What are your favorite pieces for wind band?

[GC]

Suite of Old American Dances, by Robert Russell Bennett
English Folksong Suite, by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Russian Christmas Music, by Alfred Reed

[bloke]

One of my freeway philharmonic's low brass sections has been trying to coax the MD into doing a WIND BAND concert - with the orchestra's wind/percussion sections and a handful of additional players.

I suppose we would need a euphonium, four saxes, a bass clarinet...maybe a contra-alto or CB clarinet...

Accomplished clarinetists - one on a part (particularly with considerate brass/percussion musicians) - make plenty of racket, and do not need to be doubled or sextupled.

YOU COMMUNITY BAND PEEPS:
I'd probably wager dough that you would increase your attendance (thus exposure and budgets) if you picked up a set of used (NOT corps-looking, but traditional) USED BAND UNIFORMS (and so what if green/yellow/or whatever?)...rather than golf-shirts-and-khakis, all-black, tuxedos, or long-black-tie.

bloke "A bunch of band-barn-burners can be covered in an hour-and-a-half-plus-intermission."

[kingrob76]

American Overture trivia: the slur/glissando/rip in the beginning in the horn parts is a misprint. It’s supposed to be tongued according to the composer.


My contribution to this thread: Trauersinfonie

[Heavy_Metal]

I've played most of these- not a bad one so far.

Some I like that haven't been mentioned yet.........

"Suite from Hymn of the Highlands"- Philip Sparke:



"Symphonic Dance #3- Fiesta" Clifton Williams:



"Carmina Burana" Carl Orff, arr. John Krance:



"Symphony #1- Lord of the Rings"- Johan de Meij:



and I'll throw this in, though it's not as heavy as the others- "Evokatah"- Michael Mogenson:



Yes, I'm playing on all of these. I was the only tuba on the Mogenson, so every bad tuba note was mine.

[ronr]

Profanation from Bernstein’s first symphony. There’s a transcription by Frank Bencriscutto that is phenomenal to play and to hear. Don’t know if it’s ever been published.

[Cameron Gates]

I will further the nomination of “La Fiesta Mexicana”. It is super fun to perform and to listen to.

Also:

‘Hammersmith” is da bomb. I will never get tired of trying to climb that mountain as a player. To listen to is great too so long as the band playing can make sense of it. Too many bands try that maybe should not. It is challenging. If “Lincolnshire Posy” is a grade 5, this should be a 6 IMO.

“Deathtree”. If you are lucky enough to have played it you know. Very fun. David Holsinger

“Russian Christmas Music”. Way up there on the list. I do wish it was longer.

Holst #1. Steely-eyed widow maker with one hell of an ending.

John Williams “The Cowboys” and “1941”. Fun and effective grade 4 mass sellers.

Way too many one-off transcriptions of orchestral and film music to mention.

Anything by Clifton Williams

[Pauvog1]

“Rocky Point Holiday” has been a favorite of mine for a long time. It took on a bit more of a special meaning when I moved up here.

In my opinion, one of the better pieces for exploring the voices accessible in the modern wind band.

Agreed, I've always loved Rocky Point Holiday, probably one of my top 3 favorites!

I really like a bunch of Alfred Reed stuff too.

[Teubonium]

I love Karl King marches. My Dad was a Bariphonium player and introduced me to the instrument and to Karl Kings music when I was about 5 years old.
To put things in perspective, I am 83 years old. Karl King was a Bariphonium player and wrote great baritone parts into his marches, the ultimate being The Melody Shop.

When I was at the U. of Iowa from 1958 to 1963 I played euphonium in the symphony band. We did an outdoor summer concert in which Mr. King was our guest conductor. At the time he was retired and directing a community band in (I think) Fort Madison, Iowa. I still have the program from that concert which he autographed for me after a 10 minute conversation about his circus band days. One of the fond memories that sticks with me in my old age.

[bloke]

The American Overture composer (assuming truth) thing sounds like an excuse for a regret.

How in the hell could an engraver "misprint" that stuff...??

[WC8KCY]

Most of my faves have already been mentioned above...

British Eighth by Zo Elliot and Radio Waves by Frederick Jewell are two that I'd add to the list.

The Lord Melbourne movement of Lincolnshire Posy was omitted at the work's premiere, and I think the suite works better without it.

[cktuba]

A lot of mine have already been named above. But I love playing this march....

[dsfinley]

I’ll add a few more that I really enjoy

The Leaves Are Falling- Warren Benson
Solitary Dancer- Warren Benson
More Cowbell from Steven Bryant’s Popcopy (very fun tuba part)
Blow It Up, Start Again- Johnathan Newman
Colonial Song- Grainger
There’s an arrangement of music from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Jirí Kadlec that was unbelievably fun to play

[windshieldbug]

and now for something completely different...

Sam Hazo is writing some pretty tasty contemporary/fusion stuff.

[Heavy_Metal]

Speaking of Hazo- this is "Olympiada":



ISTR hearing that he thought he could write better Olympics music than their current stuff. I think he was right.

And since The Lovely Naoko, my wife, is Japanese this one caught my eye, and my ears. This one, Mountain Thyme and Rush are the only Hazo pieces listed so far that I haven't played:

[marccromme]

We played a transcription of Carl Nielsen flute concerto done by Prof Mogens Andresen.
Itwas a bit weired but great fun. I enjoyed much playing the bass bone part, having a challenging, but. Great solo.

[2nd tenor]

Bar a skim though I haven’t followed this thread. Brass Bands aren’t Wind Bands but there are overlaps so I’ll offer this as something different, not that hard to play and enjoyed by both players and audiences. Hine e Hine.

[Wilco]

Band directors (still today...??, only around here...??, only in the past...??) seem (seemed?) to view Lincolnshire Posey as "the ultimate band composition" (typical brag: "Our band performed Lincolnshire Posey 'at contest'.") I've never played it, and (admittedly) listening to it never held my attention nor captured my imagination.

I'm pretty impressed with La Fiesta Mexicana - H. Owen Reed.
I even liked it the first time I heard it performed by kids.
(me: probably 16 years old, when the second-stringers were up there on stage playing it...It was a BETTER and MORE IMPRESSIVE piece than any of the things that had been programmed for the "first band" play - and - actually - we had some pretty good pieces programmed.)
Later - having heard a recording of the Marine Band playing it - it was amazing.

I myself have NEVER had an opportunity to play La Fiesta Mexicana.

I will play the second part: Mass, on remembrance day. I am too very impressed with this work!

[bloke]

maybe my headphones (but I doubt it)...the string bass sounds above the mix, to me...so (maybe?) adjust the bass frequency response DOWN

[bort2.0]

I had forgotten about American overture. It's a fun piece, as long as you play it at the right tempo. When I played it about 20 years ago on a band tour to austria, we were bookin and probably played it too fast, but it was fun to play at a sprightly Temple. I've also heard it performed at a much much slower tempo, and it was pretty painful. All of the excitement was removed, and it just started slow and dragged even further.

It's funny, even though it's been 20 years since I've played it, I bet I could still play it from memory. Not because I tried to memorize it, but because when you play for a band, and have 10,000 rehearsals, you're going to end up memorizing it whether you want to or not.

[prodigal]

Stating the obvious…

Stuff like Grainger really shines, imo, when it’s the bare bones minimum for part coverage.

Other works, like Reed, work really well with massive bands with doubling (or more) per part.

There’s a transcription of Kalinnikov #1 that works really well for a large ensemble.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphon ... alinnikov)

Ok,. I've got to study the Kalinnikov. My string students and I adore his Serenade!