Settled in 1876, Wichita Falls, Texas, became a cattle and grain shipping center after the arrival of the railroad in 1882. One can imagine the hustle and bustle of this cowboy town in those railroad days where the 'rambunctiousness' of the cowhand came face to face with the business-like demeanor of the mercantile owners and the frontier gentility of the Ladies Society. For my good friends in [Texas] Region II, I offer this 'celebrative' cowboy dance to commemorate the rip-roaring history that surrounds this portion of the Texas portrait.

What would have happened if Maurice Ravel wrote The Little Drummer Boy instead of Bolero? Julie Giroux explores this fantasy with this arrangement as part of her Concert Band Christmas Gone Crazy series!

Originally recorded by three-time Grammy Award-winning singer Michael W. Smith on his 1989 Christmas album, the peace and stillness of the holiday season are beautifully expressed in this touching holiday song.

My musical tastes are wildly eclectic. One moment, you might find me enjoying Beethoven’s symphonies, and the other, you might find me headbanging to Iron Maiden. I have never been a musical snob, and I value and love the entire array of sounds, rhythms, and textures that the world of music, in all its forms, has to offer. 

One genre I have a particular affection for is mambo. Being introduced to the style when I was in high school, I was enchanted with the melodies, rhythms, and excitement that it generates. As I dug more deeply into the style, I was introduced to the work of Yma Sumac, Tito Puente, Pérez Prado, and others. I was absolutely enchanted. 

Havana Nights is a concert work for wind ensemble, but it was also conceived as a short ballet. The action takes place in the mambo clubs of Havana as our heroine (Havana) dances her way through the nightlife. She encounters another young dancer and the two begin a flirtatious, seductive conversation through the art of movement. As the ballet comes to a close, Havanna casts one final, gleeful look at her would-be suitor before escaping into the night. 

Peace, Love, and Music. 

A Christmas Festival is a concert overture built upon traditional Christmas songs. Originally recorded by the Boston Pops, it is the Christmas medley that sets the standard for all others. Anderson has encompassed the joy, celebration, and solemnity of Christmas in his arrangements of Joy To The World • Deck the Halls • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen • Good King Wenceslas • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing • The First Noel • Silent Night • Jingle Bells and O Come, All Ye Faithful.

Festival Fanfare for Christmas by John Wasson (b. 1956) was commissioned and premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1996, and was recorded on their CD Dallas Christmas Gala in 2000. Mr. Wasson adapted the work for wind ensemble, and it was subsequently recorded by the Dallas Wind Symphony in 2012 for their Horns for the Holidays CD. 

Wasson was asked to create a work based upon two well-known Christmas carols, Joy to the World and O Come, All Ye Faithful, and to utilize the four trumpets in the orchestra antiphonally from the balconies of the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. The opening Baroque-like fanfare originates in one pair of trumpets, moves to the horn section, and then to the other pair of trumpets, and finally to the large ensemble. Throughout the work, the trumpets return and replay the fanfare figure, and share it with various sections within the larger ensemble. 

Bach was not considered a saint by his students and contemporaries in Leipzig. However, he was obviously sincere when he wrote, "The aim and end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music." With his demanding schedule, Bach must have felt a need for spiritual assistance very often. In addition to many other responsibilities, he composed (and taught) over 250 cantatas in five yearly sets—one for each Sunday of the year. Although characteristic of his genius, Bach's cantatas were considered old-fashioned by his composer sons and many other musicians. Only one was published during his lifetime: his widow sold a large bundle of manuscripts for about 40 dollars. 

This still-popular chorale, from a melody by Johan Schöp (1590-1664), occurs at the close of Bach's Cantata No. 147 – Be Thou Cheerful, O My Spirit. He used the same melody in Nos. 233 and 365 of his four-part chorales. 

Alfred Reed arranged this setting for modern concert band in 1981.

In the winter of 1999, Ms. Julia Armstrong, a lawyer and professional mezzo-soprano living in Austin, Texas, contacted me. She wanted to commission a choral work from me to be premiered by the Austin Pro Chorus (Kinley Lange, conductor), a terrific chorus with whom she regularly performed. 

The circumstances around the commission were amazing. She wanted to commission the piece in memory of her parents, who had died within weeks of each other after more than fifty years of marriage, and she wanted me to set her favorite poem, Robert Frost's immortal "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". I was deeply moved by the spirit and her request, and agreed to take on the commission. 

I took my time with the piece, crafting it note by note until I felt that it was exactly the way I wanted it. The poem is perfect, truly a gem, and my general approach was to try to get out of the way of the words and let them work their magic. We premiered the work in Austin, October 2000, and it was well received. Rene Clausen gave Stopping By Woods a glorious performance at the ACDA National Convention in the spring of 2001, and soon after, I began receiving hundreds of letters, emails, and phone calls from conductors trying to get ahold of the work. 

And here was my tragic mistake: I never secured permission to use the poem. Robert Frost's poetry has been under tight control from his estate since his death, and until a few years ago, only Randall Thompson (Frostiana) had been permitted to set his poetry. In 1997, out of the blue, the estate released several titles, and at least twenty composers set and published Stopping by Woods for chorus. When I looked online and saw all of these new and different settings, I naturally (and naively) assumed that it was open to anyone. Little did I know that, just months before, the Robert Frost Estate had decided to deny ANY use of the poem, ostensibly because of this plethora of new settings. 

After a LONG battle of legalities back and forth, the Estate of Robert Frost and their publisher, Henry Holt Inc., sternly and formally forbade me to use the poem for publication or performance until the poem would become public domain in 2038. 

I was crushed. The piece was dead and would sit under my bed for the next 37 years as a result of rulings by heirs and lawyers. After many discussions with my wife, I decided that I would ask my friend and brilliant poet Charles Anthony Silvestri (Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Lux Aurumque) to set new words to the music I had already written. This was an enormous task, because I was asking him to not only write a poem that had the exact structure of the Frost poem, but that it would even incorporate key words from Stopping By Woods, like 'sleep'. Tony wrote an absolutely exquisite poem, finding a completely different (but equally beautiful) message in the music I had already written. 

And there it is. My setting of Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods no longer exists. I am supremely proud of this new work, and my only regret in all of this was that I was way too innocent in my assumption that lawyers and heirs would understand something as simple and delicate as the choral art. 

Updated Note from Composer: Recently, the Frost poem became public domain, and we can finally present the original setting, exactly as it was first composed in 2000. I find it fascinating how musically different the piece becomes depending on which poem is sung... I love both versions, and I am so happy to be able to now offer Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening as it was originally composed.

A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas and  'Twas the Night Before Christmas from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823, and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who acknowledged authorship in 1837. 

The poem, which has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American", is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today, and has had a massive impact on the history of Christmas gift-giving. Before the poem gained wide popularity, American ideas about St. Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors had varied considerably. A Visit from St. Nicholas eventually would be set to music and has been recorded by many artists. 

This setting was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra in 2007.

Sleigh Ride is a Holiday concert standard whose music was composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had formed the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946, and he finished the work in February 1948. The original recordings were instrumental versions. The lyrics, about riding in a sleigh and other fun wintertime activities, were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950. The orchestral version was first recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. A selection of the artists who have recorded it includes Herb Alpert, The Andrews Sisters, The Carpenters, Bing Crosby, The Boston Pops Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald, the amazing Debbie Gibson, The Muppets, and Andy Williams.