Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1872) was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. He wrote many popular art songs and operas, and his music is filled with patriotic folk themes.
‘Halka’ is an opera to a libretto by Wlodzimierz Wolski, a young Warsaw poet with radical social views. It is part of the canon of Polish national operas. The staged premiere took place in Vilnius on 28 February 1854. ‘Halka’ is considered one of Moniuszko’s greatest operas. The music in is highly melodic, deeply lyrical and Polish in character. It includes moving poetic arias as well as spectacular dance sequences. The story is that of the tragic love of the title character, the highlander girl Halka.
The ‘Mazurka’ from the 1st act became popular on its own.

Orchestration: Soprano & Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

‘Don Giovanni’ is a real aria-opera, in contrast with ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ that is called an ensemble-opera. In this opera Mozart expresses in a subtle way the frustration of the unsuccessful love affairs of Don Giovanni. The aria ‘Verdrai, carino’ is sung in the first scene of the second act by Zerlina, one of the woman that is seduced by Don Giovanni.

Orchestration: Soprano & Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

At the end of his life Offenbach composed his opera ‘Les contes d´Hoffman’, but unfortunately he was not able to finish it. The plot tells the story of the poet Hoffmann telling three of his amorous adventures, every time ending with a refusal of his proposing. The aria ‘Il ètait une fois à la cour d’Eisenach’ is sung in the prologue of the Opera. The scene is Luther’s tavern in Nurnberg where students are waiting for Hoffmann. He finally arrives and entertains them with the legend of Kleinzach, a dwarf whose incredible ugliness he begins describing. Midway through, though, he goes off on the beauty of a woman he used to know.

Orchestration: Tenor, Choir & Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

The ‘Stabat Mater’ is the best known work of Giovanni Pergolesi’s. It was commissioned by the ‘Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo’ who presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesi’s work replaced one composed by Alessandro Scarlatti only nine years before, but which was already perceived as ‘old-fashioned’, so rapidly had public tastes changed. After his death new arrangements of ‘Stabat Mater’ were made in which the orchestra was extended with wind instruments and sometimes a choir was used. This arrangement concerns the second movement ‘Cuius animam gementem’ in a version for Soprano and Wind Ensemble.

Orchestration: Soprano & Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

The ‘Stabat Mater’ is the best known work of Giovanni Pergolesi’s. It was commissioned by the ‘Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo’ who presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesi’s work replaced one composed by Alessandro Scarlatti only nine years before, but which was already perceived as ‘old-fashioned’, so rapidly had public tastes changed. After his death new arrangements of ‘Stabat Mater’ were made in which the orchestra was extended with wind instruments and sometimes a choir was used. This arrangement concerns the 11th movement ‘Inflammatus et accensus’ in a version for Soprano, Alto and Wind Ensemble.

Orchestration: Mezzo Soprano & Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

The ‘Stabat Mater’ is the best known work of Giovanni Pergolesi’s. It was commissioned by the ‘Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo’ who presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesi’s work replaced one composed by Alessandro Scarlatti only nine years before, but which was already perceived as ‘old-fashioned’, so rapidly had public tastes changed. After his death new arrangements of ‘Stabat Mater’ were made in which the orchestra was extended with wind instruments and sometimes a choir was used. This arrangement concerns the second movement ‘Quae maerebat et dolebat’ in a version for Alto and Wind Ensemble.

Orchestration: Alto and Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

The ‘Stabat Mater’ is the best known work of Giovanni Pergolesi’s. It was commissioned by the ‘Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo’ who presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesi’s work replaced one composed by Alessandro Scarlatti only nine years before, but which was already perceived as ‘old-fashioned’, so rapidly had public tastes changed. After his death new arrangements of ‘Stabat Mater’ were made in which the orchestra was extended with wind instruments and sometimes a choir was used. This arrangement concerns the famous opening movement of Stabat Mater.

