SKU: A0.976737

Andaluza, taken from Manuel de Falla’s piano suite Cuatro Piezas Españolas, is aimed at the mainstream high school band in the United States at the grade 4 level. Boisterous tuttis, intimate solos, and passionate melodies make for an engaging excursion into Spanish folk music that allows students to explore the adventurous harmonies of de Falla's impressionistic vocabulary. The variety of colors and energy in the modern concert band amplify the life, drama, and humanity de Falla poured into his piano version. Andaluza will thus prove a thrill for both performers and audience as it celebrates this life, drama, and humanity.

Soprano Sax is called for on an expressive solo but is fully cued in oboe. The absence of this instrument need not prevent an integral performance of the music.

Optional parts are provided for Eb Clarinet, Treble Clef Baritone, and Double Bass for those bands having these available.

View a full preview score of Andaluza at my website (wheatmyermusic.com/product/andaluza) or drop an email and I'll provide a pdf of the score for your perusal.

Andaluza is the fourth member of Manuel de Falla’s Cuatro Piezas Españolas for solo piano first published in 1909. My imagination runs wild contemplating what may be pictured in de Falla’s music. It certainly seems to be a civic gathering: perhaps a wedding, a baptism, a dedication, or a feast taking place in the civic square of perhaps on a hacienda. There are scenes that may be dancing, speeches, passionate sonnets, arguments, celebrations, all ending in a lingering mysterious question with a tinge of hopefulness. Whatever Falla may have have had in mind it is full of life, drama, and humanity.

I first became aware of de Falla’s work, particularly Andaluza, in the summer of 2021 during an online orchestration seminar. Each of Cuatro Piezas’s movements expresses Spanish folk music idioms through an impressionistic lens reflecting Debussy’s influence on de Falla. Andaluza immediately struck me as music that would shine in the realm of the concert band. It was a joy to explore de Falla’s music, transforming the implications of the piano stylings into the nuances and colors available to the modern wind ensemble. It was just as much if not more challenging to develop this arrangement than creating my own original music typically proves to be. But it was so rewarding to have done so and I hope you find the rewards of listening just as much worth your effort.

Robert Myers
S.D.G.

INSTRUMENTATION:
Piccolo
Flute 1, 2
Oboe
Bassoon 1,2
Bb Clarinet 1, 2
Bb Bass Clarinet
Bb Soprano Saxophone
Eb Alto Saxophone 1, 2
Bb Tenor Saxophone
Eb Baritone Saxophone
Bb Trumpet 1, 2, 3
Horn in F 1, 2, 3, 4
Trombone 1, 2
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani (4)
Mallets: Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, Marimba
Percussion 1: Almglocken/Cowbell, Suspended Cymbal, Marimba, Snare Drum, Glockenspiel,
Triangle, Xylophone
Percussion 2: Hand Cymbals, Suspended Cymbals, Snare Drum, Bongos, Mark Tree
Percussion 3: Tambourine, Castanets, Hand Cymbals, Rainstick, Gong, Tam, Tam
Percussion 4: Bass Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Gong, Tam Tam, Woodblocks
Optional Parts: Eb Clarinet; Baritone T.C. 1, 2; Double Bass

SKU: AX.00-PC-0015137_WPECBC

UPC: 038081407913.

A lighthouse stands upon a shoreline to be a beacon for all ships coming into a harbor. This beacon guides ships to safety that otherwise might have been destroyed by the rocks of the shoreline. This beacon also serves as a hope to those ships that are lost at sea. The light also refers to wisdom, compassion, and love. John 1:5 of the bible states that, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (NIV). The light in this passage refers to Jesus who was trying to reach out to a world that did not understand and was looking for hope.

The piece is a good choice to teach lyrical playing and intonation in sustained chords.

-The Instrumentalist
Concert/Contest.

SKU: A0.1181507

Honor was written to give young ensembles a chance work on a lyrical piece that evokes a sense of compassion towards those that serve. Not specifically in a specific genre, it uses subtle harmonies of 4ths and 5ths with an occasional major seventh sound to create a Copland-esque nostalgia. Honor would go well on a Veterans Day or Memorial Day Program, but also as just a concert piece to work on lyrical playing at a young age. 

This piece directly correlates with the Foundation Warm-Up Series. This series is designed to follow most beginning band methods. The early sets focus primarily on airflow, common patterns, and reinforcing concepts presented in the method books. As the series develops, the sets become more like a traditional band warm-up, including long tones, flexibility exercises, articulation, scale patterns, and a chorale.

SKU: A0.755237

Tweets is a composition for small concert band that portrays a wide range of emotions similar to the kind of emotional displays that may appear on Twitter posts. Each movement lasts under a minute therefore sharing a conciseness with their verbal counterparts. There are seven movements: Kudos, Compassion, Humor, Rage, Happiness, Grumpy, and Enthusiasm. The scoring is such that the parts for less common instruments may be omitted because their parts are doubled elsewhere. The composition is at an easy high school level. The score prints on legal size paper and the parts on letter size paper.

SKU: AX.00-PC-0015137_WPBCBC

UPC: 038081407913.

A lighthouse stands upon a shoreline to be a beacon for all ships coming into a harbor. This beacon guides ships to safety that otherwise might have been destroyed by the rocks of the shoreline. This beacon also serves as a hope to those ships that are lost at sea. The light also refers to wisdom, compassion, and love. John 1:5 of the bible states that, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (NIV). The light in this passage refers to Jesus who was trying to reach out to a world that did not understand and was looking for hope.

The piece is a good choice to teach lyrical playing and intonation in sustained chords.

-The Instrumentalist
Concert/Contest.

SKU: A0.980521

This piece was written for Dr. Karin Nolan, the Music Director of the Sonora Winds which premiered it in December 2019. It was our Christmas gift to a wonderful person whom we all admire and deeply respect. 

More broadly it should be considered a tribute to any music director or educator who instills a love of music and through their teaching helps create a better world of compassion, understanding and teamwork.

SKU: AX.00-PC-0015137_WPEH1

UPC: 038081407913.

A lighthouse stands upon a shoreline to be a beacon for all ships coming into a harbor. This beacon guides ships to safety that otherwise might have been destroyed by the rocks of the shoreline. This beacon also serves as a hope to those ships that are lost at sea. The light also refers to wisdom, compassion, and love. John 1:5 of the bible states that, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (NIV). The light in this passage refers to Jesus who was trying to reach out to a world that did not understand and was looking for hope.

The piece is a good choice to teach lyrical playing and intonation in sustained chords.

-The Instrumentalist
Concert/Contest.

SKU: AX.00-PC-0015137_WPAC1

UPC: 038081407913.

A lighthouse stands upon a shoreline to be a beacon for all ships coming into a harbor. This beacon guides ships to safety that otherwise might have been destroyed by the rocks of the shoreline. This beacon also serves as a hope to those ships that are lost at sea. The light also refers to wisdom, compassion, and love. John 1:5 of the bible states that, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (NIV). The light in this passage refers to Jesus who was trying to reach out to a world that did not understand and was looking for hope.

The piece is a good choice to teach lyrical playing and intonation in sustained chords.

-The Instrumentalist
Concert/Contest.

SKU: AX.00-PC-0001686_WPTBEBC

UPC: 038081348926.

Inspired by the diverse culture found in Yorkton, this original overture cultivates an energetic driving rhythm intertwined with charming melodic material. Occasional compound meter enhances the contemporary flair in the work. Passionately emotional, this work really sparkles. A worthy choice for contest and concert programming. (6:04) This title is available in SmartMusic.
Concert/Contest.

SKU: AX.00-PC-0001686_WPTN1BC

UPC: 038081348926.

Inspired by the diverse culture found in Yorkton, this original overture cultivates an energetic driving rhythm intertwined with charming melodic material. Occasional compound meter enhances the contemporary flair in the work. Passionately emotional, this work really sparkles. A worthy choice for contest and concert programming. (6:04) This title is available in SmartMusic.
Concert/Contest.

SKU: A0.1098365

STRIDE LA VAMPA! from II Act of “Il Trovatore� for Contralto or Mezzosoprano Voice or Bb Cornet Il Trovatore is the second opera in Giuseppe Verdi's popular trilogy created between Rigoletto and La Traviata. Il Trovatore is a drama in four acts and eight pictures, set in Spain at the beginning of the 15th century, which tells, with a beautiful expressive song, flaming passions such as love, jealousy, revenge, hatred and lust. Manrico and the Count of Luna, in love with the same woman, face each other until death as enemies, without knowing that they are brothers. Belonging to two different social classes, they only share Leonora's love which doubles the existing hatred of social conflict. STRIDE LA VAMPA! At the foot of a mountain, in a camp, some gypsies dedicated to their activities cheer their work with songs, dances and toasts (gypsy chorus: See the gloomy nocturnal remains). A pained voice bursts into the general cheerfulness: having woken up from her recurring nightmare, Azucena, mother of Manrico, tells that many years before her she saw her mother die at the stake accused of witchcraft by the old Count di Luna (Stride la vampa) . Her mother's last words had been a plea for revenge, so she had kidnapped the Count's son still in diapers and, blinded by her desperation, decided to throw him into the fire; however, horrified by the vision of her dead mother, she had confused her own son with the child she had kidnapped and had thrown him into her stake in her place.

SKU: AX.00-PC-0001686_H2

UPC: 038081348926.

Inspired by the diverse culture found in Yorkton, this original overture cultivates an energetic driving rhythm intertwined with charming melodic material. Occasional compound meter enhances the contemporary flair in the work. Passionately emotional, this work really sparkles. A worthy choice for contest and concert programming. (6:04) This title is available in SmartMusic.
Concert/Contest.

SKU: AX.00-PC-0001686_WPTN2BC

UPC: 038081348926.

Inspired by the diverse culture found in Yorkton, this original overture cultivates an energetic driving rhythm intertwined with charming melodic material. Occasional compound meter enhances the contemporary flair in the work. Passionately emotional, this work really sparkles. A worthy choice for contest and concert programming. (6:04) This title is available in SmartMusic.
Concert/Contest.