Annotated Repertoire List for

Secondary Instrumental Band

Kevin Jackson
June.6/16
ED-3872

Section one: Selection Criteria

Below is a list of the criterion I deemed appropriate and necessary to use when deciding on new
repertoire to use with students in a secondary instrumental music setting. Choosing new music
for students to play is one of the most important, and difficult jobs music educators have.
Three important questions one might ask themselves when they are begging new repertoire
selection at the start of a new year are Is it expressive? Is it interesting? and Is it well
crafted from a compositional and technical standpoint? (Wasiak, 2013)
The criteria I have chosen below are meant to ensure that the pieces selected are allowing
the students to gain the best musical, pedagogical, theoretical and historical understanding
possible while still playing music that is fun and challenging.
Key Signatures: Exploring and understanding different key signatures is an important part of a
students musical education. Being able to read and interpret key signatures is essential to
creating music how it was written to be played and creates a deeper understanding for student
musicians. Ensuring that scores have appropriate key signatures that challenge but do not
over/underwhelm your students is a must.
Rhythms: Ensuring that the rhythms in a piece or not too hard or too easy is important. There is
a sweet spot where students are being pushed but not overwhelmed and this should be sought
after by the teacher. Ensuring that you are selecting different pieces with versatile rhythms is
important to maintain the interest of your students and audience. Reading rhythms accurately is a
skill that every young musician should have and this can be the means to that.
Meters: Having different meters or pieces that change meters throughout is an important thing to
look for when choosing music. If students only play pieces in 4/4 throughout their whole music
education it will be much harder to learn the compound time signatures later. It is important to
ensure that you have varying time signatures throughout your concert program. Not only does
this make the music more interesting and versatile but it also creates better musical
understanding for your students.

Range Requirements: When selecting new music another thing to consider is the range
requirements of the piece for different instruments. If the trumpet part is too high for your section
than the piece is probably not an appropriate selection to choose. It is important to pick pieces
that will challenge students on their instruments but you must ensure that it is possible for them
or else it may turn them off of the piece.
Technical Demands: Choosing pieces with varying technical difficulties for different sections is
a must when selecting new repertoire. You need to consider if the music is within the grasp of
your students technical abilities and if it is not if they will be able to gain the abilities in time to
learn the piece. Also ensuring that different sections get the interesting parts in different pieces
is important to maintain the interest from all students and sections.
Historical Contribution: Does this piece have any historical significance? If so what is it and
how can it be used to help the musical understanding of the piece? This can help students have a
deeper understanding and appreciation for the piece and actually build an emotional connection
with it. This also opens the opportunity to intertwine some music history with the spiral
curriculum into your teaching from the podium.
Style: Choosing varying styles with significance is an important thing to consider when choosing
new music. Choosing varying styles helps students understand that style can have implications
on how notes are played and the feelings that go behind them.
Harmony and Texture: When choosing new material it is also important to consider that
implications that the Harmony and Texture can have within a piece. If you have a band that has a
problem with tuning you will not be choosing a piece filled with suspensions and dissonance
Rather you might find a piece with many unisons, thirds, fourths, and fifths. This would allow
your students to gain a stronger sense of tuning and harmony.
Instrument Distribution: It is important to think of the numbers you have in your band when
choosing new music. If you have a very weak low brass section or trumpet section you would
have to think carefully before doing a brass fanfare march.
Endurance: One thing that must be considered when choosing a piece is the endurance of your
different sections and the band as a whole. If you have a trombone section with low endurance
choosing a piece such as Lassus trombone might not be in your best interest.
High Quality and Appropriate
When considering what constitutes a piece as being high quality and appropriate it is important
to refer back to the three questions stated previously. Is it expressive? Is it interesting? and
Is it well crafted from a compositional and technical standpoint? (Wasiak, 2013) If the answer
to any of these three questions in no then the maybe the piece should be reconsidered.

