Immediately after the concert and the days that followed, I received many notes, read emails, and had a number of conversations with students that were full of positive comments about the entire performance. An interesting conversation took place with a parent who has sent three kids through the band program during my tenure, and she remarked that even without that piece or that audio clip this concert was the best she’s ever heard. She further noted that it is so rewarding to hear the music of the holiday season recreated in new and interesting ways by so many students. The compliment was an honor to be sure, but I am always curious if the students in the ensembles make that connection as well.

The day after the concert during rehearsal, the students in the three ensembles listened to the concert recording and used a rating scale to self-evaluate their ensemble’s performance. Included in that evaluation, I posed an open response question to the ensemble related to how these kinds of performances might better connect music in the school with music in society. Listed, anonymously, here are just a few of the responses:

“I think the audience enjoyed the Christmas Song (arr. by Nowak) the most. The familiarity of the melody appealed to them, and the arrangement we played reflected the characteristics of the song” – 11^th Grader

“The Christmas Song has to be the audience favorite. The song completes the nostalgic experience that is a Christmas concert.” – 12^th Grader

“I think the audience enjoyed the Nutcracker the best because it was instantly recognizable, and our setting of it was true to the original.” – 9^th Grader

“The audience enjoyed the Nutcracker Suite the most. Even though we used different instruments than the original, we strived to be the same stylistically. You could still tell where the plot was during each portion of the song.” – 11^th Grader

“I think our musicianship developed the most in the Nutcracker as we switched between styles in each section, and we tried to stay true to the intent of the original. I think the audience responded so strongly to our arrangement because they recognized the songs and how close to the original we were performing” – 12 the Grader

I grow weary of the argument that traditional school ensembles are not responsive, and that they do not connect with students and their community. I remain of the view that they can connect very well with students and community provided their director recognizes how that bridge can be built and is effective helping students recognize those connections.

A holiday concert provides a traditional ensemble the opportunity to instill within its members a sense of community and shared humanity. This time of year brings out the best in people’s attitudes, dispositions, and sentimentality, and to allow a traditional ensemble like band the chance to tap into that vein of positive traits can be a powerful spring board for its future. The music is familiar enough – the settings of that music allow educators to discuss musical concepts and ideas developed by the writers to create a satisfying musical experience both from the aesthetic and the paraxial.

One could quickly criticize the program I selected for this concert that it contained no significant works befitting the style of the wind band. That being said, my own view of the program was that it provided moments that were in the students’ developmental range, pushed them to acquire and develop new skills, stretched them to be more expressive musicians, and challenged them to consider how music can be altered in various styles. I would add further that I am less convinced that there is one definitive style for the wind band – the wind ensemble and concert band are sometimes at their best when they can present a multitude of styles with efficacy and conviction.

Perhaps those moments that stretched the students raised the aesthetic awareness and expectations for students and parents alike. Perhaps those moments that were in the students’ “wheelhouse” reaffirmed to them the joy of performing creatively in a collective ensemble. Perhaps those moments that generated warm feelings for parents and pride in their sons and daughters in the community. Perhaps those nostalgic moments made the business of society seem years away and once again all was calm, all was bright. Perhaps there were all these things – but make no mistake about it they helped make Christmas time here for our community. It’s only a Christmas stocking bonus that the students became better people and musicians. Merry Christmas all, and I will talk to you next year!

That should be a fairly easy question for any conductor who has studied scores and understands the pieces that have been at the foundation of the American Wind Ensemble and Concert Band.

Name three composers who wrote music for wind ensembles or concert bands between the years of 1950 and 1980 and will still be played in the year 2020.

Hmm….

I will go with J. Clifton Williams – Dedicatory Overture (1964), Alfred Reed – A Festival Prelude (1962), and W. Francis McBeth (1961) – Chant and Jubilo. Arguably these may not represent their “best” work, but they are ones which 1) I believe are engaging to students, 2) representative of the composer’s stylistic practice, and 3) provided appropriate challenge at the difficulty level for which they are designated. The debate may go on below and it should – so if you have different answers, please include them below.

