Echoes of Time
Music for Wind Band,

Echoes of Time

InstrumentationGradeDurationPublisherDemo Score
Wind Band513 minutesJanssen Musicโ†’ Download

Dedicated to everyone, in any way involved in the Hercules disaster on July 15th 1996.

Commissioned by Koninklijke Militaire Kapel โ€˜Johan Willem Frisoโ€™.

Echoes of Time is a symphonic poem composed on the occasion of the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Hercules disaster on July 15th 1996.

The work consists of four consecutive parts. It opens with โ€œMorning Lightโ€, a colorful look back at the day it all happened. After a short introduction – where the dawning of the day turns into the grand opening theme – the story is told of the great musicians, in the prime of their lives, resuming the return journey after a successful performance by their โ€œFanfarekorps Koninklijke Landmachtโ€ (FKKL).

Just as suddenly as a disaster can take place, the second part โ€œSilence Fallโ€ follows. After the drastic event – in which 34 musicians and crew members were killed and 7 seriously injured – it is as if time stands still for a moment. The music becomes still, as it were. A heartbeat illustrates the fight for the lives of the survivors and the dead are mourned in short recitatives. 

The third part follows consecutively and tells the story as a kind of dialogue between survivors/relatives and the dead. This โ€œCantileneโ€ is a remembrance of the lost, where time softens the wounds but does not erase them. The part ends grandly, where, as it were, a tribute is paid to all the victims. 

In the final part “Permanent Echo”, the memories of the past are translated into a message that leaves a sense of hope and remembrance.

Score and Parts

Sound demo

The Village School
Music for Wind Band,

The Village School

InstrumentationGradeDurationPublisherDemo Score
Wind Band4ยฝ 8 minutesJanssen Musicโ†’ Download

โ€œThe Village Schoolโ€ a frivolous and colourful overture for wind band. The work, originally for orchestra (titled as โ€œRegalo Festivo Ouvertureโ€) was commissioned by the University Orchestra Maastricht and serves as a prelude to its concerts.ย 

This version for wind band is also freely inspired by Jan Steen’s painting “the village school”, in which the everyday chaos within a classroom can be felt.ย It is also a reference to the connection with the university, where students experience their hopefully best time of their lives that eventually leads to a successful career.ย In the work, the various musical themes develop into a grand apotheosis.

Score & Parts

Demo recording

Agnes Overture
Music for Wind Band,

Agnes Overture

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade4,5
Duration7 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Scoreโ†’ Download

Score and parts are available from May 2026

commissioned by Windband St. Agnes Bunde on the occasion of the festive opening of the โ€œAgnespoortโ€ in Bunde (NL)

A short festive overture on the occasion of the festive opening of the “Agnespoort” in Bunde (NL). The work is based on two motifs that relate to the village of Bunde and its wind orchestra St. Agnes Bunde.

The work opens with a motif based on the song “Gans Bung” (which means โ€œwhole Bundeโ€) with a driving and powerful accompaniment.

The second motif is based on an “Andante Religioso”composed by one of the former conductors of Harmonie St. Agnes Bunde, Mr. August Hautvast.

After this short but sparkling opening, a more subdued section follows in which the musical link to the Patron Saint “St. Agnes” is made.

The overture ends with a resume of all motifs, resulting in a spectacular ending.

Divertimento
Music for Instrumental Soloist, Music for Wind Band,

Divertimento

InstrumentationWind Band
Bb solo clarinet
Grade5ยฝ – (soloist): 6
Duration16 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Scoreโ†’ Bb solo clarinet
โ†’ Demo Score
Divertimento – Full Midi Demo

Divertimento is a concerto for clarinet and wind orchestra freely inspired by portraits of Frans Hals.

Frans Hals (๏นก1582/83 – โœ๏ธŽ 1666) is one of the most important painters from the Dutch Golden Age. He is especially appreciated for his loose touch and lively portraits of contemporaries, genre scenes and colorful militia pieces.

As early as the 17th century, people were struck by the liveliness of Hals’ portraits. Hals’ works contain such power and life that it seems as if the painter “seems to challenge nature with his brush”.

