The Recitative in Trombone Music William J. Stanley ©2019 At first glance, the linking of recitative with a trombone might seem contradictory. After all, the recitative is found most often in opera and oratorio as a speech like style of musical expression performed by singers. But over the past several years, as I was preparing music for performance and assisting students with their preparation, recurring examples of recitative in trombone music appeared more than occasionally. Trombonists will readily recognize concertos by Ferdinand DaviD (1837), Launy Grøndahl (1924) and Gordon Jacob (1956) as often performed pieces that include a recitative. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov has provided two well-known solo recitatives for the orchestral second trombonist in Scheherazade, op. 35, and La Grande Pâque Russe, op. 36. These works and several others prompted, at first, an informal list to simply satisfy my curiosity. A subsequent more thorough search has found a large number of works that contain a recitative. To date well over 100 pieces have been discovereD. These span over 250 years and include unaccompanied solos, orchestral solos, pieces with piano, organ, orchestra and/or band accompaniment, and in various ensemble settings for tenor, bass and alto trombones. While that number and breadth of works might be surprising to some, the fact that composers have continued to use vocally influenceD materials in trombone music should be of no surprise to trombonists. We know there is the long tradition of the use of the trombone in vocal settings throughout its history. A thorough examination of this practice goes well beyond the scope and intent of this study, but it is widely known that the trombone was commonly used throughout the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries as an accompanying and doubling instrument in sacred settings with choirs. documentary and iconographical evidence removes any doubt that from about the 1570s it was common across Europe for trombones, cornetts and other instruments to perform within the liturgy.1 Marin Mersenne (1635) writes: “Musicians have invented many instruments to mingle with voices . That is why the bassoon is used and the sackbut [trombone] . .” 2 Casual examination of the use of the trombone in large-scale sacred choral or operatic compositions of Bach, Mozart, Haydn and others shows a clear tradition of the presence of trombones in close association with, especially, the choral lines in these works. Berlioz believed that the trombone could “chant like a choir of priests.” 3 Other evidence of this vocal thread in 1 Trevor Herbert, The Trombone (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 103. 2 Marin Mersenne, Harmonie Universelle: The Book on Instruments, Translated by Roger E. Chapman, (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1957), 348. 3 Hector Berlioz, A Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration, Translated by Mary Cowden Clarke, (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1882), 156. 1 trombone music in the eighteenth century and beyond can be found in the work of Isaacson,4 Wells,5 Manson,6 Carter,7 and others. All this is not to deny the purely instrumental functions required of trombonists throughout its history as well. Dance and ceremonial music, orchestral, chamber and solo settings are abundant. And in fact, the recitatives found in the majority of these works are parts of larger instrumental forms. This study will demonstrate that given the profuse use of recitative, a vocally influenceD tradition in trombone music should be considered an enduring practice that has paralleled and enhanced a more commonly perceived purely instrumental role of the trombone, and that has never been abandoned by composers to this day. The Recitative For purposes of this study a recitative is described as follows: In its current, modern usage, “recitative” commonly refers to a relatively small range of styles in vocal music (and their imitation in instrumental music) whose principal, defining characteristics are normally thought to include some or all of the following: exclusively or predominantly syllabic text setting, relatively narrow range within breath phrases, more pitch repetition than is normal in songlike vocal styles, avoidance of motivic or thematic recurrence and other forms of purely musical patterning, including rhythmic features that suggest a steady meter, and, above all, the employment of syllabic pacing, rhythmic durations, inflections, contours, and accentuation that mimic, to some extent, the features of speech . 8 Additionally, accompaniments in recitatives often include supportive sustained harmonies or rhythmic interjections in dialogue with the soloist without emphasis on meter. These patterns often are found in stark contrast to material preceding and following the recitative. The Instrumental Recitative In the above description of the recitative, there is a parenthetical reference to the imitation of vocal recitative in instrumental music. The instrumental recitative is nothing new. 4 Charles Frank Isaacson, “A Study of Selected Music for Trombone and Voice” (DMA document, University of Illinois, 1981). 