Moving on, now name three composers who are writing music for wind ensembles or concert bands between 1980 and 2010 who might be enjoying rehearsal and programming time in 2020.

Hmm…getting tougher…

My choices go like this: James Barnes – The Trail of Tears, Mark Camphouse – Movement for Rosa, and Frank Ticheli – Symphony No. 2. Here again – the pieces above may not represent their best or most challenging work. The choices get tougher – there are more of them, they become more diverse in their style and sonic landscape, and these pieces have enjoyed more exposure and attention as technology has improved our ability to connect with the media.

All of that being said, it can be difficult to think in those terms due to the sheer numbers of new pieces for concert band and wind ensemble that are being published today. Critics both inside and outside the profession of music education challenge the sounds that are created, programmatic elements, and point towards the general detachedness of the pieces from anything musical. Some would argue that school music ensembles have become a culture of their own that is unresponsive to students or that the ensembles can be disconnected and insensitive to cultures outside this country. Some choices are made for ensembles on the basis of whether or not the band can perform a piece well enough to get a superior at the next contest, and little thought given to how that literature could be utilized to extend learning beyond the 44 minutes of the rehearsal period.

Though I do not completely disagree with these arguments, I do not believe that the apparent disconnect is at a critical mass. As I consider the communities in which these groups are situated and what they contribute to their local culture I ask this question: Has the traditional school wind ensemble and concert band become something unique and vibrant – a quality of the arts that some scholars have suggested to be celebrated and offered for study? While they embrace, continue, and revere classical traditions and forms, these traditional ensembles continually seek ways to expand existing models and ideas which continually deepen the aesthetic and paraxial experience of the students who engage with it. While I acknowledge that not every piece of music falls into this appraisal, there have been significant, engaging works created for traditional ensembles not only so the artist might say something that has not been said before, but so the performer may be transformed during their interaction.

At some point though, there will be “new classics” to emerge that mean no disrespect to those pieces that are the foundation of American Wind Band and Concert Band literature (see the Teaching Music Series, Composers on Composing for Band, or Rehearsing the Band for some concise lists). As we move past the date of their origins and the times in which they were created, it becomes much easier to identify how significant a piece they might be. It really is no different than those of us who teach a history course on American Popular Music – it’s easy to understand why Elvis, the Beatles, and Little Richard were important to rock and roll, and why we can’t tell yet if U2, Greenday, and Dave Grohl will ever be in that same class. Any director must maintain careful balance of the needs of the students (educational & enjoyment), their communities and schools, and the fact they are heritage bearers of the American Wind Ensemble and Concert Band. These ensembles have been at profession’s core for years, and that was no accident. On one hand the music teaches something, on another it preserves part of our heritage or extends someone else’s culture. On one hand it excites and transforms the mind of the performers, on the other it motivates them to perform at levels not thought possible. We are the educators – educators that must define our own vision of a quality work, research possible pieces that fit that vision, examine how the piece lines up with our goals and objectives for the students, consider how the audience might be engaged by the piece, consider how you can extend learning through the piece beyond the rehearsal hall walls, and make a decision. Picking music for our ensembles is a lot like something I tell my band students about learning music – I didn’t say it would be easy, I said it would be worthwhile.

New classics will emerge – but not without heavy sustained discussion from those in the profession who earnestly care about the future of wind ensembles and concert bands. We cannot rest solely on reviews from magazine’s or websites to provide the final verdict, though to their credit they do invest considerable time to make their best recommendations to directors.  We must further add to this process a comparison against proven, time-tested pieces of similar length, style, or tonality to gauge the overall quality in terms of its craftsmanship, imagination, sensitivity and authenticity (a line of thinking first proposed by Bennett Reimer in 1991 – a guy who I am guessing will still be discussed in 2020). The debate will continue and could prove to be divisive, but I urge all parties involved to make their decisions based upon a clear personal definition of quality that ultimately is in the best interest of the students who they profess to “share the love of music”.

