Prelude, Romance, Bacchanale

Prelude, Romance, Bacchanale for trombone and piano is a work which Jean-François Michel conceived as three distinct consecutive musical sequences of “upper medium” difficulty. These sequences challenge and stimulate the soloist's imagination, musical expression and knowledge of musical style. The Prelude, solemn but animated and related to strong vertical harmonic piano writing, sublimates the sober and captivating voice of the trombone and sense of sound colors. Three-quarters of the following Romance are played with a soft mute and begin with moving cadential interventions (ritenuto, a tempo, or poco rubato), before finding a calm swaying rhythm over which the open pianisssimo poetic voice of the trombone becomes prominent. Then the Baccanale follows suddenly with a frenzied fugato, still in the soft (confidential) leggiero sound, interrupted by a bitonal part. The dynamics grow only during the last thirty measures leading up to the final fortissimo. The sober and precise piano part corresponds to the same (upper medium) level of difficulty.