By Frank Ticheli. Concert band. Suitable for advanced middle school, high school, community and college bands. Level: Grade 3. Conductor score and set of parts. Duration 9:00. Published by Manhattan Beach Music.

Band Concert Band

SKU: PR.465000130

For Large Wind Ensemble. Composed by Dan Welcher. Sws. Contemporary. Full score. With Standard notation. Composed 2010. Duration 14 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #465-00013. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.465000130).

ISBN 9781598064070. UPC: 680160600144. 9x12 inches.

Following a celebrated series of wind ensemble tone poems about national parks in the American West, Dan Welcher’s Upriver celebrates the Lewis & Clark Expedition from the Missouri River to Oregon’s Columbia Gorge, following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Welcher’s imaginative textures and inventiveness are freshly modern, evoking our American heritage, including references to Shenandoah and other folk songs known to have been sung on the expedition. For advanced players. Duration: 14’.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s Corps of Discovery to find a water route to the Pacific and explore the uncharted West. He believed woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, and mountains of pure salt awaited them. What they found was no less mind-boggling: some 300 species unknown to science, nearly 50 Indian tribes, and the Rockies.Ihave been a student of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which Thomas Jefferson called the “Voyage of Discovery,” for as long as I can remember. This astonishing journey, lasting more than two-and-a-half years, began and ended in St. Louis, Missouri — and took the travelers up more than a few rivers in their quest to find the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. In an age without speedy communication, this was akin to space travel out of radio range in our own time: no one knew if, indeed, the party had even survived the voyage for more than a year. Most of them were soldiers. A few were French-Canadian voyageurs — hired trappers and explorers, who were fluent in French (spoken extensively in the region, due to earlier explorers from France) and in some of the Indian languages they might encounter. One of the voyageurs, a man named Pierre Cruzatte, also happened to be a better-than-average fiddle player. In many respects, the travelers were completely on their own for supplies and survival, yet, incredibly, only one of them died during the voyage. Jefferson had outfitted them with food, weapons, medicine, and clothing — and along with other trinkets, a box of 200 jaw harps to be used in trading with the Indians. Their trip was long, perilous to the point of near catastrophe, and arduous. The dream of a Northwest Passage proved ephemeral, but the northwestern quarter of the continent had finally been explored, mapped, and described to an anxious world. When the party returned to St. Louis in 1806, and with the Louisiana Purchase now part of the United States, they were greeted as national heroes.Ihave written a sizeable number of works for wind ensemble that draw their inspiration from the monumental spaces found in the American West. Four of them (Arches, The Yellowstone Fires, Glacier, and Zion) take their names, and in large part their being, from actual national parks in Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. But Upriver, although it found its voice (and its finale) in the magnificent Columbia Gorge in Oregon, is about a much larger region. This piece, like its brother works about the national parks, doesn’t try to tell a story. Instead, it captures the flavor of a certain time, and of a grand adventure. Cast in one continuous movement and lasting close to fourteen minutes, the piece falls into several subsections, each with its own heading: The Dream (in which Jefferson’s vision of a vast expanse of western land is opened); The Promise, a chorale that re-appears several times in the course of the piece and represents the seriousness of the presidential mission; The River; The Voyageurs; The River II ; Death and Disappointment; Return to the Voyage; and The River III .The music includes several quoted melodies, one of which is familiar to everyone as the ultimate “river song,” and which becomes the through-stream of the work. All of the quoted tunes were either sung by the men on the voyage, or played by Cruzatte’s fiddle. From various journals and diaries, we know the men found enjoyment and solace in music, and almost every night encampment had at least a bit of music in it. In addition to Cruzatte, there were two other members of the party who played the fiddle, and others made do with singing, or playing upon sticks, bones, the ever-present jaw harps, and boat horns. From Lewis’ journals, I found all the tunes used in Upriver: Shenandoah (still popular after more than 200 years), V’la bon vent, Soldier’s Joy, Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier, Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy (a hymn sung to the tune “Beech Spring”) and Fisher’s Hornpipe. The work follows an emotional journey: not necessarily step-by-step with the Voyage of Discovery heroes, but a kind of grand arch. Beginning in the mists of history and myth, traversing peaks and valleys both real and emotional (and a solemn funeral scene), finding help from native people, and recalling their zeal upon finding the one great river that will, in fact, take them to the Pacific. When the men finally roar through the Columbia Gorge in their boats (a feat that even the Indians had not attempted), the magnificent river combines its theme with the chorale of Jefferson’s Promise. The Dream is fulfilled: not quite the one Jefferson had imagined (there is no navigable water passage from the Missouri to the Pacific), but the dream of a continental destiny.

