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Three Renaissance Dances, Op. 90 (2018)

For Middle School Band

Live Performance:

MIDI Realization

Perusal Score:

Duration: 6'

  1. I. Basse Dance (after Pierre Attaingnant)
  2. II. All in a Garden green (after William Byrd)
  3. III. Galliarde (after Michael Praetorius)

Instrumentation:

  • Flute 1 (4 solo players)
  • Flute 2 (8 players)
  • Flute 3 (4 players)
  • Clarinet in Bb 1 (3 solo players)
  • Clarinet in Bb 2 (3 players)
  • Clarinet in Bb 3 (4 players)
  • Bass Clarinet (1 player)
  • Alto Saxophone 1 (3 solo players)
  • Alto Saxophone 2 (3 players)
  • Alto Saxophone 3 (3 players)
  • Tenor Saxophone (2 players)
  • Baritone Saxophone (1 player)
  • ---
  • Trumpet in Bb 1 (2 solo players,
  • 1 with mute - preferably bucket
  • or cup, but any will do)
  • Trumpet in Bb 2 (4 players)
  • Trumpet in Bb 3 (6 players)
  • Trombone 1 (1 player)
  • Trombone 2 (2 players)
  • Trombone 3 (1 player)
  • Euphonium 1 (1 player)
  • Euphonium 2 (1 player)
  • ---
  • Timpani (2, 1 player)
  • Glockenspiel (2 mallets, 1 player)
  • Marimba (2 mallets, 1 player)
  • Percussion 1 (Snare Drum/
  • Bass Drum, 2 players)
  • Percussion 2 (Suspended Cymbal/
  • Crash Cymbals/Hi-Hat, 3 players)
  • Percussion 3 (4 Toms, 1 player)
  • Percussion 4 (Tambourine/2 Bongos, 2 players)
  • Percussion 5 (Maracas/Brake Drum, 2 players)
  • Percussion 6 (Triangle/Wood Block/
  • Ratchet/Tam-Tam, 2 players)

Program Notes:

I went to Eastman with Annie Sawamura. While we knew each other ever since she arrived, we really became close our final year there, partly through student teaching, partly through my performance of the Glazunov saxophone concerto, and partly (mostly?) through the Rentet, a quartet performing on ocarinas, recorders, and crumhorns. When Annie got her middle school position, she floated the idea of having me write a piece for her band at some point. Sometime in mid-fall 2017, we were talking on the phone about some more specifics of what might be possible - a 5-6 minute piece suitable for widely varying levels of ability. At first, I was stumped, but then when the conversation had moved elsewhere, the answer came to me - a Renaissance suite!

I fell in love with the music of the Renaissance through Bob Margolis's "Terpsichore", a veritable tour-de-force of orchestration for the modern wind band full of little goodies for every player. While I don't have access to the same palette of tone colors that his freewheeling setting does, this piece shows off every section of the band to full advantage. Each movement is closely based on an original composition by a Renaissance composer: a Basse Dance by the Frenchman Pierre Attaingnant, the keyboard piece "All in a Garden green" by the Englishman William Byrd, and a Galliarde by that selfsame Germanman (....?) Michael Praetorius.

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