Favorite Wind Ensembles piece
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- pitchick00
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i've heard the sjsu wind ensemble play it back in 2000, and was completely amazed by the soloist. she made it sound easy.formermarcher wrote:You know I heard that the clarinet solo piece in Blue Shades is so difficult, that many high schools that play it bring in a professional clarinetest (even true for some college-level bands).Personal wrote:Blue Shades by Frank Tichelli, that is if it is pulled off well. That is a really good one, that and First Suite in Eb, and Second Suite in F, by Holst. Great pieces.
Of course, thats just one particular part, but it sort of demonstrates the level of ability needed to play the piece.
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vallejo high school 97-00
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MIDDLE SCHOOL
A Tallis Prelude by Douglas Akey - This is the greatest middle school song I've ever heard. I never knew that a four minute song could take you on such an emotional trip, but this one does.
Sonatina for Band by Frank Erickson - This three-movement piece is very basic, but each motif is catchy, and Erickson gets the full potential out of each one. The piece is boring if you're not a trumpet, flute, or clarinet, but it sounds great as a whole.
Lindbergh Variations by Robert Sheldon - Another great emotional trip. The trumpet solo is absolutely beautiful.
HIGH SCHOOL
Masque by Francis MacBeth - I would have to say that this is my favorite wind ensemble piece, ever. Everything about the song is great. I cannot think of a single negative thing to say.
Chester by William Schuman - Schuman's New England Triptych closes with Chester, a variation off of a church hymn. The song is technically challenging and requires impeccable balance and maturity for even a high school group.
March in Counterpoint by Vaclav Nelhybel - This is one of the more obscure pieces. I'd never heard of it until my band director pulled it out for us to play at regionals this year, and I can't find any recordings. The march contains some INSANE counterpoint - it's within instruments (first vs. second vs. third trumpet), between different instruments, and between different sections, all at once.
Psalm For Band by Vincent Persichetti - I absolutely love this piece. The call and response between woodwinds, brass, and percussion is incredible.
American Salute by Morton Gould - One of the best marches I've heard. It's all a variation on that "Ants Go Marching" theme, and it uses some very interesting instrument colors.
Festivo by Edward Gregson - This is a very challenging piece for advanced high schools and colleges. I've never heard this played at competition, and for good reason - it's difficult.
Elegy For A Young American by Ronald Lo Presti - I am honestly not surprised that more people don't play this piece. It's technically simple, but is one of the hardest all-around songs I've ever had to play. Making this thing sound good is by no means a small feat, and most ensembles do not have the maturity to play it.
Equus by Eric Whitacre - Hardest song I've heard a high school play. Jesus.
Lyric Overture by Frank Erickson - This is a simple piece that we're playing as our student conductor selection. I like the metre changes and modulation that Erickson employs. Besides that, the song just sounds good.
I hate most of the stuff Ticheli's written, with American Elegy being the big exception. This thing gives me the chills every time I listen to it.
A Tallis Prelude by Douglas Akey - This is the greatest middle school song I've ever heard. I never knew that a four minute song could take you on such an emotional trip, but this one does.
Sonatina for Band by Frank Erickson - This three-movement piece is very basic, but each motif is catchy, and Erickson gets the full potential out of each one. The piece is boring if you're not a trumpet, flute, or clarinet, but it sounds great as a whole.
Lindbergh Variations by Robert Sheldon - Another great emotional trip. The trumpet solo is absolutely beautiful.
HIGH SCHOOL
Masque by Francis MacBeth - I would have to say that this is my favorite wind ensemble piece, ever. Everything about the song is great. I cannot think of a single negative thing to say.
Chester by William Schuman - Schuman's New England Triptych closes with Chester, a variation off of a church hymn. The song is technically challenging and requires impeccable balance and maturity for even a high school group.
March in Counterpoint by Vaclav Nelhybel - This is one of the more obscure pieces. I'd never heard of it until my band director pulled it out for us to play at regionals this year, and I can't find any recordings. The march contains some INSANE counterpoint - it's within instruments (first vs. second vs. third trumpet), between different instruments, and between different sections, all at once.
Psalm For Band by Vincent Persichetti - I absolutely love this piece. The call and response between woodwinds, brass, and percussion is incredible.
American Salute by Morton Gould - One of the best marches I've heard. It's all a variation on that "Ants Go Marching" theme, and it uses some very interesting instrument colors.
