Brass Ensemble - Level 4 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.808688
Composed by Henry Clay Work (1832-1884). Arranged by F. Leslie Smith. Children,Folk,Holiday,Patriotic. Score and parts. 31 pages. Sweetwater Brass Press #4111581. Published by Sweetwater Brass Press (A0.808688).
Henry Clay Work, Civil War era song writer and abolitionist, composed Kingdom Coming in 1862. Chicago’s Root & Cady published it in April of that year, Christy’s Minstrels premiered it and it became enormously popular.
The lyrics to Kingdom Coming, also known as The Year of Jubilo, were written as though slaves in the Confederacy were celebrating their upcoming freedom. However, the song was actually released eight months before President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Interestingly, Kingdom Coming also gained popularity in the South. A Southern edition was published in August in 1864, and the song remained a favorite in the former Confederacy for some years.
Kingdom Coming has been used as theme or background music in a number of film, television and radio settings. Almost certainly its most popular iteration in modern times was the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra’s 1952 recording under the title Doodletown Fifers.
This arrangement is a show-off piece for each member of the quintet. It moves along at a brisk pace of about 108, begins in the key of C and changes to A-flat, then B-flat. The first time through the melody, all instruments perform ensemble. Each succeeding repetition features an instrumentalist, starting with tuba and working up to Trumpet 1. The piece ends with another ensemble version.
There are no exceptionally out-of-normal-playing-range notes: Trumpets 1 and 2 both play their B-flat below the scale several times, and Trumpet 2 plays G below the scale; Horn in F also plays its G below the scale; Trombone’s range is G at the bottom of the scale to D above the scale; Tuba’s lowest note is A-flat below the scale. Trumpet 1 will probably triple tongue its repetition of the melody, and some triple tonguing may be called for near the end of the piece for Trumpets 1 and 2 and Trombone.
This arrangement was completed in 2018, and performance time runs just under 4 minutes. The arranger, Les Smith, would be very interested in your comments; contact him at lessmith@ufl.edu. For more arrangements by Les, enter Sweetwater Brass Press (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.