I conclude by sharing my list of “new classics” for band, and urge you to add yours.

James Barnes – The Trail of Tears
Mark Camphouse – Movement for Rosa
Frank Ticheli – Symphony No. 2
Julie Giroux – No Finer Calling
Andrew Boysen Jr. – I Am
Patrick J. Burns – Toccata
Jack Stamp – Ricercare
Samuel Hazo – Ride
Robert Jager – Esprit de Corps
Jan Van Der Roost – Puszta

I am very pleased to have received an Editor’s Choice for “Festival and Ballade for Winds”, a piece I wrote for the 2009 Pittsburgh Diocesan Honor Band.  A recording should be up in the coming weeks at Wingert-Jones. Other new works coming this summer include “Moravian Dance” and “A West Highland Fanfare” from FJH, and “Siege of the Dark Castle” from Barnhouse.

Be sure to bump on over to Travis J. Weller on myspace to hear the PMEA District 5 Band recording of “Moravian Dance”.  Jack Anderson did a great job with the band, and I am so proud of the students for what they did with the music.  The piece will be available from FJH this summer.

While it is our job to teach instrumental music, we as a profession must take time to consider these student musicians and ultimately where there career path might lead.  Not every student in our program may become a professional musician or a music educator, but we do want them to leave with a positive connection to music that they can tangibly see in their lives.  We must also choose music that allows us as directors to connect the academic music of the school ensemble with the outside world in which the student live, and that music must contribute to and enrich the community in which the school ensemble is situated.  While high school bands have enjoyed list upon list in book after article of best music for study and performance, I am somewhat disheartened by the lack of attention paid to Middle School and Junior High Ensembles.  It is though because this music is studied and performed by amateur musicians it is somehow not serious literature, and is of little importance or no consequence – I whole heartedly disagree with that line of thinking.  I have previously tried to get the FIRE started for discussion about Middle School Band Literature.  My goal here today is to discuss aspects for choosing literature for Middle School/High School, and then present a list for consideration.

There is a wealth of traditional literature that needs to be part of the “core” repertoire of young musicians as it allows them to develop certain techniques.  Ballads, which can be used to develop legato tonguing and musical expression, and marches, which can be used to develop marcato style, contrasting dynamics and articulation, and understanding of form, are two such types of traditional literature appropriate for study and performance.  There are also a number of writers expanding the sound canvas and providing excellent contemporary literature that present opportunities to explore musical concepts once reserved for more advanced pieces played by advanced groups.  Aleatoric episodes, vocalization, body percussion, different textures, elements of other music styles, and experimental timbres are such concepts that students may experience (Wilborn, 2001).

While contemporary literature offers one kind of experience into a different sound canvas for young musicians, another source to consider in selecting literature is multi-cultural pieces.  Many “multi-cultural” pieces performed by ensembles are arrangements or compositions by a Western-trained musician and are typically written for a standard Western instrumental ensemble.  Goetze’s view is that stylistic practices of some culture’s music cannot be adequately recreated using Western instruments or Western harmonic structure and that the experience gained by student is a Western art musical experience rather than a multi-cultural one (Goetze, 2000).  Goetze doesn’t suggest that this music should be avoided, and suggests through study of the culture, seeking out authentic performances (live ones work best), and providing insight into the music’s use within its native culture can inform our choices and our teaching.

Another aspect to consider in selecting literature with regard to developing student’s technical skills is having a long-term vision for what you hope the students can accomplish as musicians.  A number of articles and chapters in text (i.e. Miles, 1997) have been devoted to the high school ensemble curriculum devised so that students make progress over the course of several school years.  Middle school becomes a unique situation in that some directors see their students only 1 year, others 2 to 3 years, and others continue to see them as they are the only instrumental teacher in grades 7-12!  In the case of students that move on to another teacher, a open and professional line of communication should exist so the high school and middle school director(s) can frame their expectations for student development through the study of instrumental music.  In the case of being “master of your own destiny”, a director should be able to build a logical repertoire curriculum for his own students.

