World of Pageantry

well this year we are playing first suite in E flat and omg! if is hard. in the first movement clarinets have the "run from hell" grrr...... i love the way the song sounds but it is hard!

Yes, I specifically remember that clarinet run when our band played it two years ago!

I'm currently working on what is probably the hardest piece I've ever played: The Creston Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra. The first and second movements aren't that bad, but the 3rd movement is insane! I'm sure that once you have it in your hands, it's quite easy, but learning it is like "AHHH! SO MANY NOTES!"

I'm not really sure what my hardest piece was. It would have to be a tie between Variations on a Korean Folk Song and Hounds of Spring. Variations does have a bunch of places where there's narry a white a spot on the page, but above all, it forces me to listen to intonation. We had major intonation problems in that piece last year. Plus, the staggered entrances in the end are a pain because no two parts in the same section come in at the same time. You have to listen across if you're too lazy to count the rests. Same with Hounds of Spring, though the most notable difference is that there are a LOT more notes and a LOT more accidentals.

The old Director for our band, Mr Duarte, wrote a few songs and we're playing one of his songs "Celebration of Life." It's crazy. When we first tried I thought that there was no way we're get it up to preformance level. It's like 8 pages and each part is difficult, yes, but combining them all at once is even worse.

umm probably 12 seconds to the moon? i'm not sure.. we've played alot of difficult music...

Hm. Liturgical Dances by Holsinger was a bear, and I had to learn it in two days! (Honor Band.)

But a "difficult" piece isn't always the one with the most runs. Shostakovich's Prelude, Op. 34, No. 14 is a surprisingly challenging piece to nail down due to the huge amounts of exposure H. Robert Reynolds wrote into his arrangement, even though the piece is only like 30 measures long.

were jus reading this piece called third symphony by barnes. its hard but my director wants to play it nex year. but whatever......

Phantom Phan wrote:Hm. Liturgical Dances by Holsinger was a bear, and I had to learn it in two days! (Honor Band.)

But a "difficult" piece isn't always the one with the most runs. Shostakovich's Prelude, Op. 34, No. 14 is a surprisingly challenging piece to nail down due to the huge amounts of exposure H. Robert Reynolds wrote into his arrangement, even though the piece is only like 30 measures long.

really true... usually the runs are the easiest part in music...(well then again i do play flute, so that's expected)

to tame the perilous skies is pretty intense...

another hard piece--paris sketches. probably the hardest or one of the hardest i've played. definitely exposing everywhere.

ran kan kan

We played To Tame the Perilous Skies for our festival this year. Last year we played Canzona, I can't remember who it's by, but it's really syncopated and has weird intervals.

Confederate Brass wrote:Last year we played Canzona, I can't remember who it's by, but it's really syncopated and has weird intervals.

Peter Mennin

my group is working on Aegean Festival Overture (spelling? sorry). i dont remember who its by, but in terms of the concentration it takes, its probably the most difficult ive ever seen. im playing snare drum on it, so chops-wise its nothing too crazy, but it changes time sig. a million and a half times...from 4/4 to 3/4 to 7/8 to 5/8 to 4/8 to 5/8 again...but the groupings within the chunks of 5/8 arent consistent...it goes 2+3,3+2,2+3 and so on but it doesnt always alternate like that. the irregularity makes it require so much concentration, and i dont even play half the time. for the other sections it is INTENSELY difficult because they have all the time issues plus complicated runs etc. its really fun tho, a great feeling to get through a section solidly.

i would have to say the 3rd movemet of Jagr's 3rd suite is a killer, Nelhybel's Symphonic Movement was very difficult but in like 3 weeks we got it down good enough for festival to get us superiors from all judges and yeah thatt 3rd movement of First Suite in Eb was challenging and uhm ill come up with some more later

RBSnare wrote:my group is working on Aegean Festival Overture (spelling? sorry). i dont remember who its by

Andreas Makris, I think.

El Salon Mexico by Aaron Copeland has got to be one of the craziest syncopated songs I've ever seen, heard, or played.