In this Divertimento, the solo clarinet takes us into an imaginary story behind the painting, in which the person in question plays the leading role. After a short introduction, a colorful parade of people and their stories is created based on these portraits;

  1. The Rommel Pot player (1618-22)
  2. The singing girl (1626-30) 
  3. The laughing cavalier (1624) 
  4. The lute player (1623-24) 
  5. The young violin player (1625-30) 
  6. The merry drinker (1630) 
  7. โ€œMalle Babbeโ€ (1633-1635)
  8. A young woman with a glass and flagon (the inn-keeper) (1635) 

Score and Set:

(Re)Connected
Music for Wind Band, Transcriptions for Wind Band,

(Re)Connected

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade5
Duration16 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Scoreon demand

โ€ฆ is a musical adventure for concert band, commissioned by the โ€œRoyal Military Band Johan Willem Frisoโ€ (NL) and their chief-conductor Major 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 “Entfรผhrung 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 โ€œ(Re)Connectedโ€ 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 “reunited” with the so beloved grandmasters from music history.

Score and parts are available only on demand. Please contact us via the โ†’ Contact form.

Impresiones de Estepona
Music for Wind Band,

Impresiones de Estepona

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade3
Duration15 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Scoreโ†’ Download
Impresiones de Estepona (Full Midi)

Awarded composition of the 3rd International Composition Competition for Symphonic Band โ€œEstepona, Jardรญn de la Costa del Solโ€

“Impresiones de Estepona” is a continuous suite for symphonic band based on the cultural and musical heritage of Estepona.

In the first part, after a short majestic opening, the center of the city is musically expressed in the form of a colorful rondo with some free references to the Andalusian Cadenza. My inspiration was the colorful streets of Estepona, linked to the rich history of the city, where the Moorish influences can be seen, felt and heard.

The second part tells us about the beautiful monuments in the old city, starting from the church of “los Remediosโ€, walking along the various interesting sights, ending with the great panorama at โ€œPunta Doncellaโ€.

The last part of this suite is all about โ€œFerias y Fiestasโ€. Also here I used the traditional ceremonies as inspiration combined with some free references to flamenco, taking us from “San Isidro Labrador” to the “Ferias y Fiestas mayores” along all the cheerful, exciting and ecstatic celebrations. The work ends euphorically with the opening motif.

The work has numerous educational elements for wind orchestras, such as counterpoint, rhythmic variation and timbre variations. The work is therefore more than just a beautiful story about a beautiful city in Spain and hopefully inspire many musicians and orchestra to get the best out of themselves.

Digital Set is available from 20 June 2024! – Digital Score is available now!

Le Penseur / The Thinker
Music for Wind Band,

Le Penseur / The Thinker

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade6
Duration13 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Scoreโ†’ Download
Le Penseur (Full Midi)

โ†’ contact us for hiring possibilities…

When The Thinker was conceived in its original size (approx. 70 cm) in 1880 as the crowning achievement of The Gates of Hell, seated on the tympanum, it was given the title The Poet. He represented Dante, author of the Divine Comedy who had inspired The Gates, bent over to observe the circles of hell, meditating on his work. The Thinker was therefore initially both a being with a tortured body, almost a damned soul, and a free-thinking man, determined to transcend his suffering through poetry. The pose of this figure owes much to Carpeaux’s Ugolino (1861) and to the seated portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici carved by Michelangelo (1526-31).

Remaining in place on the monumental Gates of Hell, The Thinker was exhibited individually in 1888, becoming an independent work. The colossal version, enlarged in 1904, proved even more popular: this sculpture of a man lost in thought, but whose powerful body suggests a great capacity for action, has become one of the most celebrated sculptures ever. There are numerous casts worldwide, including the one now in the gardens of the Musรฉe Rodin, a gift to the City of Paris installed outside the Panthรฉon in 1906, and another in the gardens of Rodin’s house in Meudon, on the sculptor’s tomb and his wife.

A challenging composition for wind orchestra based on several “leidmotifs”, written from the perspective of the thinker, who ponders the different emotions and characters of the leitmotifs before coming to a conclusion, but with an open ending, because after all, the thoughts go on againโ€ฆ