A Child’s Garden of Dreams I. There is a desert on the moon where the dreamer sinks so deeply into the ground that she reaches hell II. A drunken woman falls into the water and comes out renewed and sober III. A horde of small animals frightens the dreamer. The animals increase to a tremendous size, and one of them devours the little girl IV. A drop of water is seen as it appears when looked at through a microscope. The girl sees that the drop is full of tree branches. This p

Huldigungsmarsch Wagner Born: May, 22 1833, Leipzig, Germany Composed: 1864 Duration: 7 minutes On the same day that his father, King Maximilian II died, on March 10th 1864, Ludwig II was crowned as his successor, aged 18. Several years previously, in 1861, he had heard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin”, which was the beginning of an almost “addictive” affinity to his music. Immediately after acceding to the throne, Ludwig II supplied Wagner with 170,000 florins to enable

Slava! (A Political Overture) Leonard Bernstein Born: August 25, 1918, Lawrence, Massachusetts Died: October 14, 1990, New York, New York Duration: 4 minutes Composed: 1977 Transcribed: 1978, Clare Grundman For the second week of his first season as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, in October 1977, Mstislav Rostropovich invited Leonard Bernstein for a program of his own works, in which the two musicians shared the podium and Mr. Rostropovich performed also a

Lincolnshire Posy I. Lisbon II. Horkstow Grange III. Rufford Park Poachers IV. The Brisk Young Sailor V. Lord Melbourne VI. The Lost Lady Found Percy Grainger Born: July 8, 1882, Melbourne, Australia Died: February 20, 1961, White Plains, New York Composed: Duration: 20 minutes Lincolnshire Posy was written as a commission for the 1937 American Bandmasters Association convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was partially premiered on March 7, 1937, by the Milwaukee Symphonic

Magneticfireflies Augusta Read Thomas Born: April 24, 1964, Glen Cove, New York Composed: Duration: 5 minutes Composer Augusta Read Thomas describes Magneticfireflies as "very rhapsodic, lyrical, rich and majestic, but also quite playful." In the score, she writes "One of the main intentions of this music is the juxtaposition between stark, bold, individual colors, such as a loud solo trumpet, Mahler style, with a completely blended timbre, Debussy style." Augusta Read Thomas

​Serenade in E-flat, Op. 7 Richard Strauss Born: June 11, 1864, Munich, Germany Died: September 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Composed: 1884 Duration: 10 minutes Richard Strauss had just turned seventeen when he composed his Serenade for 13 wind instruments in 1881. In true prodigy style, he had already published a string quartet, a piano sonata, some shorter piano pieces, and an orchestral march, and his catalogue of unpublished compositions included a full-length

Grand Central Station Michael Torke Born: September 22, 1961, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Composed: 2000 Duration: 6 minutes The composer writes, As I wrote this piece, I thought of the tremendous energy of arrivals and departures, the swirling shapes and patterns of people with optimistic expectations. Newly renovated, Grand Central Station has that wonderful mix of the classically old, along with its shiny, new, welcoming appearance. Like the Goldman Band itself, who commissioned

Fanfare pour preceder "La Peri" Paul Dukas Born: October 1, 1865, Paris, France Died: May 17, 1935, Paris, France Composed: 1912 Duration: 3 minutes Mainly known to audiences in the United States through a single work, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the composer Paul Dukas was a pathological perfectionist who burned all but a dozen of his compositions. Besides La Péri, his major surviving works are the Symphony in C and the opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (Ariadne and Bluebeard). His

English Folk Song Suite I. Seventeen Come Sunday II. My Bonny Boy III. Folk Songs From Somerset Ralph Vaughan Williams Born: October 12, 1872, Down Ampney, United Kingdom Died: August 26, 1958, London, United Kingdom Composed: 1923 Duration: 12 minutes At the turn of the twentieth century, there was a general interest in the recording and utilization of folk musics led by a number of European composers and musicologists. This list that includes such musical luminaries as Béla

Pageant, Op. 59 Vincent Persichetti Born: June 6, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Died: August 14, 1987, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Composed: 1953 Duration: 8 minutes Pageant, Persichetti's third work for band, opens in slow tempo with a motive in the horn that is used throughout both sections of the piece. The slow chordal section is succeeded by a lively "parade" section introduced by the snare drum. In the final portion of the work the two principal subjects are developed