Miniature Overture
General Info
Year: 2010
Duration: c. 3:30
Difficulty: III-1/2 (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Neil A. Kjos
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $70.00 | Score Only (print) - $7.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F
Trombone I-II
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:
- Bass Drum
- Crash Cymbals
- Marimba
- Orchestra Chimes
- Snare Drum
- Tambourine
- Tom-Tom (3)
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Miniature Overture was commissioned by Ernest Mills and the Kearsage Regional High School Band in North Sutton, New Hampshire. The request was for a short work that would be playable by a large number of high school bands throughout the country.
The piece is based upon three ideas: a unifying polychordal harmonic figure (heard in the first measure), a melody based on the interval of a fourth, and a folk-like, slow melody. The melodic material is put through several processes including stretto, anon, inversion, and simultaneous recapitulation. It was my hope to make a significant teaching piece in this short, three-minute setting.
The work is dedicated to my high school band director, Donald К. Smith. He was the band director at High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland. As I enter my 31st year of teaching, I look back on my experience in his band and realize how it molded me as a musician/teacher. He taught us the pursuit of excellence, had the highest of standards for both the band and himself, and taught us self-discipline and self-motivation. He also provided quality musical experiences for us. Little did I know that other high school bands were not playing Persichetti's Symphony for Band, Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, Nixon's Fiesta del Pacifico, and Vaughan Williams's Toccata Marziale, just to name a few.
Most recently I have been reunited with Mr. Smith and I thought it appropriate to dedicate one of my compositions to a person who was so influential in my musical life.
- Program Note by composer
Media
- Audio: Reference recording. Ensemble and conductor unknown
- Audio CD: VanderCook College of Music Symphonic Band (Charles T. Menghini, conductor) - 2011
State Ratings
- Florida: IV
- Kansas: III
- Michigan: Senior High B
- Tennessee: IV
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Kennesaw (Ga.) State University University Band (Rachel Sorenson, conductor) – 24 April 2023
- Kennesaw (Ga.) State University University Band (Joseph Scheivert, conductor) – 18 November 2019
- Sacramento (Calif.) State University Concert Band (Matthew Morse, conductor) – 13 March 2019
- University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) Gold Campus Band (Cory Near, conductor) – 2 May 2017
- Merit School of Music (Chicago, Ill.) Wind Symphony (Brian Polacek, conductor) – 28 April 2012
- VanderCook College of Music (Chicago, Ill.) Symphonic Band (Charles T. Menghini, conductor) – 16 December 2011 (2011 Midwest Clinic)
Works for Winds by This Composer
Adaptable Music
- Gambol (Flex instrumentation) (2020)
- Pervicacity (Flex instrumentation) (2020/2022)
All Wind Works
- AirLink (2009)
- Aloft! (1997)
- Antithigram (1977/1988)
- As If Morning Might Arrive (1994/1996)
- Aubrey Fanfare (1998)
- Bandancing (2004)
- Be Thou My Vision. See: Chorale Prelude: Be Thou My Vision
- The Beltway Jam (2006)
- Border Dance (2021)
- Cage Dance (2020)
- Capriccio (2023)
- Cenotaph (1992)
- Cheers! (1995)
- Chorale and Toccata (1993)
- Chorale Prelude: Be Thou My Vision (1997)
- Chorale, Scherzo, and Dance
- Cloudsplitter Fanfare (2000)
- Concerto for Euphonium (as transcriber) (2018/2020)
- Divertimento in F (1995)
- Down East Fanfare (2003)
- Elegy and Affirmation (1994)
- Elegy for English Horn and Band (1999)
- Encomium (2022)
- Ere the World Began to Be (1996)
- Escapade (2007)
- Fanfare, from All Hail the Power (2002)
- Fanfare for a New Era (1997)
- Fanfare for the Great Hall (1992)
- Fanfare Furiosity (2018)
- Fanfare Saltarello (2021)
- Fanfare: Sinfonia (2003)
- Fanfare, Song and Fugue (2006)
- The Final Beguine (2018)
- Five Songs from the Hills (2010)
- Forefathers
- Four Maryland Songs (2000)
- Gambol (Flex instrumentation) (2020)
- Gavorkna Fanfare (1991)
- Held Still in Quick of Grace (1998)
- I Have a Rendezvous... (2017)
- In Final Obedience (1994)
- In the Silence of the Canyon (2019)
- In This Hid Clearing... (2001/2006)
- Iridium
- Irish Tune from County Derry/Shepherd's Hey (as transcriber) (1918/2021)
- Melting of Winter's Snow (1999)
- Miniature Overture (2010)
- No Brief Candle (2019)
- Panhandle Prelude (2013)
- Parkway Jam Fanfare
- Past the Equinox
- Pastime (1999)
- Pervicacity (Flex instrumentation) (2020/2022)
- Prayer and Jubilation
- Prayers for a Troubled Nation (2016)
- Psalm 150 (2013)
- Remembrance of Things to Come (1990)
- Repetend
- Ricercare (2001)
- Rondeau
- Rondo alla BCP (2023)
- San Luis Snapshots (2016)
- Scenes from Terezin (2009)
- Skyline
- A Song of Hope (2013)
- Southpaw (2014)
- The Star-Spangled Banner (as arranger) (1814/2002)
- Stranger at My Door (2021)
- Symphony No. 1 (2006)
- Three Places in England
- Three Sketches for Wind Band (2018)
- Two Overtures for Film (as transcriber) (1957/1967/2021)
- Variations on a Bach Chorale (2000)
- With Trump and Wing
Resources
- Jack Stamp website
- Perusal score.
- Stamp, J. (2010). Miniature Overture [score]. Neil A. Kjos: San Diego, Calif.