One of the things that I enjoy about the sound of the concert band is the variety of timbres the ensemble can play. There is a lot of versatility within the ensemble. When one expands the percussion section, applies various mutes to the brass, or extends the instrumentation with contrabassoon, contrabass clarinet, or bass and soprano saxophone it just deepens the richness of the medium. No dissenting today… I’m feeling musical…

I feel in the last 20 or so years the concert band medium has started to really reach its potential musically. There are so many excellent composers writing for the ensemble. I was thrilled to see more composers from Asia, Europe, and Australia being published and marketed in the United States. I was even more excited to see programs becoming more diverse as conductors were programming music by these colleagues from all over the globe. All of this new literature is exciting, but what about our classic pieces that define the original concert band sound? What about our “pops” literature or marches? This is great material for a community band or the band ensembles at the college that are made up of non-music majors.

Do our young band conductors know the classics like they know the awesome contemporary literature? We band people like our new stuff. The Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic promotes the new stuff. I’m just wondering what about the old pieces that are great tools for developing the classic concert band sound? What would you consider as the classics? I’m going to share my accessible list of pieces of the repertory pre-1975 (50 years or older.) What I like about doing a list like this… I have so many friends who would say… You missed this one… I probably did, but I’m only including the ones I have conducted or remember conducting. This gave me a manageable list to work with and it still took a few hours.

This first list is for a smaller or developing band. A few of these I did with groups as small as 20 players. A couple others I did with my community bands because they are very musical pieces.

1. Air for Band-Frank Erickson (Grade 2) Bourne
2. Alleluia Laudamus Te-Alfred Reed (Grade 3.5) Hal Leonard
3. America the Beautiful-arr. Carmen Dragon (Grade 3.5) Alfred
4. Bandology-Eric Osterling (Grade 3) Carl Fischer
5. Blessed are They-Brahms/Beuhlman (Grade 3) Ludwig Masters
6. Festivo-Vaclav Nehlybel (Grade 3) Alfred
7. Flourish-Ralph Vaughan-Williams (Grade 3) Oxford
8. Il Re Pastore-Mozart/Barnes (Grade 3) Ludwig
9. The Impresario-Mozart/Barnes (Grade 3) Ludwig
10. Military Escort March-Bennett(Fillmore)/Fennell (Grade 2) Carl Fischer
11. Military Symphony in F-Gossec/Goldman (Grade 3) Presser
12. New Comrades March-Teike/Fennell (Grade 2.5) Presser
13. Overture for Winds-Charles Carter (Grade 3) Bourne
14. Prometheus Overture-Beethoven/Barnes (Grade 3.5) Ludwig Masters
15. Salvation is Created-Tchesnokov/Houseknecht (Grade 3) Kos
16. Sine Nomine-Vaughan Williams/Houseknecht (Grade 3) Carl Fischer
17. Sussex Mummer’s Christmas Carol-Grainger/Goldman (Grade 3) Schirmer
18. Three Ayres from Gloucester-Hugh Stuart (Grade 3) Shawnee
19. Variation Overture-Clifton Williams (Grade 2) Ludwig Masters

The more professional pieces that I included here were all with my community college band or city band. I was really proud of the work we did together. Yes, there are “Pops” things here. They are still excellent pieces and fun to play. My community college band performed in an art deco theatre when we outgrew our space on campus. There was a theatre organ there and we had an organ student on campus. So… we had to do a couple of pieces… That was fun!!!

Advanced Band

1. American Salute-Morton Gould/Lang (Grade 5) Alfred
2. American Overture-Joseph Wilcox Jenkins (Grade 6) T. Presser
3. Armenian Dances Part 1-Alfred Reed (Grade 6) Sam Fox
4. Chester-William Schuman (Grade 5) Presser
5. Christmas Festival-Leroy Anderson (Grade 4) Alfred
6. Chorale and Shaker Dance-John Zdechlik (Grade 5) Kjos
7. Country Gardens-Grainger 1918/1990 (Grade 4) Schirmer
8. Elegy for a Young American-Ronald Lo Presti (Grade 4) Presser
9. Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral-Wagner/Cailliet (Grade 5) Alfred
10. Emperata Overture-Claude T. Smith (Grade 4) Barnhouse
11. Fanfare and Allegro-Clifton Williams (Grade 6) Alfred
12. Fantasies on a Hymn by Haydn-Norman Dello Joio (Grade 6) Hal Leonard
13. Festive Overture-Shostakovich/Hunsberger (Grade 6) Schirmer
14. First Suite in E-flat-Gustav Holst/Matthews (Grade 4) Boosey and Hawkes
15. Folk Song Suite-Ralph Vaughan-Williams (Grade 5) Boosey and Hawkes
16. George Washington Bridge-William Schuman (Grade 5) Schirmer
17. Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion-PDQ Bach (Grade 4) Presser
18. Immovable Do-Percy Grainger (Grade 5) Schirmer
19. Incantation and Dance-John Barnes Chance (Grade 5) Boosey and Hawkes
20. Irish Tune from County Derry-Percy Grainger (Grade 4) Schemer
21. Light Calvary Overture-Suppe/Fillmore (Grade 5) Carl Fischer
22. Lincoln Portrait-Copland/Beeler (Grade 6) Boosey and Hawkes
23. Lincolnshire Posey-Grainger/Fennell (Grade 6) Ludwig Masters
24. Marriage of Figaro-Mozart/Slocum (Grade 5) Alfred
25. Nutcracker Suite-Tchaikovsky/Hindsley (Grade 6) Hindsley Pub.
26. Polka and Fugue from “Schwanda the Bagpiper”-Weinberger/Bainum (Grade 5) Associated
27. Russian Christmas Music-Alfred Reed (Grade 5) Alfred
28. Satiric Dances-Norman Dello Joio (Grade 5) Associated
29. Second Suite in F-Holst/Matthews (Grade 4.5) Boosey and Hawkes
30. Shepherd’s Hey-Percy Grainger (Grade 4) Carl Fischer
31. Suite of Old American Dances-Robert Russell Bennett (Grade 5) Hal Leonard
32. Symphonic Dance #3-Clifton Williams (Grade 5) Alfred
33. Trauersinfonie-Wagner/Leidzen (Grade 4) Schirmer
34. Variations on a Korean Folksong (Grade 5) Boosey and Hawkes
35. Victory at Sea-Rodgers/Bennett (Grade 4) Hal Leonard

The marches that I’ve selected were pared down from about 60 marches that I consider excellent pieces. I chose a couple of the standard marches, but I also chose some favorites that are a little lesser known. My community college band never played a recessional for graduation. We played marches instead. Pride of the Wolverines was one of my favorites to do for a recessional.

Marches

Now, for my music friends… What would you add to this list. Remember the rules. 50 years of age or older….