Erica (and all!):
So was I. And I went to a small college, so some of the ups and downs of not
knowing how far I was from the top of the pack (how naive we can be as
youngsters!) persisted until after college. Wish I had had the list as a
resource 30 years ago. Bravo to everyone who contributes!
>I *was* that high school horn player from rural America, bored to tears,
>writing to the hornlist (defunct version) and receiving support, 15 years ago.<
I was fortunate enough to be in a band where we could play things (with mixed
results) like Jaeger's Third Suite and Bennett's Suite of Old American Dances.
I did not join band until I was a senior in high school, so I missed out on the
honors groups (did enjoy all-state choir) but we did considerable solo and
ensemble work, including a horn quartet (Grieg's Landsighting, a wonderful old
chestnut still on the Wisconsin contest list I believe.) We were also
fortunate to have the Worthington City Band ("we play for our own amazement")
where we young whippersnappers could play along with more seasoned players and
work on our sight-reading in the summer (half a dozen weekly concerts with no
rehearsals!) We played a lot of show tunes, marches (which I still enjoy
playing, if only to listen to them, in moderation,) and novelty numbers (anyone
remember the Instant Concert?) And my director in those days had the time to
encourage me to start writing and arranging my own stuff.
>I was fortunate enough to have sympathetic band directors, but unfortunate
>that the weren't the type to re-arrange typical class C band lit to liven up
>the many footballs and sax-doubling parts. What they did do, however, was make
>sure that I had every opportunity to play in honors bands, be involved in a
>variety of ensembles for competitions, and introduce me to the local community
>band (which, while it may not have done much for increased difficulty in
>music, did do a lot for my social skills and understanding the dynamics of
>real-world music).<
I'm going to look through programs and see what else I can find, especially as
I spent the last several years conducting elementary and middle school bands
and have been playing in the St. Croix Valley Community Band under Dr. Kris
Tjornehoj of UW River Falls. I'm sure many good pieces will be recommended.
>Here we don't have enough horns (or other instrumentation, or skill) to play
>many of the things we did in college, so along the lines of the comments made
>by Steven Mumford and Spike Maiden Muller, I'd like to get more opinions of
>what is out there in band literature that a low and mid-level community band
>could play that has good horn stuff.<
Keep playing and reading the list!
Spike
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