Concert Band: Fall 2026

Session Info

September 23, 2026 - December 16, 2026

Rehearsals - Wednesdays 6:40 - 8:15 PM

Fall Concert - Sunday, December 13, 2026, 3:00 in the LS Cafeteria

No rehearsals - Nov 11, Nov 18, Nov 25

Monday Nov 9, Monday Nov 23 - special rehearsals to make up for the 3 Wednesdays in November when we can't rehearse.

The rehearsal on December 16 is our new music rehearsal where we run through the new music for the next session, and celebrate our concert with munchies and social time afterwards! Anyone interested in playing in the Winter/Spring session is welcome, but please contact Diane so we can get you the music.

Rehearsal Location: Band Room (A214) Room at Lincoln Sudbury High School. How to get there.

Registration for Fall 2026 is open. Click the link above to go to the Lincoln Sudbury Adult and Community Education site to register.

Registration fee is $192.00.

If you need financial assistance, please do not register yet. Email Diane and she will guide you through next steps.

Thinking about joining us? Please contact Diane before registering. We can't give refunds, so we suggest that you attend a rehearsal first to see if the group is a good fit for you.

Music & Materials

All sheet music and practice soundfiles are stored in Dropbox.

See email for links
Email Diane if you need access

Music and soundfiles are shared this way due to copyright restrictions. Limiting access helps protect the music and ensures that the composers and arrangers who create it are paid for their work.

You must print your own music—copies will not be available at rehearsal (but if you ask, we will print it for you!).

Curious about how to use practice sound files? See Soundfiles & How to Use Them.

Band Repertoire

Download / Print music information

FALLING WATER

Yukiko Nishimura · Directed by John McLellan

The composer is a Japanese pianist who studied in Tokyo and then the Univ. of Miami studying with Alfred Reed (who is the arranger for our version of Autumn Leaves) and at the Manhattan School of Music. She is now based in LA and has won numerous international awards for her compositions. It’s important to recognize that it’s not ONLY men who are writing music for us to play but women like Linda Murdock and Yukiko Nishimura. It’s time to play more of it.

Originally for orchestra, the opening patterns in 6/8 are intended to elicit images of cascading water. The descending motive in the horns and tenor sax, echoed everywhere, might reinforce this image once implanted in the listener’s mind. The lilting feel of these 6/8 rhythms might be difficult to find at first but this is not at all out of our reach. Listening to the recording will give you all a great sense of how your part fits within the texture of this tone painting.

Listen

Getting started with this piece (review before first rehearsal)

ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES

Arr. by Anne McGinty · Directed by Linda Murdoch

“All the Pretty Little Horses” is a song I’ve known since childhood, but I didn't know anything then about its origin. I just thought it was a pretty lullaby and was intrigued by the reference to the “pretty little horses.” It turns out that it is a well-known traditional lullaby, thought to be of African-American origin. In A Ballad of America: A History of the United States Through Folk Song, John Anthony Scott & John Wardlaw, Scott describe the song this way:

“'All the Pretty Little Horses' is a lullaby for white babies, and a lament for black
ones. The slave woman cradles the master’s child, while her own little one lies
uncared for in the slave quarters. The tenderness of the lullaby collides with a
mother’s anguish for her own child that weeps alone and is not consoled.”

Understanding the song’s history and meaning will help in interpreting it and playing it. Anne McGinty has created a beautiful setting for the song that expresses both its beauty and tenderness and the sadness underlying and permeating the melody.

It’s a beautiful piece and I’m looking forward to playing it with all of you.

Listen

Getting started with this piece (review before first rehearsal)

Before the first rehearsal:

Print your music
Listen to the soundfile
Make any necessary markings

The piece begins with a four-measure flowing legato introduction with clarinets, bells, & finger cymbals, which McGinty notes “should be played with a rich and woody tone color, well supported at all times. The eighth notes should flow and a slight crescendo as the line ascends and a slight decrescendo as the line descends would be in good taste.” In general, as McGinty notes, throughout the piece “the general style should be legato, with notes played full value in a singing and lyrical style.”

