Fünf Hymnen für Posaune Solo (arr. Micah Everett)
1. 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus (William J. Kirkpatrick)
2. He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought! (William B. Bradbury)
3. He Hideth my Soul (William J. Kirkpatrick)
4. Great is Thy Faithfulness (William R. Runyan)
5. All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name (Oliver Holden)
The number and availability of quality arrangements of hymns for brass players have thankfully increased in recent years. However, most or all of these require accompaniment of some kind to be acceptably performed, and sometimes a suitable accompanist is simply not available. While many of the newer arrangements are supplied with recorded accompaniment tracks, these are not always of acceptable quality, and smaller churches in particular do not always have appropriate facilities to play the better recorded accompaniments. It seemed to me that a small collection of hymns arranged for unaccompanied trombone would be useful to myself and perhaps to others for use in church services or other situations in which a performance of one or more hymns is desired but live or recorded accompaniment is not available.
These five brief arrangements are all somewhat improvisatory in style, and indeed grew out of improvisations that I sometimes make part of my own practice. All are structured as themes with two or more variations, as this form allows for the creation of some variety within what can quickly become a very repetitive idiom. Because all of these arrangements share virtually the same structure, performance of more than one of them on a single occasion is not advisable. While some of the variations appear to move rather quickly, particularly those with multiple sixteenth-note figures, the performer should interpret these in a slower, rubato fashion, rather than attempting blazing speed.
My objective here was to create arrangements suitable for use as part of corporate worship and perhaps even personal devotions, not as virtuosic displays.
Soli Deo Gloria!