5 Wayne W. Wells, “Music for Trombone and Voice from the Hapsburg Empire: An Historical Overview with Tenor Trombone Transcriptions” (DMA document, University of Maryland, College Park, 2005.) 6 David R. Manson, “Trombone Obbligatos with Voice in the Austrian Sacred Music of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Representative Excerpts with Historical Introduction and Commentary” (DMA document, University of Cincinnati, 1997). 7 Stewart Carter, “Trombone Obbligatos in Viennese Oratorios of the Baroque” Historic Brass Society Journal 2 (1990): 52-77. 8 John Walker Hill, “Recitative” in Oxford Bibliographies (Oxford University Press, 2019), accessed June 10, 2019, DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199757824-0134. 2 Recitative-like passages have often been used in instrumental music for special expressive or dramatic effect. Examples include the first of C.P.E. Bach’s ‘Prussian’ Sonatas (1742), Haydn’s Symphony no. 7 (‘Le midi’, 1761) and Sinfonia concertante HI:105 (1792), Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 3 K216 (1775) and Beethoven’s piano sonatas op.31 no.2 (1802) and op.110 (1821–2).9 Recitatives in instrumental works have been the source of a considerable amount of study. A full-scale monograph by Mies,10 articles and dissertations by Charlton,11 and Lavore,12 among others, have all codified the instrumental recitative as a viable, not uncommon mode of musical expression used in a wide variety of musical settings by composers from the late Baroque through to current day. The Trombone Recitative Most recitatives found in trombone music follow many of the speech-like patterns in more common vocal applications. These include avoidance of clear meter, syllabic rhythmic gestures, and sparse, often interjective accompanimental patterns, and others. Appropriate recitative performance practice by trombonists can be learneD easily by study of vocal recitatives found in opera and oratorio. Additional attention to inherent speech-like stresses and other vocal inflections discovered in the trombone music, as well as thoughtful interaction with collaborative partners, will all add to the potential for individual expression and an appropriate performance. A complete list of the works discovered so far that contain a recitative is appendeD. All are original works for trombone(s), no transcriptions. Each includes the specific term “recitative” or some derivation - quasi recitative, recitativo, recitatif, etc. - either in the musical notation or in the title. Works employing other terms to indicate a certain freedom in performance – cadenza, con rubato, molto espressivo, ad. lib., etc. – without an explicit reference to recitative are generally outside the limitations of this study. A few of the composer designated recitatives, especially in earlier works, contain wide-ranging scalar and arpeggiated technical passagework similar to what is found typically in cadenzas. These works are included due to the descriptive term chosen by the composer. A few works have been discovered with passages that show many characteristics of recitative without a notated directive from the composer. I believe these pieces, and potentially many more, can and should be performed with the expressive, declamatory freedom of a recitative. Two of these have been chosen as examples below. Those examples and a selected list of others are includeD as implied in the appended complete list of works. 9 Jack Westrup, “Recitative,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed June 11, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.000 1/omo-9781561592630-e-0000023019?rskey=8Tn5q1&result=1 10 Paul Mies, Das Instrumental Rezitativ, (Bonn: Bouvier, 1968). 11 Davis Charlton, “Instrumental recitative: A study in morphology and context, 1700-1808,” Comparative Criticism 4 (1982): 149-168. 12 Roman U. Lavore, “Instrumental recitative in classic, romantic, and twentieth-century music,” (PhD diss., The Florida State University, 1973). 3 Selected Works for Trombone with Recitative The earliest discovered example of recitative in trombone music is in a work by Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806) - Serenade in D, Perger 87 (1767). Like many serenades from this period, this multi-movement piece calls for multiple soloists – flute, horn, trombone, violin, cello – and strings. Trombonists might be familiar with movements five and six, Adagio and Allegro molto, scored for horn/trombone duo that has been published separately.13 The ninth movement, Recitativo (Allegro), includes all of the concerteD instruments in dialogue. Example 1. Haydn, Serenade in D, mvt. 9 Recitativo, mm. 29-46 Adagio Cor in D conc. Vc. conc. 29 r r r œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœœ œ œ œ B jœ œ œ #œœ c ‰ œ œ œ ‰ œœ œ ≈ œ ‰ œ œ #œ ‰ œ œ Œ ∑ & & Trbne. conc. #œ B c ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ Ó Œ #œ #œ#œ ‰ œ#œ œ œ Strings c Œ Œ œ Ó Œ #œ Ó Œ œ Ó Œ #œ Ó Œ #œ Ó & #˙. #œ # œ œ # œ # œ ˙. œ #œ #œ ? œ œ œ #œ c ˙. Œ Œ œ Ó Œ œ Ó Œ Ó Œ Ó Œ œ Ó Cor in D conc.