Review

Gustav Holst
Ave Maria:

Arranged by David Fetter

7 tenors, 1 bass

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2013 / 2024
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 8 trombones

Pieces for men’s or women’s choirs often translate well in transcriptions for trombone ensembles. Such is the case with David Fetter’s transcription of Holst’s Ave Maria one of his early works dating from 1900. Holst (1874-1934) did not hold many of his earlier works in high esteem, referring to everything written before 1904 as an “early horror.” The Ave Maria may have been an exception to this opinion.

While a trombone ensemble can’t quite capture the pure sonority of a women’s chorus, this transcription still works well. It is for double quartet and is written entirely in bass clef. The style is a smooth Adagio in 6/4 time with the first part ranging up to b-flat1 but not in an overly exhausting way. The 5th part, as the top voice of the second quartet ranges up to a-flat1 and will also require a player with a good high range. The lowest voices (parts 4 and 8) wouldn’t require a bass trombonist and only range down to pedal BB-flat at one point. Much of the writing for these parts stays near the bottom of the staff. Interestingly, Fetter does not label any part as “bass trombone.” Given the flowing counterpoint, all eight parts get something interesting to do; in other words, this isn’t one of those “everything fun in the top voices while lower voices have whole notes” kind of pieces. Also, the counterpoint isn’t so dense that this couldn’t be performed by a good ensemble without a conductor.

Holst gives us some mildly dissonant moments but nothing jarring. There are a couple forte pronouncements to what is an otherwise peaceful composition. Fetter does include a curious instruction, “Articulate all tied notes with legato tongue.” This seems odd to me. He even goes so far as to include the word “tie” under the ties themselves. Why would he do this? I checked the vocal original, the reason is not connected to the text. Were I to conduct this piece with an ensemble, I might question this instruction. 

All in all, this is a quality transcription that should work well with a trombone ensemble. It could fit well into a program to provide a peaceful respite while not wiping out people’s chops.