Stanton’s Sheet Music is pleased to invite you to the 2012 “Stanton’s Super Session,” a day-long choral reading session of new music from a variety of publishers! Pre-registration is now open – register online, or call us at 1.800.426.8742. Check out our video below for a “sneak peek” at what we have in store!
Caroline Miller has arranged Broadway, movie, and pop hits on early levels for the “A Dozen a Day Songbook” series. The books can be used on their own or as a supplement to the “A Dozen a Day” technique series by Edna-Mae Burnham. Keep lessons fun for your student or child! Levels released so far are: Mini, Preparatory, and Book 1. If you would like to know more about these books or other Stanton’s music books and sheets, please contact us at 1-800-42-MUSIC or at keyboard@stantons.com.
Answer to last week’s trivia question, “Where did the stick figure drawings come from that are drawn above each “A Dozen a Day” exercise?” Answer: Edna-Mae Burnam drew them herself.
The 2012 Arrangers’ Publishing Company marching band titles are now available for preview at both Stantons.com and Stanton’s Listening Library. Highlights include the Beatlemania show (Magical Mystery Tour/Lady Madonna, Blackbird/Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/The End), Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger, the latest from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, We Found Love and Where Have You Been by Rihanna, and 30-Second Blasters for the stands. All of these titles, and more, are in-stock at Stanton’s – call, fax, or click to add them to your shopping cart today, and visit Stanton’s marching band webpage for more show planning ideas!
The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Choral Music initiative is designed to celebrate our national musical heritage by highlighting significant American choral composers and their works of the past 250 years. Stanton’s Sheet Music is proud to present this series highlighting the composers and their works featured in this groundbreaking project.
(from NEA.gov)
Randall Thompson (1899-1984) was the pre-eminent American choral composer of an earlier generation. His music, though grounded in traditional European rules, always seems very much of its time and place, perhaps because he frequently drew upon the early folk music of New England and the Appalachian region.
He was a Yankee by heritage, born in New York City to a New England family. His father was an English teacher, and sent him to Harvard University where he studied choral music and composition. After graduation he had some private lessons with Ernest Bloch. He won the Prix de Rome in 1922. After studying abroad he returned to the U.S. and spent the rest of his career teaching at various universities, most notably at his alma mater Harvard from 1948 to 1965. Among his most famous students were Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss.
Although Thompson wrote piano music and songs, chamber music and symphonies, and even a Biblical opera, it is for his exceptionally apt choral music that he has remained most admired. His “Alleluia,” written in 1940, quickly became a staple of church choirs in towns big and small and was recorded over a dozen times in the next few decades. Thompson seemed to understand by the 1950s that his style was no longer in vogue in academia; from then on he concentrated his efforts upon community, church, and college choir ensembles – and with enthusiasm, not regret.
Among his most famous larger works are The Peaceable Kingdom, The Testament of Freedom, and Frostiana, each of which evokes stirring elements of the American experience, whether in sound, structure or textual inspiration.
Selected Works:
Alleluia
Americana
The Best of Rooms
Frostiana
The Last Words of David
The Peaceable Kingdom
The Testament of Freedom
For more distinguished choral repertoire suggestions, please contact us.
Esperanza Spalding is an exciting, up-and-coming jazz artist whose debut album, “Esperanza” has just come into print. She won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 53rd Grammy Awards in 2011, making her the first jazz artist to win that award. Her skills as an instrumentalist and vocalist make her shine in this album, in which she sings in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. This collection is worth a good look! Please contact us at 1-800-42-MUSIC or at keyboard@stantons.com to inquire about this collection or other Stanton’s products.
May is here, and with the end of the school year upon us, so are the annual commencement ceremonies. Stanton’s band staff is pleased to recommend the following arrangements of commencement standards for your band to sound its best for this important community event.
THE standard for over 40 years, James D. Ployhar’s Fanfare and Processional/Fanfare and Recessional featuring Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance along with original fanfares and a recessional, is a staple of high school band libraries across the country. Each year we sell plenty of replacement sets to directors whose copies are missing too many parts. Have you checked your library yet?
If you’re looking for something different, Academic Processional & Recessional arranged by Robert W. Smith and Ed Huckeby presents a fresh new treatment of the ceremonial “must-haves” Pomp and Circumstance and Sine Nomine at the grade 3 level! Skillfully scored for success even with limited instrumentation, they nevertheless sound full and solid, with some inspired creative touches.
Lastly, Michael Story’s Graduation Suite is perfect for middle school commencement or smaller high school bands. This accessible arrangement pairs Elgar’s traditional Pomp and Circumstance with the Rondeau by Jean-Joseph Mouret as the recessional (think Masterpiece Theatre; or for Sesame Street fans, Monsterpiece Theatre with Alistair Cookie!).