As you listen to the piece and look at your part, make sure that you notice (and mark!) the meter, tempo and key signature changes:

Measure 20, the meter changes to 3/4
Measure 22 the tempo and key signature change
Measure 51, the tempo changes and the meter changes back to 4/4
Measure 59 the tempo is much slower
Measure 57, there will be a ritard (although it is not marked!)
Measures 32 & 38, I recommend that you circle the quarter note rests on beat 1 of measure 32 & beat 1 of measure 38 — no one plays in either place, so if you do you will have an unintended solo!

Lyrics

Here are the lyrics to the song, as printed in Ballad of America:

Hushabye
Don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy, little baby;
When you wake
You shall have
All the pretty little horses;
Blacks and bays,
Dapples and grays,
Coach a-six a little horses.
Hushabye
Don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy, little baby.

Hushabye
Don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy, little baby;
Way down yonder,
In the meadow
There’s a poor little Lambie,
The bees and the butterflies
Picking out his eyes,
Poor little thing cries, “Mammy!”
Hushabye
Don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy, little baby;

AUTUMN LEAVES

By Joseph Kosma/arr. Alfred Reed / Ed. R. Mark Rogers · Directed by Diane Muffitt

Ah… one of my all-time favorite songs. (Do you hear my “sigh”?) Although this song has become a jazz standard, and is one of the most recorded pop or jazz tunes (over 1000 recordings!), it was originally written as the melody for a ballet!

There are as many different interpretations of this song as there are people performing it. The simplicity of the piece lends itself to a freedom to emote in many ways. As you listen to the recording of our version, you will notice that each section has a slightly different interpretation, from just relaxed and gentle, to clearly very sad, to almost angry in pain! (This is our challenger for fall).

This is the classic concert band arrangement of Autumn Leaves , by Alfred Reed (1921-2005). Mr. Reed was one of the true great band arrangers and composers, with over 200 pieces (band, vocal, orchestra) to his name. However, if you notice his birth/death dates, most of his work was doing in the mid-20th century and the style of arranging was much different than modern day works. You may find that some of your harmony parts don’t make sense by themselves (thus the importance of listening A LOT!) or that when we put it together you struggle to keep your place (but not as tough as the Bach was!).

Listen

Getting started with this piece (review before first rehearsal)

Before the first rehearsal:

Print your music
Listen to the soundfile a lot!! It is such a gorgeous arrangement!
Make any necessary markings (automatically think, “Key changes, accidentals.”)

Listen for the tempo and style changes (mark).

Note the triplets and the triplets over 2 beats.

Look Up Markings, Abbreviations, Words You Don't Know

Look up all of the tempo markings, abbreviations and other words that you don’t know.

Write the meanings into your music.

For ex:

“Tempo rubato” (you should know rubato; we’ve talked about it a lot!);
“Poco più mosso”;
“Con moto”;
“espr.” and “molto espr.”;
“allarg.”

... and all the rest of them!

Solos and Solis

Do you know the difference between “soli” and “solo”? (if not, look it up!)

There are several solos and solis – for now, everyone will play them. We may make them solos as we get closer to the December concert.

Trumpets

Note that you need CUP MUTES, not straight mutes.

Woodwinds
Don’t panic about measure 58. The sextuplet sixteenth notes, “just” slide upwards in a chromatic scale, starting on the 3rd note of the key. If you are thinking, “Right… not me!” no problem. Play the trill for 2 beats and stop on beat 3 (short!), join in again on the octave higher beat 1 of the next measure. AND… everyone please notice the “sfz >p ” - it means, hit the note hard and decrescendo as you play the trill.

Trills go from the note written to the next note higher in the key signature. Ex: flutes are in Bb (Bb and Eb key signature) and the trill starts on D, so they trill from D to Eb.

