Concert Band - Digital Download SKU: A0.917412 Composed by Gregory Fritze. 20th Century,Contemporary,Folk. Score and parts. 370 pages. Musica Nova USA #6321277. Published by Musica Nova USA (A0.917412). The Four Seasons in the Basque Country is a 4 movement symphony for concert band. It is the Third Prize Winner of the 2020 American Prize in Composition - Concert Band. Grade 5, duration 27 minutes. The piece depicts four different places in the Basque country that the composer feels best show the changes of season. The first movement is Winter in the Costa Norte (Galerna). Galerna is on the northerncoast and is subject to harsh storms in the winter. As the piece starts off with a light-hearted dance in thepiccolo, a storm is approaching from afar. At first the storm seems to be in the distance but as it comes closer it overtakes the festivities in a bluster. For a short time two conductors are needed as the concertband is split into two groups – one showing the light-hearted dance led by the piccolo, the other thecacophony of the storm led by the percussion. The storm overtakes everything as it ends the movement with a flourish.The second movement Spring in Rioja Alavesa is a calming contrast to the first movement like the freshness of a spring day. The sun rises and shines beams of light onto the acres of grape vines. After a timea short rain comes to refresh and clean the plants.The third movement Autumn at the Guggenheim Museum is in a traditional 3rd movement form of a symphony, minuet and trio, but the harmonies sometimes use bitonality, having the melody in one key while the accompaniment is in another to suggest surrealism. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbaois one of the world’s most famous museums, not only for the surreal art inside, but also because of the architecture of the building itself.The fourth movement Summer in Bilbao is based on a dance melody composed in the Ezpata- dantza Basque style. It employs a rhythmic element with alternating 6/8 and 3â�„4 meters where the eighth notes are basically equal, but in the dance the 3â�„4 meter is actually a little bit longer. This type of subtlemanipulation of rhythm is used similarly in the Viennese Waltz, when the 3rd beat would be stretched outto accommodate the dancers. The Ezpata-dantza dance continues until the Altza Gastiak, the officialsong of the Bilbao Athletic Club, the local soccer team of Bilbao, is heard. After this the Ezpata-dantzamelody is transformed from a happy dance to a triumphant melody and rousing finale.In The Four Seasons in the Basque Country all of the themes are original except for the short excerpt ofAltza Gastiakin the 4th movement. Some themes are composed in the style of Basque folk dances.Gregory Fritze is a prize-winning composer and Fulbright Scholar, as well as an active performer. He recently retired from Berklee College of Music where he was Professor and Chair of Composition, serving on the faculty from 1979 to 2016. He has written over one hundred compositions for orchestra, band, chamber ensembles and soloists. He has won over sixty composition awards both nationally and internationally. His compositions include works published by several publishers in the United States, South America and Europe that have been performed extensively throughout the world. Many of his compositions are available on ITunes, Youtube and Soundcloud.He has been a frequent traveler to Spain since 1993 and has promoted compositions by Spanishcomposers around the world. He is the only composer who has been commissioned six times by Spanishbands for Certamen competitions, with each band winning first prize.His compositions are recorded on Albany Records, MSR Classics, Crystal Records, Mark Recordsand others. He has been a guest lecturer, conductor and performer at many colleges, universities and music festivals in the United States, Canada, Japan, South America and Europe. He was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1954 and has Composition degrees from the Boston Conservatory and Indiana University.He now resides in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida

Concert Band - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.917395 Composed by GregoryFritze. 20th Century,Contemporary,Jazz. Score and parts. 195 pages. Musica Nova USA #4805407. Published by Musica Nova USA (A0.917395). La Tomatina was composed in 1996 in Buñol, Spain while I was researching Spanish band music. Buñol is a small town of about 9,000 inhabitants about 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Spain’s 3rd largest city, Valencia. For 364 days of the year, it is a typical small town, but on the last Wednesday of August it becomes an international attraction. On that day the La Tomatina festival is held. Several trucks drop as many as 145,000 kilograms of tomatoes unto the main street and for an hour at 12:00 noon there are up to 100,000 people taking part in throwing tomatoes at each other. At 1:00 everybody goes to the specialpublic showers to wash up. A fire truck comes down the street washing down the buildings and the main street and by about 2:00 all is returned to normal and all references to the tomato fight are gone. Thetradition has been going on since 1945. I was in the streets taking part in throwing tomatoes for three years. After that when I was in Spain during the festival I watched it on TV.Buñol also has a rich tradition of having two very good concert bands – the Litros and the Feos. Most of the 9,000 inhabitants formally belong to one of the two social clubs. There are several band competitionsheld in Spain and both of these bands take part. The band competition is fierce as bragging rights are won by the winning society. It is thought that this fierce competition is what helps develop excellentmusicians in that many young people become professional musicians and play in many orchestras and bands throughout the country.La Tomatina was premiered by the U. S. Army Band Pershing’s Own on the U. S. Capital steps in June 1996, the composer conducting. La Tomatina is the second movement of Sinfonía de Valencia, a three- movement composition that was premiered in Buñol by the band of Centro Instructivo Musical El Litro Buñol, conducted by Francisco Tamarit in August 1997. Sinfonía de Valencia is recorded by the band of Centro Instructivo Musical El Litro Buñol, conducted by Fernando Bonete Piqueras on Mark Records (CD3816). La Tomatina is also on Youtube with video of the festival at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbpZU7vK3PQ.La Tomatina was a winning composition in 1996, awarded a grant by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. It also won the IBLA Grand Prize in Sicily, Italy in 1998 and was a Semi Finalist as part of the American Prize Composition Competition – Band Division in 1996.This arrangement of La Tomatina was prepared especially for conductor Natalia Montañés in 2004. In thisarrangement there are four percussionists instead of the original five.La Tomatina has been very popular among bands around the world, performed over one hundred times.