Prelude and Fugue In B♭Major
Arranged by Roland L. Moehlmann
Alfred Publishing Company
Grade: 3
Year: 1970
Duration: 6'15"
Key: Bb
Time: 4/4
Tempo: quarter note = 110
Grade: 3
Year: 1970
Duration: 6'15"
Key: Bb
Time: 4/4
Tempo: quarter note = 110
Instumentation
Piccolo Flute 1 / 2 Oboe 1 / 2 Optional English Horn Bassoon 1 / 2 Clarinet 1 / 2 / 3 Eb Alto Clarinet Bass Clarinet |
Eb Alto Saxophone 1 / 2
Bb Tenor Saxophone Eb Baritone Saxophone Trumpet 1 / 2 / 3 Horn 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 Trombone 1 / 2 / 3 Euphonium Baritone TC Tuba Timpani |
Click on LISTEN to listen to a recording.
Suggestions for Small Band Instrumentation
This arrangement is brilliant in that the selection of timbres from the instruments combined make it resemble an organ very well. For limited instrumentation it works well in that many of the parts in both the prelude and fugue are doubled in many sections. For example the flutes, oboes, and clarinets make a group. while trombone, horn, baritone, and tuba also make a group. The trumpets tend to play their own individual part but they are at times joined by horn and other low brass. At other times they are joined with the upper woodwinds. The Beauty of this piece is brought about by all the doubling through out the sections. This does mean however that you loose some of the organ like quality as you loose instruments but the parts are still somewhat present in the sound making it doable.
Program Notes
The English term fugue, from the Latin fugere (“to flee”) and fugare (“to chase”), arose from the technique of "imitation", where the same musical material was repeated starting on a different note. Originally this was to aid improvisation, but by the 1550s, it was considered a technique of composition.
Since the 17th century, fugue has described the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint. A fugue opens with one main theme, the subject, which then sounds successively in each voice in imitation; when each voice has entered, the exposition is complete; this is occasionally followed by a connecting passage, or episode, developed from previously heard material; further "entries" of the subject then are heard in related keys. Episodes (if applicable) and entries are usually alternated until the "final entry" of the subject, by which point the music has returned to the opening key, or tonic, which is often followed by closing material, the coda.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born into a family boasting at least four generations of musicians; in early eighteenth-century Germany there were over thirty organists named Bach, and numerous town musicians. Bach’s father was a respected violinist and violist. When the boy was orphaned at the age of ten, his elder brother, likewise an accomplished musician, saw to his education. By the age of eighteen, Bach had obtained his first post as a church organist. His output of sacred and secular music throughout his life was prodigious and seemingly effortless. By the end of his life, Bach’s style of music was already becoming old-fashioned and his work rapidly fell into obscurity, until a new generation of Romantic composers headed by Mendelssohn and Schumann rediscovered the treasures he had left us.
Arranger
Roland L. Moehlmann
Born: 1907 - Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Died: 1972 - Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
The band leader and arranger, Roland L. Moehlmann, studied music in Madison, Wisconsin and at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin, Germany.
Roland L. Moehlmann was the founding director of Cedar Rapids Municipal Band (CRMB), and led the ensemble from 1951 to 1967. He came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1929 as the second full time instrumental music teacher hired by the Cedar Rapids Community School District. In the early 1930’s he began writing a series of band transcriptions on J.S. Bach's Preludes and Fugues. He dedicated his arrangement of J.S. Bach's Prelude & Fugue in G Minor to Ms. Alice Inskeep, who was one of the original founding members of the influential Music Educators National Conference. She was also a Cedar Rapids Public School Music Supervisor and a faculty member at Coe College for forty years at the beginning of the 20th century.The success and fame from these transcriptions earned him the name Bach-Moehlmann in the national band community. In the 1950's he composed a number of pieces for high school sight reading band contests.
The Municipal Band would often proofread his green ink, copper plate proof sheets by playing through and looking for errors in the music. In the 1960's he transcribed and published band arrangements of music by composers such as Mozart and Dvorak. He also wrote many band accompaniments for soloists who performed with the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band. Today, around 125 of his unpublished manuscripts exist. Many of these have been rented out and performed all over the USA.
While teaching a Cedar Rapids school, Roland L. Moehlmann was knocked down some stairs by an out of control student. The resulting back injury eventually led to arthritis of the spine. During the late 1960’s he had become almost completely immobilized. He underwent twelve major back operations, and survived a heart attack. Despite his constant pain he continued to direct the band, teach school , and arrange music. His deteriorating health required his resigning as Municipal Band director in 1968.