Want to learn more?

GOING DEEPER: SOME HISTORY OF THE SONG and links to performances:

Joseph Kosma (22 October 1905 – 7 August 1969) was a Hungarian composer who immigrated to France, and he wrote the melody. Later, Jacques Prévert (French; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) wrote the lyrics, a poem, and the (original) French song was published in 1945.

The song was first sung by Cora Vaucaire - Listen Here

and then in 1946, featured in the movie, “Les Portes de la Nuit” (“The Gates of the Night”) starring Yves Montand - Listen Here

This was a song of regret – regret for the lost love and the time gone by, but memories saved.

For more info on the original French version, go to performingsongwriter.com.

Johnny Mercer (the great American Tin Pan Alley songwriter – “Moon River”, “Days of Wine and Roses”) picked up the song and wrote English words, and titled it, “Autumn Leaves”. Mercer’s version was not a literal translation, but maintained the sad and wistful feeling while leaving the meaning vague. He also shortened it to two verses:

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold.
I see your lips, the summer kisses,
The sun-burned hands I used to hold.

Since you went away the days grow long,
And soon I'll hear, old winter's song.
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall.

As I said, there are MANY different interpretations of this song available. Personally, I do not like the really slow ones (dirge), nor the real fast ones. I like to hear the song moving along at a gentle, leaf-falling-from-the-sky tempo.

Here are some wonderful versions of the English song:

BARBER OF SEVILLE

By Gioacchino Rossini/arr. Mark Williams · Directed by John McLellan

Composers don’t have to be funny to write comic opera. They just have to wisely choose a funny story written by someone else. Rossini’s opera, The Barber of Seville , is a comedy that brought down the house when it first showed up in Rome in 1816 - but not in the way Rossini would have liked. The audience heckled the onstage performers mercilessly as many mistakes were apparently made, ruining the comedy that was inherent in Pierre Beaumarchais’ original play of the same name (1775). Beaumarchais had written three comic plays around the life of a fictional barber named Figaro and yes, this is the same “Figaro” featured in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro , which was based on the second of the three plays.

Many composers had been drawn to Beaumarchais’ plays and this first play was set into an opera by at least four composers prior to the 1816 disaster that Rossini started out with. However, it is Rossini’s opera that has survived while all the others are nearly never performed today. (Remember, Mozart set the second play - completely different and certainly still wildly popular.)

If not funny, Rossini was certainly prolific. He wrote at least two full operas every year between 1810-1829. He wrote 39 of them and RETIRED at age 39, living another 38 years on the fortune that he’d amassed. We should all be so funny!

Funny quotes from the “unfunny” Rossini:

“One can’t judge Wagner’s opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don’t intend to hear it a second time.”
“Monsieur Wagner has good moments but awful quarters of an hour.”
“Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind.”
“How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.”

Listen

Our version of The Barber of Seville as arranged by Mark Williams.

Demonstrated in this recording is the clarity of articulation, wide ranging contrasts in dynamics, and juxtaposition of delicacy and bombast that we will strive to emulate.

The full “Overture to the Barber of Seville” from the Sinfonia Rotterdam, original orchestral version

Note the contrasts of dynamics! The lightness of the staccato backgrounds. We will NOT be going at this pace (ca. 180+bpm for the quarter).

Michael Spyres as Figaro, performing “Largo al factotum”, featuring the famous repeated “Figaro” that we all remember from the cartoons (Tom & Jerry).

Bugs Bunny’s version

Getting started with this piece (review before first rehearsal)

Joint Piece (Band & Strings)

Download / Print joint piece information

BEGIN THE BEGUINE

Cole Porter, arr. Linda Murdock · Directed by Diane Muffitt

This is an arrangement of Cole Porter’s wonderful song, “Begin the Beguine,” for strings, winds, and percussion, to honor SVNHM’s 20th season of making music together. We began in 2007-08, and at our very first rehearsal the first piece we played was an arrangement of “Begin the Beguine.” Now, of course, we have both band and strings, our string ensemble having started in the 2010-11 season, and it seemed fitting to celebrate our 20th season by returning to that very first piece, but now in an arrangement that includes both band and strings!

