaping chromatic pattern gradually rising from B to G on the downbeat of

148, where the material begins to waver between G major and inverted Ab major. The harmonic

motion, which for the four bars of 148-151 takes place once per bar, doubles in frequency at

measure 152. This is a repeated deceptive cadence, as one expected motion given the key area of

the entire piece would be G-c minor, but in this case the repetition not of V-I but of V-VI is only

a decoration of G for the moment. This is reinforced when the accompaniment begins an octave-

40
displaced chromatic ascent through G major in bars 154 and 155. Measures 156-159 are new

material on B diminished and F# diminished that set up the soloist’s entrance in bar 160. The

harmonic motion in bars 156-159 slows to one key per two bars, and large silences are

introduced. This serves to calm the furious motion of the accompaniment that had featured one

or both voices in nearly constant sixteenth notes since bar 142. By the silence in bar 159, the

piece is quite far indeed from the previous key area of Bb major. The octave F# ringing through

the silence, rather than being a whole new key area, sets up the C minor entrance (in second

inversion) in bar 160, serving as a lower neighbor both to the solo voice’s G and the

accompaniment’s G bass.

Bar 160 is marked “ad lib: quasi Recitativo” and this is a clear indication as to the nature

of the section. The accompaniment, aside from a C minor fanfare during the initial held G of the

solo voice, only fills in the gaps. The phrasing, timing, and overall music in the majority of this

recitative section are left entirely up to the soloist. It is customary to hold the first note at 160

out for quite some time at full strength and then drop the dynamic level significantly to start the

crescendo on the next F#. This next series of eighth notes in the second half of bar 160 is a

decoration of C minor, first as a descending triad with interspersed chromatic lower neighbors

and then as a descending scale from scale degree 5 to 1 in measure 161. Bar 162 is in a

Neapolitan color and the ending of the solo line sets up the accompaniment’s statement of an

ostinato in the bass and rising octaves in the treble. 163 remains in the Neapolitan, and bar 164

is a more diatonic ii(diminished)6. Measure 165 takes the one remaining step to a fully

diminished f#7 chord. These four tonalities, then, progress from expected to unexpected to

somewhat dissonant to entirely dissonant in that sequence: i, N6, ii(dim)6, f#(dim)7. The

listener’s ear is taken far away from the by now somewhat comfortable key of c minor in six

41
measures of music, but in bar 166 the solo trombone enters again with a forte entrance in lento

style clearly outlining a structural key relevant to its place at the end of the movement: G major,

or V of c minor. A clear knowledge of the function of the end of this movement is essential to

conveying the proper feeling with this descending line at measures 166-167. Care should be

taken to bring out the elements of G major in the figure to give them a chance to be understood

against the surrounding material, which seems for all the world to still be outlining c minor.

Consider the strong beats of bar 166: all four are Eb, and the downbeat of 167 is a C. The

accompaniment is silent, so it supplies no additional information or context. There are

accidentals to be found in bar 166, however: B natural, A natural, and F sharp. Setting aside the

members of the C minor triad, beat two of bar 166 has both a B natural and a D which are

important members of the G major triad. Beat three, again setting aside the C and Eb, features

an A natural and F# which bring to mind the V of G major: D major. This suspicion is furthered

on beat four where the only non C or Eb note is this missing D. What we see in this figure, then,

is the undeniable presence of a c minor feel but interspersed is the outline of a small but

functional piece of G major harmony: I V I. Confirming the notion that G major is implied as a

dominant of c minor in this section is the piano entrance on the downbeat of bar 168: G7. The

implication this has for the line in bars 166-167, then, is that the elements of G major in the line

should be brought out rather than glossed over. A practical way to do this is to slightly stretch

out the B natural in 166 and again slow down and stretch out the A natural and F# in the same

bar. The dotted sixteenth note D in the middle of the last beat should be emphasized as much as

taste will allow to set up the V of G feel. Finally in bar 167 the C should not be the strongest

note (as the agogic placement would indicate) but rather the G. This is reinforced with the

42
accompaniment’s piano echo of a G dominant chord on the downbeat of the next bar to close the

movement and set up the c minor beginning of the second movement.

