Symphonie pour Orgue et Orchestre – Charles Widor
Transcriptions for Wind Band,

Symphonie pour Orgue et Orchestre – Charles Widor

Charles Widor

Born in 1844, he soon became involved in organ music from home. He received organ lessons from his father and did so well that he was allowed to replace him when he was eleven years old. In 1863, on the advice of the French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, he moved to Brussels to study with Jacques- Nicolas Lemmens.

In 1870 he moved to Paris to become organist for 64 years at Saint-Sulpice, where the organ builder Cavaillé-Coll had placed his largest instrument. With one of the top organs to himself, he thought it was time to write a ‘new’ kind of organ music, the so-called organ symphony.

With his 10 symphonies he pushed both the organist and the organ to extremes. He was also a good pedagogue, passing on his knowledge as teacher of organ and composition at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Symphonie pour Orgue et Orchestre

In 1880, the future king of England, Edward VII, requested that Widor compose a grand work for organ and orchestra to be performed in London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Using movements from his second and sixth symphonies for solo organ as the basis, Widor created a masterpiece that launched a renaissance in the organ/ orchestra combination, a legendary tour de force to the repertory for organ and orchestra.

This transcription was commissioned by Wind Orchestra Auletes Eindhoven (NL).

SKINES
Music for Fanfare Band, ,

SKINES

InstrumentationFanfare Band
Grade5-6
Duration15 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score→ Download
Skines (Full Midi)

Skines was commissioned by “Fanfare St. Caecilia Schinnen” (NL).

Skines is an old name for the village and the landscape around the Limburg village of Schinnen. It means to shine or glare.

In three merging parts, the musical story is told of a kestrel that, while praying (looking for prey), absorbs, undergoes, adapts and (triumphantly) survives all the appearances or brilliance (in both positive and negative sense) within the landscape.

The apparitions are a metaphor for elements, influences and/or sounds (without a concrete name) within the regions, which can be seen from the air and which have a major influence on the flora and fauna, as well as the people in the Limburg landscape.

The second part describes the kestrel (sung the soprano voice) the feeling these apparitions evoke in him. The text is a free translation (in German) of a short poem from “The Chinese Flute” by the Chinese writer Li-Tai-Po (701-762);

In dem Fremde

In fremdem Lande lag ich.
Weißen Glanz malte der Mond
vor meine Lagerstätte.

Ich hob das Haupt, Ich meinte erst,
es sei der Reif der Frühe,
was ich schimmern sah,
dann aber wußte ich:
der Mond, der Mond,
und neigte das Gesicht zur Erde hin.
Und meine Heimat winkte mir von fern.

Live recording during WMC 2022 – Fanfare St. Caecilia Schinnen (NL) – Theo Wolters, conductor – Claudia Couwenbergh, soprano
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

REVIVED
Music for Ensemble, Music for Wind Band, , ,

REVIVED

InstrumentationWind Band
Ensemble(s)
Grade3 – 5
Duration4 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score→ Download

“Revived” was commissioned by “Royal Military Wind Band Johan Willem Friso” (NL) in cooperation with “WMC Kerkrade” on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of “Muziekcentrale Adams” in Thorn (NL). 

The aim was to give the various orchestras around the world affected by the Covid19 pandemic new hope, élan and perspective in the form of a composition that could also be performed by smaller subensembles. In this way, despite the Covid19 restrictions, the orchestras can make music together again. 

“Revived” can be performed separately by;

  • Clarinet choir
  • Flutes, oboe(s), bassoon(s), saxes & contrabass
  • Brass & percussion
  • Wind band (All ensemble versions combined)

Also, the overture is available in two different levels of difficulty:

  • Grade 3
  • Grade 4/5

A short but vibrant overture that hopefully will give pleasure to many sub-ensembles and orchestras all over the world.

Der Arme Poet
Music for Wind Band,

Der Arme Poet

“Winner of The Valley Winds International Composition Competition, 2021 – Brian Messier, Director”

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade5
Duration10 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score→ Download
Score and Parts are not available before June 2022
Der Arme Poet (the poor poet) (FULL MIDI)

“Der Arme Poet” (painted 1839) in is the most popular painting by the German Painter Carl Spitzweg.

In 1839, Spitzweg was a beginning artist who in the 1830s lived for a long time on the top floor of a house in old Munich, from which he wrote in one of his letters: “The view is great, the roofs resemble a large mountain range, with the chimneys and attic windows like ruins and castles”.

The influence of the Biedermeier style is easily recognizable in the painting. The typical pursuit of a bourgeois bohemian existence is reflected in the various attributes. In combination with the poor environment the whole gives a parodical appearance.

The poems that were once thought to have eternal value are sacrificed to the stove as soon as they can provide some warmth.

Characteristic of the painting is the quill that holds the poet clamped between his teeth, indicating that he continues his work unrelentingly.

Above his bed you can see a hexameter scheme, which indicates the meter of verse. Next to his bed is a stack of classical books with inscriptions such as “Gradus ad Parnassum”, which represent the high ideals of the artist.

Between his fingers he seems to crush a flea, which expresses the banality of the situation.

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