Festivo by Edward Gregson - This is a very challenging piece for advanced high schools and colleges. I've never heard this played at competition, and for good reason - it's difficult.
Elegy For A Young American by Ronald Lo Presti - I am honestly not surprised that more people don't play this piece. It's technically simple, but is one of the hardest all-around songs I've ever had to play. Making this thing sound good is by no means a small feat, and most ensembles do not have the maturity to play it.
Equus by Eric Whitacre - Hardest song I've heard a high school play. Jesus.
Lyric Overture by Frank Erickson - This is a simple piece that we're playing as our student conductor selection. I like the metre changes and modulation that Erickson employs. Besides that, the song just sounds good.
I hate most of the stuff Ticheli's written, with American Elegy being the big exception. This thing gives me the chills every time I listen to it.
- Hostrauser
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Nice first post...
I think you mean "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."Blue0ctane wrote:American Salute by Morton Gould - One of the best marches I've heard. It's all a variation on that "Ants Go Marching" theme, and it uses some very interesting instrument colors.
It's the same thing with Shostakovich's Prelude, Op. 34, No. 14. The piece is only about 30 measures long and taken at a cortege tempo (I think I played it at about 50 bpm), but makes numerous demands on the instrumentation (extreme range, massive exposure across the score) and requires a very mature sound to pull off successfully.Blue0ctane wrote:Elegy For A Young American by Ronald Lo Presti - I am honestly not surprised that more people don't play this piece. It's technically simple, but is one of the hardest all-around songs I've ever had to play. Making this thing sound good is by no means a small feat, and most ensembles do not have the maturity to play it.
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- Grand PooBah
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I didn't go through the 12 pages of stuff...but if anyone else said these, I apologize for repeating....
Crap...now I can't remember...somebody help me...Alfred Reed...it was a piece in three movements, and like the last one was REALLY FREAKIN' FAST...I want to say Overture #4 or something like that. Dang it. I LOVED that piece in high school, and now I can't remember it. Anyway...THAT ONE.
Russian Christmas Music...Reed...there's SO much more to it than the thin marching band arrangements or SCV's POWERFUL 87 rendition.
Armenian Dances...Reed...uhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah. Me, a kick ass trombone section, and Marvin Branson...1988 Symphonic Band. CSULB. We SCARED Larry Curtis and his paltry Wind Symphony.
Chorale and Shaker Dance...Zehcuq9euvnqldae-q...however you spell his last name...just call him Z for short...I think it was the first time or one of the first times when I was in high school that I actually got chills playing it. That middle slow section that builds and builds...YEAH BABY! I was playing tuba then. 1982? Yeah. Rockin'....
Irish Tune from County Derry...Grainge...well, Dr. Strange didn't appreciate my euphonium solo in 1984 at a clinic, but then again, I hear he doesn't like much anyway. But I have a VERY special soft spot in my heart for that piece.
Emperata Overture...played that the same year as Irish Tune (senior year) on euph and might I say...we really really really liked that piece.
Incantation and Dance...Chance...ya know, I didn't actually play a low brass instrument on this. Nope. I was the WHIP! That's right. I was at PCC, playing under Ron Hoar who came out of retirement to save our asses because our band director was "let go", and we had more than enough trombones and bari's and tubas...and because I was in Percussion Ensemble with Dr. Jennifer Judkins, well...why OF COURSE Turner...you get to play the whip. Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh dududuht....................WHIP....
there are probably others...but a ABSOLUTE favorite of mine...
BLUE (FREAKIN') LAKE OVERTURE...CHANCE...who apparently was experimenting with the idea of "how can I mess with a musician's head" when he wrote it (you have to see the music to know what I mean) I think really wrote a GREAT piece (which incidentally, I'm surprised has never been done on the field). In any event, I was a freshman trombone player, and my then band director Dave Wickham (remember him DR and Vore? He was the guy after John Work...) needed a euphonium player in second semester Symphonic Band. I stepped up in typical Ryan H. Turner fashion and took home a nice Yahama 4 Valve concert euph and learned the fingerings on my own over Christmas break. Came back, auditioned, and after I was reminded that lowly freshman HACKS like myself don't deserve to be in Symphonic Band, was allowed in (side note to musicians who play popular instruments--you can go far playing things others don't want to...keep that in mind). Ergo, I jumped into the upper classmen Pool of Death. Not only were we playing Pines of Rome/Appian Way that concert season, but Wickham thought it would be fun to do Blue Lake.
