NationStates Jolt Archive

Hey... just out of curiosity (to some of those fellow band nerds) what are some of your favorite band pieces or composers? There's alot out there... but i'd love to know some personal favorites.

Oh... btw I play French Horn.

I've been playing bass in band and have played 3 of Bob Smith's songs, so I guess I'll pick him.

Otto M. Schwartz-Nostradamus

Changes key something like 12 times and meter something like 19 (this is not counting the many repeats) 15 minutes long. Hard as hell. Cool as anything.

Oh, I played quite a few of those in the high school band. Of the songs on your list Emperata Overture is the best. My personal favorite is Incantation and Dance by John Barnes Chance. The marimba part (nothing more then an oboe part with the word 'marimba' hastily scribbled over the word 'oboe') was a lot of fun to play. I was one of a handful of people in the band that could play the weird chromatic scale-like parts toward the end. I wonder what that says about people who had been playing their instruments for nine or ten years at that point?

Otto M. Schwartz-Nostradamus

Changes key something like 12 times and meter something like 19 (this is not counting the many repeats) 15 minutes long. Hard as hell. Cool as anything.

Shoot, my favorite song just got whipped by your favorite song. I'd have paid good money to see my band try to play that. What was the tempo of the song?

Dark Tower Overture. Very cool. Don't remember the composer of the top of my head, but its awesome. :cool:

a couple songs come to mind....one is Incantations, but i cant remember the composer.....level 2 piece....very nice

Anther is Rites of Tamburo...another good piece, but once again cannot remember composer.....it's a level 4 piece if i remember correctly...

Any thing by Sammy Nestico, John Coltrane, Haydn

Also, the song from the battle ships in Super Mario 3, otherwise known as Mars, from Gustav Holst's "The Planets"

In the Hall of the Mountain King (or Lion, I can't remember)

First circle (Metheny) and Spain, I think it is Chick Corea, I can't remember

Shoot, my favorite song just got whipped by your favorite song. I'd have paid good money to see my band try to play that. What was the tempo of the song?
Changes several times. Anywhere from moderatly slow to cruising along at a very (VERY) brisk tempo. I don't remember actual BPM's as I haven't played it in a year.

BTW, I am a freshman music major in a university, and played the string bass in my high schools symphonic band. The top rated band in it's division in my state :D

If anyone wants to give me an e-mail address I can e-mail you a recording of it. Not my bands recording unfortuntely. I don't have it yet :(

Das Panzerlied, baby.

I played in the High School concert band 2 years and don't remember a single song we played.. I guess they just weren't that memorable.

I remember quite a few of the themes we played in the marching band, but that's about it. Also the ones I played for competitions. I played "Estillian Caprice" (sp?) freshman year, and one of the Hungarian Dances sophomore year, among others. Neither were spectacular songs, but I did well with them.

Canticle of the Creatures by I believe James Curnow based on the works of St. Francis of Assissi.

I played bari sax in that for high school and then college, it was pretty pimp.

During a competition our principle read the poems and she had to take a sit down...she didn't have to play all that 20th century time signature switching no two sections playing the same thing crazyness-all she had to do was read and she bailed. Dammit.

Huh. Almost 16 years ago and it still sticks in my craw...I really aught to let that go...

Oh... btw I play French Horn.

Me too, you crazy bastard!

Have you ever played that strange play on the two Copland hymns? I think it's by a guy called Dan Welcher and begins with a Z or something. That's kinda fun.

I played the oboe for 4 years in a band, and i have to say, most the sonds we did were not that great, usually from the $20 pile at the local music shop :S

a few good ones though: A Simple Celebration, Lord of the rings, and As all the heavens were a bell

I also played the french horn for a year, but it became to complicated, and there is little quite as difficult as switching between a oboe and a french horn several times during a performance :P

Oboe and French Horn? What a silly combination! That's sure to fuck up your embouchure. I've played a bit of everything (SO annoyed I gave up the cello, it was great) but eventually focussed on horn (and piano I guess) and got an ATCL. That means letters after my name before I even go to uni. Yay for me!

Oboe and French Horn? What a silly combination! That's sure to fuck up your embouchure.thus why i do neither now :P

You silly boy, you should have stuck with the horn. Then you get to make lots of jokes about being horny. It's hilarious.

Oh, there were so many! My band director was a delightfully crazy man, and he gave us all sorts of cool pieces to play.

Let's see, some of the best ones that come to mind...

"Mutanza" by James Curnow, "Diamond Variations" by Robert Jager, "Songs of the West" by Gustav Holst, "Britannic Variants" by Elliot Del Borgo, and "To the Summit" by Robert Smith. And most anything by Curnow or Del Borgo is awesome, anyways.