The second movement is titled “Marsch funebre” and as such the performer and audience

know that this is to be a funeral march. The music itself makes this very clear as well, but the

informed performer will being a set of concepts to bear on his or her preparation of the music to

play to both the “funeral” and “march” descriptors. Specifically, the time should be addressed as

a march does not casually vary in tempo. There should be a deliberate sense of inevitability and

finality about the progress through the piece. The tempo marking of andante is apt, as one

would be walking during a march. It is worth remembering, however, that this is a march and

not a dirge. The feel is deliberate and plodding but the actual tempo should not be too slow to

walk to.

The movement opens in a clear c minor with the accompaniment alone at pianissimo.

This introduction spans bars 1-8 and is made up of two very similar halves. The surprise

fortissimi and subsequent decrescendi in measures 4 and 8 introduce a sense of an attempted

escape from the hushed mood of the funeral march in much the same way as a mourner’s wail

might interrupt a quiet procession to the grave: not entirely unexpected, but with just as little

power to change the circumstances. The solo part enters after this introduction at a mezzo-forte

marking, but this should be taken in context. The entrance should be present and immediate, but

not loud or shocking. The accompaniment repeats much the same material as in the introduction

while the solo part offers a melody that does not depart much from the c minor feel. Like the

introduction, this material is an eight-bar phrase in two four-bar sections. There are dynamic

swells marked and these should be observed, particularly the highest points of the dynamic

change. In the figure found in measures 9-10 and 13-14 the high point is on the downbeat of the

43
second bar, but in the figure found in measure 11 the high point is the Ab. Standing alone it

would make more sense to put the emphasis on the G that is the clear harmonic target of the

phrase, but to set up the by-now-anticipated fortissimo “surprise” in measure 12 the decrescendo

must start discernibly in measure 11 to separate the two figures. The alternative is that the

accompaniment’s interruption will seem to come from the final G, and this is not the function the

listener has come to expect from the figure. The end of this 8-bar phrase should be allowed to

follow the accompaniment’s crescendo somewhat at the end of bar 15 leading to the downbeat of

16. This fortissimo entrance in the accompaniment is different from the others, so the jarring

effect of it seeming to come from the end of the trombone’s line is beneficial. The difference is

that there is no diminuendo, and the material at 17 is just as loud as in 16. The trombone solo

phrase from 17-20 is in two parts and each should be emphasized in the same place to link them

to each other: the downbeat of bar 18 and the downbeat of bar 20.

A flourish in the low register of the accompaniment signifies measure 20 as a point of

departure from the predictable material that had preceded it. Bar 21 comes with a sense that

something is about to change as the low parts of the accompaniment begin a tremolando and the

higher parts present material similar to the introduction but separated by several octaves. This

activity in the accompaniment is counterbalanced by the fact that the solo material stays the

same, repeating itself at 24 from 22. Bar 25 sees the solo arrive on the same note as in 23 but

here the solo finally takes the cue from the accompaniment’s register shifting and ascends to a

high C in bar 26 via a decorated C minor arpeggio. Harmonically, the f# fully diminished of

measure 26 is quite far from its c minor surroundings and is interrupted from its perceived

function as a vii diminished of V. The next entrance is at best a weak V, being a c minor in 6/4

position. The second half of the bar does feature a true V7, implying that the pianissimo V6/4 on

44
the downbeat of 27 was meant to be perceived as a weak arrival, not the strong one implied by

the previous bar’s fortissimo vii(dim) of V. The total motion of measures 26-28 does set up c

minor again one last time, however: vii(dim) of V, V6/4 moving to V7, i.

As just stated, measures 28 starts in c minor. This next three-bar phrase is merely a

transition to the new key area and features a new fragment of melody in the highest voice of the

accompaniment. The modulation is quite direct and occurs on the second beat of measure 28

with an Ab dominant 7 chord in 4/2 position moving to what will be understood as a IV6 in the

new key of Ab major. There is no strong V-I setup for this new key, but the harmony comes

close: V4/2 of IV, IV, I6, vii(dim), I.

