Konzert für 2 Klarinetten – Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Konzert für 2 Klarinetten – Franz Anton Hoffmeister

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade4
Duration10 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score→ Download

Franz Anton Hoffmeister was born in Rottenburg am Neckar on 12 May 1754. At the age of fourteen he went to Vienna to study law. Following his studies, however, he decided on a career in music and by the 1780s he had become one of the city’s most popular composers, with an extensive and varied catalogue of works to his credit.

Hoffmeister’s reputation today rests mainly on his activities as a music publisher. By 1785 he had established one of Vienna’s first music publishing businesses.

Hoffmeister published his own works as well as those of many important composers of the time, including Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and many others.

This transcription of the 1st movement of “Konzert für 2 Klarinetten” for (small) wind band gives soloists a great opportunity to showcase themselves in this beautiful work.

Der Rosenkavalier (Walzerfolge No. 2) – Richard Strauss
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Der Rosenkavalier (Walzerfolge No. 2) – Richard Strauss

‘Der Rosenkavalier’, Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was first performed at the ‘Königliches Opernhaus’ in Dresden on 26 January 1911 and the opera became immediate and profound popular.

As one would expect of a commercial hit, the music was pressed into all manner of use through arrangements and transcriptions. Strauss produced the earliest orchestral extract himself  in 1911, directly on the heels of the premiere; he titled it ‘Walzerfolge Rosenkavalier 3. Akt’ (‘Waltz Sequence from Rosenkavalier Act 3’) which in the end was entitled as ‘Walzerfolge No. 2’ (‘Waltz Sequence No. 2’).

Publisher: → Baton Music

explanation text © Baton Music

(Re)Connected
Music for Wind Band, Other Arrangements, ,

(Re)Connected

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade5-6
Duration15 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score→ Download
(Re)Connected – Full Midi

… is a musical adventure for concert band, commissioned by the “Royal Military Band Johan Willem Friso” (NL) and their chief-conductor Tijmen Botma.

Due to the Covid pandemic, there have been hardly live performances by orchestras around the world for (sometimes more than) a year. With this work an attempt is made to make renewed contact with the numerous concert audience. 

(Re)Connected is therefore a work in which famous melodies of grandmasters from the past are connected in a special way and in which a (renewed) interaction between musicians and the audience takes place.

The work opens with Toccata by Claudio Monteverdi from “Orfeo”. Subsequently, the 1st cello sonata by Johann Sebastian Bach takes a prominent place, with a quartet of musicians interacting with the material.

On the basis of the exhibited themes, a fugal structure develops in which new material is used from the Overture “Entführung aus dem Serail” and the final movement from “Die Kleine Nachtmusik” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

After this virtuoso intermezzo peace returns with the famous theme of the adagio from the 9th symphony (“from the new world”) by Anton Dvorak. From this develops a dramatic part based on main theme of Dvorak 9th.

After a brief recollection of Bach and the “(Re)Connected” motif, which is clearly discernible throughout the work, the finale begins based on the impressive theme “Ode to joy” from Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th symphony.

An interactive musical adventure in which musicians and audience are (re)connected with the so beloved grandmasters from music history.

Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini – Rachmaninov
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini – Rachmaninov

InstrumentationPiano & Wind Band
Grade5
Duration30 minutes
Publisher→ Baton Music

In the summer of 1934 Rachmaninoff composed the ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’ at his summer home, the Villa Senar in Switzerland.

It’s a concertante work written by for piano and orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto in a single movement.

After a brief introduction, the first variation is played before the well known ‘Paganini theme’ and then followed by the other 23 variations.

The work is performed in one stretch without breaks but it can be divided into three sections. These correspond to the three movements of a concerto: up to variation 10 corresponds to the first movement, variations 11 to 18 are the equivalent of a slow movement, and the remaining variations make a finale.

text: © baton music

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 – Franz Liszt
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 – Franz Liszt

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade5
Duration12 minutes
Publisher→ Baton Music

The Hungarian-born composer and pianist Franz Liszt was strongly influenced by the music heard in his youth, particularly Hungarian folk music, with its unique gypsy scale, rhythmic spontaneity and direct, seductive expression.


‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian rhapsodies Liszt composed but it is by far the most famous of the set. It was dedicated to Count László Teleki and first published as a piano solo in 1851.

Its immediate success and popularity on the concert stage led to an orchestrated version, arranged in 1857–1860 by the composer in collaboration with Franz Doppler.

For this transcription I used as well the Doppler version as the version by Müller-Berghaus.

© text: Baton Music

Tod und Verklärung – Richard Strauss
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Tod und Verklärung – Richard Strauss

Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op. 24, is a tone poem for large orchestra by Richard Strauss.

Strauss began composition in the late summer of 1888 and completed the work on 18 November 1889.

The work is dedicated to the composer’s friend Friedrich Rosch. The music depicts the death of an artist. At Strauss’s request, this was described in a poem by the composer’s friend Alexander Ritter as an interpretation of ‘Tod und Verklärung’, after it was composed.

As the man lies dying, thoughts of his life pass through his head: his childhood innocence, the struggles of his manhood, the attainment of his worldly goals; and at the end, he receives the longed-for transfiguration ‘from the infinite reaches of heaven’.

Publisher: → Baton Music

explanation text: © Baton Music

Scossa Elettrica – Giacomo Puccini
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Scossa Elettrica – Giacomo Puccini

Alessandro Volta (1745 – 1827) was and Italian physicist whose invention of the electric battery provided the first source of continuous current. In 1899, the Italian city of Como hosted a celebration of Alessandro Volta, for whom the electrical term ‘volt’ is attributed. Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924), at that time already a renowned opera composer was commissioned to write a celebratory march for the occasion. The result was ‘Scossa elettrica’ (Electric shock),  a small brilliant march.

text: © Baton Music

Publisher: → Baton Music

Requiem – Giuseppe Verdi
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Requiem – Giuseppe Verdi

After Gioachino Rossini’s death in 1868, Giuseppe Verdi suggested that a number of Italian composers collaborate on a Requiem in Rossini’s honor. Unfortunately the project was abandoned by the organisation. But not much later, upon hearing of the death of the Italian writer and humanist Alessandro Manzoni, Giuseppe Verdi resolved to complete a Requiem, this time entirely of his own writing.

The ‘Messa da Requiem’ is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It is rarely performed in liturgy, but rather in concert form of around 85-90 minutes in length.

text: © Baton Music

Publisher: → Baton Music