SKU: CF.SPS78F

ISBN 9781491153239. UPC: 680160910731.

Festival March is presented in a new edition arranged by Richard Summers. It is a tour de force composition for advanced bands and hearkens back to a bygone era during the golden age of the band movement. Directors and students will hear operatic music from composer Victor Herbert who is best known for his Christmas classic, Toyland. This is a richly scored masterpiece that deserves to return to standard status in concert band repertoire. We are proud to bring you this new setting of this cherished classic.
About the CompositionFestival March by Victor Herbert was written for the Pittsburgh Symphony and first performed under Herbert’s direction in Chicago on Dec. 9, 1901 celebrating the 12th anniversary of Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. Also known as the Auditorium Festival March, he included it many times for programs of a festival nature. The main theme Auld Lang Syne, a famous Scottish folk song, is incorporated many times along with brass fanfares, interludes and march melodies. This band arrangement is very similar to the original orchestral composition. The missing string parts, the addition of the saxophone section and other band instruments, editing of the superimposed triplets against sixteenth notes, to one or the other, and articulations suitable for the band, were major challenges. The style of early twentieth-century American music is captured here. This arrangement will give band musicians access to a fine piece of music that could only be appreciated by orchestra musicians up to now. Although suitable for many occasions, this piece is a great way to begin or end a December holiday concert.  Notes to the ConductorVictor Herbert’s music can be interpreted in a romantic style, which is the conductor’s responsibility to read in nuance and musicality. The beginning and other triple-tonguing sections of this piece have a March of the Toys quality to it.  The interludes and Auld Lang Syne sections are legato and musical. The March sections can also be shaped musically.About the ComposerVictor Herbert was born in Ireland in 1861 and raised in Germany. When he moved to America in 1886, he joined the Metropolitan Opera as principal cellist and eventually composed many works including forty-three operettas on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I, including Naughty Marietta and Babes in Toyland. Victor Herbert conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1898 to 1904 and then was the conductor of his own Victor Herbert Orchestra. He formed ASCAP with a group of composers in 1914 and was the director until his death in 1924. Among his thirty-one compositions for orchestra, Festival March was a favorite of his and was eventually published by Carl Fischer Music.  .

SKU: CF.CPS258F

ISBN 9781491161685. UPC: 680160920365.

The winter holiday season might bring to mind the Toy Soldier Dance as performed annually by the famous Radio City Rockettes. There were in fact a number of composers who wrote march music for toy, tin or wooden soldiers. Four of those songs have been included in this medley: Parade of the Wooden (or Tin) Soldiers by Leon Jessel, March of the Toys from the operetta Babes in Toyland by Victor Herbert, Fritz Kreiser's Toy Soldier March for violin and piano, and March of the Wooden Soldiers from Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. This arrangement, Toy Soldier Marches, is designed for high school band because of the rhythmic technique required by the compositions, although the ranges remain much easier. The ambitious director might incorporate some uniformed marching band students into the performance as wooden soldiers marching down the aisles.
The winter holiday season might bring to mind the Toy Soldier Dance as performed annually by the famous Radio City Rockettes. There were in fact a number of composers who wrote march music for toy, tin or wooden soldiers. Four of those songs have been included in this medley: Parade of the Wooden (or Tin) Soldiers by Leon Jessel, March of the Toys from the operetta Babes in Toyland by Victor Herbert, Fritz Kreiser’s Toy Soldier March for violin and piano, and March of the Wooden Soldiers from Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.This arrangement, Toy Soldier Marches, is designed for high school band because of the rhythmic technique required by the compositions, although the ranges remain much easier. The ambitious director might incorporate some uniformed marching band students into the performance as wooden soldiers marching down the aisles.