Because repertoire can serve as the source for a long-term plan, it is very important that teachers at all levels have a repertoire list he or she believes that all students should perform over a period of several years (Geraldi, 2008). Geraldi offers the following considerations for inclusion on “core repertoire list”:

• Work should have formal, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic creativity.
• Work should convey the composer’s imagination.
• Work should be well-orchestrated.
• Balance between tutti sections and thinner texture sections.
• Work should convey emotional or expressive depth.

Speaking to that last point made by Geraldi, we should give our students the opportunity to hear the emotion in the music.  Through this process of recognizing and exploring emotional moments in music,  it causes students to become aware of their own emotions (Whitwell, 2009).  As long we choose music that is authentic, the students (and the eventual audience!) cannot fail to perceive the generalized form of the emotion.  So in our selection and programming of literature, we need to be sure that our students become aware of the emotional depth of the music, begin to explore and understand what that emotion conveys, how the composer expresses it in the music, and they must find a means of expressing their own personal emotions through performance, self-reflection, or discussion within the ensemble.

Composers, conductors, and educators alike all discuss the need for variety in programming and repertoire selection.  Selecting literature of diverse style and origin provides much needed variety for the director, students, and audience.  Even such simple concepts as balancing different textures, contrasting tempos, and balancing major, minor, and modal tonalities are ways in which variety in programming can be achieved.  Other considerations when programming literature include having the required instrumentation and equipment, instructional time to teach the work effectively and efficiently, and the enjoyment that can be gained from rehearsing and the performance of the piece for the director, students, and audience.

With all of this in mind, I offer some suggestions (from the past 15 years of teaching) for pieces for middle school/junior high band I believe a) are worthwhile for students to study, b) provide variety in style, c) have aesthetic/artistic appeal to all parties involved, and d) allow students to draw out their own meaning and emotions.  The list is where I am in 2010 as an educator, and is subject to revision as my perspective, experience, and knowledge grows.  I would be interested in hearing about a list for your ensemble.

1) Air for Band – Frank Erickson

2) Wagon Trail – Julie Giroux

3) Suspended Animation – Patrick J. Burns

4) Kentucky 1800 – Clare Grundman

5) A Childhood Hymn – David Holsinger

6) Grant County Celebration – Mark Williams

7) Unraveling – Andrew Boysen, Jr.

The Forge of Vulcan – Michael Sweeney

9) Bashana Haba’ Ah – Lloyd Conley

10) Basin Street Blues – Mark Higgins

11) Carpathian Sketches – Robert Jager

12) Marching Song – Holst/John Moss

13) Cloud Gate – Timothy Loest

14) Our Kingsland Spring – Sam Hazo

15) Canto – W. Francis McBeth

16) Kilaeua – Brian Balmages

17) Crusin’ – Willie Owens

18) Ghosts in the Graveyard – Scott Watson

19) Highlights from the Music Man – Johnnie Vinson

20) Appomattox – James Hosay

Enjoy the list, good luck with your spring concerts, and don’t forget to add to the conversation!

Geraldi, K. M. (2008). Planned programming pays dividends. Music Educators Journal 95 (2), 75-79.

Goetze, M. (2000). Challenges of performing diverse cultural music. Music Educators Journal, 87 (1), 23 -25, 48.

Miles, R. (1997). Teaching music through performance in band. Chicago: GIA Publications.

Whitwell, D. (2009). Music education of the future: Two paramount new purposes. NBA Journal, 50 (2), 43-60.

Wilborn, D. F. (2001). Spicing up band with contemporary literature. Teaching Music,8 (5), 36-40.

