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.