CONCERT BAND : GRADES 4-5
Although I have two graduate degrees in composition, most (but definitely not all) of my music for band is tonally oriented. I studied band composition for three years with Charles Carter, and while my voice and style are my own, my writing
in the easier grade levels (see Concert Band Grade 1-3) still reflects his influence. My more difficult
contemporary style pieces on this page are more inspired by various tonally oriented
20th century classical composers, most notably Vincent Persichetti.
Each composition and arrangement on this page has a link to a video on YouTube where you can
follow the score while a recording plays and the pages turn automatically.
Rhapsody on a Theme of Brahms is based on the opening horn tune from Johannes Brahms' Serenade No. 1, Op. 11 for orchestra.
While it borrows its title and theme & variations form (albeit hybridized with elements of arch form) from Sergei Rachmaninoff's famous Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, this composition is on a smaller scale and not otherwise modeled on that much longer masterpiece for piano and orchestra.
The theme and five variations, framed with bookend introduction and coda, are all linked together and played without pause.
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PACHELBEL'S CANON
Grade: 4
Duration: 5:50
Price: $60.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
This ever-popular classic, originally composed for just 3 violins and basso continuo, reveals a different side of itself in this big, colorful full-length concert band arrangement.
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Read more about Pachelbel's Canon
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INTERLUDE FOR BAND
Grade: 4
Duration: 7:30
Price: $60.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
This composition is a concert band transcription of my orchestral score Interlude for Orchestra, which represents a major revision of one of my earliest attempts to write for orchestra, way back in 1966. Revisiting it after over a half-century languishing in the drawer, I was shocked to find some surprisingly worthwhile material. While it little resembles something I would write today, I managed to rework it into a legitimate and enjoyable piece of music, 54 years in the making.
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CHINESE FOLK RHAPSODY
Grade: 4
Duration: 6:40
Price: $85.00
Publisher: Neil A. Kjos Music
This is a colorful arrangement of a set of folk dances that is incredibly popular in China. It originated with the Yao people of Yunan Province in Southern China, but is commonly heard all through the entire country.
"Ancient Chinese folk dance melodies weave a rich musical tapestry in this captivating arrangement. The colorful scoring features lushly textured pentatonics and parallel fourths. Superb for concert or contest. The musicianship studies help teach pentatonic scales." (publisher’s promo)
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VARIATIONS ON AN IRISH HYMN TUNE
Grade: 4
Duration: 7:00
Price: $70.00
Publisher: Seolta Music
The theme is the familiar hymn tune Slane, which was itself derived from an Irish folk song (the best known hymn which uses this tune is Be Thou My Vision). It is played first in a setting of its familiar form, below a gentle "Irish penny whistle" ostinato. This is followed by seven variations and an extended finale featuring an “Irish jig” over a repeating ground bass, with a climactic brass chorale coming in between the two. There are exposed solos for alto sax and piccolo.
Also available in a transcription for piano and organ.
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Read More about Variations on an Irish Hymn Tune
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Recording by The Washington Wind Symphony, Scott Taube, Conductor
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SCHERZO
Grade: 4
Duration: 5:00
Price: $60.00
Publisher: G. Schirmer
Shostakovich wrote this, his first orchestral composition, in 1919 as an entrance piece for the Petrograd Conservatory. Although he had yet to find his mature voice, and the music is reminiscent of some late-romantic Russian composers, it is a delightful piece that provides a fascinating look at a great 20th-century composer’s very early style. This transcription is transposed up a semitone from the original F# minor to the more band-friendly key of G minor.
"Adapted for concert band from the lesser known work Scherzo in F# minor for Orchestra, Op. 1, this arrangement presents a marvelous display of woodwind flourishes and flowing brass statements. Containing an unmistakable playful quality, this work also features a brief trumpet solo in the middle section before ending with a return to the exciting fast tempo." (publisher’s promo)
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Recording by The Florida State University Wind Symphony, James Croft, Conductor
EXPANSIONS FOR WINDS
AND PERCUSSION
Grade: 4+
Duration: 4:00
Price: $55.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
Commissioned by a Texas high school wind ensemble to feature its percussion section at a TMEA All-State Conference, Expansions requires fairly complete instrumentation, as well as six versatile percussionists moving around a variety of instruments.