This post has been brewing for some time now, and it has taken a few days off from slinging a stick and writing passes to get there.  The Midwest 2009 experience was a big reminder of where our profession is in relation to the music that is made available for school ensembles to study, rehearse and perform.  Studies in English lead us to the pinnacle as evidenced in the works of Shakespeare, Melville, and Milton.  Studies in band lead us to the pinnacle as evidenced in the works Holst, Grainger, Vaughan Williams. But are there not other authors, and likewise are there not other composers?  The names are familiar and many great works are conjured up by a simple mention – Francis McBeth, Clifton Williams, Alfred Reed, Robert Jager, Claude T. Smith, and  Ron Nelson.  Chant and Jubilo, Symphonic Dance No. 3, The Hounds of Spring,  Esprit de Corps, God of Our Fathers, and Rocky Point Holiday (though for me, Mvt. 2 of A Medieval Suite…check it out, seriously).

This is by no means a comprehensive list that follows – but it represents a selection of composers and their pieces that are regarded by many as significant and worthwhile endeavors for ensembles to study and rehearse.  There are names left off – I mean no disrespect.  These are humble opinions and evaluations.  Even the composers listed might feel the piece below is not their best work.  They are all perhaps a tier or two down from pieces by those listed above as of the last day in 2009.  But in another 25 to 30 years, we might find them regarded quite differently.

I have no doubt that Ride, by Samuel Hazo, will one day be a standard measuring stick for ensembles technical facility.  Ghost Train, by Eric Whitacre, will stretch the limits of musicianship by an ensemble.  Bands will come to know new depths of patriotic emotional connection to music by experiencing Julie Giroux’s No Finer Calling.  Movement for Rosa and Watchmen Tell Us Of The Night, by Mark Camphouse, are musical gems with significant social consciousness.  There are a number of pieces by Ticheli which have garnered some deserved attention (and on a personal note,  I think the fact his piece followed mine in the Vandercook performance at Midwest caused me more anxiety than the performance of my piece!).  Even Puszta, by Jan Van Der Roost, has opened our ears to depth and quality of music being written by musicians from other parts of the world.  To my ears, James Barnes’ The Trail of Tears transcends the idea that great music is hard music, and his work reveals our capacity for writing music that transfers well to the medium and is culturally sensitive.

These are but a few pieces regarded as serious literature for mature ensembles.  The process of selecting them and the reasons for doing so are often give less scrutiny as the name of the composer, the “prestige” of the piece, its appearance on state festival lists, or reviews in magazines often provide the impetus for its programming.  Much will be written about these kinds of pieces, much attention will be given to their interpretation, and little will be considered before it is selected.  From my perspective, the opposite holds true in regard to literature for elementary and middle school bands.  There will be little written, little regard to interpretation (as these are “non-serious” musicians), and a lot will be considered (like whether or not it is easy enough to earn a top rating at contest!).

I applaud the efforts of the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, as it has done a lot to identify significant pieces at both the elementary and junior high ability/grade level that are regarded as “serious” literature.  There are a number of fantastic composers who are writing absolute masterpieces at this ability/grade level, yet their work is not regarded as significant because it is played by non-serious musicians.  We could spend days going through the history of music citing pieces that are masterpieces, but yet were intended for use by teachers to raise the musical ability of their students.  There are people within our profession that would look upon some of this literature as not worthy of creating a meaningful musical experience.  There are some outside the profession that decry its quality and have made verbal and literary attacks on composers for writing music that has no connection to the performers, or the intended audience.  I reside somewhere in the middle truth be known – while the music written for the American Wind Band to me is the most exciting and interesting written today, it is incumbent upon educators to make informed educated choices in the selection of music for study and find ways in which to make meaningful connections to our students.

