Pevensey Castle
By Robert Sheldon
C L Barnhouse Company
Grade: 2.5
Year: 1993
Duration 4'01"
Key: C Minor
Time Signatures: 3/4
Tempos: Quarter note = 72, Quarter note = 152
Grade: 2.5
Year: 1993
Duration 4'01"
Key: C Minor
Time Signatures: 3/4
Tempos: Quarter note = 72, Quarter note = 152
Instrumentation
Flute Oboe Bb Clarinet 1 / 2 Bb Bass Clarinet Eb Alto Sax 1 / 2 Tenor Sax Eb Baritone Saxophone Bassoon Bb Trumpet 1 / 2 F Horns |
Trombone 1/ 2
Baritone Bc/TC Tuba Triangle Suspended Cymbal Crash Cymbal Tom-tom Snare Drum Bass Drum Timpani Orchestra Bells |
Click on SCORE to see the score and listen to a recording.
Suggestion For Small Band Instrumentation
This is another piece that is instrumented in a very friendly way for small groups. The only sections with multiple parts are trumpet, clarinet, and alto saxophone. Plus the percussion parts only require four percussionists. For much of the beginning of the piece the first and second clarinet are doubled in octaves. The alto saxophone is also doubled here with clarinet one. Alto sax part one often also doubles with the flute giving added support to those parts. At measure 39 the flute has the main melody supported by the first trumpet. This may be a spot you would have a clarinet cover this line if you had no flutes. From Measure 49-73 there are two melodies that are predominant and almost fugue like that are doubled by many instruments supported by the low brass. Make sure this section is balanced between the two melodies while being well supported by the low brass. At measure 110 to the end there are staggered entrances with several different sections. Dependent upon instrumentation you may want to move instruments to different parts to get it balanced the way it needs to be.
Program Notes
Pevensey Castle is suggestive of the historical times surrounding the fall of Pevensey Castle in the south of England in the Dark Ages. The piece opens with a slow section featuring a percussion ostinato and a haunting theme played by the saxophones and clarinets. The Allegro section begins with another repeated percussion figure, followed by the main theme played first by the low brass and low woodwinds. Other instruments join in layers; the first being the trumpets, followed by upper woodwinds and then trombones and horns. The melody from the opening slow section returns and leads into a short coda, which is based on the main theme from the Allegro section.
Composer
Robert Sheldon (b. Feb 3, 1954) has taught instrumental music in the Florida and Illinois public schools, and has served on the faculty at Florida State University where he taught conducting and instrumental music education classes, and directed the university bands. As Concert Band Editor for Alfred Music Publishing, he maintains an active composition and conducting schedule, and regularly accepts commissions for new works. Sheldon received the Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Miami and the Master of Fine Arts in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Florida.
An internationally recognized clinician, Sheldon has conducted numerous Regional and All-State Honor Bands throughout the United States and abroad. His teaching career included 28 years in the Florida and Illinois public schools as well as at the University of Florida, Florida State University, Illinois Central College and Bradley University. He also held positions as conductor of the Alachua County Youth Orchestra in Gainesville, Florida and the Prairie Wind Ensemble in East Peoria, Illinois. He maintains membership in several organizations that promote music and music education. He is lead author for the SOUND INNOVATIONS FOR BAND method books, and is a co-author for the MEASURES OF SUCCESS Volume 1 method book and the SOUND INNOVATIONS FOR STRINGS method books.
The American School Band Directors Association has honored him with the Volkwein Award for composition and the Stanbury Award for teaching, and the International Assembly of Phi Beta Mu honored him with the International Outstanding Bandmaster Award. He has also been a twenty-eight-time recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publisher’s Standard Award for his compositions in the concert band and orchestral repertoire. His compositions have been recorded and released on compact discs including, Images: The Music of Robert Sheldon, and Infinite Horizons: The Music of Robert Sheldon, as well as numerous other recordings. Mr. Sheldon has been the topic of articles published in The Instrumentalist, Teaching Music and School Band and Orchestra Magazine, and is one of eleven American wind band composers featured in Volume I of Composers on Composing Music for Band.
