It is October 31, Halloween, late in the evening. Outside, a slight but chilling wind blows. Inside, the pendulum of the great clock ticks slowly back and forth, back and forth. Somewhere a faucet drips arrhythmically. Suddenly, the clock strikes twelve. And, it all starts. The ghosts, the goblins, the witches and all their familiars?these are the beings that hold sway on The Eerie Night. This Halloween fantasy was inspired by a jingle the composer learned many years before while in primary school. Attributed to Lillian Mohr Fox, the words accompanying the tune described ?witches on broomsticks with cats and bats? and ?spooky . . . noises on Hallowe?en night.? ?The Eerie Night,? composed for brass quintet, emulates the supposed ghostly environment of Halloween with generous (and eerie!) use of the lower brass instruments. Trumpets provide emphasis, punctuation and occasional screeches, while the Horn in F harmonizes with Trombone and, at one point, shrieks like a cat. The haunting and scaring builds and builds until just before the end, when absolute cacophonous bedlam occurs. Gradually, things quiet down. The nightmare is ended, and we?re back to the clock, the wind and the faucet. Completed in 2017, this composition runs about 4 minutes, 40 seconds. The composer, Les Smith, would be very interested in your comments on this piece; contact him at lessmith@ufl.edu or leave a review on the SheetMusicPlus website. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.

C. P. E. Bach was an innovator as an early Classical music composer, helping to develop the sonata form that was refined by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Like his father, Carl Phillip Emanuel was prolific and showed signs of true genius.

Symphony No. 1, in three movements (fast-slow-fast) was originally in D and has been transposed down a step to C by the arranger Justin Bland.

This very fine arrangement of the entire work of about 12 minutes in length is appropriate for very advanced performers and could be the cornerstone of a recital program.