At an elementary and middle school level, there are many factors that play in to our decision to select a piece for study that include but are not limited to: balance of our instrumentation, fitting the need of the ensemble, rehearsal time, balancing musical expectations of the administration, community, and students, and the difficulty of the piece versus the ability of the ensemble.  All are areas that must be weighed and considered before we make that selection.  There are two significant qualities I look for in a piece – but I usually cannot get a complete read on them until after I have started working on it: 1) Does it get the students excited about music and point them towards a more meaningful and personal relationship with music, and 2) Does it provide a worthwhile experience whereby the student, director, and ensemble experience growth intellectually, musically, and socially?  If both of those questions come back in the affirmative, it is hard for me to dismiss a piece as not being significant.  Whether it is programmatic, multi-cultural, or an extension of the American Wind Band heritage, I think it is important to weigh it against those two qualities alongside the pre-selection criteria that is utilized.

My question to all of you at middle school or elementary levels (current or future), what criteria do you use in the selection of music for your ensemble and how do you rank them in order of their importance?  Let’s start the new year with a good discussion, and sharpen up our skills as we search for greatness in elementary and middle school band literature.

In case you missed the October cover of SB&O, Brian Covey (director of Lockport High School) graced the cover.  The article got me looking forward to his group’s performance on Thursday morning and they did not disappoint.  While seeing Eric Whitacre was nice, and getting to watch James Keane is always a pleasure, the exciting part was getting to hear the band perform Traffic Jam by Timothy Loest.  Tim is a great writer, educator and director and this was the first time he had one of his pieces debuted at Midwest.  Tim has become a good friend over the past two years, and it was really awesome seeing him get some big time recognition for his writing at the conference.

Dr. Pisano, Dr. Greig, and I attended the Phi Beta Mu meeting on Thursday morning, and had the opportunity to connect with a number of great directors from around the country.  It was nice getting to put a face with names, and compare notes with this international group of colleagues.   I enjoyed Lynn Cooper’s presentation “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Choosing Music for Your Band” on Thursday morning following that meeting.  The one quote that struck a “chord” with me was from Bennett Reimer – “Music of high quality need not be music of high complexity”.  Too often we are tempted to pick music just out of our ensembles reach, but it need not be like that.  As Cooper shared, pick music that features both your group’s strength and weaknesses.  He also posed a list of questions to consider in the selection of music that were very insightful – and if we are doing our job, we should be asking these questions anyway!  While the Teaching Music through Performance in Band Series is great, sometimes it is better if we do the work for ourselves and sometimes we find the best songs that aren’t on any lists.  The quote by Bennett Reimer (1991) made me reflect on an older article in which he offered a succinct list of four criteria for judging quality in music.  I have found considering Reimer’s criteria of craftsmanship, sensitivity, imagination, and authenticity to be valuable in not only in selecting music for my groups to study but also as I begin writing new pieces.

A clinic by Anthony Reimer on iPods and filling them with band music was a reminder of how to fix the regret I felt after the Lockport Concert.  I thought as I exited “I wish there was a way to get my students to hear these performances”.  And there may not be a feasible way to get that done, but what can be done is make sure our rehearsal rooms have adequate listening labs where our students can gain access to high quality recordings of the band music on which we are working.  We want our students to have good musical role models – why shouldn’t we want them to have “aural” role models as well?  And why can’t that role model be an ensemble?  There are a number of companies providing free downloads of concert music that students can acess – here again we should be taking a non-traditional role and lead them to the information so they can access it!

