This is a one-off post for my students who may be pondering what to do with their Concert Band-free weeks that are coming up after tonight’s concert. Why not make a Winter Break resolution to seek out and listen to some of the best band music ever written. Here are twenty-five pieces to get you started:
1. British Classics:
- Gustav Holst: First Suite in Eb and Second Suite in F for military band
- Gustav Holst: Hammersmith
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: Toccata Marziale (we’re playing this one next semester)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: English Folk Song Suite
- Gordon Jacob: William Byrd Suite
2. Absolute Must-Hears:
- Percy Aldridge Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy
- Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade No. 10, K. 361/370a, “Gran Partita”
- Aaron Copland: Emblems
- Alfred Reed: Russian Christmas Music
3. Symphonies for Band
- Paul Hindemith, Symphony in Bb
- Vincent Persichetti, Symphony No. 6
- Vittorio Giannini, Symphony No. 4
- Alan Hovhaness, Symphony No. 4
- Morton Gould, West Point Symphony
4. The Last Thirty Years
- Michael Colgrass, Winds of Nagual
- David Maslanka, A Child’s Garden of Dreams
- Ron Nelson, Passacaglia (Homage on BACH)
- Mark Camphouse, Watchman Tell Us of the Night
- Joseph Schwantner, …and the mountains rising nowhere
5. Great Transcriptions
- Dmitri Shostakovich (Hunsberger), Festive Overture
- Leonard Bernstein (Grundman), Overture to Candide
- Richard Wagner (Caillet), Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral
- Charles Ives (Thurston), “The Alcotts” from the Concord Sonata
- Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Hindsley), Scheherezade
This will get you started, anyway. Mahler this weekend.
Tags: Alfred Reed, band, Bernstein, Charles Ives, Copland, David Maslanka, Giannini, Gordon Jacob, Grainger, great works, Hindemith, Holst, Hovhaness, Joseph Schwantner, Karel Husa, Mark Camphouse, Michael Colgrass, Morton Gould, Mozart, Persichetti, Richard Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ron Nelson, Shostakovich, suggested listening, Vaughan Williams