SKU: A0.1489486

This collection of short compositions for brass quintet was conceived specifically to supplement a dearth of appropriate and artistic original compositions for the young aspiring brass quintet.  These pieces are most fitting for a good high school quintet or a beginning college ensemble that wants a conquerable challenge.  With a variety of keys, styles, and tempos, they lend themselves well for deep work on the core ensemble skills of rhythmic accuracy, intonation, and dynamic balance.  These brief works are also quite enjoyable for the professional quintet to perform for ever-popular school shows, or simply to read as a warmup with the focus of improving ensemble skills.  Performance time for all five pieces is approximately five minutes.

“Blackhawk” (duration 0:45) was originally composed in D-sharp minor as a melody to be used in Comprehensive Trumpet Skills, Book 9: Sightreading and Transposition (p. 39).  The quintet version is in concert D minor for more manageable execution.  This brisk four-four work is perhaps the most difficult in the collection, with demands of multiple tonguing for all the instruments as well as fairly advanced intervallic jumps.  

“Lamb of God” (duration 1:00) is one of many hymn tunes originally composed by Dr. Thrower for use in Comprehensive Trumpet Skills, Book 7: Ensemble Skills (p. 54), intended to be used to tune unisons and octaves.  As a tuning study it was published in the key of F major for B-flat trumpet, or concert E-flat major.  The quintet version retained the original key of concert E-flat.  The reverently subdued four-four tempo makes this the easiest piece in the collection, technically, though the three core ensemble skills listed in the introductory paragraph (rhythm, intonation, and balance) must still be extensively addressed.  The horn part is perhaps the most demanding in “Lamb of God,” with arpeggiated discant lines toward the end.

“Summer Solstice” (duration 1:10) was started on June 21, 2023, which was the summer solstice.  It is a bright, cheerful piece in concert F major with a lot of interest in all the parts.  One source of the title’s inspiration came from my family’s new situation living in Tokyo, Japan, where the dawn sky brightens around 4:00 AM on the longest days of the year, which obviously coincide with the summer solstice.  The 70-second piece was completed four days after conception while the long days started at their earliest.

“Triumph: Children’s March” (duration 1:00) was the catalyst for this collection.  It started as a cute little brass quintet piece in the key of concert B-flat major, to be performed for children, such as for school concerts.  The cut-time tempo is very brisk for a march, but animated little legs (or a more manageable audience activity of clapping hands) can easily handle the task.  Although the first trumpet part ends up on a high C, there is an alternate note for a more comfortable ending.

“Waltzing Puma” (duration 0:30) is an evocative title for an evocative piece.  Like “Blackhawk,” this melody was composed as a melody for Comprehensive Trumpet Skills, Book 9: Sightreading and Transposition (p. 36).  The melodies in that series took on titles of military aircraft, and this one was the helicopter “Puma.”  Since this tune is in a fast three-four, it became the “Waltzing Puma.”  The quintet version retains the original key of concert F minor.

SKU: A0.1398436

This arrangement came to me over a number of weeks in a very organic way that began with the ostinato piano figure that prevails throughout the piece. I began playing it unattached to any tune and I just liked the way the line descended in the left hand and how I had to find voicings in the right hand that made harmonic sense – like a puzzle. As I was playing around with this puzzle, thoughts of my father were swirling around in my head – I was at the end of a 4 year period of separation from my parents owing to the fact that I’m a Canadian expat living in the US and the borders were closed for a long time because of Covid, and then I had work visa issues and my parents were getting older before my eyes. They were also losing friends to cancer and other ailments and my dad, in particular, had experienced the loss of many close family members and friends during our separation and it was taking a toll.

 

One day I sat down and played the now familiar-to-me ostinato but randomly I started to sing “Beyond the Sea� over it and it fit perfectly. I thought it a happy coincidence. As the days went on I committed to putting my ostinato with Beyond the Sea and the lyrics started to seep into my brain. I have, of course, heard these lyrics many times before, (who hasn’t seen Finding Nemo?) but the lyrics didn’t mean what I thought they meant… They’re NOT about the ocean, they are about my dad!!! Well, kind of… I realized, through careful reflection and by slowing the words down, that the lyrics are talking about a person in heaven who is patiently waiting for their partner to join them.

 

Somewhere beyond the sea

She’s there watching for me

…

It’s far beyond the stars

It’s near beyond the moon

 

And the lyrics end with them meeting, “We’ll meet beyond the shore, we’ll kiss just like before,� and the song ends with: “and never again I’ll go sailing.� It’s like the big bang went off in my head about why all these thoughts of my dad, and his friends, and this arrangement, and what it all meant suddenly just MADE SENSE and I was able to start formulating a plan.

