Woodwind Ensemble,Woodwind Quintet Bassoon,Clarinet,Flute,Oboe - Level 5 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1127840

Composed by E Elgar. Arranged by Philip Le Bas. 19th Century,Chamber,Classical. 26 pages. Philip Le Bas #728449. Published by Philip Le Bas (A0.1127840).

An arrangement by Philip Le Bas of a very early wind quintet written by Edward Elgar while still based in Worcester in 1878-9, entitled Harmony Music No.1, after the German Harmoniemusik, meaning music for wind instruments. His quintet group (in which he played the bassoon) consisted of two flutes, an oboe, a clarinet and a bassoon, which by modern standards is rather unusual (omitting the usual French horn). He agreed to write a quintet for the group once a week, and he claimed to have written most of them during the 25-minute sermons at St. George's R.C. Church, where he had taken over the organ-playing from his father (and where the arranger ministered for three years in the 1990s!) It is a wonderful, cheerful, tuneful short piece (4-5 minutes long), but the original version is rarely performed, perhaps because of its difficulty on several fronts. First it is very fast, challenging performers' ability to tongue rapidly. Secondly, it repeatedly leaves no time to breathe, especially for the flautists (meaning that it has to be performed even faster, in order to get through it.) Thirdly, Elgar's oboist must have been extremely versatile, as its part is very low indeed in places (several low B's played pp at speed.) Finally, published copies seem to have rather a lot of editorial errors... This arrangement was therefore created in the hope that the piece might become more accessible and be more frequently performed. Although the bassoon part remains Elgar's, the other four players are used imaginatively to overcome many of the difficulties of the original. For example, the original low oboe parts are here played by one of the clarinets instead, and the severe breathing problems are solved by sharing repeated quavers between the four higher instruments.

Woodwind Ensemble,Woodwind Quintet Bassoon,Clarinet,Flute,Horn,Oboe - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1088119

Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Arranged by Ray Thompson. Classical. 12 pages. RayThompsonMusic #692364. Published by RayThompsonMusic (A0.1088119).

Arranged wind quintet. Horn Part in Bb basso ( same as Beethoven's )(alt Hn in F part provided) The Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93 is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1812. Beethoven fondly referred to it as my little Symphony in F, distinguishing it from his Sixth Symphony, a longer work also in F.[1] The Eighth Symphony is generally light-hearted, though not lightweight, and in many places cheerfully loud, with many accented notes. Various passages in the symphony are heard by some listeners to be musical jokes. As with various other Beethoven works such as the Opus 27 piano sonatas and the later Ninth Symphony, the symphony deviates from Classical tradition in making the last movement the weightiest of the four.

This is my arrangement of the 2nd mvt. There is a widespread belief that this movement is an affectionate parody of the metronome, which had only recently been invented (or more accurately, merely improved) by Beethoven's friend, Johann Maelzel. Specifically the belief was that the movement was based on a canon called Ta ta ta... Lieber Maelzel, WoO 162, said to have been improvised at a dinner party in Maelzel's honor in 1812. However, there is no evidence corroborating this story and it is likely that WoO 162 was not written by Beethoven but was constructed after-the-fact by Anton Schindler. A more likely inspiration was the similar rhythmic parody of Joseph Haydn's Clock Symphony.

The metronome-like parody starts at the very beginning of the movement with even staccato chords in 16th-notes (semiquavers). This basic 16th-note rhythm continues fairly steadily through the piece. The tempo is unusually fast for a symphonic slow movement. Richard Wagner has argued that the third movement was intended as the slow movement of this symphony and that the second should be played as a scherzo.