Suite Forty-four - Chandler Wilson

[RickF]

Our band just got a new work in our folders by Chandler Wilson called, "Suite Forty-four". Mr. Wilson composed this five movement piece as part of his dissertation for his PhD at Florida State University in 2019. It has a couple of nice solos for euphonium too which I like (we're only playing m1 and m5). He was inspired to write this suite after having performed behind then presidential candidate Barack Obama few times and then watching him leave the White House in 2016. Our last concert each season is always patriotic. Along with some marches, "American Overture for Band" (Jenkins), "Armed Forces Salute" (Bowden), we're playing some pieces that salute some of our past presidents. "Rough Riders" (Karl King) for Teddy Roosevelt, "Lincoln" (John Williams, Bocook) for Lincoln of course, "Elegy for a Young American" (Presti) for JFK, and "Suite Forty-four" for Obama. JWPepper says it's a grade 5 - which I think is accurate for m4, but I don't think m1 and m5 are that difficult. Below are a few links if interested.

Suite Forty-four (Chandler Wilson) - JWPepper:

"Suite Forty-four" YouTube: (FSU Wind Winds)

[RickF]

This past weekend we had our last two concerts of the season entitled, "American Leadership". Below is a recording from last night of us playing this new work by Dr. Chandler Wilson mentioned above entitled, "Suite Forty-four". It's in honor of our 44th president, Barack Obama. We only played movements 1 and 5. Everyone in the band really liked this new piece.

Suite Forty-four (Chandler Wilson):
“shared with permission from Bravo Music Inc.”

There are two short lyrical solos for euphonium around 1:20 and again at 4:40.

[davewerden]

Nice piece! Very solid writing for full band, using all the sections well. (It's actually pretty easy to make a band sound awkward with improper scoring - a pet peeve of mine!)

Pretty listenable for a general audience, too.

-- in your second post, the link takes me to a login page, FYI --

[RickF]

Oops, I made a mistake with the link, corrected the link above. Thanks Dave.

BTW our horn section grew to '8' this year so the euphs were moved back a row and next to the tubas. So it's become a 'horn-u-copious' I call it. The first solo was marked mf, but had to play up to f or more.

[RickF]

I was hoping to be able to share a video of us playing this new nice piece by Chandler Wilson but unfortunately there have been some delays.

Below is a link to excerpts of movement 1 and 5 with the lyrical euphonium solos. In M1 all eight horns were playing. Below is a picture of the horn section taking a bow after our playing of, "American Overture for Band" (Jenkins). I joke that they are like a ‘horn-u-copious’.

Suite Forty-four (Wilson) M1, M5 excerpts: