MIXED ENSEMBLE
All of the compositions and arrangements on this page include a link to a YouTube video
where you can preview the entire score while listening to a recording.
The last 3 trios on this page have been recorded for commercial release by
prominent professional chamber groups (see links at bottom of entries
to discography entries for those that are already available)
GAVOTTE AND VARIATION
Grade: 3
Duration: 1:45
Price: $4.95
Publisher: Dacker Music
Mixed Woodwind Quartet PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was one of the most important composers of the late Baroque period. The gavotte is a French dance that was popular during that time. Gavotte and Variation was originally written for keyboard (in Handel's day, it would most likely have been played on the harpsichord).
This is another arrangement that I wrote for my middle school students which I have recently found and decided to make available. This arrangement for mixed woodwind quartet, having been written for a specific group of students, is scored for oboe, 2 Bb clarinets, and Eb alto sax. The oboe part can also be played on flute (with a couple cued notes for young players who don't yet have a strong low C).
Also available scored for brass quartet and string quartet
Download from Score Exchange
A LITTLE BARTOK SUITE
Grade: 3
Duration: 4:40
Price: $12.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
Standard Woodwind Quintet PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
Great concert and contest repertoire for middle school and young high school players. The 5 very short movements are taken from Bartók’s Piano Pieces for Children, Vol. 1.
Also available scored for standard brass quintet and saxophone quartet.
The individual movements, with locations on the audio track, are listed below:
1. Poco allegretto 0:00
2. Adagio 1:05
3. Allegretto 2:11
4. Molto sostenuto 2:40
5. Allegro robusto 3:48
Read more about A Little Bartók Suite
Download from Score Exchange
SHENANDOAH
Grade: 3
Duration: 3:00
Price: $16.00
Publisher: C.L. Barnhouse
Standard Woodwind Quintet PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
A setting of the popular sea chanty, this might be called my biggest “hit” because it is still in print after well over 40 years. The promo blurb at the Pepper website calls it “an exceptionally nice arrangement of the well-known folk song; shows the ensemble to great advantage.”
GERSHWIN'S PRELUDE
Grade: 3
Duration: 3:00
Price: $6.50
Publisher: Dacker Music
Mixed Wind Quartet: Oboe, Bb Clarinet, F Horn, Bassoon PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
George Gershwin's Preludes for Piano of 1926 is probably his best-known work for solo piano. Of the 3 preludes in this set, the second one is the most popular and most often heard. This arrangement for mixed wind quartet is transposed up a semitone from the original C# minor/F# major to the more student-friendly D minor/G major. It gives young wind players an opportunity to enjoy learning some classic Gershwin.
Also available for Clarinet Quartet, Saxophone Quartet, and String Quartet
Download from Score Exchange
SIMPLE GIFTS
Grade: 3
Duration: 3:00
Price: $10.00
Publisher: Grand Mesa Music
Mixed Wind Trio PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
Copland-inspired polyphonic variations on the popular Shaker song. The melody rotates between the instruments
so everyone gets to play it. Scored for oboe (alt: flute), Bb clarinet, and F horn (alt: Eb alto sax).
A LITTLE BACH SUITE
Grade: 3+
Duration: 7:45
Price: $16.00
Publisher: Dacker Music
Standard Woodwind Quintet PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
A Little Bach Suite presents some of the great Baroque master's most familiar melodies in a fun-to-play grade 3+ woodwind quintet setting. Great concert and contest repertoire for high school and advanced middle school players.
Also available scored for standard brass quintet and saxophone quartet
The individual movements, with locations on the audio track are listed below.
1. Gavotte 0:00
2. Musette 1:20
3. Arioso 2:33
4. Minuet 4:57
5. March 6:31
Read more about A Little Bach Suite
Download from Score Exchange
HUMORESKE FOR HORN AND BASSOON
Grade: 4+
Duration: 3:15
Price: $9.95
Publisher: Dacker Music
Unaccompanied Horn and Bassoon Duo PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
A fun--but challenging--little duet for advanced-intermediate horn and bassoon players. The title reflects some tongue-in-cheek moments in the music. Outstanding recital or even contest repertoire! Guaranteed to make a big hit wherever you perform it.
The bassoon part can also be played on a trigger-equipped trombone, euphonium, cello, or tuba.
This composition is also available scored for
Oboe and Bassoon, Trumpet and Trombone, and Tenor and Bass Trombones
Separate parts are included to do away with awkward page turns.
Download from Score Exchange
TRIO No. 1
Koreana
Grade: 6
Duration: 10:00
Price: $16.95
Publisher: Dacker Music
Standard Piano Trio: Violin, Cello, Piano PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
Based on themes derived from Korean folk music, TRIO No. 1 (Koreana) is in three movements, which are not presented as folk song settings, but use the melodies as the basis for themes to be developed compositionally. The practice of drawing thematic material for composition from folk melodies is practically as old as the art of composition itself.
The individual movements, with locations on the audio track, are listed below.
1. Chaconne 0:00
2. Scherzo 4:58
3. Fugue 7:57
Download from Score Exchange
Recording by Trio Casals: Alexandr Kislitsyn, violin; Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; Anna Kislitsyna, piano
Released on the album A Grand Journey from Navona Records
TRIO No. 2
Pastoral
Grade: 6
Duration: 12:00
Price: $16.95
Publisher: Dacker Music
Standard Piano Trio: Violin, Cello, Piano PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
TRIO No. 2 (Pastoral) is a 3-movement composition for standard piano trio (violin, cello, and piano). It is subtitled "Pastoral" not only to reflect the prevailing style and mood of its music, but also because most of its thematic material--except for the bookend prologue and epilogue--is built from germinal motifs mined from the 1922 Pastoral Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams, to whose memory the work is dedicated.
The individual movements, with locations on the audio track, are listed below.
1. Lento - Moderato 0:00
2. Animato - Tranquillo - Tempo I 4:58
3. Adagio - Lento 8:27
Download from Score Exchange
Recording by Trio Casals: Alexandr Kislitsyn, violin; Ovidiu Marinescu, cello; Anna Kislitsyna, piano
Released on the album A Grand Journey from Navona Records
TRIO FOR VIOLIN, HORN, AND PIANO
Grade: 6
Duration: 14:00
Price: $16.95
Publisher: Dacker Music
Violin, F Horn, Piano PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano is inspired by—but definitely not modeled on—the great work for the same instrumentation by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), usually called simply the "Horn Trio" op. 40. Besides belonging to a different period of music and all that entails, this trio is overall on a much smaller scale, lasting roughly half the duration of the Brahms masterpiece and having 3 movements to the Brahms Trio's 4.
Much of the thematic material for this composition is drawn from this composer’s 18 New Etudes for the Advancing Horn Student (WaveFront Music LLC - 2021). The 3 movements, with their locations on the audio track, are:
I. Adagio; Allegro moderato 0:00
II. Andante doloroso 5:44
III. Allegro con spirito 9:53
Download from Score Exchange
Recording by members of Juventas New Music Ensemble: Anne Howarth, horn; Ryan Shannon, violin; Julia Scott Carey, piano
Scheduled for release on the album Pinnacles, Vol. 3 by Navona Records in early 2023