TromboneChat

Two friends of mine (a hornist and a tenor trombonist) and I have started talking about recording a trio album at some point down the line when it's safe to do so. The horn player wrote a trio for the three of us to play once back when we were all in undergrad together, and I could certainly write some pieces for us, but I'm wondering if there's any other existing rep (original or arranged) for that combination (or close to it, since I could play something other than bass trombone if need be). Anybody know of anything?

There is music for Low Brass Trio (originally alto, tenor, and bass trombone but now horn, trombone, and tuba).

I have an Empire Brass piece for low brass trio called "La Alfonsina". I'll bet there are others.

If your horn player can learn to read trombone music, you can easily adopt trombone trio music.

Plus there are some trios with unspecified instrumentation. I think I have something by Marini from the Renaissance. I'm sure with a little research you can find others.

there's a good bit of new stuff for horn, trombone, and tuba. I've got a group (Trio Kobayashi) and there's a German group (Zinc and Copper works) that are active in commissioning. Most of it is pretty far down the rabbit hole, but some of it would transfer well and requires less specifically specialized knowledge.

Jürg Frey's Circular Music ( https://youtu.be/Ejm-55SsFtk ), Ellen Arkbro's three, and Caleb Burhans's GateKeeper don't require much in the way of specialized knowledge. I don't much care for it, but John Stevens's Triangles is also well written and not so hard.

My group also does a lot of early music, particularly trio sonatas by Bach and Corelli. William Byrd's Mass for Three Voices also works quite well and is very beautiful.

Ask your horn player to learn reading bas clef, then any trombone trio will fit. Another fine choice for both trombone and horn is reading treble clef in C one octave down, than any mans choir music for two tenor and one bass voice will fit.

My then 12 year old daughter learned reading bass clef in C on french horn in one week. It was a double Bb F horn. So, it can be done. ..

Many years ago, I wrote this trio for 3 trombones, which I more recently adapted for 3 cellos, as shown here, with a smidge of microtonality thrown in. On brass instruments, this is extremely endurance-challenging due to the lack of rests. But it might be something to play with.

And perhaps suggests some ideas to look for outside of traditional brass rep.

There is a great low brass trio by John Stevens called "triangles". There are a bunch of recordings on youtube. There is also a pretty good one by William Schmidt called Sonatina.

There is a group called the Blenheim Trio that has been commissioning and performing quite a bit. See if you can track down their programs.

Thanks for all the replies - lots of good information. I'm sure the horn player can read in C just fine, and either of us could also easily just whip up a part in F in Sibelius if need be so that's a non-issue.

Ideally I'd like to stay away from just doing trombone trios with the top voice on horn. Vocal stuff for three voices is a great idea, like the Byrd mass mbarbier mentioned. A combination of vocal and other arranged rep and original stuff written by members of the group seems like a good mix.

There is also a Hidas Frigyes (or is it Frigyes Hidas - I always get confused by this) Trio for Horn, Trombone and Tuba.

I just read that Hidas trio at a "socially distanced" back yard get together with some other brass players from my orchestra. Very good piece, and there are substitute parts included so that it can be played by 3 trombones (alto, tenor, bass) or horn, trombone, tuba, or any combination of those. We used a euphonium on the bottom part which worked well too. There's a bit of mixed meter, but it's not that difficult, and has a pretty slow movement.

Recommended!

Jim Scott

It's not a trio, but earlier this year I wrote a three-movement duet for horn and trombone!
Here's a score video:
I also made an adaptation for horn and bass trombone.