Thoughts of Love
by Arthur Willard Pryor
Concert Band - Digital Sheet Music

Trombone Solo with Concert Band

Arthur Pryor's Thoughts Of Love/Love Thoughts Waltz is a work that has gone through many iterative changes before it settled into the beloved trombone solo known and played the world over today. Thoughts of Love was first performed by Pryor himself in 1893 which cemented him in the John Phillip Sousa's band as a formidable soloist, but based on old recordings, it was considerably shorter than it is now. In 1898, an arrangement was played by Sousa's band as a waltz having been retitled to Love Thoughts Waltz with additional material. Sometime later, elements of that band version along with other changes created the solo as it now exists. When the solo has been arranged for band, it generally follows the piano accompaniment, but for this edition, the 1898 band version was used as a source with the piano accompaniment only filling in gaps and counter melodies that did not exist in the Love Thoughts band version. While no modern orchestrations were used as a reference for this arrangement, I did listen to an early version of the solo work performed (and probably orchestrated) by Arthur Pryor himself as inspiration for some arrangement decisions. In addition, the cadenza near the end has been revised to include parts of the traditional version of the solo, an excised melody from a section of the band version, and inspiration from Arthur Pryor's own performance.  

George Willson is a trombone player and has been an performer, composer, and conductor for thirty years in various mediums and ensembles.

Mp3 provided is a midi extracted from the composition program.