It was also very rewarding to catch up with a number of composers whose music really speaks to me on different levels – as music lover, an educator, a conductor, and a composer.  Lockport also performed Song for Lyndsay by Andrew Boysen, Jr. As a writer and music lover, the sensitivity and expression in this piece was just wonderful.  I caught up with Andy on Friday – like Camphouse, I think Andy’s best pieces are yet to be written.  I spoke with Eric Whitacre very briefly on Wednesday night, and got to see him conduct Lockport on Thursday.  His star is certainly set as he continues to rethink and reshape orchestration practices.  It was a pleasure to get to know Chris Sharp and Erik Morales.  Chris is working on his doctorate from the University of Florida, so we had plenty to commiserate upon when comparing our pursuit of the terminal degree.  I knew only Erik through his jazz ensemble charts, but had a chance to check out a lot of his concert band works as well on Thursday while working the FJH Booth for a bit.  He is a very talented writer, and definitely knows his cuisine (It’s all about the pomegranates).  Always good spending time with Willie Owens – I have never witnessed anyone move that many CD’s in such a short amount of time.  Willie gets better every time I hear his stuff.  Brian Balmages had a big year at Midwest with a number of performances of his pieces.  The last time we spoke was “face to face” was the Skype concert, so it was nice being able to just sit down and visit a bit.  Check out Patrick Burns’ Toccata.  It is one of the best pieces for high school band I have heard in a long time.  Patrick was in the Daehn Publications booth, and he was working the crowd very well.   Julie Giroux might be the nicest person I know.  I spoke with her about Wagon Trail before the exhibits opened on Thursday.  What a talent she is!  I spent some time with Roland Barrett who has always been one on my favorites.  In undergrad, I conducted Symphonic Journey No.1 and from that point have become well acquainted with the entire catalog of his work.  I am eager to being his Fanfare and Jubilation with my groups second semester.  Is it ever a dull conversation with the quick-witted James Barnes? As we begin a inter-disciplinary revolving around The Trail of Tears, I am grateful for the time he took with me to discuss the significance of this piece in understanding what many history books ignore.  This work by Barnes is also a very important reminder that great music does not have to be difficult.  It is a substantial piece of remarkable depth worthy of study by students who want to become better people and individuals.  John Zdechlick signed my score for Chorale and Shaker Dance.  Timothy Mahr’s group performed on Friday (which included Boysen’s Unraveling – a monster piece at the grade 3 level).  Johan DeMeij and Jan Van der Roost were in the house, and I almost (albeit) accidently ran over Mark Camphouse.  Luckily, my dancer’s reflexes took over and we both averted disaster.  But that accident wasn’t nearly as bad as what could have been on Thursday around 11:43 a.m.   Where else can you wait in line to talk with Frank Ticheli only to have H. Robert Reynolds turn around and nearly run you over? Midwest, my friends.  Only at Midwest.

Reimer, B. (1991) Criteria for quality in music.  In R.A. Smith & A. Simpson (Eds.), Aesthetics and arts education (pp. 330-338). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

So, I never dreamed in a million years that writing a post called “My Band Room is on Fire” would get the attention that it has.  After having the summer to review that list, it has churned a significant repertoire list that as a profession of directors should be familiar. I got to thinking about it over the summer, and while thought provoking and good debate for high school directors the conversation should not stop there.  There are plenty of colleagues (myself included) who really struggle with selecting good music for the Middle School/Jr. High Level.  There are some exemplary standards out there, but I believe there to be a wealth of undiscovered gems as well.

The rules: You have time to save 10 pieces for study.  I chose 10 so we have a little more flexibility, plus it creates a little larger rep list.  Don’t be like a near-sighted colleague from my area that said he would wait for the place to burn and get the insurance money – contribute to the conversation and help the profession make progress!.  A list of songs with arranger and/or composer will suffice.  If you want to explain any of your choices, feel free to do so but it is not necessary.  I will recap it all in about a month.  Beware, the fire is burning again!

Carpathian Sketches…..Robert Jager

Suspended Animation…..Patrick J. Burns

Friends of Freedom…..Timothy Loest

Air for Band…..Frank Erickson

Canto…..W. Francis McBeth

Kentucky 1800…..Clare Grundman

Grant County Celebration…..Mark Williams

Marching Song…..Gustav Holst/arr. Moss

Salute to the Duke….arr. Michael Sweeney

The Battle Pavane…..Susato/arr.Margolis