This is a new category created in January 2019 to celebrate the music of Howard Snell - both his original compositions and his arrangements.
Title are being added daily - January 2nd. 2019
Categories: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC, Howard Snell Music Composer: Sergi Rachmaninov Arranger: Howard Snell
This arrangement is for full Brass Band as opposed to the arrangement for Eb. Soprano Cornet with Brass Band accompaniment which is also available on this site.
You can listen to an extract of this on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will reveal the audio extract and the PDF image for you to sample.
Howard Snell writes: A melancholy Rachmaninov melody (from the Paganini Variations for Piano & Orchestra) to melt any romantic's soul. Anyone who doesn't find this melody gorgeous in the extreme needs prolonged medical treatment !
For that point in the concert, when everything has been fast and furious, and you need to change the mood and get your audience to relax - this is the piece, and everyone knows the tune - as an audience pleaser, you can't fail. Duration a relaxing 3.10
Categories: SOLOS - E♭.Soprano Cornet, Howard Snell Music Composer: S. Rachmaninov Arranger: Howard Snell
A bitter sweet melody, with richly scored accompaniment behind the soloist.
You can listen to an extract of this work or view the Solo Soprano Cornet part on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will reveal the audio extract and pdf file for you to sample.
Howard Snell writes: A melancholy Rachmaninov melody (from the Paganini Variations for Piano & Orchestra) to melt any romantic's soul. Anyone who doesn't find this melody gorgeous in the extreme needs prolonged medical treatment !
Categories: SOLOS - B♭. Cornet & Band, Howard Snell Music Composer: Irving Berlin Arranger: Howard Snell
Bb.Cornet Solo - duration 4.22
Click on "MORE DETAILS" to view the Solo Cornet part and to listen to an audio extract of the work.
If you enjoyed listening to this extract, you can buy the full recording of this work on the CD section of our site. If you want to perform this work with your band, you can of course purchase the score and parts here right now, by clicking on "BUY NOW".
The recording is 20 SUPREME YEARS on Bocchino BOCC106
Categories: Howard Snell Music, Duets Composer: J.S. Bach Arranger: Howard Snell
The Cornet group (plus Flugel Horn) is the focal point of this arrangement, both musically and visually. The sound travels back and forth across the group in the continuous melodic line of which Bach was the ultimate master.
Categories: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC, Howard Snell Music Composer: J.S. Bach Arranger: Howard Snell
From the 3rd.Suite;also known as the Air on the G String;this version features all the cornets plus flugel horn.
The Cornet group (plus Flugel Horn) is the focal point of this arrangement, both musically and visually. The sound travels back and forth across the group in the continuous melodic line of which Bach was the ultimate master.
Categories: Hymn Tunes, Howard Snell Music Composer: J.S. Bach Arranger: Howard Snell
Chorale Prelude BWV 643 Bach's calm, quiet masterly setting of this hymn is a complete experience in itself. This is the original version of the Chorale used by Hindemith in the Coda of his Trumpet Sonata.
Categories: FILM MUSIC & MUSICALS, Howard Snell Music Composer: George Gershwin Arranger: Howard Snell
Recorded by the BBS Foden Band.
Howard Snell writes :
Gershwin's own words convey perfectly his plan for the piece. "My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and absorbs the French atmosphere." Later, he enters a night-club where he experiences more than "a spasm of homesickness." But next day out on the street the visitor "once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life" and we are back again with "the street noises and French atmosphere."
Categories: SOLOS - FLUGEL HORN, Howard Snell Music Composer: Granados Arranger: Howard Snell
Please click on "MORE DETAILS" to view an image (PDF) of the Solo Cornet part.
Granados' music goes right to the heart of Spain's personality. The subtle rhythms, the melodies that manage to smile and be sad at the same moment, add up to a kind of music that is enormously popular the world over.
Categories: SOLOS - B♭. Cornet & Band, Howard Snell Music Composer: Irving Berlin Arranger: H. Snell
Cornet feature - duration 1.42
The 1st movement of 'An Irving Berlin Suite', Annie Oakley's boastful song is put through a variety of jokey variations before ending on a question mark that leads to the second movement... A Pretty Girl is like a Melody.
You can listen to an extract of this work on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will reveal the audio extract for you to sample.
If you enjoyed listening to this extract, you can buy the full recording of this work on the CD section of our site. If you want to perform this work with your band, you can of course purchase the score and parts here right now, by clicking on "BUY NOW".
The recording is 20 SUPREME YEARS on Bocchino BOCC106
Categories: SOLOS - B♭. Cornet & Band, Howard Snell Music Composer: Gabriel Faure Arranger: Howard Snell
After a dream... a melody to die for, perfectly shaped but very emotional. I have added a little repeat of the opening phrase to round off the melody, in the French style.
Categories: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC, Howard Snell Music Composer: Gabriel Faure Arranger: Howard Snell
After a dream... a melody to die for, perfectly shaped but very emotional. I have added a little repeat of the opening phrase to round off the melody, in the French style.
Categories: Howard Snell Music, LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: J.S. Bach Arranger: Howard Snell
(Features the middle of the band.)