(Biblical Poem). By Federico Agnello. For concert band. Grade 4.5. Score and full set of parts. Duration 16 minutes. Published by Scomegna Edizioni Musical srl

Band Bass Clarinet, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Bells, Chimes, Clarinet 1, Clarinet 2, Clarinet 3, Contrabass Clarinet, Euphonium, Euphonium T.C., Flute 1, Flute 2, Horn 1, Horn 2, Mallet Percussion 1, Mallet Percussion 2, Oboe, Percussion 1, Percussion 2 and more. - Grade 4

SKU: CF.SPS82

Composed by Ed Kiefer. Symphonic Band (SPS). Set of Score and Parts. With Standard notation. 4+4+2+4+8+8+2+1+2+2+2+2+2+2+3+6+6+9+2+2+3+3+3+3+4+1+1+1+1+1+16+2 pages. Duration 2 minutes, 58 seconds. Carl Fischer Music #SPS82. Published by Carl Fischer Music (CF.SPS82).

ISBN 9781491152591. UPC: 680160910090. Key: Bb major.

Resignation was composed in memory of one of Ed Kiefer's best friends. Evoking the struggle of coming to grips with the loss of a dear friend, the piece is based on the hymn, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. It is dramatic, heartfelt, and overwhelmingly beautiful. As Hans Christian Andersen once said, When words fail, music speaks..
Dr. David S. Kirby Commission Consortium Phillip Riggs, Commission CoordinatorNorthwest District Bandmasters AssociationRodney Workman, Past-Chair Andrew Jimeson, ChairWestern North Carolina Bandmasters AssociationAllen Klaes, ChairNorth Carolina School of Science and MathPhillip Riggs, DirectorA.C. Reynolds High School BandSean Smith, DirectorSouth Caldwell High School BandJason Childers, DirectorJay M. Robinson Symphonic BandAndrew Carter, DirectorApex High School BandDaniel Jarvis, DirectorPanther Creek High School BandDavid Robinson, DirectorEastern Randolph High School BandCarolina Perez, DirectorStanley County Concert Band/Pfeiffer University Concert BandCarmella Hedrick, Tim Hedrick and Frank Poolos, DirectorsLenoir Rhyne University Wind SymphonyDr. Daniel Kiser, ConductorDr. Christopher NegrelliNumerous colleagues, fellow teachers, and former studentsProgram NotesThere is no possible way I could compose a piece of music worthy of the memory of my close friend, Dr. David Kirby, who died very suddenly at an early age. Neither could I write a piece that could come close to reflecting his kind spirit, wit, personality or talent. In fact, it was almost impossible for me to write anything at all. My own grief and the stages of my grief kept getting in the way. I ended up with a setting of the hymn-tune, Resignation. Resigned.  To the fact that he is no longer with us. I know he is in a better place, but we are not. We miss him very much. And so, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need seems to speak to those of us he left behind. I apologize if this piece does not reflect your special feelings for him or help you celebrate his moving on. Unfortunately, I could only put down what I have come to accept and hope in some way it may speak to any of you that knew him or to others of you who have also lost a close friend. My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. That is my hope and my hope for you.Although technically very easy, this composition requires a maturity of musicianship to be performed properly. The Bb contrabass clarinet part is integral to the composition, but there are cues in the tuba part if you need them.  Make sure you bring horns to the fore at m. 53 and the low brass at m. 59 so the melody can be heard without effort. Exaggerate dynamics to bring more emotion to the piece. Be careful not to diminuendo too soon near the end or it will be difficult to diminish even further at the very end, where the lone clarinetist holds over a couple of measures, fading into nothing. I hope your students will enjoy this piece and take from it a greater appreciation for the way making music can express feelings.

Band Concert Band

SKU: PR.11540431L

Composed by Stacy Garrop. Large Score. 64 pages. Duration 18 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #115-40431L. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.11540431L).

UPC: 680160689767.

The first time I saw an alpenglow, I had no idea what it was. It was the late 1980s, and I was at a music camp at the base of theRocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. A few of us got up in the middle of the night so we could hike to a vantage pointat the foot of Longs Peak, to watch the sun rise without any trees obstructing our view. Even though we had a few moreminutes to go before the sun breached the horizon, when I looked up at the face of Longs Peak, it was glowing intensely with amost beautiful peach-pink color. This enchanting vision lasted only about ten minutes, after which the color faded as the sunrose. Throughout the next thirty years, whenever I returned to the Rocky Mountain National Park, I would occasionally catchthis pre-dawn light show in all its glory.An alpenglow is an optical phenomenon that is visible on high altitude mountains. It happens twice daily, right before the sunrises and right after it sets. The earth’s atmosphere scatters the sun’s light, allowing particular wavelengths of light through andblanketing the mountains in rich hues of peach, pink, red, and purple.Alpenglow opens with First Light. This movement begins in the pre-dawn hour. The music starts simply and slowly, thengrows increasingly animated as the sky lightens and the horizon shimmers with color. The movement explodes in a massiveflurry of activity when the sun crosses the horizon; this energy eventually fades as the sun rises in the sky. In Arc of the Sun,we follow the sun as it energetically leaps and surges upwards in the sky. The music moves steadily upwards as it keeps pacewith the sun’s progress, then crests as the sun reaches its zenith. As the sun bends back down towards the earth, the musicfollows suit, getting lower in range and slower as the sun nears the horizon. In Radiant Glow, the sun slips under the horizon,giving way to a most radiant alpenglow. As the alpenglow fades and twilight envelops the earth, stars shimmer in the nightsky.-S.G.