The six-part suite Six Cocktails by French composer Pascal Proust offers something for every taste: some familiar flavours from closer to home mingle with those from lands afar. In additionâ??as per standard in the Music Box seriesâ??all four parts are flexible and can be combined with each other and supplemented by percussion instruments as required ensuring the perfect mix in a convivial atmosphere: shaken or stirred!

Flexible Woodwind Ensembl-This suite of folk songs is scored for woodwind quartet and a single unpitched drum. Although the nominal scoring is for flute two clarinets and bassoon the piece has considerable inbuilt flexibility of scoring. The options for instruments on each part are as follows: Part 1: Flute oboe or soprano saxophone Part 2: Bb Clarinet or alto saxophone Part 3: Bb clarinet alto saxophone or tenor saxophone Part 4: Bassoon bass clarinet or baritone saxophoneThe piece may be played by any combination of these instruments. Where necessary some passages have been transposed down an octave in the soprano alto and tenor saxophone parts.Where this occurs the lower pitch is also included in the score. There are also a few notes in the bass clarinet part of the March which have been taken up the octave through necessity; similarly this is indicated in the score.The drum should be unsnared and of medium low pitch. A bodhran tenor drum low tom-tom or floor tom are suggested although in the end it is up to the performer!The folk songs used in the piece are not particularly well known these days. 'Gan to the Kye' is an example of the rich culture of traditional music from Northumbria. The title means 'Go to the cows' and is a love song in which the herdsman asks his lover (in a gesture possibly lacking somewhat in romance) to accompany him whilst he tends his herd of cattle.The second movement is a setting of 'Rosemary Lane' a beautiful Somerset song. It tells of a serving girl ill-used by a sailor; as so often in traditional music the beauty of the tune is quite at odds with the unpleasant circumstances related.'Gently Johnny' is a good-humoured song in which the enthusiastic suitor is teased by the object of his affections: he is asked to cool his ardour whilst at the same time being left in no doubt that his attentions may be as bold as he wishes! The middle section uses another song this time from Middlesex called 'Jack Williams'.

Standard US Set (without european suppl. parts)-Commissioned by the Michigan State University Alumni Band this three movement work by Karel Husa was the winner of the first Louis Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition in 1983. A note from thecomposer: 'Divided into three movements this work is a display of virtuoso passages given to solo instruments as well as to the groups of the ensemble. In the Fanfare of the first movement the Brass section concertises in groupsof four Brass quintets (2 Trumpets Horn Trombone and Tuba or Baritone) spread from left to right in back. The Saxophones (SATB) are placed in front of the Brass quintets and the Woodwinds occupy the front of the stage withPercussion on the left and right side. These groups like the Brass quintets play in the concertante style particularly in the first and last movements. 'At the same time each movement contains individual solo passages(for example Timpani and Flute in Movement I - Drum Ceremony and English Horn and other low Woodwinds in Movement II - Elegy). The composition of this piece was prompted by the excellence of Wind and Percussion players today andby the incredible growth of Wind ensembles orchestras and bands in the last 25 years. It is intended for their enjoyment.'