High school music

[oldbandnerd]

I played Incantation and Dance for All Regional band..............
in 1980. I remeber it well. It was a fun piece to play.

[Gorilla Tuba]

I did Incantation and Dance in High school, too. It is listed as one of the top 25 most recommended grade 4 pieces in the recent article, Most Recommended Band Music On 25 States' Selective Lists by John Stevenson, Instrumentalist, September 2004.

[Adam C.]

Suite of Old American Dances is tough to play well, no matter the level of the ensemble.

Some of the rhythmic figures alone will derail most high school bands, I would say.

[GC]

If you're in a high school band that can properly handle the Suite, count yourself lucky. It's way too tough for most groups and is one of the most fun pieces to play anywhere in band lit.

[Joe Baker]

My son's HS band and my community band are both doing the Suite of American Dances (we're just performing the first two movements in our community band). This is really a great piece, and can challenge any HS or better ensemble. At a pre-college level, getting the whole band to play all the notes at even close to tempo is challenging, whereas a really great band can challenge themselves to play it up to tempo with some real musical flair. My son dug up a recording of at least part of it on the internet (I think the Cleveland SO website; they had a joint concert with a symphonic band or some such). I'll get the URL from him and post it this evening.
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Joe Baker, who notes that the tuba part is MUCH more challenging than the trombone part on this piece.