Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer / arranger: Gregory B. Rudgers
Grade 4. The melodic material used in 200 B.C. is from a two thousand year old Greek hymn to Apollo. The legendary adventures of Odysseus as described by Homer in the Odyssey (ca. 700 B.C.) provide the programmatic material.
Each movement of the work depicts a key event in the epic Homeric poem, as described below.
Movement I: Intrada
Movement II: Ballad
Movement III: Dance
Movement IV: March
Building from a delicate woodwind ensemble accompanied by finger cymbals to a fully orchestrated statement replete with thundering percussion, this is a resounding march of victory. Odysseus has returned in triumph to restore dignity to his household and to reclaim the throne of the Kingdom of Ithaca.
Categories: Entertainment - Light Concert Works, BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Clare Grundman
Grade 3.0 Duration 5.00
First published in 1971, An Irish Rhapsody has become a staple in the literature for young concert bands. It demonstrates Clare Grundman's mastery of orchestration and exceptional treatment of transitions and pacing.
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Jack Stamp
Grade 5
Duration 7:50
AirLink was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association for their 75th anniversary. It was premiered in April, 2008 by the PMEA All-State Concert Band under the direction of Dr. William Stowman. The work is dedicated to the memory of longtime Slippery Rock University band director, Blase Scarnatti. AirLink takes its title from the 700-mile flights I take to visit my fiancee several times per month. The work is based on a single theme and is an unstructured set of motivic variations, including fugues and canons. The slow, reflective middle section of the work features many soloists. That music returns toward the end of the work in a majestic statement by the full ensemble.
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer / arranger: Bob Margolis
Grade 3.
Alien Visitors has a science fiction theme: What would it be like to be visited by aliens? The movement titles - Arrival, Aliens, Attack - are descriptive of the action: In Arrival, we hear the starship as it approaches, growing larger and larger and louder and louder. Aliens is a character study of our visitors. At the end of the movement they disappear in an upward-wafting cloud of musical smoke. The final movement, Attack, describes a vicious, mechanized attack.
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer / arranger: Bob Margolis
Grade 5.
Allegro Brillante is the first movement of Dragonland for band. The first performance (under the original title, A Short Symphony) was given by the L.E. Dieruff High School Concert Band, conducted by Raymond S. Becker, Jr., on April 21, 1978. The work was subsequently revised, and first performed in its new version by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Symphony Band, conducted by Donald S. George, on November 23rd, 1980. Allegro Brillante is the first movement of four.
The music is almost profligate in its tunefulness, quick to change tack and tempo, and will benefit from an interpretation of headstrong abandon.
Categories: Entertainment - Light Concert Works, BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Clare Grundman
First published in 1971, An Irish Rhapsody has become a staple in the literature for young concert bands. It demonstrates Clare Grundman's mastery of orchestration and exceptional treatment of transitions and pacing. Including the folk melodies The Morren (Minstrel Boy), I Know Where I'm Going, Shepher's Lamb Reel, Cockles and Mussels, The Rakes of Mallow and Kathleen O'More, it is just as fresh-sounding and effective today as it was more than 30 years ago! (Grade 3) (6:45)
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Ted Ricketts
Grade 3.0
Displaying a variety of colors and musical styles, here is an impressive offering from Ted Ricketts. The calm setting in the beginning gradually gives way to a faster, emotionally-charged section featuring the trumpet section with rhythmic answers from the rest of the ensemble. Also featured is a contrasting section for woodwinds and brief solos for clarinet and flute before returning to the powerful faster strains and exciting ending. (3:55)
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Jack Stamp
Grade 4. 4 3/4 minutes duration.
Antithigram is coined from the words antithesis and program.
The work is bi-thematic -- the first theme comprised of eleven notes, the second (beginning at measure 63) more like a chorale in structure. A four-note tone cluster (B flat, C, F sharp, B natural) appears in the first measure, and subsequently appears as an arpeggiated ostinato (B flat, C, and F sharp, in orchestra bells and vibraphone) that underpins and adheres subsequent sections. After the themes are treated in a number of traditional ways (two-voice counterpoint, canon, chorale, and diminution) they are joined at measure 110 in a polychordal statement.
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Johan de Meij
This exciting and descriptive work is written in three movements representing six different tropical fish each with its own motif and individual character.
I. Allegretto grazioso (Neon Tetra, Electric Eel and Angelfish), II. Andante/Adagio (Sea Horse and Zebrafish), III. Finale: Allegro giocoso (Guppy & Co.)
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Samuel Hazo
ASCEND (MOVEMENT III OF GEORGIAN SUITE) Grade 3.0
Composed for Tapp Middle School in Powder Springs, GA and premiered at the 2005 Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Ascend is a driving and energetic work designed to sound great with younger bands. The combination of mixed meters and syncopation gives the main theme a unique edge, and there is a brief 3-part fugue woven into the texture of the piece. Sure to provide a rewarding and varied musical experience for your players. Dur: 3:05 (Includes Full Performance CD)
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Adam Gorb
Lovers of Gorb’s flamboyant band tours-cia-force and souffles will be surprised and ravished by this calm, reflective score. Drawing on Cezanne’s evocation of the French Alps, the composer employs the subtle interplay of muted tones and rarified textures to suggest the austere grandeur of his mountain landscape and employs plenty of genuinely chamber writing within the context of a large ensemble.
10 minutes
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Michael Brand
Grade 3.0
You can listen to an extract of this work on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will reveal the audio extract(s) for you to sample - and you can also view the score of this work here.
Category: BIGGIES - MAJOR WORKS Composer: Richard Saucedo
MusicWorks – Grade 3 Commissioned for the All Iowa Middle School Honor Band, here is an exuberant work that features dynamic ensemble passages, layering effects, and extensive percussion scoring. Richard's masterful development of repetitive rhythmic motives makes this sound more difficult than it really is. A contrasting middle section uses brief solos for alto sax and flute over a rich harmonic texture. A powerful statement for band. (5:10)
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