An update on Joannès Rochut’s “Melodious Etudes” for trombone – the missing etudes

An update on Joannès Rochut’s “Melodious Etudes” for trombone – the missing etudes

by Douglas Yeo (November 14, 2024)

Readers of The Last Trombone know that I have been researching the life, work, and influence of trombonist Joannès Rochut for nearly 40 years. I began my journey to learn more about Rochut when I joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1985 because I knew that Rochut had also played in the BSO (from 1925–1930). This past spring, I gave a presentation about Joannès Rochut at the International Trombone Festival (held on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas) and the International Trombone Association Journal will carry my major article about Rochut in its January 2025 issue.

The cover of the first edition of Joannès Rochut’s Melodious Etudes for Trombone (New York: Carl Fischer, 1928).

In 2018, I wrote an article for The Last Trombone about etude No. 1 (in Volume 1) in Rochut’s famous book, Melodious Etudes for Trombone Selected from the Vocalises of Marco Bordogni (New York: Carl Fischer, 1928). That etude was not written by Bordogni, and my article unpacked the source of Rochut’s illusive No. 1.

Since that time, I learned that there is ANOTHER etude in Rochut’s book, No. 73 (in Rochut’s Volume 2) that was not written by Bordogni. That story is told in my forthcoming article about Rochut, but today, I decided to update my blog article about Rochut No. 1 with information about Rochut No. 73. Have a look at the revised blog article HERE.

There, you’ll see the source for Rochut’s Nos. 1 and 73 (these etudes were neither by Bordogni nor Rochut) and I also provide the music to the two Bordogni etudes that are missing from Rochut’s books. If you want your Rochut books to truly have the complete Bordogni Vocalises, you’ll want to download the music to the two missing etudes.

There will be more about this in my ITA Journal article in January, but here’s a preview. My revised article about Rochut’s Nos. 1 and 73 gives readers the opportunity to download copies of the two Bordogni etudes that are missing from what trombone players frequently call, “the Rochut book.”