Sneak Attack!

sneak attack by superbomba, from Flickr

Richard Saucedo, composer of this piece, is Director of Bands at Carmel High School in Indiana. This is a school with an extremely active instrumental music department.  He's also a staff composer at music publisher Hal Leonard and has written many pieces for marching and concert bands.  Here's a link to his bio on his publisher's website.

There don't seem to be any videos of bands playing Sneak Attack! on YouTube, yet.  Here's a link to the audio file provided by the publisher, performed by professional musicians.

This piece contains a musical term I was not familiar with:  sub.  I took a look online, and found a couple of glossaries of musical terms which clued me in to the meaning of this term, short for subito.  In case you want to look up sub. or any other musical term,  you'll find links to these two glossaries in the sidebar on the blog page (if you're reading this in an email, just click on the title, and that will take you to the blog page).

Edited on April 17, 2012:  This post is the most popular of any on the blog so far.  This might mean that other bands are performing Sneak Attack! and looking for info about it.  So I went back to YouTube, and found a few new examples of bands performing this piece.

Here's a high school band:




This one is labelled as an all-city band, maybe a sort of mass band made up of smaller groups.

Upcoming Events

Photo by bryankennedy, from flickr

Just a reminder about these upcoming events.

Commencement is on Friday, Nov. 4.
Bandathon is on Friday, Nov. 25, from 9am to 9pm.
Christmas Concert is on Thursday, Dec. 8.

Tuesday Nov. 1 Rehearsal

This final rehearsal before Commencement (on Friday, Nov. 4) will be held in the first French step classroom (room 810?).  We may have to bring in chairs and stands from the music room, and return them after the rehearsal.

Commencement Repertoire (expanded from last week)
O Canada
Graduation Suite
Saxes Will Rock!
Allegro from Water Music
Valiant Fanfare
The Winner Takes It All
Malagueña
Meadowlands
Sneak Attack!

Standing Room Only by harry harris, from flickr

Malagueña

Malagueña (pronunciation here) is a very famous piece, written by the Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Leucona (1896-1963) as part of the Suite Andalucia, and originally copyrighted in 1928.  Leucona's Wikipedia page tells us that the piece was originally composed for piano, and that the composer's music was brought to American attention largely through the efforts of Desi Arnaz (a Cuban musician, actor and tv producer you may know from I Love Lucy).

The piece has been recorded many times over the years (here's a partial list).  It has been especially popular with guitar players.  Here are some interesting, and surprisingly different versions.

This one is by Roy Clark, famous from the comedy/country music show Hee Haw, playing a 12 string guitar.  Rather passionate.

Here is Canadian classical guitarist Liona Boyd with a more tender version.



And here's a surfer version by the Argentinian band Los Kahunas.



This one's a jazz version by the Stan Kenton Orchestra.



If you search YouTube for Malagueña, you'll get many pages of results.  It is a very popular piece for marching bands.  I wasn't able to find any performances of the Paul Lavender arrangement, which we are playing.  Leave us a note in the comments if you can find one.

Malagueña is clearly a versatile piece of music, with much room for interpretation.  Yet, each version is very stirring.  What do you think?

Commencement on Friday, Nov. 4

Image by CarbonNYC, from Flickr

Commencement Repertoire
O Canada
Graduation Suite
Saxes Will Rock!
Allegro from Water Music
Valiant Fanfare
The Winner Takes It All
Malaguena


Concert Dress
Black:

• Pants
• Socks
• Shoes

White:

• Shirt with a collar for the bow tie (a tie and vest will be supplied by the band)

Call time

TBA (the ceremony begins at 7pm)

Saxes Will Rock!

Here's some info for you about this piece:

The composer is Larry Neeck.  He's an instrumental music teacher in New York state.  Here's a link to his biography, on his website.

There are three versions of the piece on YouTube, each slightly different.

Here's a version, perhaps by a band camp group, which features some young sax players.

This next version is by some adult musicians.

Finally, here's a version which puts the emphasis on the tuba section.

Which one do you like the best?

Band Social on Friday, Oct. 14

The band executive invites you to an evening of fun, games and food, from 7:00 to 10:00.  The purpose of this event is to build social bonds between all band members by having them engage in group activities.  We have found that this type of event promotes a sense of team which is vital to building a healthy band program.

Games and activities are planned, dress appropriately for evening outdoor activities.  Snacks will be provided.  The cost:  $5.

For more information talk to any member of the band executive.

Food, friends and fun - on Friday!
image by Josh Russell, from flickr

Thanks to the Smith family for making this event possible!

No rehearsal on Tuesday, Oct. 11

The Tuesday rehearsal has been rescheduled to Thursday, Oct. 13, due to a staff meeting.  Back to normal schedule next week. See you on Thursday!