Hahahahahaha...everything was fine...up until the low brass feature during the, what I call, "fugue from hell" section. Want to talk about stress? I'm 41 freakin' years old and I'm STILL stressed about that. I remember clearly the day Wickham told me and the senior euph and the ONE tuba player we had that if we didn't learn this and get it right, the piece was not going to work and we'd let down the whole organization and blah blah blah. I need a towel...I'm SWEATIN' HERE FOLKS!! But seriously, he laid some SERIOUS pressure on us. And if you know the piece, fun and difficult as it may be, that low brass part IS crucial.
So there you go...
Crap...now I can't remember...somebody help me...Alfred Reed...it was a piece in three movements, and like the last one was REALLY FREAKIN' FAST...I want to say Overture #4 or something like that. Dang it. I LOVED that piece in high school, and now I can't remember it. Anyway...THAT ONE.
Russian Christmas Music...Reed...there's SO much more to it than the thin marching band arrangements or SCV's POWERFUL 87 rendition.
Armenian Dances...Reed...uhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah. Me, a kick ass trombone section, and Marvin Branson...1988 Symphonic Band. CSULB. We SCARED Larry Curtis and his paltry Wind Symphony.
Chorale and Shaker Dance...Zehcuq9euvnqldae-q...however you spell his last name...just call him Z for short...I think it was the first time or one of the first times when I was in high school that I actually got chills playing it. That middle slow section that builds and builds...YEAH BABY! I was playing tuba then. 1982? Yeah. Rockin'....
Irish Tune from County Derry...Grainge...well, Dr. Strange didn't appreciate my euphonium solo in 1984 at a clinic, but then again, I hear he doesn't like much anyway. But I have a VERY special soft spot in my heart for that piece.
Emperata Overture...played that the same year as Irish Tune (senior year) on euph and might I say...we really really really liked that piece.
Incantation and Dance...Chance...ya know, I didn't actually play a low brass instrument on this. Nope. I was the WHIP! That's right. I was at PCC, playing under Ron Hoar who came out of retirement to save our asses because our band director was "let go", and we had more than enough trombones and bari's and tubas...and because I was in Percussion Ensemble with Dr. Jennifer Judkins, well...why OF COURSE Turner...you get to play the whip. Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh dududuht....................WHIP....
there are probably others...but a ABSOLUTE favorite of mine...
BLUE (FREAKIN') LAKE OVERTURE...CHANCE...who apparently was experimenting with the idea of "how can I mess with a musician's head" when he wrote it (you have to see the music to know what I mean) I think really wrote a GREAT piece (which incidentally, I'm surprised has never been done on the field). In any event, I was a freshman trombone player, and my then band director Dave Wickham (remember him DR and Vore? He was the guy after John Work...) needed a euphonium player in second semester Symphonic Band. I stepped up in typical Ryan H. Turner fashion and took home a nice Yahama 4 Valve concert euph and learned the fingerings on my own over Christmas break. Came back, auditioned, and after I was reminded that lowly freshman HACKS like myself don't deserve to be in Symphonic Band, was allowed in (side note to musicians who play popular instruments--you can go far playing things others don't want to...keep that in mind). Ergo, I jumped into the upper classmen Pool of Death. Not only were we playing Pines of Rome/Appian Way that concert season, but Wickham thought it would be fun to do Blue Lake.
Hahahahahaha...everything was fine...up until the low brass feature during the, what I call, "fugue from hell" section. Want to talk about stress? I'm 41 freakin' years old and I'm STILL stressed about that. I remember clearly the day Wickham told me and the senior euph and the ONE tuba player we had that if we didn't learn this and get it right, the piece was not going to work and we'd let down the whole organization and blah blah blah. I need a towel...I'm SWEATIN' HERE FOLKS!! But seriously, he laid some SERIOUS pressure on us. And if you know the piece, fun and difficult as it may be, that low brass part IS crucial.
So there you go...
Ryan H. Turner
http://vkdm8687.blogspot.com/
http://vkdm8687.blogspot.com/
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I couldn't remember its actual name. Plus, I figured that most people would recognize the former over the latter. xDHostrauser wrote:Nice first post...
I think you mean "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."Blue0ctane wrote:American Salute by Morton Gould - One of the best marches I've heard. It's all a variation on that "Ants Go Marching" theme, and it uses some very interesting instrument colors.