Using chord clusters and mild aleatoric effects, it develops--or "expands" on--two short motifs, starting quietly and gradually building to a frenzied conclusion.
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Read more about Expansions for Winds and Percussion
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Recording by The Westlake High school Wind Ensemble, Lee Boyd Montgomery, Conductor
FANTASY ON A CHINESE THEME
Grade: 4+
Duration: 6:30
Price: $55.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
Based on a popular folk song from Taiwan, this piece utilizes a free variation form having an overall fast-slow-fast format, plus a slow introduction and epilogue. Slow sections are lyrical, fast sections rhythmic with some mixed irregular meter. Exposed solos for baritone, horn, oboe, alto sax, and a big one for trumpet in the middle slow section. Requires 6-7 percussionists, including two strong mallet players.
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Read more about Fantasy on a Chinese Theme
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Recording by The Albuquerque Concert Band, John Sanks, Conductor
SHADES OF PAISANO
Grade: 4+
Duration: 10:15
Price: $65.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
This is a transcription of four movements from my Paisano Suite, a twenty-minute work for orchestra which was itself drawn from an earlier ballet score. The entire composition is actually based on a fairly modest amount of musical material and all the movements are thematically very closely related. From the orchestral suite's eight movements, I chose four that I considered best-suited for a concert band treatment.
The individual movements, with their locations on the audio track, are listed below.
1. Scherzo 0:00
2. Fugue 1:27
3. Romanza 3:20
4. Finale 7:48
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THE STORMS OF TIME
Grade: 4+
Duration: 6:45
Price: $65.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
This composition was commissioned by a high school band in Ohio as a memorial to a band member who died in a traffic accident. Although the piece is built on motivic development and has no specific program, the solo alto sax represents the dedicatee, who played that instrument, and the other soloists represent her friends, who express their sense of first loss, then resignation and acceptance after her voice suddenly falls silent near the end.
Ternary form: slow-fast-slow. Slow sections are lyrical and thinly scored, fast section very rhythmic with much mixed irregular meter. Several exposed solos for flute, clarinet, bassoon, and especially alto sax, plus short ones for oboe and trumpet.
Read More about The Storms of Time
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Recording by The Washington Wind Symphony, Scott Taube, Conductor
GRADE 5
SYMPHONIC SUITE
Grade: 5
Duration: 13:00
Price: $80.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
A six-movement composition with a motto theme (actually a 5-note motif in this case) that appears in each movement and provides much of the thematic content that is developed in the 1st and 6th movements.
While the 2nd movement conjures up some Bartókian "night music," this work's primary inspiration was the Symphony for Band of Vincent Persichetti (to whose memory the piece is dedicated), and although written in my own voice and cast in a different form, a couple of obvious nods to that work can be noticed in this one.
The individual movements, with their location on the audio track, are listed below.
1. Fanfare 0:00
2. Nocturne 1:08
3. Humoresque 3:05
4. Elegy 4:45
5. Intermezzo 8:32
6. Finale 9:58
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DISSIMULATION FOR BAND
Grade: 5
Duration: 7:25
Price: $65.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
This composition employs a free variation form consisting of the theme, six variations and coda, all falling into an overall fast-slow-fast format. It is modeled on Persichetti’s Masquerade for Band, but while the form is derived from that work, this one is on a somewhat smaller scale. The title, a loose synonym for "masquerade," was chosen as a nod to its inspiration.
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VOICES OF THE NIGHT
A NOCTURNAL FANTASY FOR BAND
Grade: 5
Duration: 9:00
Price: $75.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
Transcribed for symphonic band from my similarly-titled orchestra composition, Voices of the Night - A Nocturnal Fantasy for Band is in 3 parts: 1. a slow, moody introductory section; 2. a lively but somewhat dark rhythmic dance-like section; 3. a quiet epilogue based on the opening music.
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SOUVENIRS
Grade: 5
Duration: 12:00
Price: $70.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
Souvenirs is composed in an atonal style utilizing aleatoric effects, cluster harmonies, and dissonant counterpoint to build and release tension within a multi-layered arch form. Functional harmonic progressions are entirely absent, and although there are several important melodic lines and fragments--especially in the epilogue--texture, tone color, and rhythm are generally stressed above melody and thematic development.
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