And can't say I recognized any of the choices in the survey. :confused: Maybe they were too "normal" for us ;)

lol I was just pulling out some of the pieces we had played. I love Grainer and Ticheli (American Elegy is BEAUTIFUL) I also like... anything with super horn parts (if anyone has any suggestions TELL ME!) lol our band director is kinda... well let's just say we don't play GREAT stuff. We played a jurassic park piece, had a couple of horn solos i thought were pretty cool... but it was to hard for our woodwinds. *cough* friends don't let friends play woodwinds! *cough*

lol I was just pulling out some of the pieces we had played. I love Grainer and Ticheli (American Elegy is BEAUTIFUL) I also like... anything with super horn parts (if anyone has any suggestions TELL ME!) lol our band director is kinda... well let's just say we don't play GREAT stuff. We played a jurassic park piece, had a couple of horn solos i thought were pretty cool... but it was to hard for our woodwinds. *cough* friends don't let friends play woodwinds! *cough*

Does it start off with a solo horn? I think I've played that. Not as pant-shittingly scary as the start of Brahms 2nd Piano concerto (I'm more an orchestral player, but have played in a concert band since I was 10, first on trumpet, then percussion and now horn) which I had to play a few weeks back.

Oboe and French Horn? What a silly combination! That's sure to fuck up your embouchure. I've played a bit of everything (SO annoyed I gave up the cello, it was great) but eventually focussed on horn (and piano I guess) and got an ATCL. That means letters after my name before I even go to uni. Yay for me!
Quiting the cello is tragic. Indeed cello (Which I am majoring in (for now anyways)) is my first instrument. Followed by bass (which I play in bands and jazz bands).

Quiting the cello is tragic. Indeed cello (Which I am majoring in (for now anyways)) is my first instrument. Followed by bass (which I play in bands and jazz bands).

I loved it, but I didn't have time to do it really. I could have been super-good by now lol. I play bass guitar, double bass is a mystery to me!

Quiting the cello is tragic. Indeed cello (Which I am majoring in (for now anyways)) is my first instrument. Followed by bass (which I play in bands and jazz bands).
I got a thing for chicks who play cello. They're hot. So, you know...if you got a sex change there'd be a big smelly slacker in your future, big guy...










That oughta keep ya up tonight...;)

I got a thing for chicks who play cello. They're hot. So, you know...if you got a sex change there'd be a big smelly slacker in your future, big guy...










That oughta keep ya up tonight...;)
*shudders*

(but yes cello playing chicks are very sexy)

I think to think I look sexy when I play horn... the puffed-out cheeks and double-chin are such a turn-on.......

I loved it, but I didn't have time to do it really. I could have been super-good by now lol. I play bass guitar, double bass is a mystery to me!
As a jazz bassist I have to be able to play both, and love 'em both. Not bad at either, but not stunning. I guess I should pick an instrument and stick with it, rather than learning and playing anything I can get my hands on, eh?

Birdland!

I had a band we formed that used to play birdland alot. One day, the teacher asked for a new song to play, and we all screamed "Birdland!" in perfect synch. The teacher claimed that he hated the song and we would never play it. Because of this, everytime he asked, we would all scream in unison; "Birdland!"

I'm going to go with "Chorale and Shaker Dance" by John P. Zdechlik (sp?). Hard as hell, at least at first, but the end result is really surprising.

I'm a 2nd trumpet myself... and I have a thing for the flute players. In fact, there's this really hot 2nd flute... but I shan't get into that. ;)

*cough* friends don't let friends play woodwinds! *cough*

Hells yeah!!

Tuba Player for 5 yrs here

My Fav pieces include:

"In Storm and Sunshine"
"Flight of the Falcon"
"Florentiner"
"Vigor"

I'm a very robust percussionist! I hate running around mid song.... I always trip! ^.^

My favourite is one we're doing now, called "Flight Of The Thunderbird". I don't remember who it's by though. Oh, and I play Timpani on it.

I'm a very robust percussionist!
BAH! Percussionists, always losing their music. Maybe it's all that running...? ;)

BAH! Percussionists, always losing their music. Maybe it's all that running...? ;)

Of course! ^.^

I know how that goes, I used to play percussion in a concert band. The guys on kit had it easy, I swear, I must have lost about 100 pounds playing percussion!

Mars, by Gustav Holst. From the Planets Suite. That song has the worlds most kick ass contrabass-clarinet line (which incidentally, is what i play.)

If i had to pick one on the list, i'd have to go Holsinger. Prairie Dances roxorz :p

I always loved the orchestral version of the planets. The horns get to blast their little socks off!

shit yeah- and i have to sit infront of the little bastards :D
horns, trumpets, trombones- all pointing at the back of my head. If you've heard Mars, you'll know what i go through.

Voted Bob Smith, but you haven't heard a concert band really play until you've heard Slavanskaya by Boris Kozhevnikov or Aerodynamics by David Gillingham.

Slavanskaya by Boris Kozhevnikov
shit, i forgot about that one. It's a good'un.