Travis J. Weller

Thank you friends and colleagues for your patience and support over the last four years. It has been a long process to be sure, but I am pleased to announce that Journey to the Prairie is now available from Manhattan Beach Music. It may be ordered direct from MBM or you can order from JW Pepper as well.

Journey to the Prairie was written in one night – I couldn’t turn off the sounds. As Quincy says transitional tasks can be very helpful to develop material, and my wife couldn’t be happier that evening as I continued mopping, sweeping, and cleaning the house. I finished the piece at 3 a.m. that December morning, printed parts and had the wind ensemble at my school perform the first and only draft. I was excited to see this piece come to life, but discouraged as it was passed over by 3 other publishers. With nothing to lose, I entered it in the 2nd Annual Ticheli Competition.

Now some 5 years later the piece is available. My thanks to Dr. Arnold at Grove City College who provided the recording for the contest (it is also posted on my compositions page). I hope this piece might be useful to your ensemble in the coming months.

I am pleased to have two new selections available from the FJH Music Company this summer.  The first is a transcription of a piece originally written for the River City Youth Brass Band in 2009.  “A Frontier Fought and A City Found” retells a small part of the story from the Seven-years War in relation to the founding of Pittsburgh, Pa. It is intended for high school band.  The second piece is a 3 movement programmatic suite entitled “Tales of Medieval Warrior”.  The piece follows the dubbing of  new knight, his courtship of a fair maiden, and his eventual conquest at a jousting tournament.  It is intended for middle school/junior high ensembles.  The first two-movements are in cut-time, though the rhythms are very basic and dance-like.  The final movement uses a variety of rhythms in 6/8 time that are well within the abilities of musicians at this age.  Thank you to the colleagues who provided feedback about these pieces along the way, and to Brian for his support and belief in this music.

I am pleased to announce that AWM Publishing will be releasing Marshalls of the Open Range in the summer of 2010.  The piece was written as a challenge from friend and colleague, Dennis Emert last spring.  The result was this piece, and his students at Kerr Elementary gave the debut performance.  Probably the most humorous story I have ever been a part of happened to Dennis as he was working with his students.  After telling them if my schedule permitted I would be at the debut, a little girl in the front row asked him “How is that going to work Mr. Emert?”.  “What do you mean?” he asked.  The girl replied “How will he be at the debut? Aren’t all composers dead?”  Not yet…at least not this guy.  The piece stirs up images of noble lawmen of the old west patrolling their territory and enforcing justice. I hope you all enjoy Marshalls of the Open Range – a new recording is posted over at my Myspace page!

If you have a minute (or 7 if you are going to listen to Pirates!), bump on over to FJH and check the new recordings of Pirates! and Irish Jig For Young Feet.  Both songs are recorded by the Washington Winds, and you have the option of taking a look at the score page by page as you listen.