# Bach's Air for brassquartet



## Enthalpy

Hi everybody!

Here's *Bach's Air, transposed for narrow brass* (two cornets, two trombones, and variants), copyleft
View attachment JSBach_Air_NarrowBrass_Bbmaj.pdf


and here's *Bach's Air, transposed for wide brass* (two flugelhorns, an alto horn, a tuba and variants), copyleft
View attachment JSBach_Air_WideBrass_Bbmaj.pdf


Both transposition being in B flat major, you can combine less homogenous groups.

Let me know if I forgot an adequate instrument, botched a writing convention, an instrument range, or something. How does the Bb-piccolo trumpet transpose?

The attachments may disappear from this message if a newer version it attached in a later message.

Enjoy!
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy


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## Vasks

Hi Marc,

Please be aware (if not already so) that only a bass trombone with what is called a "D attachment" can play low B-naturals (below the staff). Here's a web page that shows it. Many bass trombones do not have that attachment.

http://www.yeodoug.com/resources/faq/faq_text/slidechart.html


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## Enthalpy

Thanks Vaks!

I thought the second valve was included in the definition of a bass trombone? I know most tenor have one or zero valve. I thought all bass were built to achieve the chromatic descent to pedal notes, besides the broader bore.

True, Yamaha's "Intermediate YBL-421G" bass has only one valve.


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## Enthalpy

Here's *Bach's Air, transposed for four trombones*, copyleft
View attachment JSBach_Air_QuartFourTrombonesEmaj.pdf


The tenor and bass cumulate a wide range, much used here. First pedal tone with valve, tenth harmonic. If one has an alto trombone on a shelf, it's time to pick it.

I wrote the alto trombones untypically also a fourth lower in bass clef, maybe this helps.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy


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## Vasks

E major is not a good key intonation-wise for less than great trombone players. And I'm not keen on the extreme low notes of the bass trombone part. Those notes are best to be longer with a way before them to set the embouchure but Bach's bass line keeps jumping an octave into them making nailing the lowest notes really hard to do. Personally I'd transpose it *up* (at the minimum) to F major


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## Enthalpy

About the single-valved bass trombone playing a natural B:

The opinion of en.wiki and de.wiki is that replacing the F pipe with an optional E pipe, or even pulling the F pipe, suffices to gain the missing semitone.

My opinion is nil, void. I don't play the trombone.

I just hope that an F valve brings muuuch more than an E valve, because it's a serious mess to have a second valve mainly for one note, or to re-learn positions when replacing the F tube by an E tube just for one score.

When googling for the single-valved bass trombone, I stumbled on
"Travel tuba" (google images and Youtube)
So cute! How handy! Yes their bore is narrow and the bends are sharp, but how handy! 59cm*30cm*30cm for a Bb tuba, wow!


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## Enthalpy

F major is what I did first. The bass trombone then plays pedal notes without the valve. But then, the first trombone plays the twelfth harmonic instead of tenth. So which is less bad overall? I don't rely on finding an alto trombone.


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## Vasks

I did not look at tenor trombone 1's top range. I think right now it's highest (D) is too high for an average player. Usually the best college students in a jazz band can play it, but this is Classical not jazz. That makes it much more challenging. So yeah, as you now have it, this arrangement is tricky no matter what you do.

The only thing you can do is first, find a good flat key where the bass line works, then place the melody in an interior voice and place a harmony part above the melody and the other harmony part between melody and bass line. Otherwise scrap it as the wide range of the four voices doesn't work for four similar instruments.


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## Enthalpy

Here's *Bach's Air, transposed for posaunenchor*, copyleft
View attachment JSBach_Air_Posaunenchor_Gmaj.pdf


The composition of a posaunenchor is variable. All voices are written at sounding height here, including if tubas play the bass voice.

For instruments not so low, the bass voice is doubled an octave higher, as "Pseudobass".

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy


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## Enthalpy

And here's, from J-S Bach's suite for orchestra No 3, the *Air, for euphonien and tubas, in D major* copyleft transposed.
View attachment JSBach_Air_QuartEuphTuba_Dmaj.pdf

That formation brings the mellowest sound of all.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy


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## Enthalpy

*Malinconia, by Eugène Ysaÿe*, is the second piece of the second sonata for violin solo. Beautiful, but badly difficult on one violin.
Ilya Kaler - Gidon Kremer - James Ehnes - Augustin Hadelich​
Split among two instruments, Malinconia becomes easy, so here it is for
*two French horns*, or *two trombones*, or *two euphoniums*, or *two tubas*.

View attachment EYsaye_Malinconia_BrassDuet.pdf
​
In some transpositions, a tenor trombone can replace the bass, a tuba a euphonium, and you choose between the F- and Bb-tuba as usual.

Ysaÿe's work in the public domain in the EU (but law isn't uniform here). Some websites suggest it is in the USA too, please check by yourself.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy


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## Enthalpy

*Erratum*: the second voice in Malinconia has no slur between the first and second bars.


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## Enthalpy

Here's *Malinconia, by Eugène Ysaÿe, for two cornetti*

View attachment EYsaye_Malinconia_CornettiDuet.pdf
​for the many musicians here who play the instruments.

I love these instruments, but stone-old music bores me after some time, so late romantic here shall rejuvenate the repertoire.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy


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## Enthalpy

*Corrected version of Ysaÿe's Malinconia for brass duets*.

View attachment EYsaye_Malinconia_BrassDuet.zip
​


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