Full Orchestra - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.976734 Composed by Robert Myers. 20th Century,Christmas,Contemporary. Score and parts. 99 pages. WheatMyer Music #6496769. Published by WheatMyer Music (A0.976734). CONJUNCTION interprets the convergence of Jupiter and Saturn near the end of the year 2020 as a celestial metaphor for the good news of Christ's birth in a replay of the Star of Bethlehem. Hence, its subtitle of The Christmas Star of 2020. The music, along with narration from selected Old and New Testament scriptures, delivers a message of hope amid the turmoil and chaos of current times.It's written for smaller concert bands hungry for challenging music. Ample cues and doubling allow for flexible instrumentation while mixed meters, varying tempos and textures, and interesting solo lines provide opportunities for strong players to shine. CONJUNCTION is also available with strings for orchestra.PROGRAM NOTES:2020 is widely characterized for its maladies: murders, burning cities, riots, a pandemic, economic shocks, and political turmoil. For some of us, it also held personal tragedy such as my brother’s passing from COVID. But, 2020 also brought a sign of hope, namely the celestial phenomenon known as the Great Conjunction of 2020. For earth-bound observers, this was the closest approach of Jupiter and Saturn in almost 400 years as they appeared to almost touch in the early evening sky to produce the most brilliant evening star of our lifetimes. The occurrence of the event in November-December neatly coincided with the Advent season, peaking just before Christmas Day. One could hardly fail to note the parallels with the Christmas star of Matthew’s gospel which gave the conjunction its alternate name, the Christmas Star of 2020. Thus, this star spoke, to those with ears to hear, the same message the prophet Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah, The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. This star thus served to remind us that the LORD has not rejected us; He will show His favor again; His love has not vanished; His promises have not failed; He has not forgotten to be merciful or compassionate; and we are called to remember His mighty deeds (Psalm 77). CONJUNCTION: The Christmas Star of 2020 is inspired by these particulars.For the music, I looked to Gustav Holst’s The Planets for themes that would portray Jupiter and Saturn’s pas de deux. I selected several motives from the corresponding movements mixed and matched in sometimes easily recognized quotations and other times in heavily camouflaged derivations. An exuberant polyphonic passage recaps themes from both Jupiter and Saturn when the music resolves from uncertainty into hopefulness. While Holst’s motives provide CONJUNCTION’s foundation I also used Handel’s Messiah for transitory and climactic material. You will hear his The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light in transitions and a short trombone solo. And a re-harmonization of the opening line from For unto us a child is born brings the music to a joyous climax.Although the music stands firmly on its own, I elected to incorporate some narrative to make the musical sentiment explicit. In a commentary on 2020’s grim events, I took adaptations of Habakkuk 1:2-4 and 2 Tim 3:1-4 and set them over Saturn’s plodding and ominous harmonies. Contrasting replies shimmer with hope as the narration melds Isaiah 9:2 and Luke 1:78-79 over another Saturn motive set against pitch sets from Jupiter’s main hymn theme. Still, it’s the music that tells the story of the Christmas Star of 2020.Please visit my website for a complete score preview: https://wheatmyermusic.com/conjunction-the-christmas-star-of-2020I feel somewhat guilty making claim to this music as almost all the building blocks are taken from other composers. But the end result is neither a medley, nor an arrangement, rather it is something clearly new, so I call it my own with deep respect to those giants on whose shoulders I stand.Robert MyersS.D.G.

By Gustav Holst (1874-1934). Arranged by Vernon Leidig. For Full Orchestra. Classical. Score. 28 pages. Published by Alfred Music. Digital Sheet Music

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Arranged by Merle J. Isaac. For Full Orchestra. Classical. Score. 40 pages. Published by Alfred Music. Digital Sheet Music

Full Orchestra - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1459569 Composed by Elizabeth Skola Davis. Classical,Historic,Opera,Standards. 99 pages. Elizabeth Ann Davis #1038524. Published by Elizabeth Ann Davis (A0.1459569). The quadrille (a precursor to American square dancing) was a dance fashionable in late 18th- and 19th-century Europe and its colonies. It was usually performed by four pairs of dancers in a rectangular formation, and frequently danced to a medley of opera melodies. So, it turns out that a quadrille is just the 19th-century version of a mash-up! This Quadrille features excerpts from: Symphony #38 (Prague), the Impressario overture, Viennese Sonatina No. 1, Symphony #41 (Jupiter), Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro, March for Orchestra, KV 189, Queen of the Night aria from Magic Flute, Abduction from the Seraglio, Turkish March, and the finale from Symphony #29. The title comes from Laudatio which means commendation or praise, and Amadeus from Wolfgang Mozart's best known middle name.

Full Orchestra - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1302257 Composed by Otoniel Rojas. 20th Century,Classical,Historic,Latin,Traditional. Score and Parts. 119 pages. Otoniel Rojas #891863. Published by Otoniel Rojas (A0.1302257). Based on a traditional Merengue tune from Dominican Republic in a Rondó style a'la Mozart, combining Mozart's Jupiter symphony 35th 4-note theme.Originally commissioned by the 'Fundación Filarmónica del Cibao' in  1997. Mozartina is an effervescent overture that paints us a contemporary Mozart, exposed to the melodic and rhythmic resources of the Caribbean identity, fusing the style and spirit of the famous Austrian with a mixed of the rhythmic and harmonic developments of the last 200 years of musical development. The work is structured as Rondo ,taking as its theme the traditional merengue (a traditional Dominican dance) El jarro 'ta pichao using it as melodic material that integrates into many styles and orchestral techniques. The topic is presented in juxtaposition with the monumental melodic motif of the last movement of the symphony ' Jupiter ' . Sometimes we appreciate it as it is , sometimes in inverted or hidden among contrapuntistic passages in striped and woven into different instrumental colors and harmonic richness coated within countless melodic modulations or put into small pieces. The climax part suddenly surrounds us with the classic merengue, where the 'tambora' (traditional dominican percussion instrument) makes appearance and gives it its soul. Meanwhile, in the background we still can hear the theme of 'Jupiter'. There briefly we can discover a 'perico ripiao' (another traditional Dominican dance)with its typical melisma embodied by the horn, we finally get to a climax that concludes with a short cadenza of 'tambora' and the reitaration of the main merengue theme in unison. The work was commissioned in 1997 for the opening concert of the Philharmonic of Cibao and this time receives his first audition by the National Symphony Orchestra.