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This famous excerpt from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony allows the player to demonstrate a full "forte" sound in the context of a piece of vocal music.
Many players simply blow the living daylights out of this excerpt, thereby ending their own audition. Remember that this is not a bass trombone solo - we simply accompany and provide the pitch for the chorus, reinforced by the celli and bassi. A full, moderate forte is all that is needed, with a slight bit more sound on the "sforzando" notes.
Get a copy of the full orchestral score so you can understand the full function and implications of the bass trombone part. A knowledge of the words and their meaning is important as it helps us breath in places that make sense.
The music above contains the German text and some suggested breath marks. With the text under the notes, it is self-evident where the good breathing places are. There is much more to the Beethoven Ninth Symphony in the second and fourth movements. Learn the whole piece, not just this excerpt. The fugue in the fourth movement, in particular, presents important breathing and phrasing challenges.
The German text of this passage is often translated:
Fritz Reiner's recording of the Ninth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony is a classic (Edward Kleinhammer is the bass trombonist), and Roger Norrington's performance with the London Classical Players is also interesting in terms of tempo and style (to say nothing of the fact that hearing the piece on 19th century instruments gives the piece a whole new dimension).
To download the music of this excerpt as a PDF file which may be read and printed in a high quality output with Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software), click the icon below:
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