Review

Anton Bruckner
Zwei Männerchöre:

Arranged by Ran Whitley

2 B-flat trumpets, horn in F, trombone, tuba

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2024
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

Pieces composed for men’s choir usually translate well to trombone choir. An arrangement for brass quintet is a bit more unusual. Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) wrote these pieces as separate compositions, not as a set. The first song, O könnt' ich dich Beglücken WAB92 (“If I Could Make You Happy”) was dedicated to the Niederösterreichischer Sängerbund (Singers' Association of Lower Austria). First performed in 1868, it was written during Bruckner’s Linz period and part of his Vaterslandlied (“Songs of the Fatherland”). The second song (as presented in this transcription), Der Abendhimmel WAB55 ("Evening Song"), was composed in January, 1862. Intended for male quartet, Bruckner dedicated the song to the men's quartet Anton Munsch.

This transcription is scored for two B-flat trumpets, horn in F, trombone, and tuba. The first trumpet part seems reasonable in terms of endurance providing measures of rest and ranging only up to b-flat2 (written) one time. It seems a bit odd that the second piece ends with four measures of rest for the first trumpet. The tuba part is not so low that it couldn't be easily played on bass trombone, ranging down to C. There is good contrapuntal and harmonic difference between trombone and tuba which I appreciate since so many arrangers tend to just place those two parts in octaves.

It is a minor point but I find it a bit frustrating that the title is in German while the piece titles are in English. I would have preferred to have German and English for both. Also, a paragraph or two about the composer and these pieces would have been helpful.

This is a good presentation of Bruckner’s rich harmonic language and deserves to be considered by ensembles looking for this kind of repertoire.