Help with repertoire for wind orchestra please.

[teamsaint]

Hello all

I was hoping I could get a few suggestions from your collective wealth of knowledge.
I am helping (!) to put together a small selection of pieces for a wind orchestra. The pieces are for two concerts on a short tour to Holland/ The Netherlands. The general standard of the orchestra is around grade 8/ university undergraduate level.
They are looking for some longer pieces, suites or something as a centrepieces for the concerts. I did think that something British and/or Dutch would be good.
Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks

TS.

[Boilk]

Accessible and refreshingly different,
Hovhaness's 20-minute Symphony No.4 ...

[subcontrabass]

Some initial British suggestions:

Vaughan Willams: English Folk Song Suite
Malcolm Arnold: The Padstow Lifeboat
Gustav Holst: First Suite in E-flat for Military Band

[Mr Pee]

SubContra has listed a few of the classics- I'd add the Holst Second suite and his"Hammersmith" Prelude and Scherzo, but try these composers for something a bit more modern:-

Adam Gorb:-

http://www.adamgorb.co.uk/wind.htm

Philip Sparke:- (Year of the Dragon is tremendous, and would suit a grade 8/Undergraduate level band perfectly)

http://www.philipsparke.com/concert%20band.htm

Edit:- I should add Edward Gregson to the list:-

http://edwardgregson.com/en/works/list/symphonic-wind-band/

[EdgeleyRob]

These are super pieces,not sure what standard they are though ts.

http://www.chandos.net/details06.asp?CNumber=CHAN 9697

[aeolium]

Gordon Jacob wrote well for wind instruments (e.g. his Serenade for woodwind octet, Old Wine in New Bottles, Concerto for Band)

Nielsen woodwind quintet and Serenata in Vano

Triebensee's arrangements of extracts from Don Giovanni for wind band

Reicha's wind quintets

[Nick Armstrong]

I'd chip in Derek Bourgeois's 'Serenade' for amusement, memorability and playability - and also a good anecdote (cf the blurb here http://www.windrep.org/Serenade_(Bourgeois) )

Well within the capacity of amateurs of the age you mention. I had the pleasure of playing it with a youth orchestra under the composer's baton (and we got the 'wedding' story from the horse's mouth )

[kernelbogey]

I don't know how difficult it is, but the Dvorak Serenade for wind is a charming piece - if too long, perhaps suitable for selection of bleeding chunks .

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

sprog played this when her orchestra 'won' the national UK competition a year or so back ... it is astonishing live

[Mr Pee]

I don't know how difficult it is, but the Dvorak Serenade for wind is a charming piece - if too long, perhaps suitable for selection of bleeding chunks .

It is, but it's not for Wind Orchestra, by which I think the OP means a Symphonic Wind Band, with Orchestral Brass and French Horns as well as 3 or 4 clarinet parts and the full Orchestral Wind Section, Saxophones etc.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It is, but it's not for Wind Orchestra, by which I think the OP means a Symphonic Wind Band, with Orchestral Brass and French Horns as well as 3 or 4 clarinet parts and the full Orchestral Wind Section, Saxophones etc.

That's right. A concert band is a relatively badly balanced affair, with an excess of screechy woodwind and often excessive percussion. A wind orchestra is quite a different animal.

[cloughie]

Gounod:Petite Wind Symphony.

[teamsaint]

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions, which we are working through. Do please add any more you think of.Some amazing stuff. I'll give some slghtly better feedback later in the process.
Mr Pee and EA are right, its a symphonic wind band/ orchestra with all the sections mentioned.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Check out Percy Grainger: he loved (and played sax) in military bands, and despite being a distinguished concert pianist 'officially', very frequently arranged his stuff (often wrote his stuff first) for some sort of wind orchestra. He took a lot from US specimens of that ilk though, so you'd need to check carefully on instrumentation.

[Pabmusic]

Some initial British suggestions:

Vaughan Willams: English Folk Song Suite
Malcolm Arnold: The Padstow Lifeboat
Gustav Holst: First Suite in E-flat for Military Band

To which I'd add the Holst Second Suite if F (especially with your Southampton connexions, since the tunes of the first three movements are all from Hampshire). Then there's:

Holst: Hammersmith (more difficult than the two suites)
Host: A Moorside Suite (originally for brass band, but arranged by Gordon Jacob)
Percy Grainger: Children's March, Over the Hills and Far Away
Percy Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy (really quite difficult)
Johan de Mij: The Lord of the Rings (a 40-minute symphony for wind band that's very good)
RVW: Toccata Marziale