Part two: Annotated Repertoire List for Secondary

Instrumental Band
In this section of the assignment I will break my repertoire choices into three categories;
Beginner, Intermediate and Hard. This will be done so that the music will not e
overwhelmingly hard from the beginning but an array of differing difficulty can be had.

Beginner
Selection 1
Fanfare for the Common Man
Aaron Copland
arr. Longfield
Boosey & Hawkes
Grade: 3
Secondary Instrumental Music
This arrangement of Fanfare for the Common Man has been changed to a different
key which is more accessible both with technical difficulty as well as range. The change
to F Major allows for students to gain skills in this fanfare of a piece which keeps the
percussionists on their toes. This piece will teach students the importance of
articulations, arpeggios and dynamics as well as show how the change in style can be
effective and exciting.

This piece begins with just the percussion and the trumpets and slowly adds more brass
which add a ringing harmony in fourths and fifths. After the initial fanfare is stated the
woodwinds enter with a beautiful counter melody that students will be humming as they
leave class. This piece would work wonderfully as a concert opener or an early in the
year piece where the students could work on things such as rhythm, tuning, and style.

Selection 2
Abandoned Treasure Hunt
Rob Grice
C L Barnhouse Company
Grade: 2
Secondary Instrumental Music
The piece Abandoned Treasure Hunt is a fun concert piece which features all of the
sections in very unique ways. It begins in a slow and mysterious way which makes you
envision you are on a search for treasure but then the piece switches speed and takes
you on the ride of your life.
This tempo and time signature change are a great opportunity to teach from the podium
the concepts involved and will keep your students and audience wanting more
Throughout the slow section there are many opportunities to explore a deep range on
dynamic contrasts as well as crescendo/decrescendos that will sway you like a ship on
the sea. When we enter the fast second section of the piece you can challenge your
students with rhythmic syncopations and many articulations.

Selection 3
Air for Band
Frank Erickson
Bourne Co.
Grade: 1-3
Secondary Instrumental Music

Air for Band slows things down and teaches the discipline and concentration that
coincides with slow music. This is a fantastic piece of music which meets intensity and
boldness in a way that will keep students interested and engaged throughout the entire
thing.
This piece allows the teacher to explore dynamics, tuning, elegance and much more
with their students in a stunning piece that will give your students chills. Outside of
musical concepts this pice holds significant historical and stylistic concepts which will
help students be well rounded in all elements of their musicianship. Keeping strict time
and rhythm in a slower time signature can be a challenge and this pice give students the
opportunity to work on this and hone their skills further.

Intermediate
Selection 4
American Civil War Fantasy
Jerry Bilik
Peer Music Classical

Grade: 4-5
Secondary Instrumental Music
This piece of music takes on many popular military themes throughout the piece and
gives different sections the melody through the piece. This shared melody will keep all
of the sections interested and excited to play. It goes through over ten different popular
melodies that will be easily recognizable for both your students and your audience. This
piece also give you as the teacher the opportunity to do some cross-curricular teaching
in regards to the civil war as well as the stylistic properties of military music.
This piece is appropriate and of a high quality because of its many different properties.
The harmony and textures throughout the piece range from simplistic to very advanced
to give it versatility. There are an array of solos and solis throughout the piece which
keep your students practicing and working their own parts. The meter and tempo
changes throughout the piece keep it interesting and interactive for the band as well.

Selection 5
Ave Maria (1882 Setting)
Anton Bruckner
trans. Kreines
Daehn Publications
Grade: 4-5
Secondary Instrumental Music
This classic piece gives the teacher the opportunity to break into some deep music
history and appreciation. Students will have the chance to learn about who Anton
Bruckner was and perhaps even listen to other versions of this very piece or others
written by this brilliant composer. This piece has significant historical significance as well
that could be taught to the students before playing for a deeper understanding of the
music.
The music itself requires diligent concentration from the students and a string concept of
tuning. Expression and musicality are two things that could be worked on throughout
this piece and students would gain a stringer sense of harmony and intonation from the
thick chords throughout the piece. Dynamics are something that could be explored in a
deep and meaningful way. Two things to be aware of are the endurance and range
factors in a piece such as this.

