Das Rheingold - Trombone Choir

Trombonists spend countless hours working on excerpts from Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Yet aside from the Ride of the Walkure and a few other scenes, few ever perform music from the Ring cycle in a fulfilling way, let alone with orchestra. Although there are many arrangements of Wagner's music for trombone and brass ensemble, including a few from the Ring cycle, there is little that attempts to explore the wide palate this music offers in one setting. This arrangement is an effort to address this deficiency in a way that allows trombonists the ability to explore and perform music from the Ring cycle in miniature.

At times, some of the trombone parts have the part of one of the characters from Das Rheingold, noted by the character's name and the accompanying libretto. An additional possibility, therefore, is to substitute out the trombone voice solos for the corresponding vocalists in the manner that the Washington Trombone Ensemble did on their recording of an arrangement of Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music. In that case, I recommend the given trombone "vocalist" double or trade off with the next lower prat, e.g. bass 1 doubling bass 2 or contrabass; tenor 1 doubling tenor 2 or 3, etc.

My desire was to stay as true to Wagner's original markings wherever possible. Keys, phrases, dynamics, tempi, and lyrics have had little to no modification.

- Skyler Foster.