Symphonie pour Orgue et Orchestre – Charles Widor

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).



Konzert für 2 Klarinetten – Franz Anton Hoffmeister

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.



De Aaj Vaan (The Old Banner)

De Aaj Vaan (The Old Banner)

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade4
Duration4 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score→ Download

… is a concert march for fanfare band was commissioned by Fanfare Sint Cecilia Herten (NL) on the occasion of their 125th anniversary.

This concert march exudes solemnity with her lyrical and colorful passages, including a festive ending. I was inspired by the original banner of the jubilee fanfare band.

A concert march that connects old traditions with new musical initiatives.


Score and complete set of parts are not available before May 2023!


SKINES

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


(Re)Connected

(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.



Choral Intermezzo

Choral Intermezzo

InstrumentationWind Band
Fanfare Band
Grade4
Duration5 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score (Wind Band)→ Download
Demo Score (Fanfare Band)→ Download

A colorful intermezzo for wind or fanfare band commissioned by the Band of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.

After a short opening the horn solo plays the main theme. After the first theme follows a solemn choral which develops into a fusion between the main theme and the choral, with a smooth and connecting 3rd theme.

Useful as an intermezzo during a concert.

Wind band version




The Muses

The Muses

InstrumentationDouble Quintet
(+ Contrabass)
Grade6
Duration12 minutes
PublisherJanssen Music
Demo Score→ Download

This composition was commissioned by wind ensemble “Helicon” on the occasion of their 40th anniversary.

From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing,

Who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon,

And dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring

And the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and,

When they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus

Or in the Horse’s Spring or Olmeius,

Make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon And move with vigorous feet.

From “Theogony” by Hesiod (± 715 BC)

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science and the arts. Under the care of the god Apollo, they were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs and myths that were related orally for centuries in ancient Greek culture.


Full Midi Demo

The nine Muses

CalliopeThe beautiful voiceMuse of the heroic epic,
philosophy and rhetoric.
EratoThe lovableMuse of the hymn, the song and the lyricism.
EuterpeThe joyfulMuse of flute playing.
PolyhymniaThe rich in chantsMuse of rhetoric and sacred songs.
KleioThe proclaimingMuse of historiography.
MelpomeneThe singingMuse of song and tragedy.
UraniaThe heavenlyMuse of Astronomy.
TerpsichoreShe who loves to danceMuse of dance and lyrical poetry.
ThaleiaThe festive & floweringMuse of comedy.