 

Performance Suggestions: 

The improvisation solo in the middle should be free of any traditional “scat syllables� and should be more of a lament. Listen to singers like Aubrey Johnson and Sara Gazarek improvise on ballads for inspiration.

SKU: A0.1504685

Each year, I eagerly await the Holiday season. Christmas & New Year's celebrations bring back a flood of memories. Memories about family, childhood and gatherings with friends. I remember my father making a Sunday meal after church and singing along to his favorite Christmas songs. There is the memory of sitting in a dimly lit room watching the bright lights of the tree blinking on and off. Our church choir singing beautifully on Christmas Eve is another heartfelt memory. While writing and arranging music for this Christmas album, I was grateful to dwell on so many treasured moments and it encouraged me to remember the most important part of Christmas. The reason for the season.....The Everlasting Light.

Included titles are:
O Tannenbaum 
Away in a Manger 
We Wish You a Merry Christmas 
O Little Town of Bethlehem 
Pines Dressed in Winter 
The First Noel 
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 
Toyland 
Christmas Paper
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Joy to the World 

Please visit www.lynntredeau.com for sheet music, CDs & downloads. Be sure to join the mailing list while you are there to have all my latest music and videos sent right to your email. 

All music arranged/composed, produced and performed by Lynn Tredeau 
Photograph by Sebastian Frohlich at Unsplash

SKU: A0.549896

Score: 12 pages, piano part: 6 pages, alto clarinet part: 4 pages. duration: ca. 5'. Register for free lifetime updates and revisions of this product at www.jamesguthrie.com This is the famous wedding march from Op. 61 composed in 1842 and commonly performed as a recessional march at the end of a wedding. The piece was originally composed for orchestra then arranged for organ and performed by Mendelssohn himself.

Mendelssohn: Wedding March

Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is so popular that it’s difficult to imagine a wedding without it. It seems like it’s been around for eternity. In any case, it was only 150 years or so ago that the Wedding March came about. It was performed in Potsdam for the first time in 1842, as a piece of Mendelssohn’s music for the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was first used for a wedding in 1858

Mendelssohn Background

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847) was, by all means, a German mastermind composer, musician and orchestra conductor of the Romantic period. Consequently, Mendelssohn composed in the usual forms of the time - symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music, and chamber music. To summarize, his most famous works include his music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, The Hebrides Overture, his later Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, and his Octet for Strings. His most well-known piano pieces, by and large, are the Songs Without Words. 

Artistic Standing

 Musical tastes change from time to time. Moreover, just such a change occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This plus rampant antisemitism brought a corresponding amount of undue criticism. Fortunately, however, his artistic inventiveness has indeed been critically re-evaluated. As a result, Mendelssohn is once again among the most prevalent composers of the Romantic era.

Early Family Life

Mendelssohn was, in fact, born into a prominent Jewish family. His grandfather was, notably, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Felix was, in fact, raised without religion. At the age of seven, he was all of a sudden baptized as a Reformed Christian. He was, moreover, a child musical prodigy. Nevertheless, his parents did not attempt to exploit his talent.

Early Adulthood

Mendelssohn was, in general, successful in Germany. He conducted, in particular, a revival of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, specifically with his presentation of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. Felix was truly in demand throughout Europe as a composer, conductor, and soloist. For example, he visited Britain ten times. There, he premiered, namely, many of his major works. His taste in music was. To be sure, inventive and well-crafted yet markedly conservative. This conservatism separated him by all means from more audacious musical colleagues like Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz. Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatoire which, to clarify, became a defender of this conservative viewpoint.

Mature Adulthood

Schumann notably wrote that Mendelssohn was the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them. This observation points to a couple of features in particular that illustrate Mendelssohn's works and his artistic procedure.

Musical Features

In the first place, his musical style was fixed in his methodical mastery of the style of preceding masters. This being said, he certainly recognized and even developed early romanticism from the music of Beethoven and Weber. Secondly, it indicates that Mendelssohn sought to strengthen his inherited musical legacy rather than to exchange it with new forms and styles or replace it with exotic orchestration. C.

SKU: A0.549883

Score: 18 pages, piano part: 6 pages, cello part: 4 pages, violin part: 4 pages. duration: ca. 5'. Register for free lifetime updates and revisions of this product at www.jamesguthrie.com This is the famous wedding march from Op. 61 composed in 1842 and commonly performed as a recessional march at the end of a wedding. The piece was originally composed for orchestra, then arranged for organ and performed by Mendelssohn himself.

Mendelssohn: Wedding March

Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is so popular that it’s difficult to imagine a wedding without it. It seems like it’s been around for eternity. In any case, it was only 150 years or so ago that the Wedding March came about. It was performed in Potsdam for the first time in 1842, as a piece of Mendelssohn’s music for the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was first used for a wedding in 1858

Mendelssohn Background

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847) was, by all means, a German mastermind composer, musician and orchestra conductor of the Romantic period. Consequently, Mendelssohn composed in the usual forms of the time - symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music, and chamber music. To summarize, his most famous works include his music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, The Hebrides Overture, his later Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, and his Octet for Strings. His most well-known piano pieces, by and large, are the Songs Without Words. 