The song was written by Cole Porter in 1935, while on a cruise, and is a long, beautiful, romantic ballad, with a soaring melody set over a simple beguine rhythm pattern. Because it doesn’t follow the expected structure of American pop songs, there were comments about people not being able to remember the words. Perhaps as a result, the first popular recording was an instrumental jazz arrangement recorded by Artie Shaw and his orchestra in 1938, and it has since been recorded by virtually all of the major big bands.

Hope you all enjoy playing this piece!

Listen

Here is a computer generated soundfile of our arrangement.

See Lyrics and Interpretive Notes below for additional guidance at specific rehearsal numbers.
Try to listen to the piece before the first rehearsal to get familiar with it
Sound file tip! Use earbuds/headphones when practicing with soundfiles → You will have a better experience!

Want to listen to some of the great singers interpret this song? (We are skipping the big band versions, like Artie Shaw, because this is an arrangement based on the original piano/voice score, not a jazz interpretation.)

Frank Sinatra(opens in new tab)

Ella Fitzgerald(opens in new tab)

Getting started with this piece (review before first rehearsal)

Before the first rehearsal:

Print your music
Listen to the soundfile
Make any necessary markings

The song is romantic and needs much emotional expression, so please pay particular attention to the dynamics and phrasing. As you listen to the piece and look at your part, take the time to read the words of the song and understand how they fit with your part, as that will enhance your understanding of dynamics and phrasing and help to bring out the meaning of the song. I’ve printed the words below, along with the rehearsal numbers so you can easily see what’s happening in the song during each section of your part.

And... a couple of comments for specific players regarding Begin the Beguine:

For strings

There are many places in the viola and cello parts that should be played divisi — there are no double stops in this piece, all double notes are divisi & should be divided as evenly as possible among the players

For winds

Many of the wind parts also have divisi parts where some players should play the upper notes and others the lower notes (and occasionally, upper, lower, & middle) — all these places are divisi & should be divided as evenly as possible among the players

For percussion

Be aware that the percussion 1 & 2 parts are not set in stone — Dan will be looking at the parts, adding instruments and rhythms, and he will let you know what he would like you to do.

Make sense? If not, please ask!

Lyrics and Interpretive Notes

Here are the words to Begin the Beguine, with our rehearsal numbers added in brackets, and a few more interpretive notes at the end:

[5] When they begin the Beguine
It brings back the sound of music so tender,
[13] It brings back a night of tropical splendor,
It brings back a memory evergreen.
[21] I’m with you once more under the stars

And down by the shore an orchestra’s playing,
[29] And even the palms seem to be swaying
When they begin the Beguine.
[37] To live it again is past all endeavour,

Except when that tune clutches my heart,
[45] And there we are, swearing to love forever,
And promising never, never to part.
[53] What moments divine, what rapture serene,

Till clouds came along to disperse the joys we had tasted,
[61] And now when I hear people curse the chance that was wasted,
I know but too well what they mean;
[69] So don’t let them begin the Beguine,

Let the love that was once a fire remain an ember,
[77] Let it sleep like the dead desire I only remember
When they begin the Beguine.
[85] Oh yes, let them begin the Beguine, make them play

Till the stars that were there before return above you,
Till you whisper to me once more, “Darling, I love you!”
[97] And we suddenly know what heaven we’re in,

When they begin the Beguine.
[105] When they begin…. The Beguine.

A few more comments:

37 – notice the key change, emphasizing the feelings

45 – increased dynamics, a high point

69 – increasing tension, emotion

85 – highest dynamic of the piece

93 – notice the ritard & the hold on “more” in 94

94 – meno mosso (“Darling, I love you”) is probably the climax of the piece

103 – a tempo & softer to the end