New Music Friday: Ballet No. 6 from L’Amant Anonyme
Ballet No. 6 is an orchestral excerpt from Joseph Bologne’s only surviving opera, L’Amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover). Students will learn how to play in the Classical-era style, 6/8 meter at a prestissimo tempo, ternary form, and more. The Cello part includes a number of viola cues that could be helpful if there is a smaller viola section in the ensemble. 1st violin, 2nd violin, and viola parts are entirely in first position but require extended fingerings.
New Music Friday: The Picnic: Watch Out for the B’s
This piece tells the story of a picnic being interrupted by pesky bees. As time goes on, more and more bees can be heard, and every section gets a turn. Listen for the sounds of the bees as they travel around the orchestra. Most of the “buzzes” include the musical note B in the dissonant cluster of notes. This piece gives your students a chance to tell a story with their music. Invite the students to engage in the drama, looking nervously around or occasionally swatting an imaginary bee in front of their faces. The orchestra creates the narrative of happy picnic-goers having their beautiful day interrupted by pesky bees.
New Music Friday: String Noel!
Commissioned and arranged for a community orchestra, String Noel! is a holiday medley for string orchestra (grade 4) with an optional sing along featuring Joy to the World, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, I Saw Three Ships, Still, Still, Still and Angels We Have Heard on High. View Score 00:00 00:00 No title 00:00 About […]
29 Opera Arrangements for String and Full Orchestra
One of an orchestra teacher’s duties is to introduce students to a variety of musical styles and genres. In an orchestra setting, one way to do this is by playing music from that style or genre. Opera is a particularly interesting and important musical style to introduce students to. To that end, we’re highlighting some of the string and full orchestra arrangements of opera selections available from Tempo Press.
New Music Friday: Ghost Lands
This week’s highlighted new work is Ghost Lands, an original, grade 4 string orchestra work by Thom Sharp.
Show Us Your Performances!
Have you performed a Tempo Press publication with your orchestra? Is it on YouTube? If yes, we’d love to share it on our YouTube channel! We want to highlight the great performances we see from real school and youth orchestras around the world. Particularly in these times of separation and isolation, when many concerts have […]