Aux Arcs Music

09/12/2023

Get a sneak peek of the Owasso High School Saxophone and Percussion Ensembles before they head to the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago for their world premiere of Chalon Ragsdale's new arrangement of Percy Grainger's "The Gum-Suckers" March. The ensembles will be visiting the University of Arkansas Campus on Tuesday, Dec. 12 for a preview performance .

The Saxophone Ensemble will be performing their full Midwest concert at 3:30 pm, followed by the Percussion Ensemble at 4:30 pm. "The Gum-Suckers" March will be performed jointly by both groups during the Percussion Ensemble's 4:30 pm concert. Both performances will be at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center. Admission is free and open to the public.

25/01/2021

Great composer, great piece, great Band. Hard to go wrong here!

University of Michigan Symphony BandWilliam D. Revelli, conductorIrish Tune from County DerryPercy Aldridge Graingerconducted by Percy Aldridge GraingerMarch...

12/08/2020

The International Percy Grainger Society is opening this “conversation with Sir Andrew Davis” to the general public, and I hope you’ll take the opportunity to attend. It’s free, but registration is required. There is a limit of 100 attendees, so “get ‘em while they’re hot.”

Sir Andrew Davis is currently music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago, chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and conductor laureate of both the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. I had the great good fortune to hear him conduct an all-Stravinsky concert (including Rite of Spring) with the Melbourne Symphony in July of 2019. They never broke a sweat; one of the great orchestras of the world, and one of the great conductors.

I hope you can join us Friday @ 11 central.

https://www.percygraingeramerica.org/Events?fbclid=IwAR3yssYv-YVQdOHv1_OfWuFHgIrsfDMxc-rnMYeXmF6aXxyzJBNKK59wFKY

Performing Percy Grainger: the man, the music, and the mishaps - a conversation with Sir Andrew Davis. Friday, 14 August, 2020

17/12/2019

If you are on your way to the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, we hope you'll stop by the C. Alan Booth to say hello and check out our newest titles.

https://mailchi.mp/453c7f1918dd/aux-arcs-music-at-the-midwest

11/12/2019

Here's a relatively new publication for young mallet ensemble. Especially useful for students new to rolled chorale technique on the marimba. Published by Aux Arcs Music, and distributed by C. Alan Publications (c-alanpublications.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6683P0pBOhE

Percy Grianger's "Ye Banks and Braes, O' Bonnie Doon" arranged for "tuneful percussion" by Chalon L. Ragsdale. Performed by the University of Arkansas Percus...

11/12/2019

The Grainger Museum is a treasure. Percy Grainger could hardly have envisioned the interest in his life and music that the Museum has generated, particularly since the renovation and upgrades some 15 years ago. It's a "must-see" on any trip to Melbourne.

03/12/2019

For my percussion teacher friends. Next time you play at a Music Educators conference, this is the ticket!

Arranged for large percussion ensemble by Chalon Ragsdale. Published by Aux Arcs Music (www.auxarcsmusic.com), distributed by C. Alan Publications (www.c-ala...

03/12/2019

Our newest "animated score." Percy Grainger's "Shepherd's Hey" for large percussion ensemble. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCCvI81WEP4

Arranged for large percussion ensemble by Chalon Ragsdale. Published by Aux Arcs Music (www.auxarcsmusic.com), distributed by C. Alan Publications (www.c-ala...

18/11/2019

Percy Grainger wrote a few pieces he referred to as "Rambles." Here's a Ramble on Aux Arcs Music's newest percussion ensemble numbers. Hope it makes sense!

13/11/2019

Safe travels to those of you en route to PASIC. Don't forget to stop by the C. Alan booth and say hello. Keep up to date on our latest releases and get your C Alan PASIC coupon and shopping list by subscribing to our newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/674ef69979f1/pasic-news

      For those attending the PASIC this week in Indianapolis, be sure to come by the C. Alan Publications booth with the attached "Shopping list" for a 10% discount on a purchase of $25 or more. Check out the Aux Arcs Music publications on the list - mallet ensemble arrangements of Percy Graing...

06/11/2019

For those attending the PASIC next week in Indianapolis, be sure to come by the C. Alan Publications booth with the attached "Shopping list" for a 10% discount on a purchase of $25 or more. Check out the Aux Arcs Music publications on the list - mallet ensemble arrangements of Percy Grainger's "Arrival Platform Humlet;" "Shepherd's Hey"; and, for the young mallet ensemble, "Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon."http://c-alanpublications.com/content/CAP_PASIC19_Shopping_List.pdf

04/11/2019

27/10/2019

Inspiring story of the impact of music on quality of life. Percy Grainger was inspired by his folk song singers, makers of "unwritten music." The tradition continues here.

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/09/701899639/arthur-dubois-is-a-72-year-old-grandfather-and-a-newly-discovered-hip-hop-artist

The Chicago native's beats went viral this week after videos of his trap music started circulating on social media.

13/08/2019

What do you think? This is an idiosyncratic performance of music by one of history's most idiosyncratic composers. As an appreciator of technology, as a composer who used the harmonium most often as his compositional tool, and as a composer who constantly looked for new colors to highlight his polyphonic writing, would Grainger have appreciated this rendition? I think so. Throughout the performance, and especially in the last half, Carpenter uses tempo to highlight the emotional highs and lows of the piece. And to do it in the high pressure environment of a live performance. Just wow.

Cameron Carpenter performs his transpired version of Percy Grainger's "Colonial Song" live on Q2 Music in The Greene Space. 4/20/2012 -- The virtuosic compos...

03/08/2019

This is such a beautiful piece. A companion to "The Lads of Wamphray Ballad" (the same protagonists finally come to their tragic ends), and a wonderful example of Grainger's use of changing orchestration under a repeating vocal line to convey the psychological subtext.

This is Grainger's setting of 'Lord Maxwell's Goodnight' in a version for six solo strings and string orchestra from the 1993 Aldeburgh Festival and performed by Thomas Allen with the English Chamber

03/08/2019

Percy Graigner was a far better-known American popular sensation than much of his biographical material indicates. One of the most-heard musicians of the first half of the 20th Century.

The only known recording of Percy Grainger playing his piano solo arrangement of his 'English Waltz' when he appeared on the Christmas Seal Show. I have been unable to establish a date for this broadc

21/07/2019

The latest blog post from "Percy Grainger America" - Walt Whitman, the inspiration for Grainger's masterwork, "Marching Song of Democracy." https://www.percygraingeramerica.org/blog/7789561?fbclid=IwAR0WYl-ZkEmeXLMo3P7_MuOrNI5ZzyGBisOGOwhu9pLCD911vugZhy6bzrQ

http://www.huntingtonarts.org/event/huntington-summer-arts-festival-l-i-orchestra-with-david-stewart-wiley-and-jeffrey-biegel/?fbclid=IwAR2Q6d1ZCrNH5JOUTabqA-fHNrzWJcpaGyjd2CVSlS9v2AxmU6SxghUehtk

19/07/2019

If you don't already subscribe to "Scoring Notes", you really should (or just catch the latest ones as a "share" from this page). Excellent blog posting this week about preparing a new edition of Copland's "Three Latin American Sketches." https://www.scoringnotes.com/

A site about music notation software and related technology

05/07/2019

Chal Ragsdale is presenting "Percy Grainger and The Percussion Century" on July 21 at the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia. The presentation will open with this clip: https://youtu.be/ymHGbaxEsJk

The University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) Percussion Ensemble performs Chalon Ragsdale's arrangement of Percy Grainger's "Arrival Platform Humlet." Taken fro...

21/06/2019

Now available from C. Alan Publications. Chalon Ragsdale's arrangement of Percy Grainger's "Arrival Platform Humlet" for large percussion ensemble.
http://c-alanpublications.com/arrival-platform-humlet/

Percy Grainger's "Arrival Platform Humlet," arranged for large percussion ensemble plus piano, celesta, harp and staff bells by Chalon Ragsdale. Published by...