The B section of this ABA movement begins at measure 28 in Ab major. The solo voice

reenters in measure 31 marked piano and dolce. The character of this section is much more

flowing and serene. This could perhaps be understood as the place where the mourner either

fondly remembers the recently departed or accepts the person’s death. The dotted eighth-

sixteenth rhythms of the previous section are entirely absent in this section until the setup for the

return of the A material. This should not be taken as an invitation to be free with the time,

however. This section is still a funeral march, and if the marcher is lost in thought at this section

he or she is still walking at the same pace as everyone else in the procession. The freedom here

comes from the long held-out phrases and the dynamic swells and fades. The section does

employ typical Romantic mode mixture and this is evident from the very second bar, where Ab

major gives way to Db minor in what would be a minor iv rather than the expected IV. This

flatted scale degree 6 is used as a chromatic upper neighbor to the arrival on Eb in measure 33

where the music returns to I. The effect is that of a mild departure from expectation returning to

comfort and normalcy. After the arrival back on Ab major on the downbeat of measure 33, the

45
accompaniment again injects a brief echo of Db minor in the second half of the bar. Measure 34

begins again on Ab major but quickly employs a secondary dominant to arrive at the dominant,

Eb. What was a calm acceptance in bars 31-33 as the phrase sank from middle C through an

unexpected minor iv is now emboldened and reinforced as the phrase rises from the same middle

C in 34 through a stronger Eb major phrase in bars 34-36. This reinforcement is evident when

the new starting note remains on Eb for the beginning of the next phrase at measure 37. This

phrase brings another unexpected harmonic adventure when suddenly in measure 38 Cb returns

but in major. The key of the previous section’s sadness returns but here it seems to have

transcended the pain. The player should be aware of this key and make the appropriate

adjustments to the chord members he or she is responsible for: the fifth and the third. The Eb

preceding measure 38 is the root of the chord and should be played in the slightly lowered third

position that Eb is normally played in, but the Gb on the downbeat of bar 38, being the fifth,

should be slightly more raised than the already-sharp third position where Gb of that partial is

played. When returning to the Eb, the student must remember that this is now not the root, but

the major third of the chord, so to sound in tune it must be lowered further. This will result in

significant slide movement between the Gb and Eb and back to the Gb despite both being in

“third position.” Measure 37 again features a restatement by the accompaniment of the previous

phrase’s motion similar to that in bar 33. Measure 40 again starts in Cb major but has returned to

the dominant, Eb, by the downbeat of bar 41. This necessitates another slide position

adjustment. Where the Gb in bar 38 had to be raised slightly from its normally sharp third

position, this G must be lowered slightly from its normally sharp second position as it is the

major third of the chord. This level of attention to detail will ensure that the harmony is clearly

heard. Measure 41 begins in Eb major, detours briefly to Bb in the second half (outlined by the

46
falling arpeggio in the solo), and then returns to Eb major on the downbeat of measure 42. The

solo line sounds like it has just moved from Eb major on the downbeat of measure 41 through Bb

on the second half of that bar to arrive on Bb major on the downbeat of measure 42, but this Bb

is merely the fifth of the returned Eb major. The effect of this is that the expected arrival is

somewhat blunted and that the music must continue to find this point of arrival. It is not to be,

however, as bar 43 begins a diminuendo from this same high Bb back to an Eb in bar 44, but this

Eb is not the root of Eb major as it had been: the key has changed again to c minor.

Special care should be taken as the B section winds down to take in as much air as

possible. The unprepared player is very likely to run out of air midway through the held out

notes of measures 46-50, and this is not in character with the music. It is quite acceptable to end

the half note at the end of bar 44 a beat early to fill up entirely with air. The overall arch of the

phrase has reached its low point and the accompaniment has a rising figure that will draw the ear

away, so a full breath will not sound alarming here. With all this new air, though, the attack at

bar 45 should not be loud or harsh. This breath must last from measures 45 through 47. In

measures 46 and 47 the soloist holds a single G while the accompaniment returns to the dotted

eighth-sixteenth rhythms of the previous section, including the surprise descending passage first

seen in measure 4. It is dangerous to start this first held G too quietly, as the next is in a range

that is more difficult to play in the extreme quiet end of the dynamic spectrum. The G in

measures 48-49, then, should not be uncomfortably soft. Slower, warmer air is the key here.

