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| | Grand Serenade For An Awful Lot Of Winds And Percussion
P.D.Q. Bach, one of fictitious history's greatest composers, has provided us with yet another outstanding novelty piece. "Grand Serenade..." will be best received by your audience when the historical background of this piece (delivered with a tongue-in-cheek demeanor) is presented before your band's performance.
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 | This music has a difficulty rating of 5 on a scale of 1 to 6. |
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Estimated Performance Time:
Technical Notes: P.D.Q Bach made several sketches for this work, on one of which he used the title "Serenoodle", but evidently he changed his mind, such as it was, when he wrote out the complete score. The different sketches show that he was considering various kinds of groups, instrumentationally speaking, but the combination of instruments he ended up using conforms amazingly closely to that of the modern concert band. Some slight adjustments had to be made in preparing this performing edition, since certain instruments in the original score, such as the dill piccolo, have become obsolete, and we do not even have any information about their construction. Other instruments such as the duck call and the police whistle, although now rarely seen on the concert stage, are still readily available and have been retained; as usual, the editor has sacrificed his heroine, Authenticity, only when the gun of Necessity has ben held to his head.
The "Grand Serenade For An Awful Lot Of Winds And Percussion" was composed on commission from Prince Fred of Wein-am-Rhein, for some sort of outdoor occasion. P.D.Q. had originally wanted to write a really big work of thirty-five or forty minutes' duration, but he agreed to make it only a third as long when Prince Fred offered to triple the fee. Soon after it was played a member of the Prince's household used the pages of the score to wrap six large sausages which were sent to Paris to be presented as a gift to Benjamin Franklin, from whom the Prince was anxious to obtain the specifications for building a glass harmonica, which Franklin had recently perfected. Eventually the manuscript made its way to an attic in Boston where the editor found it amoung the belongings of an 18th century Tory, in a box marked "Seditious Material".
A word of advice to the conductor: Trying to realize the composer's intentions is a waste of time, since he probably didn't have any. On the other hand, rehearsing the music well does seem advisable, so that when the inevitable critical backlash develops, the performing organization can justly claim that it wasn't their fault.
Trumpets can be played inplace of cornets if desired. The percussion part is marked for glock, triangle, chimes or tub. bells, cowbell, cymbals, suspended cymbals, small-medium-large tom-toms, 2 snare drums, bass drum, bird whistle, car horn or gun shot, police whistle, slide whistle, slap stick, popgun and mouth siren.
Notes to Conductor:
If possible, the "Crasho Grosso" at the end of the sixth measure of the Fourth Movement should be achieved by knocking over a lot of percussion instruments that are either undamageable or expendable. If such instruments are not available, metal objects of varying sizes may be dropped on a cements floor or into washtubs. However it is done, the crash should be very loud, not too short, and seemingly accidental (especially if actual instruments are used). If this is not practical, the first six measures of the movement may be omitted. It will be necessary to provide glasses of water (for gargling) for some or all of the clarinet players. |
Song List For Grand Serenade For An Awful Lot Of Winds And Percussion
I. Grand Entrance
II. Simply Grand Minuet
III. Romance In The Grand Manner
IV. Rondo Mucho Grando
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Instrumentation:
| 1 | - | Condensed Score | | 1 | - | Full Score | | 1 | - | 1st Piccolo | | 1 | - | 2nd Piccolo | | 4 | - | 1st Flute | | 4 | - | 2nd Flute | | 1 | - | 1st Oboe | | 1 | - | 2nd Oboe | | 2 | - | 1st And 2nd Bassoons | | 1 | - | E Flat Soprano Clarinet | | 4 | - | 1st B Flat Clarinet | | 4 | - | 2nd B Flat Clarinet | | 4 | - | 3rd B Flat Clarinet | | 2 | - | E Flat Alto Clarinet | | 2 | - | 1st And 2nd B Flat Bass Clarinets | | 1 | - | B Flat Contra-Bass Clarinet | | 2 | - | 1st E Flat Alto Saxophone | | 2 | - | 2nd E Flat Alto Saxophone | | 2 | - | B Flat Tenor Saxophone | | 2 | - | E Flat Baritone Saxophone | | 3 | - | 1st B Flat Cornet | | 3 | - | 2nd B Flat Cornet | | 3 | - | 3rd B Flat Cornet | | 2 | - | 1st Horn In F | | 2 | - | 2nd Horn In F | | 2 | - | 1st Trombone | | 2 | - | 2nd Trombone | | 2 | - | 3rd Trombone | | 2 | - | 1st And 2nd Baritone T.C. | | 2 | - | 1st And 2nd Baritone B.C. | | 6 | - | Tuba | | 1 | - | String Bass | | 8 | - | Percussion | | 1 | - | Timpani |
Publisher: "Grand Serenade For An Awful Lot Of Winds And Percussion" was published by Theodore Presser Company.
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