A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

Start the New Year with a wonderful piece of light music for band by Luis Serrano Alarcon, his Little Suite

Pequena

Pequena Suite para Banda by Luis Serrano Alarcon (1. Intrata)

Pequena Suite para Banda by Luis Serrano Alarcon (2. Vals)

Pequena Suite para Banda by Luis Serrano Alarcon (3. Nana)

Pequena Suite para Banda by Luis Serrano Alarcon (4. Galop)


And then go to the website of James Syler at Ballerbach

Many of us probably listened to the New Year's Concert from Vienna and wished that we had an original repertoire of Waltzes and Galops. Well, James Syler has restored a superb original Galop by Arthur Bird to our repertoire.

There is a note below on Luis Serrano Alarcon's Pequena Suita ideal for that New Year Concert together with Arthur Bird's Galop which you can hear on the Ballerbach website.

James Croft writes:

"If you're looking for that 'tasty novelty' to send folks home with a smile on their face, try Arthur Bird's 'Galop'. Great fun!"

James Croft, Retired Director of Bands, Florida State University

PEQUENA SUITE

The Pequena Suite, literally the Little Suite, is in four movements, each strongly contrasted. In the Intrata, an imposing fanfare introduces the suite but it gives way to a rather menacing little march with an unexpected flip ending. Movement two is the most charming Waltz, light music at its best, ranging through the most unexpected keys, clearly paying a little homage to Ravel's La Valse, and again ending superbly. Nana can mean either a lullaby, a grandmother or a nurse; Alarcon has the knack like Adam Gorb of writing wonderful tunes, sometimes just on the edge of descending into a cliche but rarely doing so, and here he writes a glorious tune for the first oboe. The fourth movement, Galop, is just a piece of sheer fun, a gallop which might remind conductors and players of those hair-raising finales by members of Les Six, outrageous jokes piling on top of one another.

For the full article on Luis' music, go to this link