Jeff Reynolds has done a gorgeous job arranging Three Early Sacred Pieces for 4-part Trombone Ensemble:

I. The Passion Chorale, O Sacred Head Now Wounded - Hassler/Graun

II. Cum esset desponsata - Isaac

III. Tu solus qui facis mirabilis - Des Prez

The Passion Chorale is performed during Holy Week. Cum esset is performed during the Christmas season and Tu solus is a Sacred Motet from 1503.

The top part is available in tenor and alto clef parts and all parts are of moderate difficulty in this 7-minute work.

This instrumental quartet version was created with ensemble practice in mind for beginning music school students who want more contact with baroque music, ideal also for liturgical performances in churches, since it is a sacred work. This version lasts 3:19 minutes with the original melody adapted with the harmony divided between the voices of the performers.

Jesu joy of man's desiring or Wohl mir, da� ich Jesum habe (I am happy to have Jesus) is a chorale from the cantata 147 "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" or "Heart and mouth and deed and life" from the B. W. V 147 catalog composed by Johann Sebastian Bach around 1723, where the same music in different stanzas of a chorale closes both parts of the cantata.

Diversions is a work by Canadian composer Elizabeth Raum for Trombone quartet written in 1998 for the Aurora Trombone Quartet. Elizabeth Raum's writing is influenced by the school of the tone poem in that her music seems often to tell a story.

Diversions consists of several sections, each with its own personality. It opens with a signal call from the first trombone that is answered in turn by each of the others. This leads to the first rather contrapuntal theme combining the Baroque with the Romantic; then a bridge consisting of variations on the signal brings us to the second theme of three muted trombones playing a lively dance-like accompaniment to the open sound of the first trombone. The continuity of the dance is interrupted by occasional asides or "diversions."

Finally, all four instruments, unmuted, join together bringing the piece to a rousing finish. This work of about 6 1/2 minutes in length is appropriate for advanced performers.

Ciacona (original key of F minor for organ) has been beautifully arranged for trombone quartet in C minor by Mark LaFratta. It is probably Pachelbel?s second most famous work, after the Kanon in D. As is typical for a Ciacona (Chaconne), there is a short simple tune in triple meter over a repeating bass ostinato that provides a vehicle for variation, ornamentation, and melodic invention. It is somewhat similar to a passacaglia. There is a passage or two that even have hints of Bach's great Passacaglia, which didn't appear for many years in the future.



Pachelbel's Ciacona states an opening theme followed by 22 variations, the last of which is an almost exact repeat of the opening theme.



This fantastic 8-minute arrangement is appropriate for advanced performers and is scored for: alto trombone, 2 tenor trombones, and a bass trombone