Artistic Standing

 Musical tastes change from time to time. Moreover, just such a change occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This plus rampant antisemitism brought a corresponding amount of undue criticism. Fortunately, however, his artistic inventiveness has indeed been critically re-evaluated. As a result, Mendelssohn is once again among the most prevalent composers of the Romantic era.

Early Family Life

Mendelssohn was, in fact, born into a prominent Jewish family. His grandfather was, notably, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Felix was, in fact, raised without religion. At the age of seven, he was all of a sudden baptized as a Reformed Christian. He was, moreover, a child musical prodigy. Nevertheless, his parents did not attempt to exploit his talent.

Early Adulthood

Mendelssohn was, in general, successful in Germany. He conducted, in particular, a revival of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, specifically with his presentation of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. Felix was truly in demand throughout Europe as a composer, conductor, and soloist. For example, he visited Britain ten times. There, he premiered, namely, many of his major works. His taste in music was. To be sure, inventive and well-crafted yet markedly conservative. This conservatism separated him by all means from more audacious musical colleagues like Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz. Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatoire which, to clarify, became a defender of this conservative viewpoint.

Mature Adulthood

Schumann notably wrote that Mendelssohn was the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them. This observation points to a couple of features in particular that illustrate Mendelssohn's works and his artistic procedure.

Musical Features

In the first place, his musical style was fixed in his methodical mastery of the style of preceding masters. This being said, he certainly recognized and even developed early romanticism from the music of Beethoven and Weber. Secondly, it indicates that Mendelssohn sought to strengthen his inherited musical legacy rather than to exchange it with new forms and styles or replace it with exotic o.

SKU: A0.549895

Score: 12 pages, piano part: 6 pages, soprano sax part: 4 pages. duration: ca. 5'.  This is the famous wedding march from Op. 61 composed in 1842 and commonly performed as a recessional march at the end of a wedding. The piece was originally composed for orchestra then arranged for organ and performed by Mendelssohn himself.

Mendelssohn: Wedding March

Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is so popular that it’s difficult to imagine a wedding without it. It seems like it’s been around for eternity. In any case, it was only 150 years or so ago that the Wedding March came about. It was performed in Potsdam for the first time in 1842, as a piece of Mendelssohn’s music for the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was first used for a wedding in 1858

Mendelssohn Background

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847) was, by all means, a German mastermind composer, musician and orchestra conductor of the Romantic period. Consequently, Mendelssohn composed in the usual forms of the time - symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music, and chamber music. To summarize, his most famous works include his music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, The Hebrides Overture, his later Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, and his Octet for Strings. His most well-known piano pieces, by and large, are the Songs Without Words. 

Artistic Standing

 Musical tastes change from time to time. Moreover, just such a change occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This plus rampant antisemitism brought a corresponding amount of undue criticism. Fortunately, however, his artistic inventiveness has indeed been critically re-evaluated. As a result, Mendelssohn is once again among the most prevalent composers of the Romantic era.

Early Family Life

Mendelssohn was, in fact, born into a prominent Jewish family. His grandfather was, notably, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Felix was, in fact, raised without religion. At the age of seven, he was all of a sudden baptized as a Reformed Christian. He was, moreover, a child musical prodigy. Nevertheless, his parents did not attempt to exploit his talent.

Early Adulthood

Mendelssohn was, in general, successful in Germany. He conducted, in particular, a revival of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, specifically with his presentation of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. Felix was truly in demand throughout Europe as a composer, conductor, and soloist. For example, he visited Britain ten times. There, he premiered, namely, many of his major works. His taste in music was. To be sure, inventive and well-crafted yet markedly conservative. This conservatism separated him by all means from more audacious musical colleagues like Liszt, Wagner, and Berlioz. Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatoire which, to clarify, became a defender of this conservative viewpoint.

Mature Adulthood

Schumann notably wrote that Mendelssohn was the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them. This observation points to a couple of features in particular that illustrate Mendelssohn's works and his artistic procedure.

Musical Features

In the first place, his musical style was fixed in his methodical mastery of the style of preceding masters. This being said, he certainly recognized and even developed early romanticism from the music of Beethoven and Weber. Secondly, it indicates that Mendelssohn sought to strengthen his inherited musical legacy rather than to exchange it with new forms and styles or replace it with exotic orchestration. Consequently, he diverged his contemporaries in the romantic period, such as Wagner, Berlioz, and Liszt. Mendelssohn revered Liszt's virtuosity at the keyboard but found his musi.