Review

George Frideric Handel
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba:

Arranged by Keith Terrett


Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2010
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Brass Ensemble - 5 brass

British trumpeter, composer, arranger and brass instructor Keith Terrett offers a new arrangement of Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba to the brass quintet repertoire collection. This piece, originating from the beginning of the third Act of Handel’s Solomon has been arranged several times for brass quintet. In many ways Terrett has simplified the piece, making it accessible to younger groups. He removed the steady eighth-note accompaniment line and replaced it with primarily quarter notes in the tuba and half notes in horn and trombone. While indeed lessening endurance issues by doing this, the arrangement loses some of the “pomp” of the original setting. Also benefitting the bottom three voices, Terrett keeps virtually all the sixteenth-note figures in the trumpet parts. These parts, both written for trumpet in b-flat, do not trade these lines as often as they perhaps should, resulting in long stretches of sixteenth-note lines in all ranges of the instrument. This creates an endurance issue for the trumpets. Instrument ranges follow in concert pitch: trumpets—b-flat to b-flat2, horn—g to g1, trombone—B-flat to f1, tuba—BB-flat to c.

The goal of the arranger is difficult to find. The trumpet parts are too difficult for a high school quintet, yet the simplification of the accompaniment seems unnecessary for a college or professional group. Even with the addition of an optional timpani part, this arrangement unfortunately does not provide the means to justify its relevance in comparison to existing arrangements.

-Cory Mixdorf
Georgia State University