Hansel und Gretel

From Wind Repertory Project
Joshua Nichols

Joshua Nichols


General Info

Year: 2021
Duration: c. 14:45
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Unknown
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown


Movements

1. All Right, Is It - 5:00
2. Can the Dry Earth Breathe - 3:15
3. Cook Me Alive? Not That Funny - 3:15
4. Branches Reach, Fleeing Abounds - 2:40


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Gong
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

The story you think you know goes something like this: kids are wandering in the forest, perhaps up to no good, and stumble upon a gingerbread house. They nibble, like children without manners usually do, and quickly submit to the matronly care of a not-so-normal grandmother. Of course this grandmother is no grandmother, but in fact a witch.

What you may not know is that, in the story being told today, the children were not rapscallions, but malnourished as the result of a famine; their parents, captive to hysteria as a result of the famine, drove their precious little ones out into the wilderness, like animals being sacrificed; and the witch … the witch is cunning, crafty, and caused it all.

And thus, the scene is set, the themes cast, the players forged, and the story ready to take flight. So close your eyes, and imagine…

Why are Hansel and Gretel’s parents acting so strange? Who could send their children out into the forest? What, or who, drives the wilderness mad? What lies just beyond the forest line? Do trees talk to one another? The cackling and cawing: are those birds? Why am I so hungry? This gingerbread … it must be a dream.

- Program Note by composer


Hansel and Gretel is a fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Hansel and Gretel are a brother and sister abandoned in a forest, where they fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread, cake, and pastries. The cannibalistic witch intends to fatten the children before eventually eating them, but Gretel outwits the witch and kills her. The two children then escape with their lives and return home with the witch's treasure.

- Program Note from Wikipedia


Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • University of Arizona (Tucson) Wind Ensemble (Chad R. Nicholson, conductor) - 4 December 2021 *Premiere Performance*


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

Josh Nichols, personal correspondence, December 2021