Them Basses March

• G.H. Huffine

“Them Basses March” by G.H. Huffine , The “swinging” American march goes back to the 1920s. One could even apply the Latin saying “nomen est omen” to it, as its composer sub-titled it “A March in which the Basses have the Melody throughout”. The few parts of the original edition suggest that it was composed for one of the smaller circus bands, but it was written in a way to sound complete both with a minimum number of players and with a large band. G. H. Huffine was a native of Bowling Green, KY and after relocating to Binghamton, NY, became active in the Triple Cities musical scene. During his life, he composed several marches for the Triple Cities area of Broome County, New York. “Them Basses March” is by far his most popular. This arrangement stays fairly true to Huffine's original. The harmony and counterpoint are exact to his intent, with minimal rescoring.

Paris Sketches

• Martin Ellerby

The piece you will hear next is “Paris Sketches” by Martin Ellerby. “Paris Sketches” was written as a tribute to the city of Paris and the composers that came from the city. Each movement tells its own story, paying homage to some part of the French capital, utilizing the different colors from each instrument to depict the beautiful city:

• Saint - Germain - de - Pres / The first movement tells of the morning bells and the city's awakening.

• Pigalle / The second movement is a burlesque that depicts the vibrancy of city life in Paris, with the bells as car horns and police sirens.

• Pere Lachaise / The third movement unfolds depicting the largest cemetery in the city, the spirit of Satie’s Gymnopedies being shown before the movements’ conclusion and the bells a gentle, wistful timbre.

• Les Halles / The fourth and final movement is big and bold with the bells triumphant and celebratory. The movement depicts multiple artists in the market square, with the climax containing features from Berlioz’s Te Deum.

Ride

• Samuel R Hazo

“Ride” by Samuel Hazo is a high-velocity piece inspired by a landscape-blurring car ride down a country road in Pennsylvania. Beginning and ending in the same key to symbolize going from one “home” to another, Ride zooms through harmonic and metric changes in between to take listeners and musicians for a “ride” before building to a furious climax. “Ride” was composed to thank Jack Stamp for what he did to help Hazo gain popularity in the band world. He discovered that Jack Stamp had been conducting Hazo’s compositions and recommending him to other directors he spoke with. Stamp never asked for anything in return, other than for Hazo to “just keep sending us music.”

This Cruel Moon

• John Mackey

This is an adaptation of the middle movement of the larger work Wine-Dark Sea: Symphony for Band. It's meant to represent the song of the beautiful and immortal nymph Kalypso who saves Odysseus, falls in love with him, and ultimately loses him.

This movement is the song of the beautiful and immortal nymph Kalypso, who finds Odysseus near death, washed up on the shore of the island where she lives all alone. She nurses him back to health, and sings as she moves back and forth with a golden shuttle at her loom. One day, Odysseus remembers his home, he tells Kalypso he wants to leave her, to return to his wife and son. Kalypso is heartbroken and yet, that night, Kalypso unravels her tapestry and weaves it into a sail for Odysseus. In the morning, she shows Odysseus a raft, equipped with the sail she has made and stocked with bread and wine, and calls up a gentle and steady wind to carry him home. Shattered, she watches him go; he does not look back.

Florentiner March / Grande Marcia Italiana

• Julius Fucik Ed. Bourgeois

The Florentiner March, “Grande marcia Italiana,” was written in 1907 by the prolific Bohemian (Czech) composer and bandmaster Julius Fučik, in Budapest, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This seemingly incongruous set of particulars can be explained by the musical trends of the time – many European composers were writing in styles that implied the exoticism of other lands, including Russia, Spain, and in this case, Italy. The Florentiner bears the subtitle Grande marcia Italiana, with the main title giving homage to Florence, Italy; Fučik’s original title for the march was, in fact, "La Rosa di Toscana."

Much like John Philip Sousa, the hundreds of compositions written by “The Bohemian Sousa” stretch far beyond mere marches, with Fučik having also written operettas, masses, chamber music, and a symphonic suite. Similar to Sousa’s Free Lance March, The Florentiner is seemingly an operetta in condensed form. As band scholar Norman Smith has noted,

One can imagine the theater curtains opening to two trumpet fanfares followed by a stately march as the residents of that grand city rush to welcome the large entourage of a nobleman, with flowers thrown by the crowd to the procession. Suddenly, our nobleman sees a beautiful courtesan and the two converse in a gentle interlude that becomes quieter as the conversation gets more personal. Chirps from the woodwinds denote the start of gossip by the village women in response. The brass give a loud proclamation that the couple are to be wed and a celebratory theme concludes the happy scene as the curtains close.

In Living Color

• Katahj Copley

2020 brought the world to a pause. During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the greatest joys in life was taken from us: performing live music. For Copley, music is one of the greatest means of communication. When it was taken away, the language of music became foreign and for some, a passion for the subject disappeared. 

As the world began to recover, and people started to sing and play again, the passion for music performance began to grow. Copley wrote this piece as an ode for live music, especially music performed on the wind band stage. The piece offers a kaleidoscope of colors and energy from modern jazz artists such as Snarky Puppy, American Boy singer Estelle, and takes inspiration from George Gershwin.

Power Struggle

• Nathan Daughtry

A balanced struggle is apparent from the opening bars of the piece, with keyboard percussion and battery percussion competing for attention in an exhilarating and bombastic fashion. The struggle subsides briefly as the keyboards present a new melody and the battery provides a quietly grooving backdrop. The two opposing sections of the ensemble continue this struggle, inwardly and outwardly, until the end of the piece.

Starfall

• Jamie Vilseck

Magically capturing the wonder one has while staring up into the sky and appreciating the beauty of the stars, this piece combines many simple patterns to create one homogenous canvas, as each star helps create the night sky.

Utilizing complex but alluring harmonies and quick rhythmic patterns juxtaposed against long melodic arcs, Starfall effortlessly transports the listener and performer to an ethereal setting.

Escape Velocity

• Dave Hall

Composed in the Spring of 2008, the quartet features three keyboards and a djembe part, although each player plays several other percussion instruments, often simultaneously with their primary part. This piece is influenced by the music of Béla Bartók as well as "drum & bass" artists like Venetian Snares and Aphex Twin.

Edge of the World

• Nathan Daughtry

Originally a marimba/vibraphone duet written as a wedding gift for Michael and Sara Wood, this song inspired was by the poem and beautiful watercolor print "True Things" by StoryPeople creator Brian Andreas. This poem poignantly captures the essence of two people starting their lives together and looking forward to what the future holds.

Arrhythmia

• Walker Martz

A fun and energetic percussion quartet on four-pitched toms. This piece features hocket melodies between the performers inspired by split marching bass drum parts. A steady eighth-note rim pattern helps students keep their place in the hocket melodies. This is an excellent stepping stone for musicians wanting to play the marching bass drum.

Big Country

• Bela Fleck, arranged by  Johannessen

A catchy and inspired composition by world-renowned banjo picker and jazz musician Béla Fleck from the album Left of Cool by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Its simple melody encapsulates the folksy sound of Americana, and Olin Johannessen's arrangement wonderfully captures this through his scoring for percussion ensemble.