Favorite Wind Band Pieces

[allegroamabile]

I would like to see everyone's personal taste in this genre by naming their top 5 favorite works written for band. Here are mine.

1. Darius Milhaud: Suite francaise (fourth movement especially)
Does anyone know that each movement (all are dedicated to one particular region of France) were placed in order by the earliest to the latest region liberated from Nazi Germany by the U.S. forces during World War II?

2. Ralph Vaughan Williams: English Folk Song Suite

3. Samuel Barber: Commando March

4. Gustav Holst: Suite No. 1 in E-flat

5. John Philip Sousa: Nobles of the Mystic Shrine

Thoughts?

[windmillwings]

For the record, I hate most wind band pieces. But I did enjoy playing Martin Ellerby's Paris Sketches (absolutely beautiful ) and W. Francis McBeth's Sailors and Whales (exciting -- especially for brass & timpani ).

[vinteuil]

1. Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments
2. Mozart: Gran Partita (duh...
3. Mendelssohn: Harmoniemusik
4. Holst: Suite No. 1
5. Mozart: Gran Partita

[jsnfmn]

In no particular order:

Holst - FIrst Suite in Eb
Hindemith - Symphony in Bb
Schoenberg - Theme and Variations (I prefer the band over the orchestra version)
Milhaud - West Point Suite
Weill - Kleine Dreigroschenmusik
Dahl - Sinfonietta
Husa - Music for Prague

probably more that I'm forgetting, but those are the big ones.

[Bamboo Boy]

Very first post in this forum!

First, with all due respect, Perlnerd666- I don't think you can count the Mozart Serenade or the Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments. Those are both chamber pieces. But if those are 'kosher', I would TOTALLY throw them in. No disagreement from me there. I'm just nit-picking.

Ok for my list, in no particular order,

1. Hindemith- Symphony in B-flat
2. Chinary Ung- Grand Spiral
3. Karel Husa- Music for Prague 1968
4. Graingier- Lincolnshire Posy
5. Persichetti- Symphony for Band

I'm nearly positive that after I post this I will immediately think of a piece that has to knock one of those up there off the list. FTR, if one of them must go, it would probably be the Persichetti.

-BB

[sbeckmesser]

Carefull all, the evil webmeister of this section, if he is to be consistent with past actions, will throttle this thread, as he as done to similar list-making threads (see the very first message under "Music related"). As he has stated publicly, he thinks they are all on the same topic.

--Sixtus

[allegroamabile]

I have not figure out why many people have a distaste for Milhaud's Suite francaise. What about that fourth movement, huh?