The accompaniment again repeats the idea from the previous two measures but in a lower

tessitura. The pedal G in bar 50 can be a challenge for even experienced players, so daily

practice in this range is definitely recommended. The goal is a soft yet full and secure note with

a definite pitch center, not just a raspy sound with the slide somewhere around fourth position.

47
Harmonically the piece has returned to a dominant G major feel under these held-out Gs in

preparation for the A section’s return and its accompanying key of c minor. The dotted eighth-

sixteenth rhythms so prevalent in the A material again appear in the accompaniment as a warning

that the B section is about to end.

The A section makes its return at measure 52 in c minor. Compared with the solo

entrance in the first A material at measure 9, this entrance is an octave lower. The section is also

significantly shortened compared with the earlier A section, only comprising two statements of

the main melodic material and then another held-out pedal point note in the solo voice much like

in measures 46-50. The first phrase, beginning at bar 52, should begin at a comfortable dynamic

but with room to grow. The phrase as a whole should end at a higher intensity than it started,

and in particular the last note should not be cut short. The entrance at bar 56 can be softer than

the note in 55 let off to provide room for the large dynamic rise that occurs in bars 58-59. This

phrase is easy to overplay dynamically since the high C at bar 59 will sound quite forceful

simply due to its tessitura; starting the phrase more quietly will help avoid any brashness in the

sound. The first two notes in measure 58 should be connected (aside from the articulation) as

there is ample opportunity to breathe before and after this bar. The target of this bar is the C on

the downbeat of measure 59, which should be played with full force to match with the intensity

of the C an octave above that follows. The ear will discern this high C as the high point of the

phrase without any extra help from additional volume. There is an opportunity to take a quick

breath by cutting this high C slightly short as the slide repositions to come in on the next note.

There is also an opportunity to create the most dramatic moment yet in this movement as the

dynamic changes from fortissimo on beat three to pianissimo on beat four as the tessitura drops

by two and a half octaves. If the final phrase starting at the pickup to 60 is played truly

48
pianissimo the effect is significant. This does not mean to risk the notes becoming indistinct or

failing to speak, however. The only instance of the trombone getting to play the insistent dotted

eighth-sixteenth rhythm that the accompaniment has had nearly the whole movement comes in

measure 61 with the marking morendo – “dying.” Both the tempo and dynamic should decrease

as the movement comes to an end. The trombonist cannot do much of anything about the tempo

other than gesture to the pianist or conductor after measure 61 ends, as the final four bars are

nothing but a held-out C. The dynamic does make a brief resurgence in measure 63, but again

dies away by the end. This is a great collaborative music-making opportunity, however, and

should be explored by both the soloist and accompanist (or conductor, if the piece is being

performed with orchestra).

The third movement elides slightly with the second as the held over C protrudes one

quarter note’s length into the new movement. This movement is again marked Allegro maestoso

and is very similar to the first. The accompaniment begins the exposition at measure 1 of the

movement with similar material to that of the first movement’s exposition, but lacking the slow,

gradual beginning. The whole accompaniment exposition is only twelve measures long and

while it begins at pianissimo it is already at the rather frantic feel at which the first movement’s

analogue takes several phrases to arrive. By measure 9 the harmony is preparing to move

definitively from c minor to Eb major. The solo part joins the exposition at measure 13 in nearly

identical fashion to the first movement’s entrance at measure 42. This arrival, as expected,

solidifies the modal shift to Eb major, where the tonality will stay until the end of the piece. The

accompaniment has a higher dynamic marked in measure 19 than in the corresponding measure

48, but the material is the same. The only difference in the solo part comes in measure 25 with a

deceptively simple –looking optional added low Bb before the leap to the high Bb. This creates

49
a very quick jump of two octaves which is difficult for even professionals to correctly center.

The figure does provide an opportunity for significant practice of the skill of pitch centering in

all three octaves present. Quite often the top Bb will be sharp, and coming from the low Bb that

is usually flat compared with the middle Bb this difference will sound quite clangorous to the

ear.

