7th- & 8th-Grade Band Concert

June 2, 2008

The 7th- and 8th-grade Band Concert began with a few tunes by the Jazz Band. They played "Steppin' Up To The Blues" and "Let It Groove". Several of the Jazz Band members chose to play solos during the songs!

The 7th-Grade Band played next, beginning with "Valdres." They followed that with a fun song called "Ghosts In The Graveyard." The next song, "El Toro Rojo Grande," featured the trumpet section including special guest musician Mr. Schlaefer! "Don't Feed The Drummers" was a percussion feature. The 7th-grade band ended their portion of the concert with "Our Kingsland Spring" which is the first movement of "Georgian Suite" by composer Samuel Hazo. Next year the band will play the second movement of this suite as 8th-graders.


For this last concert of the year, I gave the 8th-grade band members input on pieces that they would like to play. They provide me with songs titles and then I look to see if I can find band arrangements of those songs that would be appropriate for this level of experience, and would still provide good learning experiences for the band. The first two pieces of the concert were chosen from the list of songs provided by the band members.

The first 8th-grade band selection was the "John Williams Trilogy," which contained music from "Jurassic Park", "Schindler's List," and "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

The second piece was a medley of songs from "Pirates of the Caribbean."



During my time at Winnequah, I have talked with Ms. McGinnis about her participation in band in middle school, high school, and college. This was the last concert that Ms. McGinnis attended as Winnequah's principal, and I asked her if she would like to play a song with us. (I also asked her to choose a song that she would like to play, and she chose "Brighton Beach.")

After looking at the score for "Brighton Beach" I realized that the 8th-grade band needed a few more people to fill out the instrumentation. (For example, this song called for 4 french horn parts! I asked the entire 7th-grade french horn section to join us because we don't have any french horn players in 8th-grade.) So I asked several of the 7th-Grade Band members (clarinets, french horns, trumpet, & trombone) to join us for this song. They worked on Brighton Beach in GIGs and attended part of 8th-grade band once a week to prepare. I really appreciate their help on this song because it made this song sound much better to have a few more students to fill out the extensive instrumentation needed.


Ms. McGinnis told me that she hadn't played her clarinet in many years, but after a bit of practice she played very well. (We had a GIG after school, and worked on "Brighton Beach".)



I'm glad that she joined us for the song. The band played well, and it was good for them to experience a song that presented many challenges.


After the concert we took a staff picture with me, Ms. Tam, Ms. McGinnis, Mr. Schlaefer, and Mr. Kasparek.

6th-Band, Choir, Orchestra Concert

May 29, 2008

The 6th-grade band, choir, and orchestra concert was on May 29. The 6th-grade band played first, and did 4 songs.

We started with "Court Festival" a piece written by William Byrd during the Renaissance and arranged for band by Bruce Pearson. Next we played "Bach N' Roll" a piece that gave a rock beat to one of J.S. Bach's songs "Menuet" from Anna Magdalena's Notebook.

Here, Ms. Tam (our student teacher) is conducting the piece "All Ye Young Sailors" by Pierre La Plante, a Wisconsin composer. This piece was the band's first experience with a new time signature, 6/8 time.









We ended our portion of the concert with the band's favorite: "Let's Go Band!"


The 6th-grade orchestra played several pieces. This one was accompanied by a slide show of photos that they had taken.



The 6th-grade choir closed the concert.

Veteran's Expedition Celebration

On Tuesday, March 11 the 8th-Grade Band and two of Ms. Hovey's classes honored veterans at the expedition celebration at MGHS.

6th- and 7th-grade Band Concert

On Monday, March 3, the 6th- and 7th-Grade Bands had their concert at the MGHS auditorium.
The 6th-Grade Band began the concert with Bugler's Dream by Leo Arnaud, arranged by Paul Lavender. This piece is the Olympic theme song, and, true to it's name, it features the trumpet section.

Rio Bravo, written by Bruce Pearson & Barrie Gott was the second piece. It was conducted by Vicki Tam, our student teacher.

Our third song, Attack of the Slide Trombones by Mike Hannickel was a lot of fun. It featured the trombone section, and they came to the front of the stage for this piece.

The 6th-grade band concluded their half of the concert with Star Wars, by John Williams, arranged by Carl Strommen.

6th-Grade Band Concert Expedition

The 6th-Grade Band, Orchestra, and Choir performed the first concert of their middle school careers on Tuesday, December 4.

The Band performed first on the concert, and played the following songs:

The Deadly Medley
This song is a combination of many of the songs that we have been working on in band class this fall. We played the first and last song all together with the full band, and then each section got a chance to play a song by themselves.

Saint Nicholas on the Housetop
This song combines "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" and "Up On The Housetop". These songs are separated by a 4-measure percussion section soli.

The Friendly Beasts
This is the first song that we have done in 6th-grade band where there are many different parts, including melody, harmony, and bass line as well as a variety of percussion parts.

Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells was composed by James Pierpont. The song was copyrighted under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in 1857. A common story about the song's composition is that it was written by Pierpont (who was the organist at a Unitarian Church in Savannah, Georgia) for a Thanksgiving program, but it was so popular that it was repeated again at Christmas. Other versions of the story report that it was composed in Boston or Medford, Massachusetts.

Next, the Orchestra played three songs. One of the songs, Tribal Dance, needed 4 percussionists to play drum parts. Two of the percussionists were located on the stage, and another two were in the back of the auditorium.

After a short break for another stage change, the Choir sang five songs, including Dona Nobis Pacem and Ding, Dong, Merrily on High.

All three groups performed really well, and all of the students should be proud of their accomplishment!

7th- & 8th-Grade Band Concert Expedition

Thursday, November 29

The 7th- and 8th-Grade Bands performed their first concert of the year in the high school auditorium. This was the first performance of the year for the 7th-grade band, and the second for the 8th-graders. Both bands played well! (And we even managed to finish the concert in plenty of time for everyone to get home and tune in for most of the Packers/Cowboys game.)

The 7th-Grade Band played the following songs:

Nottingham Castle by Larry Daehn
Stillmeadow Overture by Dennis O. Eveland
and
Little Rock by James D. Ployhar

In a quick informal survey during class the day after the concert, the 7th-graders said the songs that they enjoyed most were Stillmeadow Overture and Little Rock.

The 8th-Grade Band played:
Gopak by Modest Mussorgsky, arranged by Andrew Balent
The Monument March by David W. Moore
and
Psalm by William Himes

The 8th-graders liked Psalm best and discussed possibly including it on the CD that they will record at the end of the school year.