Howard Snell writes :
Never averse to using a good melody in several arrangements... after all he must count as the finest arranger in the history of music... Bach not only uses this Arioso in a Cantata but also a harpsichord concerto. His characteristic long melodic line never loses its hold over the listener’s attention. In this arrangement the middle part of the band holds centre stage.
Categories: Books, Howard Snell Music Composer / arranger: Howard Snell
This is a book of "know how", of practical expertise, by a musician of almost 50 years of professional music making at the highest levels. Written to serve all musicians aspiring to the highest levels on their instruments. Solve specific problems in the short term, Maximise talent in the long term, Develop physical & mental skills, Strengthen performance security & attitudes.
Howard writes as a foreword in the book :
During my early years as a student, the teaching I received was restricted to comments such as ‘Do it like this’ or more often ‘Don’t do that!’ I heard very fine players do ‘it’ very well, but was given little real teaching guidance beyond ‘Do that again’ or ‘Slower, please!’ or ‘I’ll hear that again next week.’
What made players good or better or best was baffling. I was lucky as a child that a lot of performing experience came my way, not only on my own instrument but on the piano. I therefore had a decent foothold in the wider repertoire of music, not just that associated with the trumpet. I listened avidly to anything and everything on the radio from the symphonic repertoire across to big-band jazz. Equally important was my determination to learn at every opportunity.
When in the course of time I began to teach young people I did what I could in the usual way. However, midway through my working life I gave up my position as Principal Trumpet with the London Symphony Orchestra in order to conduct and subsequently to write music. I did decide however to continue as a teacher. The reason? I enjoyed it, and my students said that they valued what I did and how I did it.
It was then, as a non-player, that my approach to teaching quickly began to change: I began to focus totally on the student. I now recognised that the student’s primary motivation must come from his or her own vision of performance, and not from mine. In short, the student must teach himself: I would prompt the vision and help in its discovery and development. I would be the remover of obstacles, the provider of supporting knowledge and their sources for both instrumental and musical matters, and above all a source of encouragement. I found myself devising both general and precise solutions — algorithms, patterns, routines, call them what you will — to general and precise problems, solutions that, as a young player, I would have died for. I also found that there was a very great deal of practice and performance wisdom buried deep, in fragments, in musical literature. I found my teaching work spreading into conducting, the writing of music, to musicians from all instruments and latterly The Art of Teaching. I produced a book The Trumpet, Its Practice and Performance, A Guide for Students that contained what I had learned from conducting, listening, playing, teaching and observing how the best musicians think. Its reception by players and teachers alike was excellent, and included the comment, time after time, that what I had written applied to all instruments, even to actors and singers.
With the passage of time and further reflection this new book is the result. If it is of practical use to young, developing musicians I will be delighted. If it stimulates enjoyment of music beyond the locality of the individual’s own instrument I will be even more pleased.
Some of the book will seem unorthodox, some of it may seem obscure on first reading - I have made very few concessions in the presentation of my ideas. I have never found that young people need patronising - but it gives as accurate a picture of my teaching of the skills of practice as I can.
Categories: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC, Howard Snell Music Composer: Howard Snell
Animated circus atmosphere - duration 2.19
You can listen to an extract of this work and view an image of the Solo Cornet part on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will reveal the audio extract and the PDF image for you to sample.
A busy, fairground-style piece, this is a very active 'opener' to start a programme or to provide some relief after serious repertoire.
If you enjoyed listening to this extract, you can buy the full recording of this work on the CD section of our site. If you want to perform this work with your band, you can of course purchase the score and parts here right now, by clicking on "BUY NOW".
The recording is 20 SUPREME YEARS on Bocchino BOCC106
Categories: Howard Snell Music, LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Stephen Foster Arranger: Howard Snell
Stephen Foster, often called the father of american music, was enormously successful in his own day, but most of that success ended up in the pockets of publishers who poached his music without a second thought. One stroke of bad luck followed another until he died at the age of 37, penniless, on the one hand hugely 'appreciated', on the other virtually unrewarded.
Categories: Howard Snell Music, LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Howard Snell
Peter Warlock's Beethoven's Binge was the starting place for this lengthened version, with Mahler, Kurt Weill and Elise herself toting a trombone, and taking a somewhat drunken bow. Not quite the well-mannered young lady Beethoven made her out to be (or not to be).
Click on "MORE DETAILS" to view image of Solo Cornet part.
Categories: TEN PART BRASS MUSIC, Howard Snell Music Composer: Peter Warlock Arranger: Howard Snell
Click on "MORE DETAILS" to view image of 1st. Trumpet part.
Symphonic Ten Part Brass Instrumentation: Trumpet in Eb. Trumpet 1 in Bb. Trumpet 2 in Bb. Trumpet 3 in Bb. or Flugelhorn Horn in F or Eb. Trombone 1 in Treble & Tenor Clef Trombone 2 or Baritone in Treble & Tenor Clef. Bass Trombone Euphonium in Treble & Tenor Clef Tuba in Treble & Bass Clef. Percussion where scored.
Peter Warlock's Beethoven's Binge was the starting place for this lengthened version, with Mahler, Kurt Weill and Elise herself toting a trombone, and taking a somewhat drunken bow. Not quite the well-mannered young lady Beethoven made her out to be (or not to be).
To view 
