Review

Pietro Mascagni
Intermezzo from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer

6 tenor, 2 bass trombones

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2019
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 8 trombones

This famous intermezzo from Mascagni’s one-act verismo masterpiece, is played while the staging depicts an empty square in a Sicilian town on Easter morning. As might be expected, the music is slow and peaceful. Sauer’s arrangement will serve nicely as a calming addition to a trombone choir program. The top two parts, in tenor clef, range up to c² and sometimes carry the high melody in unison. This could give rise to intonation problems. The bottom two voices both extend down to C and will probably be best served by bass trombones. Melodic interest mostly appears in the top three parts with other parts serving to fill chords or harp-like accompaniment figures. It would have been nice to see some greater interest given to the inner parts possibly with a doubling of the melody at an octave. Some of the high solo lines might work best in a one-on-a-part situation, especially a quintuplet figure in the second part.

This is a solid transcription and, as is usually the case with Cherry Classics publications, parts are clean and well laid out. If included in a concert program, be advised that it will probably tax your top-voice players. Program accordingly.