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Impressionist or just "French"...(something Bozzo-ish?)

Par Monts et Par Vaux - Michel LeClerc

A great quintet not found on many recordings.

I'm not the most knowledgeable regarding quintet repertoire, but I do fall into the age group you requested, so I thought I might contribute.

I am personally a fan of Ewald No. 1, but as that is performed/recorded rather frequently...perhaps something of a similar style/flavor?

Might I also suggest something of the Post-Romantic/Russian school? I have no idea what repertoire would fall into that category, if any, but I do think that something along those lines (Shostakovich?!?!?!) would be well appreciated by your target age group.

My comments will be too general to be of much help, I'm afraid. I think any quintet should record 1) pieces that aren't readily available by other groups, and 2) pieces that your audience will listen to.

If your intended audience is band directors and students, I doubt that they are going to listen to the Bozza. I am a real fan of early brass music. The NYBQ "Baroque Brass" album suits me just fine, but band directors and students nowdays.... not gonna listen.

"Classic" jazz (Joplin, Waller, Ellington), pop and soundtracks will get their attention. Don't forget to include "Forward Rebels" Oh, and if you can rap...

Seriously, you should insisit on some Dixie because you know the style.

Put your money and time in the recording aspect and don't bother with making a lot of CD's. Kids will download it to their ipods quicker than they will stick a CD in a player and it may get them to go to the UM Band website. Some band directors can do this, too!

We have used these folks for our last 3 CDs and have been very pleased with service, quality, and price.

http://www.diskfaktory.com/enter/009/de ... age=ProPak" target="_blank

You can provide your own artwork and come up with a pretty slick package.

Somebody has called everything neo- boring within music. I am not entirely in disagreement. However Respighi’s treatment of old dances is insanely beautiful. Stravinsky’s treatment of old dances is just insane, but both are interesting.

You have yourself once mentioned Wilhelm Tell. Was it Spike Jones making the English horn 6/8 sound very sleazy against the flute 8/16? Anyway also has the thunder and the US Cavalry themes.

The other day I heard Saint Martin in the Field play one of your favourites: Nicolai’s Lustige Weiber. Some beautiful melodies, but honestly not worth it, as the underlying formulas are too obvious.

Anything needing movements like a bad remake of A Chorus Line should be avoided.

Klaus

Here are some of my favorites from our book.

"Dance Suite" from the Michael Praetorius Terpsichore, arr. Allan Dean. The first set is published by Theodore Presser, but I am not aware of a recording. The second set is unpublished, but recorded by Allan's St. Louis Brass Quintet. Both are excellent adaptations of great early music.

There is a great transcription of the Holst Second Suite by Jerry Nowak published by Music Express that I find remarkable. It is true to the original and is just great fun.

From the same era, A suite of Grainger pieces arr. by Joseph Kreines, published by Southern Music.

Curnow has done a fun arrangement of "Procession of the Nobles" that will test their, the trumpets, endurance for sure. It's good writing, you just don't get to take the horn off your face. It is self published and I don't believe it is recorded.

A piece commisioned by the Los Angeles Brass Quintet titled, "Variations on a Negro Folk Song" arr. William Schmidt, that is striking to say the least. It's a set on "Goin' Home on a Cloud". I don't think it has been recorded. It's a bit obtuse, but good stuff none the less. Published by Avant Music in 1959 so it's probably out of print.

"West Side Story" arr. by Jack Gale. Unfortunately there is at least one great recording out there, Empire Brass, but everybody ought to have it cause it is so fun to play. I know I wouldn't want somebody comparing my effort with Sam's. Maybe you are braver than I.

If you need any of these, I would be glad to loan them as some are no longer available. We don't play any of them unless we do a recital, none booked.

Koetsier-Brass Quintet
Horovitz-Music Hall Suite

Why do the same boring old crap that has been done a million times? To keep it uniquely "Mississippi" why don't you go to 1. The composers/composition teacher/s on campus and have them write something. 2. Go to the Jazz Department and get one of the "Cool Guru's" to either arrange or compose something that hasn't been done. REALLY THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX ON THIS ONE JOE. 3. Do your own thing: find something really cool that may have never been done and have one of the groups more astute musicians ARRANGE SOMETHING. Arrange something that features EACH PERSON IN THE GROUP SO SOME POOR SCHLUB WILL SAY "HOLY SCHMIKEY'S I WANT TO STUDY WITH THAT GUY/GAL". Also, I'm sure that Mississippi had a Civil War Regimental Band and that some of that music is available. Please, for the love of everything musical, don't give us another Ewald/Arnold/Bozza/Gale/Renaissance/Bach/Little Brown Jug/Joplinetc,etc etc, recording, they have all been done before, for BETTER AND WORSE.

If all else fails, you could reguritate the same crap OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Use this recording as a vehicle to highlight what is special about your group dynamic. Anything else will be a boring POS. THINK LIKE THE MERIDIAN ARTS ENSEMBLE.