In the 1930′s, Edna-Mae Burnam began writing a series of technique books for beginning pianists. She called it “A Dozen a Day“. These collections of short, easy exercises are easy and fun to play. Mastering technique for playing the piano even at the early levels of instruction is important. It helps the player practice more efficiently and avoid some pitfalls altogether. Beginning with the earliest level, called “Mini Book”, and ending with Book 4, the concepts presented reinforce the technique as the student progresses. If you had forgotten about this series, or if you would like to know more about it, please contact us at 1800-42-MUSIC, or keyboard@stantons.com. Trivia question: There is a stick figure drawing above each exercise. Where did these come from? (Stay tuned.)
This has been around for years, but may be new to some of you (stop me if you’ve heard it!) with apologies for stereotyping!
After a concert band piece has been played and the music is passed back in, you can almost count on the following:
Flute parts will still look brand new.
Clarinet parts will have alternate fingerings written all over them.
Trumpet parts will be torn from fighting over the lead part.
Trombone parts will have spit stains all over them.
Tuba parts will have a footprint in the middle of them.
Percussion parts will never come back.
This group of books from Hal Leonard’s Essential Elements Guitar Ensembles is perfect for your guitar class, beginning at the mid-beginner level, and going up to the mid intermediate level. As long as all three parts are covered, any number of players can participate. These are great fun if you have 2 more guitar buddies who want to play ensembles, too.
Each book includes the score with all three parts
, and has 14-15 songs per book. Each book of sheet music costs $9.95, so each trio costs only sixty- six cents! There is a melody part, a harmony part, and a bass line written for the regular six string guitar. There are several styles of music to choose from: pop, rock, jazz, and even Disney!
If you would like to know more about these or any other music we have, feel free to contact us at 1-800.42-MUSIC or at keyboard@stantons.com.
Elementary General Music Clinic
DATE/TIME: Wednesday 8/1/2012, 9:00 am-12:30 pm
LOCATION: Franklin County Veterans Memorial
REGISTRATION FEE: $20.00
Stanton’s is excited to welcome back Greg Gilpin as our clinician for the 30th edition of our Elementary General Music Clinic. This is one of Stanton’s longest running and most successful clinics, where we showcase the best new teacher resources, song collections, games, musicals and more! We are sure that you will find materials that will keep you and your students interested throughout the year. Get your school year started on the right foot!
It’s the beginning of May, and even though the school year is beginning to wind down, there are still a few important band performances left. Memorial Day is just around the corner, and the band staff at Stanton’s is honored to help you salute the men and women of our armed services with the following recommendations for marching and concert band.
Perfect for parade or ceremonial use are long-time staples Service Songs Set 1, containing Anchors Aweigh (Navy) and The Caissons Go Rolling Along (Army), and Service Songs Set 2, containing the Marine’s Hymn and U.S. Air Force Song, both arranged by Jerry Burns.
Ideal for parade use is Paul Lavender and Will Rapp’s Patriotic Parade Sequence featuring My Country, ‘Tis of Thee; America the Beautiful; and Battle Hymn of the Republic with easy drum cadences in between.
For concert band we highly recommend Armed Forces – The Pride of America, arranged by Larry Clark and Greg Gilpin. This is the only arrangement available for either concert or marching band that pays tribute to ALL 5 service branches. It also includes settings of the Pledge of Allegiance, America the Beautiful, and the Star-Spangled Banner. This distinctive arrangement has optional 2, 3, or 4-part choral, and string sets available.
Armed Forces on Parade, arranged by Michael Sweeney is a stirring medley of American military marches (Marine’s Hymn, The Caissons Go Rolling Along, Anchors Aweigh) also perfect for the concert setting. A part of Hal Leonard’s Flex-Band Series, this arrangement contains 5-part writing plus percussion making it a great choice for bands with incomplete or unbalanced instrumentation.
We hope you find these recommendations to be helpful, and wish you a safe and happy Memorial Day.
School Teachers – we’re talking your budget allotment here! In these tough economic times, you will want to make sure that you use what you have been given! If you have money left on any of your Purchase Orders, we recommend that you get it spent before someone in the office decides to pull it out from under you and buy soccer balls with it! Plus if you don’t use your allotment, there is a chance you won’t get as much next year because the clerk/treasurer sees that you don’t spend what you’ve been given, so they’ll give you less the next time!
With that in mind, Stanton’s Sheet Music has some great music with which you can finish out the school year. Whether you want serious literature or something on the lighter side, we have plenty of choral, band and orchestra music that would be perfect for your Spring Concerts, for graduation, for teaching new concepts or practicing sight-reading or just to get a head start on next year.
Check out the recommendations on our website, or call Stanton’s at 1-800-42-MUSIC (1-800-426-8742) and talk to one of our knowledgeable sales people about top notch music to finish out your budget. The music we recommend is educationally valid, the best sounding and the most highly programmable, so you can count on getting just the right pieces for your groups to get your precious money’s worth. Contact Stanton’s today!