I forgot to write how much I like Old Churches. I did it last year with an honor band here in the Bay Area and it was a wonderful experience. I actually think the students liked it more than the teachers?? One of my students at Sonoma State University did a research work on it last year and he performed it with his rather modest band. Colgrass has written another work for middle school but I believe it is much more difficult.
Trust all is going well there. Nice here to have a few days of leisure time.
Courage Conquers,
John
====================
John Alden Stanley, EdD
Professor, Music Education
Sonoma State University
WASBE Special Projects
From: rebeccawdavidson <rebeccawdavidson@...> Reply-To: <wasbeschools@yahoogroups.com> Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 02:40:26 -0000 To: <wasbeschools@yahoogroups.com> Subject: [wasbeschools] Re: Young Band Repertoire
Hi, Marc:
I'll echo "Old Churhes" by Colgrass. My colleage and I have also had
success with Daniel Buckvich. Our Advanced MS Band
performed "Electricity" this spring and really liked it - kids did
too. It's posted on You Tube purely for the visual lighting effects: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvSCQVXAulk
We also enjoyed "Abracadabra" by Ticheli and "Among the Clouds" by
Brian Balmages.
I'm anxious to have a listen to other suggestions you guys have
given. Will post others if I think of it. This is a much needed
discussion!
Rebecca Davidson
Assisant Director - MS Band
Singapore American School
Marc Crompton <mdcromp@...> wrote:
> I just came back from a day of adjudicating and have to
say that I heard very little
> stimulating repertoire for young bands. It is easy, these days, to
find repertoire that is
> challenging and stimulating for more experienced players but the
amazingly huge dung
> heap of music that is often catagorized as "educational" is
depressing.
>
> We don't need another formulaic overture with a challenging but
repetitive snare drum line
> that does nothing for the music other than keep the drummers busy
so they don't kick
> something over and disrupt rehearsal. Why do people keep buying
this crap? The sad
> thing is that it used to be a North American plague but others have
caught it and spread it
> around the world thinking that this is music that needs to be
emulated!
>
> What truly inovative music exsits out there that young musicians
can play that is exciting
> you?
>
> I'll kick off the discussion with a few of my favourites:
>
> Parade of the Wooden Warriors - Adam Gorb
> Candlelight Procession - Adam Gorb
> Tsch, Tsch, Nes - Fred Stride
> Festival Celebration - Fred Stride
>
> Each of these are fairly simple but offer something that keeps the
players and the audience
> on their toes.
>
> What have you got?
>
> Marc
I just came back from a day of adjudicating and have to say that I heard very little stimulating repertoire for young bands. It is easy, these days, to find...
Thanks for starting this discussion Marc! While I am a strong proponent of works with "introductory aesthetics", i.e., music that opens up kids to those ...
Hi All I feel a bit of an imposter responding to this for I no longer conduct a band.... but I know what Marc is on about, in fact I'd go as far as to say I...
Hi, Marc: I'll echo "Old Churhes" by Colgrass. My colleage and I have also had success with Daniel Buckvich. Our Advanced MS Band performed "Electricity"...
Hi, Rebecca: Welcome to the group! I'm a big Colgrass fan and have programmed his upper level repertoire but my teaching colleague beat me to the punch on...
Rebecca, I forgot to write how much I like Old Churches. I did it last year with an honor band here in the Bay Area and it was a wonderful experience. I ...
Hi all  We're always on the look out for something new. Just listening to the exciting performance of "Electricity" on Youtube and it made me think of two...
Personally, I like some of the standard composers for young band such as Carl Strommen, Robert W. Smith, John O'Reilly, and Michael Sweeney (etc., etc.). I...
Hi Rebecca and Marc, and everyone else, This is the toughest area to seek out repertoire; my programming is as far as possible to pick music with an emotional...
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