Gounod wrote this in 1872 as a piano piece and orchestrated it seven years later. He originally conceived of it as one part of a satirical piano suite, the subject of which had nothing to do with puppetry. Once it was completed, however, he had it published as a stand-alone composition with the present title. The occasion of the music is that the Marionette has lost a duel and died; a funeral cortege takes place; the bereaved troupe takes a break then returns to the cortege. Recorded numerous times, the music was also used in several early films but reached its largest audience by far as the theme song for the TV series, ?Alfred Hitchcock Presents," 1955-1965. The current arrangement is based on the composer?s original piano score but has been augmented slightly to take advantage of brass quintet instrumentation. This arrangement was completed in 2016, and performance time runs about 5 minutes, 8 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.

Verdi's most popular opera A�da was premiered in 1871 and has been possibly performed more than any other....over 1,100 times at the Metropolitan Opera alone.

Preludio begins quietly and mysteriously and quickly builds to a gigantic emotional climax and just as quickly dies down to nothing again...foreshadowing what will occur in the opera.

Thomas J�stlein has beautifully arranged this passionate work of about 4 minutes in length for Brass Quintet composed of advanced performers.

Instrumentation is for 2 Trumpets in C, Horn in F, Trombone and Tuba.

This arrangement is dedicated to the Metropolitan Opera Brass Quintet.

?The Morning Trumpet,? by Benjamin Franklin White (1800-1879), is a camp revival song published in 1844 in the first edition of The Sacred Harp, a shape-note hymn book compiled by White and E.J. King (1821-1844). Shape-note tunes are often predominantly pentatonic, with harmonies that emphasize stark intervals of fourths and fifths. In four-part harmony, the tune is typically in the tenor voice. This arrangement preserves the tune but harmonizes it in a more contemporary style, and features alternating calls between first and second trumpet. Includes snare drum part (optional, may be successfully performed by brass quintet alone). �Copyright 2012 Todd Marchand / ConSpiritoMusic.com

American Vignettes was composed during 2011 for the Lyric Brass of Pacific Lutheran University. They were looking for a composition to include on a CD of American music and one that would feature each of the musicians. The first movement, ?Barn Dance?, features the first trumpet and after a syncopated, fanfare-style introduction, the movement uses fragments and elaborations of "Old Chisholm Trail" and "Short?nin Bread". For the second movement, I wanted to write a blues and feature the other trumpet player on Flugelhorn. As I was working on the movement, the blues seem very mysterious and lonely, so I titled the movement 4 A.M. Blues. It reflects someone who can?t sleep and is contemplating the deep mysteries of life and feels very alone in the world. Movement 3 is the tuba feature and is called "Spirituals". I use three different spirituals in this movement, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I?ve Seen". "Cotton Needs Picking" and "Every Time I Feel the Spirit." Movement 4 ?Fiesta? is a trombone feature and represents the Southwest. The Southwestern flavor is accomplished through alternating 6/8 and 3/4 and the bright colors of the muted brass playing staccato eighth note rhythms and "ay" sounding motifs. The Horn is featured in the fifth movement ?From Sea to Shining Sea? that starts with a jazz harmony version of ?America the Beautiful? followed by a jazz waltz built from motifs of the song. The last movement is called ?Harlem Jump? and is an up-tempo jive with Be-bop type solos written for each of the musicians. ?