Selection 6
A Bernstein Tribute
Leonard Bernstein
arr. Grundman
Boosey & Hawkes
Grade: 5
Secondary Instrumental Music

This piece of music features the brilliant writing of Leonard Bernstein in a fun and
intricate medley. When presenting this piece to students the composer Leonard
Bernstein could be introduced and several of hi works could be listened to separately
before they are shown the medley they will be playing. The concepts of the medley give
the chance to show how transitions between key signature and time signatures can
happen naturally and the attention that needs to be paid to them.
This piece is appropriate and of a high quality because of the interesting musical nature
of the writing and intricate melodies involved with it. It will push students with difficult
rhythms, time signatures and key changes. There is lots of room to work on expression
as well as articulations throughout this piece which will leave your students better
musicians than when they started the piece.

Selection 7
Bookmarks from Japan
Julie Giroux
Musica Propria
Grade: 5
Secondary Instrumental Music
Take your group to the exciting country of Japan with this piece of music and visit the
many beauties it has to offer. Thought this piece the percussion play a very important
role with tradition rhythms. The brass and percussion sections play counter melodies to
each other throughout the piece and trade who is leading the piece.
This piece is appropriate and of a high quality because of the cultural diversity you can
see within the music. You can explore how different cultures use different scales and
theoretical concepts and how they change the sound. Using these different scales can
help train the ears of your students and understand how music can express culture and
diversity.

Advanced
Selection 8

Armenian Dances
Alfred Reed
Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.
Grade:6
Secondary Instrumental Music
This piece of music takes you student on a trip far away to the land of Armenia. This
piece features traditional folk dances melodies and rhythms that are infections to the
ears and make you want to move. This is another piece that students will be whistling on
their way out of the classroom. This is a challenging piece of music which will push your
students rhythmic skill as well as their ability to place accents specifically where they are
written. The song begins with a strong brass intro decorated with high winds flourishes
before it breaks into the dance.
This is an advanced piece of music which will take a strong group filled with dedication
to achieve. After the first theme is complete it goes into a difficult section of 7/4 where
the first true dance is heard. This piece has several challenging key changes and time
signature changes accompanied with difficult rhythms. This piece will push the technical
abilities and rhythmic skills of your students in a very positive way.

Selection 9
Equus
Eric Whitacre
Hal Leonard Corporation
Grade: 5-6
Secondary Instrumental Music
The composer Eric Whitacre is a very famous individual and rightfully so. This
composer is one of the most popular composers who is still alive and has a very
creative concept of writing. He is know for many of his vocal compositions but also for
his excellent wind band compositions. Some of the things that can often be seen in his
pieces are rhythmic complexity as well as a sense of mystery. In this case the name
Equus means Horse and the ferocity and strength of this animal can be heard

throughout the piece. You can practically hear the horse neigh and gallop as this piece
is played.
Among technical and rhythmic difficulty this piece also features a broad array of
expression and dynamics. There are many articulations and key changes that make it a
fair difficult piece to perform. Endurance is something to consider when performing this
piece as well although only nine minutes in length the piece has a high demand of all
players. A must play for any Whitacre fans.

Selection 10
Jupiter (from "The Planets")
Gustav Holst
Boosey & Hawkes

Grade: 5-6
Secondary Instrumental Music
The piece Jupiter is one work of a series by Gustav Holst called the The Planets. In
this series Holst emulated the feelings and atmosphere he felt when he thought of each
of the planets. This piece and the series it is involved with is of great importance in the
musical world and is important for students to know. This composer is also very
noteworthy and deemed important to classical music.
The piece itself contains many different fast and slow section which build to the wonder
and amazement of something as foreign as the planet Jupiter. This piece will be a
technical challenge to whomever plays and he melodies are passed around in a way
that no section will ever be bored. There is great complexity in the harmonies and
countermelodies involved with this piece of music which is yet another reason that it is
so great for students to learn.