Maoz Tzur for Trombone Quartet

As the title suggests, this is an arrangement of Maoz Tzur (a traditional Chanukkah song) that I did for a trombone quartet (although it can easily be transposed for a quarted of any four of the same instrument; I don't think it'll work with a traditional string or brass quartet or any other quartet of mixed instruments for reasons I'll say later). At the moment I only have a Finale file, but I promise I'll post a midi in a day or so, although the midi really won't be as interesting as the Finale file unless you can extract sheet music from it. The melody and harmony are all traditional, and I didn't do anything special there. However, I did split up the melody so that no single part ever has more than two notes of the melody in a row (which is why it needs to be played by four of the same instrument; I think the changing timbres would screw up the melody and make it un-followable). The four parts are about as equal as I can think to make them; they are only numbered 1-4 for convenience. Also for convenience, and to help the melody stand out, the notes of the melody are accented. Other than that, it's pretty much the same old song.

maoz tzur.MUS

I figured out pretty quickly that the melody jumps around between the voices, so any one instrument may have it at any given time. This is problematic (1) because this is not a commonly recognizable theme that people will be able to follow through the ensemble, (2) the melody is linear based, and you are giving it vertical treatment (3) the registers in every instrument is so varied and random, it will take a pretty versatile player to pull it off, not to mention you need 4 of them, and also not to mention that you have it scored for trombone (not known for their versatility), (4) there is no point of referance to understand exactly what it is you've done here.

My suggestion. Start this theme in a very traditional, unfooled-around-with version with trombone 1 playing the melody and trombones 2-4 playing harmonies. Then use your idea where the instruments trade off the melody as a second verse. However, don't simply break it up into 2 note sections, or the audience will never be able to follow the melody line. Also, in doing this, label the parts where they do and do not have melody, as that alters how they will play a section.

Aside from that, there are no phrase breaks of any kind, so the players basically have to play non-stop for the entirety of the piece. Not only are they doing this, but they are doing this on whole, half, and quarter notes, which get really boring about a third of the way through the song. If scoring for trombones, use better voice leading so they aren't making large or octave leaps. I think strings and vocalists and usually woodwinds can pull this off, but brass players have issues changing registers that randomly and often.

These comments, by the way, come from an experienced trombonist. I'd like to see what kind of work you can do with this to clean it up a bit.

I figured out pretty quickly that...

I too am a fairly experienced trombonist. With that in mind, let me clarify some things:

I don't think the range is too terrible. The only issue that I can see is that the 4th part goes to low Eb, so that player would need either a valve attatchment or very good control of his/her false tones. I purposely kept it so that was the only part that went that low in order to loosen restrictions on the playing level of the performers. This way only one player needs to go below the range of a trigger-less tenor. Other than that, I did go through and remove all jumps of more than an octave, and I'm confident that I could play any of the parts with reasonable ease. Anyway, I've had a song where I had to go from high C to pedal Bb within a measure; on the other hand, I don't have any trouble with octave jumps in this range.

The reason I chose Maoz Tzur was that I'm in a Chanukkah-y mood. I know not many people will recognize it, but who's to say they would recognize it even if the melody didn't jump around. Also, I really wanted to see what it would be like to write a melody that jumped between parts. Maoz Tzur struck me as a song that would sound really good as a chorale, so I decided to go with it. In the end, what it really comes down to it that I'm happy with it. I certainly understand most of your concerns, and of course I would never do this for something too serious, but I just wanted to try it.

Just to clarify, never once did I mention concerns in range. I too have played a piece that went from C#5 to Bb1 within a measure, but the difference is that it moved to those notes effortlessly and smoothly. The register changes here are just so sporadic, it would be extremely difficult to do so gracefully. It's more a matter of voice leading, and less a matter of range.

Okay, sorry if I misread your post. Today I started reading the chapters on voice leading in my music theory book, and I guess I see what you mean, but it really seems so limited. I'll try to smooth out the voices, but I don't know how much I'll be able to do while sticking to the restrictions I set for myself when I started this. Maybe eventually I'll incorporate this into a whole theme and variations thing with one variation for each verse. Oh well, thanks anyway.