Off the Beaten Path

“Off the Beaten Path” A concert of seldom-heard but nevertheless interesting music for wind band. The program includes Percy Grainger’s “In a Nutshell” suite.  This composition, the first that Percy Grainger wrote after his arrival in the United States, is the first large-scale work to treat the percussion section as a unit within the band on an equal footing with the woodwinds and brass. 

Grainger includes within the percussion section piano, celesta, harps (2), no less than eight performers on “tuneful” percussion in addition to the standard battery of timpani, drums, cymbals and the like.  Also on the program is Reynaldo Hahn’s “Le Bal de Beatrice d’Este,” a charming chamber work in a faux Renaissance style depicting a party at the ducal palace of Milan in the late 1400s.  Alfred Reed’s “El Camino Real” is a Latin Fantasy depicting the “Royal Road” from colonial Spanish times; a portion of the “Camino Real” passes through San Antonio – signs can be seen to this along Nacogdoches Rd.  Also on the program is Robert W. Smith’s “Earhart, Sounds of Courage” a tribute to the aviatrix who disappeared while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937.  The program concludes with “The Symphonic Beatles,” a tribute to the legendary Liverpool band.