Information Collected From
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Moehlmann-Roland.htm
http://palatineconcertband.org/program-notes/p/prelude-and-fugue-in-b-flat-major.html
http://www.jwpepper.com/Prelude-and-Fugue-in-B-Flat-Major/4133146.item#.Vap-NipViko
Suggestions for Small Band Instrumentation
This arrangement is brilliant in that the selection of timbres from the instruments combined make it resemble an organ very well. For limited instrumentation it works well in that many of the parts in both the prelude and fugue are doubled in many sections. For example the flutes, oboes, and clarinets make a group. while trombone, horn, baritone, and tuba also make a group. The trumpets tend to play their own individual part but they are at times joined by horn and other low brass. At other times they are joined with the upper woodwinds. The Beauty of this piece is brought about by all the doubling through out the sections. This does mean however that you loose some of the organ like quality as you loose instruments but the parts are still somewhat present in the sound making it doable.
Program Notes
The English term fugue, from the Latin fugere (“to flee”) and fugare (“to chase”), arose from the technique of "imitation", where the same musical material was repeated starting on a different note. Originally this was to aid improvisation, but by the 1550s, it was considered a technique of composition.
Since the 17th century, fugue has described the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint. A fugue opens with one main theme, the subject, which then sounds successively in each voice in imitation; when each voice has entered, the exposition is complete; this is occasionally followed by a connecting passage, or episode, developed from previously heard material; further "entries" of the subject then are heard in related keys. Episodes (if applicable) and entries are usually alternated until the "final entry" of the subject, by which point the music has returned to the opening key, or tonic, which is often followed by closing material, the coda.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born into a family boasting at least four generations of musicians; in early eighteenth-century Germany there were over thirty organists named Bach, and numerous town musicians. Bach’s father was a respected violinist and violist. When the boy was orphaned at the age of ten, his elder brother, likewise an accomplished musician, saw to his education. By the age of eighteen, Bach had obtained his first post as a church organist. His output of sacred and secular music throughout his life was prodigious and seemingly effortless. By the end of his life, Bach’s style of music was already becoming old-fashioned and his work rapidly fell into obscurity, until a new generation of Romantic composers headed by Mendelssohn and Schumann rediscovered the treasures he had left us.
Arranger
Roland L. Moehlmann
Born: 1907 - Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Died: 1972 - Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
The band leader and arranger, Roland L. Moehlmann, studied music in Madison, Wisconsin and at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin, Germany.
Roland L. Moehlmann was the founding director of Cedar Rapids Municipal Band (CRMB), and led the ensemble from 1951 to 1967. He came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1929 as the second full time instrumental music teacher hired by the Cedar Rapids Community School District. In the early 1930’s he began writing a series of band transcriptions on J.S. Bach's Preludes and Fugues. He dedicated his arrangement of J.S. Bach's Prelude & Fugue in G Minor to Ms. Alice Inskeep, who was one of the original founding members of the influential Music Educators National Conference. She was also a Cedar Rapids Public School Music Supervisor and a faculty member at Coe College for forty years at the beginning of the 20th century.The success and fame from these transcriptions earned him the name Bach-Moehlmann in the national band community. In the 1950's he composed a number of pieces for high school sight reading band contests.
The Municipal Band would often proofread his green ink, copper plate proof sheets by playing through and looking for errors in the music. In the 1960's he transcribed and published band arrangements of music by composers such as Mozart and Dvorak. He also wrote many band accompaniments for soloists who performed with the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band. Today, around 125 of his unpublished manuscripts exist. Many of these have been rented out and performed all over the USA.
While teaching a Cedar Rapids school, Roland L. Moehlmann was knocked down some stairs by an out of control student. The resulting back injury eventually led to arthritis of the spine. During the late 1960’s he had become almost completely immobilized. He underwent twelve major back operations, and survived a heart attack. Despite his constant pain he continued to direct the band, teach school , and arrange music. His deteriorating health required his resigning as Municipal Band director in 1968.
Information Collected From
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Moehlmann-Roland.htm
http://palatineconcertband.org/program-notes/p/prelude-and-fugue-in-b-flat-major.html
http://www.jwpepper.com/Prelude-and-Fugue-in-B-Flat-Major/4133146.item#.Vap-NipViko