I’ve recently been mailed/e-mailed a small number of recordings, a few which I’d like to share with you today. The first is a recording of Shadow Rituals by an outstanding middle school band. I’m usually surprised to find out  when middle schools are preparing that piece (let’s face it: I probably can’t even count the rhythms), but the T A Howard Middle School Honor Band had me double-taking, shaking my head saying “Whaaaaa?” in the most positive sense of the word.

The other two recordings are of Turkey in the Straw, the first by the Austin Symphonic Band, and the second by the Cal State Fullerton Symphonic Winds. I was lucky enough to be able to attend both concerts in person. The Austin Symphonic Band actually gave the “unofficial” premiere of the piece since the piece was published before any group actually gave it a concert performance. These are actually the first two recordings I’ve received (and they both arrived in the mail today!) so I am pretty excited for you to listen to them. Enjoy~

SHADOW RITUALS
T A Howard Middle School Honor Band
Nathaniel Nuegent, director
Listen/Download MP3

TURKEY IN THE STRAW
Austin Symphonic Band
Richard Floyd, director
Listen/Download MP3

TURKEY IN THE STRAW
California State University Fullerton Symphonic Winds
Marc R. Dickey, director
Listen/Download MP3

During my collaboration with Smith Junior High, the Mesa Independent Newspaper did a very nice article on the piece and Smith’s concert. (If you click on the images below, they should be linked to PDF files you can actually read.) They even stopped by to take a bunch of action photos during one particular rehearsal.  (Seriously? I look like that?)

I’ve also finally uploaded an mp3 of the premiere. Enjoy~

LIGHTWORKS
May 7, 2009
Smith Junior High School Wind Ensemble
Dawn Parker, director
Download MP3

We’ve been only uploading our songs to our music podcast for about a month now, but we’ve already got 8 quirky tunes for you to listen to. The newest include Hostess and The Ballad of Obadiah Oswalt. Hopefully, there will be many more to come this summer. 

Go ahead. Judge us. (Judging us will launch iTunes).

The past few nights have been particularly special. On Thursday, the Smith Junior High School Wind Ensemble, under the direction of my own former junior high school band director, Dawn Parker, premiered a rather complicated piece called Lightworks. The piece is about five minutes long and full of independent and highly rhythmic parts — very different from many other [typical] junior high school pieces. Although Dawn recruited a few Smith alumni to fill in some instrumentation gaps from their parent high school, Skyline High School, the Smith kids owned this piece! Did I mention there are constantly changing time signatures that battle back and forth between 4/4, 3/4, and many a 5/8? I don’t remember even being introduced to 5/8 meter until I was in at least 10th grade, and these kids treat it like chocolate cake. They are going to be very much “ahead-of-the-game” once they get to Skyline. I will post the mp3 soon.

The next morning, I was on the first Southwest flight to Orange County to hang out at California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Marc Dickey had programed Shadow Rituals last semester with the Symphonic Winds and decided to program Turkey in the Straw to close their all-folk music concert last night. I will say it is a little intimidating for your own music to follow Lincolnshire Posy on a program, but even after 70+ minutes of music-playing, the group still gave an amazing performance! (Seriously. And this isn’t even the top band.) Once I get a CD, I must post that mp3, too.