When Chance wrote Blue Lake it was in 7/8, 5/8, etc. Boosey and Hawkes would not publish it that way, because they didn't think band directors could understand it, or something like that, so he rewrote it in 4/4. Yeah, that was a lot easier .Ryan H. Turner wrote:
BLUE (FREAKIN') LAKE OVERTURE...CHANCE...who apparently was experimenting with the idea of "how can I mess with a musician's head"
I too love this piece. I first heard in played by the CSULB Symphonic Band in 1973.
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- Grand PooBah
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Cool story...well...they messed with my head that Boosey Hawkes...I should write them a letter telling them how traumatic things were in 1980 for me.
Ryan H. Turner
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Sorry, but I've always VASTLY preferred the two movement Khachaturian Armenian Dances over Reed's piece.Ryan H. Turner wrote:Armenian Dances...Reed...uhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah. Me, a kick ass trombone section, and Marvin Branson...1988 Symphonic Band. CSULB. We SCARED Larry Curtis and his paltry Wind Symphony.
Maybe it's because Khachaturian was an actual Armenian.
John Zdechlik.Ryan H. Turner wrote:Chorale and Shaker Dance...Zehcuq9euvnqldae-q...however you spell his last name...
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- Grand PooBah
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Yeah. Him. Make yourself useful Smart Guy and tell me what the title is of that first Reed piece that I can't remember. The last song in the suite was fast and really "bombastic" but fun as hell.Hostrauser wrote:Sorry, but I've always VASTLY preferred the two movement Khachaturian Armenian Dances over Reed's piece.Ryan H. Turner wrote:Armenian Dances...Reed...uhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah. Me, a kick ass trombone section, and Marvin Branson...1988 Symphonic Band. CSULB. We SCARED Larry Curtis and his paltry Wind Symphony.
Maybe it's because Khachaturian was an actual Armenian.
John Zdechlik.Ryan H. Turner wrote:Chorale and Shaker Dance...Zehcuq9euvnqldae-q...however you spell his last name...
Ryan H. Turner
http://vkdm8687.blogspot.com/
http://vkdm8687.blogspot.com/
Ryan H. Turner wrote:Yeah. Him. Make yourself useful Smart Guy and tell me what the title is of that first Reed piece that I can't remember. The last song in the suite was fast and really "bombastic" but fun as hell.Hostrauser wrote:Sorry, but I've always VASTLY preferred the two movement Khachaturian Armenian Dances over Reed's piece.Ryan H. Turner wrote:Armenian Dances...Reed...uhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah. Me, a kick ass trombone section, and Marvin Branson...1988 Symphonic Band. CSULB. We SCARED Larry Curtis and his paltry Wind Symphony.
Maybe it's because Khachaturian was an actual Armenian.
John Zdechlik.Ryan H. Turner wrote:Chorale and Shaker Dance...Zehcuq9euvnqldae-q...however you spell his last name...
The First Suite has four movements. The last is a Galop marked:
As fast as possible (but no faster)
The movements are (memory don't fail me):
March
Rag
Song
Galop
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pitchick00 wrote:i've heard the sjsu wind ensemble play it back in 2000, and was completely amazed by the soloist. she made it sound easy.formermarcher wrote:You know I heard that the clarinet solo piece in Blue Shades is so difficult, that many high schools that play it bring in a professional clarinetest (even true for some college-level bands).Personal wrote:Blue Shades by Frank Tichelli, that is if it is pulled off well. That is a really good one,
Of course, thats just one particular part, but it sort of demonstrates the level of ability needed to play the piece.
I heard the Tarpon Springs HS Wind Ensemble from Florida pull it off very well at a festival in San Francisco about 5-6 years ago. The clarinetist was one of their own.
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WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!PGOK wrote: The First Suite has four movements. The last is a Galop marked:
As fast as possible (but no faster)
The movements are (memory don't fail me):
March
Rag
Song
Galop
Ryan H. Turner
http://vkdm8687.blogspot.com/
http://vkdm8687.blogspot.com/
Thank you, thank you...Ryan H. Turner wrote:WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!PGOK wrote: The First Suite has four movements. The last is a Galop marked:
As fast as possible (but no faster)
The movements are (memory don't fail me):
March
Rag
Song
Galop
But my memory did fail me.
First Suite for Band
Alfred Reed
I. March
II. Melody
III. Rag
IV. Gallop
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
— Groucho Marx
— Groucho Marx