Version 1
Orchestration: Soprano, Mezzo Soprano & Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

Version 2
Orchestration: Symphonic Wind band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

Recording (Kon. Erkend Harmoniekorps “L’Echo des Montages”, Gemengd Koor Loven Besterd, Mannenkoor La Renaissance, Tilburg. Concertzaal Tilburg, Pieter Zwaans, conductor, 1998)

Orchestration: Mixed Choir & Symphonic Wind Band
unpublished | Please contact for more information

November 22 should be a holiday for every true music lover. Then it is St. Cecilia’s Day, the day of the patron saint of music and musicians. This day was highly regarded in the Anglo-Saxon countries.
Henry Purcell is one of the several composers who have written music in honour of Cecilia. In 1692 he composed ‘Hail! Bright Cecilia’ which became well known as ‘Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day’.  This is the first movement of this ode – Symphony or Overture.

Orchestration: Symphonic wind orchestra
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) is a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Le Cygne is the 13th movement of the suite, originally scored for two pianos and cello: the lushly romantic cello solo (which evokes the swan elegantly gliding over the water) is played over rippling sixteenths in one piano and rolled chords in the other (said to represent the swan’s feet, hidden from view beneath the water, propelling it along). It has become a staple of the cello repertoire and one of the most well-known movements of the suite. Many other arrangements of this movement have also been published, with solo instruments ranging from flute to alto saxophone. Arranged here for solo cello with accompaniment of a small Wind Ensemble.

Orchestration: Cello & Symphonic Wind Orchestra
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Oberto, Verdi ‘s very first opera was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan on 17 november 1839. The Coro di Cavalieri is one of the beautiful examples of Verdi ‘s great choir writing.

Orchestration: Choir & Symphonic Wind Orchestra
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

Verdi composed ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’ for the San Carlo Theatre in Naples where it was to have been staged during the 1858 carnival season. The libretto told the true story of the liberal King Gustavus III, who was shot in 1792 at a masked ball in Stockholm. For political reasons the action of the opera was relocated to the city of Boston. This historical solecism satisfied the authorities but due to the ridiculousness of the action in its American setting the opera failed to establish a place next to the more successful opera’s of Verdi. Nowadays in many opera-houses the action has been restored to Sweden. 

Orchestration: Symphonic wind orchestra
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts

Written as an ode to the international Sudetengerman community, of which I am a proud member.

The text to this traditional song of friendship and connection can be sung starting from the first tutti.

Recording, Harmonie St. Caecilia Blerick, Andreas van Zoelen, conductor, 2010

Orchestration:

Symphonic wind orchestra |unpublished, get in touch for more information /

Fanfare orkest | purchase score and parts

After the ‘Battle of Vitoria’, Beethoven’s friend Johann Nepomuk Maelzel talked him into writing a composition for his panharmonicon (a kind of ‘mechanical orchestra’) to commemorating this battle. The piece, ‘Wellingtons Sieg’ (‘Wellington’s Victory’) was dedicated to the Prince Regent, later King George IV and first performed in Vienna on 8 December 1813 at a concert to benefit Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded at the ‘Battle of Hanau’, with Beethoven conducting. It was an immediate crowd-pleaser and met with much enthusiasm from early concertgoers and the piece proved to be a substantial money-maker for Beethoven.
‘Wellingtons Sieg’ is something of a musical novelty. Besides the orchestra, on stage there are two ‘sides’, British and French, both playing the same instruments: Trumpets, Snare Drums, ‘Canon’ and Ratchet. The work has two parts: the ‘Battle’ (‘Schlacht’) and the ‘Victory Symphony’ (Sieges Sinfonie). The first part is programme music describing two approaching opposing armies and contains extended passages depicting scenes of battle. It uses ‘Rule Britannia’ for the British side and ‘Marlbrough s’en va-t-en guerre’ for the French side. The ‘Victory Symphony’ exhibits some typical Beethoven composing techniques. It can be considered as a sonata form that, stripped of the development section, comes equipped with an extended coda.

Orchestration: Symphonic Wind Band
Publisher: Baton Music | Purchase score and parts