The next solo entrance comes at measure 31 after four and three quarters bars of piano

identical to that found in the analogous place in the first movement. This solo section is again

very similar to that found in the first movement at measure 60. The material does also serve a

similar transitory function at measure 39, providing a brief step outside the confines of Eb major

back into c minor. Where in the first movement this section is a transition from the first key of

Eb to the dominant Bb, here it is included merely to transition the themes as the next large

section, the secondary theme, arrives at measure 54 still in the key of Eb major. Of special note

in this transition melody is the passage at measures 43 and 44. This passage is notably less

difficult than the analogous passage in the first movement but still presents challenges,

particularly to intonation. The slide must be adjusted in for the high Gb, and out for the Eb

below that, making for two distinctly different third position placements. As expected, the

material leading into the return of the secondary theme at 54 is now modified to land on Eb again

at bar 54, not Bb. Measures 50 and 51 are in Eb minor, 52 outlines Bb7, and 53 is a scalar fall in

the trombone alone to the re-confirmation of Eb in measure 54. Here again is the material in the

accompaniment from the very beginning of the piece, but more fully fleshed out harmonically.

When the trombone enters at 62 the material is down a fifth from the corresponding section in

the first movement to stay in Eb. There is a tradition of certain virtuosos such as Davis Shuman

and Christian Lindberg playing this material up an octave, but to me this practice takes away

50
from the elegance and repose this section offers. This should be played dolce as marked and the

dynamic swells should not be overdone. The turn in measure 70 will require fast, precise slide

placement as shifts of several positions are required very quickly.

The closing theme occurs at measure 73 and is a return to the more angular character. As

the harmonic language is not as varied as in the first movement, the melodic material should be

delivered as clearly as possible. Measures 75-76 should be an echo of measures 73-74 at a

slightly reduced volume, and then measure 77 should be played again at a true forte before

decrescendoing. The same is true of the entrance in measure 79. There is ample opportunity to

breathe before the piano entrance in measure 81 to avoid having to breathe in bar 82. The most

logical place for a breath to be taken is after this phrase peaks in 83 on the high Bb by

eliminating the eighth note that the quarter note Bb is tied to. A similar modification to the G in

85 is advisable to eliminate the need to breathe before bar 88. The best place to breathe in bar 88

is between the high and low Abs. This will enable the low notes in 88 to speak just as intensely

as the high Ab, both because the breath will be fresh for the low material and because the player

will ration air to make the high Ab and therefore not overblow it dynamically. The target of this

phrase should not be the high Ab but the low F on the downbeat of bar 89. This F returns in

measure 90 and should be played with the same dynamic intensity as it is the foundation for the

arpeggiated figure that follows. The emphasis of the phrase should be placed on the downbeat of

measure 91, just as the emphasis of the similar phrase beginning at measure 92 should be placed

on the downbeat of bar 93. Measures 94 and 96 written with two different figures on the first

beat, the easier of the two being an eighth note and two sixteenths and the harder consisting of a

sixteenth rest and three sixteenth notes. The slight variation in difficulty comes from the

addition of one more sixteenth note in the phrase rather than a relatively easy eighth note. The

51
scalar passages must be accurate and therefore must be practiced slowly. Both scalar passages

are full of accidentals marking that they imply different keys. Measure 94 implies a mode

mixture of C major and c minor, and measure 96 marks a brief shift to Db major before landing

on Gb major in measure 97.

Measure 97 starts the brief retransition segment of this movement. It chiefly employs the

dotted eighth-sixteenth figure that figures so prominently in the outer movements of the piece,

but in condensed form. The accompaniment shifts between several key areas before arriving at

C minor at measure 105, where it largely remains until the coda begins at 107 and brings with it

the trombone solo part. While the accompaniment lands on C minor at measure 107, the rest of

the material in the bar prepares for Eb major on the next bar. Being aware of this harmonic fact,

I would choose to delay the rather dramatic dynamic marking of “colla piu gran forza” until

measure 109. Certainly the entrance at measure 107 must be played with great strength and

fullness, but reserving the full force for the second half of the phrase is more in keeping with the

harmonic intent of the piece. Also, the marking is not a license to make an uncontrolled sound.