Chuck"who really, REALLY hates re-hashed BQ recordings"Jackson

Good Answer, Chuck, don't old back. Loved the outside the box comment, how true. Use the great resources at hand at Ole Miss.

A few other choice works not mentioned so far.

Baroque: Vivaldi-Bach Concerto; Albinoni St Mark's Sonata.

Classsical: Mozart arias - Queen of the Night, Papageno-Papagena, O Isis and Osiris.

Romantic: Ludwig Maurer - Morgenmusik; Debussy - Girl with the Flaxen Hair.

20th Century: Cheetham - Brass Menagerie; Koetsier - Kinderzirkus (add a narrator to that one); and of course the Collier Jones.

Hi Bloke,

If you are looking for unique things that are not on 10 other quintet CDs, I have an arrangement of the Vivaldi concerto for two trumpets with the low brass accompanying. (Unfortunately however, the low brass trio get a work out and work harder than the soloists). If you are looking for something by vivaldi.

I also have some NOLA style arrangements of Swanee River, Camptown Races, Put your Hand in the Hand, Lassus Trombone (Mo'Lassus Bone), these charts also include optional guitar and drum parts for added fun!

I have some march arrangements, El Capitan, Thunderer, Florentiner, Amparito Roca and Espana Cani (actually a paso doble)

One More... a beautiful arrangement of "The Shendandoah is Wide" which combines "Shenandoah" and "The Water Is Wide" with a nice tuba solo on the Shenandoah verse.

ken k

Here are a few charts we ALL play, but I have found very few recordings of them readily available:

Scherzo - Cheetham
Dance - Renwick
This Old Man March - Nagel
Die Bankelsangerlieder (I know, but few recordings exist that I know about)
Some Pezel stuff would be a nice recruiting tool

Piles more....

I love stuff like this and oddly enough have been doing a bit of thinking about the same subject. And I also fit into your demographic in question.

Baroque/Rococo
-The first thing that came to mind for me that is just a great piece that is also fairly well known is Bach's Contrapunctus 9. I feel that when that piece is done well it just sounds fantastic. There are also some Italian Madrigals by Ray Mase of the American Brass Quintet that are quite nice as well.

Classical
-I love the idea of a Rossini overture. I think La Gazza Ladra has the most potential/ease of scoring. And if your trumpet players are beasts like you said they would have no problems. It would be nice and showy, I've even heard guitar quartets do a nice job on this piece. Vivaldi also has a nice Concerto for 2 Celli that would work fine as a Quintet and could be a tuba/bone feature.

Romantic
-This is probably the hardest category to narrow down. I really like the Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer but that is really bordering 20th Century. Elsa's Procession is also a nice one since you'll likely need a good little ballady type slow piece. There is also the chance to reduce any kind of Wagner Overture to quintet, maybe Lohengrin perhaps.

20th Century
-I really enjoy Morgenmusik but I'm not sure it is the most widely accessible piece to most audiences, I would unfortunately label it as music for musicians. Another piece I really love is the Plog 4 Sketches for Brass Quintet. It certainly has the technique to be flashy around the whole group. Ewazen's Frostfire would be another snappy modern quintet piece. Andre Previn also wrote a nice quintet, 4 Outings, but it is most definitely a tuba feature, so maybe not what you'd be looking for. I also really enjoy Ewald 3.

"pop"
-I guess it depends on your definition of what pop is but I see no reason why you couldn't do a few Beatles tunes, unless you think that is a bit tacky. Just do your own original arrangements of them. I also liked the idea of using some Dixieland, and I would really kind of put that into this genre a little bit. Just do the good tunes that haven't been overplayed, I'm Your Mailman is a good one that comes to mind heh. Also Americana marches could be placed into this category.

Hope this has been of some help.

Anyone else like "The Bolt" by Shostakovich?

Traditional: Harry Herforth's arrangement of Bach "My Spirit Be Joyful" - came free in the ITG Journal some years ago, one of your guys probably has it. Great piece all around but really features tuba in lots of runs - you would eat it up, and it would lay well on your F tuba.

Non-traditional: Why not lay down a wicked bass line and do some blues choruses all around?

I'll second "My Spirit Be Joyful" with one caution - though it's beyond fun on a CC, it's hard labor on an Eb.

Just thought of another Romantic selection: there is a nice arrangement of Wo die schoenen Trompeten blasen from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. It can be a bit of a bear to keep together, what with all the 2 against 3 and 3 against 4 - Dr. Beat's Tempo Nazi worked overtime with us on that one. But it's effective - also good to include a reading of the text.

I can appreciate the feelings about the Debussy. I've often gotten squawks about it - more so from pianists than guitarists. Although I've heard both suck on it way worse than us.

The Jack Gale arrangement of Porgy and Bess tunes is very nice.