Music for Prague 1968 Introduction and Fanfare Aria Interlude Toccata and Chorale Karel Husa Born: August 7, 1921, Prague, Czech Republic Died: December 14, 2016, Apex, North Carolina Instrumentation: Large Wind Ensemble Composed: 1968 Duration: 25 minutes It was late August 1968 when I decided to write a composition dedicated to the city in which I was born. I thought about writing for Prague for some time because the longer I was away from the city, the more I remembered th

The Sound of Light Robert Gibson Born: 1950, Atlanta, Georgia Instrumentation: Orchestral Winds Composed: 2010 Duration: 12:00 Gibson writes, The title of my work, The Sound of Light, has many implications that relate to my thoughts while writing the piece: first, there is the fact that sound can literally become light under certain conditions in a technical process called sonoluminescence. The fact that vibration can take the form of sound or light depending on frequency led

Luminosity (Concerto for Wind Orchestra) Spiritoso e energico Misterioso Grande e con forza Joseph Schwantner Born: March 22, 1943, Chicago, Illinois Instrumentation: Large Wind Ensemble Composed: 2014 Duration: 20 minutes Schwantner writes, “Luminosity, cast in three extended movements, is the latest and most ambitious work I have written for wind ensemble, following and the mountains rising nowhere (1977), From a Dark Millennium (1980), In evening’s stillness… (1996) and Re

Octet in E-flat, Op. 103 Allegro Andante Menuetto Presto Ludwig van Beethoven Born: December 1770, Bonn, Germany Died: March 26, 1827, Vienna, Austria Instrumentation: Wind Octet Composed: 1792 Duration: 9 minutes Music for wind instruments does not feature prominently in Beethoven’s catalogue of mature works, but as a young and aspiring composer in Bonn, he wrote a variety of pieces for different (and sometimes unusual) instrumental combinations at the behest of his patron,

Huntingtower: Ballad for Band Ottorino Respighi Born: July 9, 1879, Bologna, Italy Died: April 18, 1936 Rome, Italy Composed: 1932 Duration: 7 minutes Ottorino Respighi composed Huntingtower in 1932, on a commission from the American Bandmaster’s Association (ABA), in honor of the recently deceased conductor and musical icon, John Philip Sousa. Edwin Franko Goldman and the ABA approached Respighi shortly after Sousa’s death, hoping for a work that the United States Army Band

Courtly Dances from Gloriana, Op. 53a Benjamin Britten Born: November 22, 1913, Lowestoft, United Kingdom Died: December 4, 1976, Aldeburgh, United Kingdom Composed: 1953 Original Instrumentation: Opera Orchestra Arranged: 1995, Jan Bach Duration: 10 minutes Gloriana, Op. 53, Benjamin Britten’s sixth opera, was commissioned by Covent Garden, and “dedicated by gracious permission to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in honour of whose coronation it was composed.” William Plomer a

The Solitary Dancer Warren Benson Born: January 26, 1924, Detroit, Michigan Died: October 6, 2005, Rochester, New York Composed: 1970 Duration: 7 minutes The Solitary Dancer is considered a masterpiece in economy of resources, sensitivity for wind and percussion colors and subtle development and recession of instrumental and musical frenzy. The work refers to the “quiet, poised energy that one may observe in a dancer in repose, alone with her inner music.” Just prior to writi

Fantasia in G Major, BWV 572 Johann Sebastian Bach Born: March 21, 1685, Eisenach, Germany Died: July 28, 1750, Leipzig, Germany Composed: c. 1703-1707 Original Instrumentation: Pipe Organ Arranged: 1957, Richard Franko Goldman and Robert L. Leist Duration: 7 minutes The great G Major Fantasia for organ was composed between 1703-1707 during Bach’s residence in Arnstadt. It was here, at the beginning of his career, that his music was found by the Consistory to be too full of “

Double Quintet Henry Ross Wixon Born: June 13, 1988, Washington, D.C. Instrumentation: Double Quintet (combined brass and woodwind quintets) Composed: 2015-2016 Duration: 11 minutes Separately, the woodwind and brass quintets are flexible ensembles, capable of astonishing virtuosity and a wide palette of timbres. Their combined force possesses the dynamic potential of a much larger group, yet retains the precision of its smaller halves; I found this identity, somewhere betwee

The Good Soldier Schweik Suite Overture Lament March War Dance Pastoral Finale Robert Kurka Born: December 22, 1921, Cicero, Illinois Died: December 12, 1957, New York, New York Instrumentation: Fourteen winds, timpani, and percussion Composed: 1956 Duration: 20 minutes The SUITE was inspired by THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK, the brilliantly realistic anti-war satire by the Czech novelist and journalist Jaroslav Hašek. Written shortly after the First World War, it is essentially the