Franz Schubert’s Auf dem Strom, D943, was written in 1828 – based upon a text by Ludwig Rellstab. It was a work composed for a concert of his own music on March 26, 1828 – the first anniversary of Ludwig von Beethoven’s death. Amazingly, this was the first public concert to feature solely the music of Schubert, and sadly, this was to be the year of Schubert’s own death. The landmark concert proved to be both a musical and financial success.
Much of Schubert’s fame rests upon his treatment of the German lied, bringing it to the status of an ‘art’ song and thereby making the art song one of the primary vehicles of the German Romantic composer. Schubert’s poignant textures and his synthesis of text and music set the stage for European song composers for the rest of the 19th century. Auf dem Strom was originally written for tenor voice, horn and piano. Schubert’s use of the French horn as an obbligato part in Auf dem Strom is unique among his songs; in this transcription, the trombone plays the voice part while the horn and piano parts remain true to the original.
Scott Hartman received his BM and MM degrees from the Eastman School of Music and began his career by joining the Empire Brass Quintet and the Boston University faculty in 1984. As a trombone soloist and with his various chamber ensembles, Scott has taught and played concerts in all fifty United States and throughout the world. Mr. Hartman presently performs and records with Proteus7, the Millennium Brass, the Brass Band of Battle Creek and the trombone quartet – Four of a Kind.
Scott heads the trombone departments of Yale University and Boston University. At the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Mr. Hartman teaches a two-week workshop for aspiring trombonists. More information concerning Mr. Hartman and his present activities is available at his website – www.slushpump.com