A lesson young trombonists often learn at the expense of their dignity in an ensemble setting is

that it is possible to exert much more force and make much more sound than can reasonably be

controlled or utilized, even on the marching band field. This is not the time to blast, merely the

time to bring to bear the full weight of the most sonorous, triumphant sound the trombone can

produce. That said, there is room for emphasis in phrasing even at high volume levels. The G

on the downbeat of 108 should be the target of measures 107-108, just as the G on the downbeat

of 110 should be the focus of bars 109-110. Measures 111-114 naturally lead to the high Bb on

the downbeat of 114.

52
 The phrase beginning in measure 115 is extended all the way to measure 121, and will

consume a large amount of practice time. It begins in similar fashion to the previous phrase, but

in measure 117 the target high Bb is interrupted by a series of Eb major arpeggios that descend to

an Eb in the bass clef staff on the downbeat of measure 118. This low Eb should be the target of

the sub-phrase making up 115-118, both for harmonic and technical reasons. Harmonically, the

trombone has the only material as the accompaniment is absent, and the Eb is the root and bass

note of the arpeggios that surround it. Technically, it is in a register that will not speak as clearly

as the rest of the higher material surrounding it, and so to sound at even the same volume it must

be conceived as louder by the player. Measure 118 continues the arpeggiation with no chance to

breathe, so the best option is to break the high Bb early in bar 117 and take as full a breath as

possible before beginning the triplets. After bar 118’s triplets are completed, again being sure to

slot them accurately into the harmonic structure of Eb major by lowering the Gs and slightly

raising the Bbs, measure 119 brings a lip trill on F. This is best played in fourth position, as the

next partial above F in that position is G. Trying to play this trill in first position will result in a

trill between an F and a very flat Ab, which sounds uncharacteristic. If fourth position is

untenable, a reasonable course of action is to begin the trill slowly between F in slightly flatt first

position and G in sharp second, and as the speed of the trill increases, to eliminate the slide

motion. This produces a reasonable facsimile of a true F-G trill, however it is better simply to

play the trill in fourth position. The brief turn at the end of the bar should be executed in

standard positions, however. This lip trill resolves on the high C on the downbeat of measure

120 and should not be interrupted by a breath. The best place for the breath is before the

sixteenth notes of measure 120 begin, which means breaking the C early and resting for at least

53
the first tied sixteenth note of bar 120. This falling scale lands on Eb, which should receive the

emphasis.

The pickup to measure 122 brings the last active phrase before the ending. Measures

122-125 vacillate between Eb major and an enharmonic respelling of Ab minor. The minor

subdominant feel injects just a touch of instability into the ending of the piece, a feeling that the

informed soloist can capitalize on by tuning and balancing the arpeggios to reflect the key. The

high Ab that begins measures 122 and 124 will naturally sound the strongest based on the

tessitura, so the rest of the measure must consist of an in-tune minor arpeggio to balance this.

Specifically, the Ebs should be raised slightly from their normal flat-third position, the Cbs

should also be raised just a touch from their normal fourth position, and the low Ab should

played exactly in tune and with a full sound to counterbalance the low range. The arrival back

on Eb on the downbeats of measures 123 and 125 is a nebulous moment that on one hand

concludes the subdominant minor feel but on the other begins the reaffirmation of the tonic

major. The soloist should think of this as the conclusion of the Ab minor triad, while the

accompaniment is clearly restating the tonic. The repeated diversion to Ab in measure 124 is the

last moment of harmonic tension in the piece. After that, no voice in the solo or accompaniment

includes anything that is not a member of an Eb major triad. Music must therefore be made not

in chordal but in time-related or dynamic fashion from measure 125 to the end. Measure 125

finishes the musical idea that was switching back and forth between the tonic and minor

subdominant. Measure 126 is marked poco ritard in the solo and, a beat later, is marked ritard

in the accompaniment. The soloist should be sure to coordinate with the pianist or conductor to

make a noticeable statement with the time here, as this is the last opportunity for musical tension

before the release of the last four bars. The solo part descends in triplets against the

54
accompaniment’s dotted eighth-sixteenth rhythm. Awareness of this will save considerable

rehearsal time. Measure 127 is marked a tempo and will require coordination again, as all voices

are whole notes, so there is no motor rhythm to define the time. Measure 128 brings the full

triad into play in the accompaniment and jumps an octave in the solo. This octave should be

played precisely in tune, which will require moving the slide out slightly.