16/05/2019

Percy Grainger, the "Inveterate Innovator", was at the forefront of so many things - Music Education, Orchestration, the use of mallet percussion. He was also in on the earliest conceptualizations of electronic music. Here's a fascinating video featuring Burnett Cross, White Plains physicist, who collaborated with Grainger in the 1950's in trying to build the machines that would make his concepts a reality.

https://youtu.be/tYAaHG4cRkA

The Australian classical composer, Percy Grainger, heard strange music in his head. He built machines to produce it, and these were the precursor to the synt...

24/04/2019

Latest post from Scoring Notes about Dorico, the revolutionary notation program from Steinberg. https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/dorico-2-2-20/

Steinberg has released Dorico 2.2.20, a maintenance update to its scoring program, mostly fixing bugs and adding a few improvements too.

16/04/2019

The film scores of Jerry Goldsmith are our favorites. Here's an interesting article about Jerry's orchestrator, Arthur Morton. When asked what an orchestrator does, Morton modestly replied, "It's simple; I move the music from the yellow paper to the white paper." Ah, there is so much more.

http://www.jerrygoldsmithonline.com/spotlight_arthur_morton.htm

23/03/2019

In 1926, Percy Grainger produced a stunning setting of Claude Debussy's "Pagodes" for large "tuneful percussion" ensemble. What if he had done a similar arrangement of this well-known piece by one of his favorite composers - Johann Sebastian Bach? https://youtu.be/uXXqBbw08yM

A 2002 performance by the University of Arkansas Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Chalon Ragsdale. Mark Boseman's arrangement of J.S. Bach's "Toccata and Fu...

20/03/2019

John Philip Sousa was among the highest-earning musicians of his time, among the visitors to his Long Island home was Percy Grainger and Percy’s mother Rose. Another "big earner" among band masters of the time, and almost as well-known (in 1920) as Sousa, was Arthur Clappé, one of Percy Grainger's bandmasters during World War I. Sadly, Clappé's contributions are largely lost to history.

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/john-philip-sousas-long-island-home-sale

Wildbank, listed on the National Register, is now for sale priced at $9.45 million

20/03/2019

All of our scores were created with Sibelius notation program (and we're intrigued with Dorico). But for those looking for a low cost entry to computer assisted notation, take a look at MuseScore. Here's an entertaining (at least) review. https://youtu.be/4hZxo96x48A

This is a UX & UI design review of the notation software: MuseScore, which has become increasingly popular over the last few years. In this video I look at t...

19/12/2018

Wishing safe travels to everyone headed to Chicago for the Midwest Clinic. Look for us at the C. Alan Publications booth. We're looking forward to introducing you to our latest projects.
https://mailchi.mp/eb1cf9607b9f/winter-2018-newsletter

In 2010, while reading Kay Dreyfus’ The Farthest North of Humanness (selected letters of Percy Grainger from 1901-1914), I stumbled across a footnote mentioning Percy Grainger’s The Lads of Wamphray March (one of my favorite Grainger numbers, and the first example of a piece for“Modern Win...

09/12/2018

One of the great TED talks. https://youtu.be/r9LCwI5iErE

http://www.ted.com Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our...

12/11/2018

Back in April of 2018, KUAF's "Of Note with Katy Henriksen" featured this interview of Chal Ragsdale, Stephen Caldwell and Chris Knighten in advance of the World Premiere of our new edition of Percy Grainger's "The Lads of Wamphrey Ballad." http://www.kuaf.com/post/tackling-long-lost-work-idiosyncratic-composer-percy-grainger /0 You can check out the performance here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_X17IoO1nc

While on sabbatical last year, University of Arkansas music professor Chal Ragsdale arranged a new edition of "Lads of Wamphray Ballad" - a long-neglected

07/11/2018

New from Aux Arcs Music. Look for Percy Grainger's "Selections from 'Songs of the North'" at the C. Alan Publications Booth at the Midwest. This will be a great number for Honor Band consideration; plenty of contribution from your mallet percussionists! https://youtu.be/wrrvfxCiFa4

Selections from Percy Grainger's "Songs of the North." Originally for voice and piano, 3 of ten pieces have been grouped by Chalon Ragsdale for Concert Band.