I'm preparing music for my college auditions (I'm going for music ed) and I need two contrasting etudes. So what etude books should I look into getting?

Music ed? How about an Arban piece and a Rochut piece?

That is, if you're looking for books. If I were just playing an audition piece, I would play something from the following lists:

Technical:

>The Blue Bells of Scotland
>Lars Erick Larsson Concerto, mvt. III
>Fernand David Concertino, op. IV


Lyrical:

>Thoughts of Love by Arthur Pryor
>The G minor exercise in Rubank Selected Studies
>It would be beautiful if you could find The Force of Destiny (Overture) by Verdi arranged for trombone...but I wouldn't know where to find one.

Anyway, that's just a few things to possibly get you started...

Thanks you so much, I already have an actual audition piece (I picked Guilmant's Morceau Symphonique since I already prepared it as a NYSSMA solo), I just also needed two contrasting etudes. I'll look into what you posted. Thanks again.

Bach Cello Suites. Always a winner.

Buy a Arban book, you'll use it for the rest of your life, and for a technical etude, you could go qith a caracteristic study (don't remember the exact page, but they're at the end of the book, after double/triple tonguing and before the solo pieces). Hering (more of a style etude book than technical though) or Kopprasch (real technical stuff in there but lacks but I tend to find Arban caracteristics more appropriate for audition, as they are a bit more than just study stuff). For your legato etude, you're best with Rochut.

I'm going to come at this from a different perspective. You could has 20 trombonist what etudes to play, and you'll get 20 different answers as you may have already noticed. In my time of study and performing, I have come to one inevitable conclusion. It's not the etude, it's how you play it. I feel the same way about daily routine books. Is Remington the best? Vining? Buddy Baker? Reinhardt?
The point is this.. there is no holy grail. The people listening to you play are looking for the basics. Can you play in tune, in excellent time, with a great sound? Can you do it with an appropriate sense of style and phrasing? It really doesn't matter if you get your etude out of a Tyrell book, Kopprasch, Marstellar, Bitsch, Senon... if you don't play it well.
Technical- is your tonguing clear? Are the strings of fast notes still in perfect time? Do all the notes speak or are some getting swallowed up? Are you speeding up the easier parts and slowing down the trickier parts? Is your tonguing consistent? Are you neglecting to play musically just because it's considered a "technical" etude? I sure hope not. Are you in tune????
Lyrical- Everything above. Really. Also.. music will always sing or dance? Which one does your etude do? Are you making it happen?
Just some things to think about. Don't dwell on which etudes. I am sure you have some usable stuff. Focus on how great you can make it. Show them what a great MUSICIAN you have the potential to be.

Steve is exactly right on.

I haven't made it through my first semester of college but I have heard from other people with orchestral audition experience as well as trombonists who have made it into these big symphonies and high positions. It's not really the audition material. All performance music, or in the case audition music, is doing is showing what you can do, what you have practiced, how much time you have put into getting better and your overall attitude towards music. For my college auditions, I used the third movement out of the David Concertino and the Sulek Sonata as my two contrasting pieces. Did I practice the pieces a lot to be able to play them? Yes. Did I practice as much if not more the exercises both in books and ones I just made up in order to improve my overall ability.

I do understand this is just a large elaboration on what steve said, but it further proves his point.