The last two measures, 129 and 130, are a long diminuendo to piano in all voices on an

Eb major chord. The choice to end the piece with a whisper and not a shout often seems odd to

younger trombonists, who are usually conditioned to believe that the end of a piece is the time

for the loudest and highest statement. A perusal of the great string solo works, particularly

Romantic ones, will yield a much wider variety of ending styles. David, a master string

performer, was obviously well-versed in music of this school and chose an ending that provided

an opportunity for the trombonist to transcend the brash, shouting stereotypes associated with the

instrument. In slowly releasing the built-up energy, rather than leaving the echo of the last chord

in the hall to perform that function, the performer assures that the audience will remember the

entire journey of the piece, from the martial and bold to the funereal and mournful and back to

the light again.

55
 CONCLUSION

The trombone has occupied various positions of fame or ignominy in the history of

instrumental music. We currently live in an age where the instrument is gaining acceptance

beyond its now established role as a member of the symphony orchestra. Solo repertoire for the

instrument is growing in amount and in quality. This amount of repertoire does not compare to

that enjoyed by the violin, for example, but it has reached a point where there are certain

historical solo works which stand out from their contemporaries to retain their relevance in the

modern day. These works have earned close study both for their own sake and for their

continued usefulness as audition and recital material. This document discusses the types of

musical elements that a successful performer should know about the Romance and the

Concertino. It is my belief that there is a lack of such documents, and that further study on

pieces such as the Sonate by Paul Hindemith, Concerto by Gröndahl, and the Fantasy by Creston

will prove to be similarly valuable, as these are often found at the next level of progress after

successful performances of the Romance and the Concertino. They involve more technical

challenges and more complex musical structures. An informed approach to the performance of

these pieces like the one I have presented in this document will bring confidence to the aspiring

performer.

56
All musical examples reprinted in this document are in the public domain.

57
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

David, Ferdinand. Concertino. Leipzig: Zimmermann, reprinted after 1950.

David, Ferdinand. Concertino. New York: Carl Fisher, 1944.

Finson, Jon W., and R. Larry. Todd. Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on Their Music and Its
Context. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1984.

Guion, David M. Carl Traugott Queisser and Musical Leipzig. Greensboro, NC: All-Purpose Guru,
2012.

Harvey, Martin. “Weber’s Romance with the Trombone Over?” ITA Journal 19 (April 1991): 14-15.

Henderson, Donald G., and Alice H. Henderson. Carl Maria von Weber: A Guide to Research. New
York: Garland Pub., 1990.

Hiller, Ferdinand. Mendelssohn. Letters and Recollections. New York: Vienna House, 1972
.
Jähns, Friedrich Wilhelm. Carl Maria von Weber in Seinen Werken. Berlin: Schlesinger'schen Buch-
und Musikhandlug, 1871.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix. Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: From 1833 to 1847. Edited by
Julius Rietz and Grace Wallace. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1863.

Mercer-Taylor, Peter Jameson. The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Cambridge: Cambridge

UP, 2004.

Saunders, William. The Master Musicians: Weber. London: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1940.

Todd, R. Larry. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.

Tusa, Michael C. “Carl Maria von Weber.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford
University Press, accessed August 8, 2013.

Warrack, John. Carl Maria von Weber. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1976.

Weber, Carl Maria. Romance. Moscow: Muzgiz, 1932.

Weber, Carl Maria. Romance. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1985.

58
Weber, Max Maria. Carl Maria von Weber; The Life of an Artist. Vol. 1, 2. New York: Greenwood,
1969.

59
APPENDIX A: Solo Part and Piano Score of Romance

60
61
62
63
64
65
66
APPENDIX B: Solo Part and Piano Score of Concertino

67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92