Information Collected From
http://robertsheldonmusic.com/about-robert/
http://www.jwpepper.com/Pevensey-Castle/2284362.item#.VamY9SpViko
http://robertsheldonmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/0041.jpg
http://www.whsmusic.nvi.net/pdf/winterbandprogram06.pdf
Suggestion For Small Band Instrumentation
This is another piece that is instrumented in a very friendly way for small groups. The only sections with multiple parts are trumpet, clarinet, and alto saxophone. Plus the percussion parts only require four percussionists. For much of the beginning of the piece the first and second clarinet are doubled in octaves. The alto saxophone is also doubled here with clarinet one. Alto sax part one often also doubles with the flute giving added support to those parts. At measure 39 the flute has the main melody supported by the first trumpet. This may be a spot you would have a clarinet cover this line if you had no flutes. From Measure 49-73 there are two melodies that are predominant and almost fugue like that are doubled by many instruments supported by the low brass. Make sure this section is balanced between the two melodies while being well supported by the low brass. At measure 110 to the end there are staggered entrances with several different sections. Dependent upon instrumentation you may want to move instruments to different parts to get it balanced the way it needs to be.
Program Notes
Pevensey Castle is suggestive of the historical times surrounding the fall of Pevensey Castle in the south of England in the Dark Ages. The piece opens with a slow section featuring a percussion ostinato and a haunting theme played by the saxophones and clarinets. The Allegro section begins with another repeated percussion figure, followed by the main theme played first by the low brass and low woodwinds. Other instruments join in layers; the first being the trumpets, followed by upper woodwinds and then trombones and horns. The melody from the opening slow section returns and leads into a short coda, which is based on the main theme from the Allegro section.
Composer
Robert Sheldon (b. Feb 3, 1954) has taught instrumental music in the Florida and Illinois public schools, and has served on the faculty at Florida State University where he taught conducting and instrumental music education classes, and directed the university bands. As Concert Band Editor for Alfred Music Publishing, he maintains an active composition and conducting schedule, and regularly accepts commissions for new works. Sheldon received the Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Miami and the Master of Fine Arts in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Florida.
An internationally recognized clinician, Sheldon has conducted numerous Regional and All-State Honor Bands throughout the United States and abroad. His teaching career included 28 years in the Florida and Illinois public schools as well as at the University of Florida, Florida State University, Illinois Central College and Bradley University. He also held positions as conductor of the Alachua County Youth Orchestra in Gainesville, Florida and the Prairie Wind Ensemble in East Peoria, Illinois. He maintains membership in several organizations that promote music and music education. He is lead author for the SOUND INNOVATIONS FOR BAND method books, and is a co-author for the MEASURES OF SUCCESS Volume 1 method book and the SOUND INNOVATIONS FOR STRINGS method books.
The American School Band Directors Association has honored him with the Volkwein Award for composition and the Stanbury Award for teaching, and the International Assembly of Phi Beta Mu honored him with the International Outstanding Bandmaster Award. He has also been a twenty-eight-time recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publisher’s Standard Award for his compositions in the concert band and orchestral repertoire. His compositions have been recorded and released on compact discs including, Images: The Music of Robert Sheldon, and Infinite Horizons: The Music of Robert Sheldon, as well as numerous other recordings. Mr. Sheldon has been the topic of articles published in The Instrumentalist, Teaching Music and School Band and Orchestra Magazine, and is one of eleven American wind band composers featured in Volume I of Composers on Composing Music for Band.
Information Collected From
http://robertsheldonmusic.com/about-robert/
http://www.jwpepper.com/Pevensey-Castle/2284362.item#.VamY9SpViko
http://robertsheldonmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/0041.jpg
http://www.whsmusic.nvi.net/pdf/winterbandprogram06.pdf