Help with repertoire for wind orchestra please.

[Pabmusic]

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 )

The Bourgeois Serenade is superb. There is a bar of 4/4 (or maybe it's 3/4) at the end, so it's not all that awkward.

[Pabmusic]

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.

The Dvorak needs a cello and double bass.

[Pabmusic]

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.

A concert band/symphonic band or military band is a group of woodwind, brass and percussion that follows a reasonably well established format, with a large number of clarinets replacing the strings of an orchestra, many to a part. Writing for such an ensemble is largely a matter of writing for a 'core' of 2 flutes and piccolo, oboe (possibly), 4 clarinets, 3 saxophones, bassoon (possibly), 4 horns (French horns usually), 3 cornets/trumpets, 3 trombones, euphonium, tuba, timps & percussion. To this core can be added a host of other things, of course, and American wind bands employ them all - exotic woodwind, harp, string bass, Wagner tubas if they can.

I'm not sure what a 'wind orchestra' is - it's certainly only a very general term. Some composers, such as Gounod, wrote pieces for the wind section of a symphony orchestra, but they only require a few players, one to a part. Gounod's Petite Symphonies needs nine players, whereas Holst's E-flat Suite is truly unusual in that it can be performed by as few as 19 players!

[teamsaint]

Just to clarify, this particular "Symphonic Wind orchestra " has:

Clarinets 1/2/3
Eb/Alto/Bass Clarinet
Flutes 1/2/3
piccolo
Oboes(4 players)
Bassoon
Alto/Tenor/Baritone Sax.
Trumpets 1/2/3
Cornets 1/2/3
Trombone 1/2
horn 1/2/3
Euphonium 2 players
Tuba
percussion.

[Hornspieler]

A concert band/symphonic band or military band is a group of woodwind, brass and percussion that follows a reasonably well established format, with a large number of clarinets replacing the strings of an orchestra, many to a part. Writing for such an ensemble is largely a matter of writing for a 'core' of 2 flutes and piccolo, oboe (possibly), 4 clarinets, 3 saxophones, bassoon (possibly), 4 horns (French horns usually), 3 cornets/trumpets, 3 trombones, euphonium, tuba, timps & percussion. To this core can be added a host of other things, of course, and American wind bands employ them all - exotic woodwind, harp, string bass, Wagner tubas if they can.

I'm not sure what a 'wind orchestra' is - it's certainly only a very general term. Some composers, such as Gounod, wrote pieces for the wind section of a symphony orchestra, but they only require a few players, one to a part. Gounod's Petite Symphonies needs nine players, whereas Holst's E-flat Suite is truly unusual in that it can be performed by as few as 19 players!

In other words, a Military Band.

Check out Paul Harvey and Gordon Langford from this country and possibly some of the American composers, such as Morton Gould, who wrote a lot for U.S. High School Bands; whose levels of expertise would probably be very similar to your own group.

Sorry, I don't know any specific pieces to suggest.

HS

[Pabmusic]

Just to clarify, this particular "Symphonic Wind orchestra " has:

Clarinets 1/2/3
Eb/Alto/Bass Clarinet
Flutes 1/2/3
piccolo
Oboes(4 players)
Bassoon
Alto/Tenor/Baritone Sax.
Trumpets 1/2/3
Cornets 1/2/3
Trombone 1/2
horn 1/2/3
Euphonium 2 players
Tuba
percussion.

Any of the military/symphonic band pieces suggested already should do - the two Holst Suites and the RVW Folk Song Suite are really well known and straightforward, and are written so that some parts (clarinet 4, for instance) can be omitted without great loss - though you should check all this. They're easy to get hold of, too (purchase from Boosey & Hawkes or hire from a library)..

[Boilk]

I'd chip in Derek Bourgeois's 'Serenade' for amusement, memorability and playability

There's actually an awful lot of Bourgeois concert band music, but it may be hard to get ahold of recordings. The listing usefully has timings too

[BBMmk2]

What's the standard opf this WO? Philip Sparke, Edward Gregson andPeter Graham spring to mind

[teamsaint]

What's the standard opf this WO? Philip Sparke, Edward Gregson andPeter Graham spring to mind

Most of the players would be around grade 8 standard. Some a bit beyond that, and a few considerably so. But Grade 8 is probably the mark, BBM.

[BBMmk2]

okay, so the above composers I mentioned could well be in the running for your WO! Sparke, Gregson, Peter Graham and Philip Wilby?