Variations for Wind Band
Ralph Vaughan Williams (scored by Donald Hunsberger)
General Info
Year: 1957 / 1988 / 1997
Duration: c. 13:50
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Brass band
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Cost: Score and Parts - $170.00 | Score Only - $17.50
Instrumentation
Full Score
Piccolo (doubling flute)
Flute I-II-III (III doubling Alto Flute)
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Piccolo Trumpet I-II
B-flat Flugelhorn I-II
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III-IV
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Harp
Timpani
Percussion, including:
- Bass Drum
- Celesta
- Crash Cymbals
- Glockenspiel
- Snare Drum
- Suspended Cymbal
- Triangle
- Xylophone
Errata
- Substantial errata from the 1988 edition are included here.
Program Notes
The great British brass band tradition has been fostered since 1860 by an annual competition for bands. Originally held in the Crystal Palace (until that edifice burned in the 1930s), it is a major event at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Each year there is a new test piece, required of all bands, and in 1957 Ralph Vaughan Williams (by then a revered, grandfatherly figure in British music) was finally persuaded to write a composition for that purpose.
The composition comprises a theme and 11 variations in a variety of moods and styles, including a waltz, a polonaise, a chorale, a canon, an arabesque, and a fugue.
- Program Note by Brass Band Music Shop
Ralph Vaughan Williams was commissioned to write his Variations for the 1957 National Brass Band Championship of Great Britain. The work was first transcribed for orchestra by Gordon Jacob and renamed Variations for Orchestra, and subsequently transcribed for wind band by Donald Hunsberger as Variations for Wind Band.
Vaughan Williams used the four-bar opening theme from the Variations in his Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, which he was writing concurrently. Although the theme is original, it is influenced heavily by British folk songs, which Vaughan Williams had researched extensively, as evidenced by the "sweeping lyrical lines, bold choral-like statements, florid figures, delicate intertwining solo lines, use of modal writing and harmonies, and counterpoint" that he included in the Variations.
- Program Note by Victor Markovich
Media
- Audio: Reference recording. University of North Texas Wind Symphony (Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor)
- Audio CD: University of North Texas Wind Symphony (Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor) - 2005
State Ratings
- Alabama: Band Class AA
- Louisiana: V
- South Carolina: VI
- Texas: V. Complete
- Virginia: VI
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble (Hampton, Va.) (William Garlette, conductor) - 4 March 2023
- Cleveland State University (Ohio) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Birch Browning, conductor) – 20 November 2022
- University of North Texas (Denton) Wind Orchestra (Andrew Trachsel, conductor) – 17 November 2022
- Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Christopher C. Chapman, conductor) – 7 April 2022 (CBDNA 2022 North Central Conference, Madison, Wisc.)
- Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisc.) Wind Ensemble (Andrew Mast, conductor) – 19 October 2019
- Yuetao Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Taipei, Taiwan) (Gary Brattin, conductor) - 30 March 2010
Works for Winds by This Composer
Adaptable Music
- Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
All Wind Works
- Concerto for Bass Tuba (arr. Wick and Chambers) (1954/1992)
- Concerto Grosso (arr. Grechesky) (1924)
- Concerto in F minor for Tuba and Winds (arr. Hare) (1954/1992)
- England's Pleasant Land (arr. Noble) (1938/2017)
- English Folk Song Suite. See: Folk Song Suite
- English Folk Song Suite (arr. Villanueva) (1924/)
- Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (arr. Bocook) (1910/2006)
- Fantasia on Christmas Carols (arr. Laughlin) (1912/2016/2020)
- Fantasia on Greensleeves (arr. Wagner) (1934/2011)
- Five English Folk Songs (arr. Feldman) (1913/2009)
- Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus" (arr. Gregson) (1939/2004)
- Flourish for Glorious John (orch. Boyd) (1957/1998)
- Flourish for Wind Band (1939)
- Folk Song Suite (1924/2008)
- Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- The Golden Vanity (arr. Wagner) (1933/2009)
- I Vow to Thee, My Country (as setter; ed. Grechesky) (1921/1988)
- Lark Ascending, The (tr. Silvester) (1914/1925/2003)
- Linden Lea (arr. Wagner) (1902/2013)
- Linden Lea (arr. Stout) (1902/1984)
- The Lowlands of Scotland (arr. Daehn) (1912/2006)
- March Past of the Kitchen Utensils (arr. Erwin) (1909/2010)
- My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- Norfolk Rhapsody (tr. Robert O'Brien) (1905)
- Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2 in D minor (tr. O'Toole) (1906/2014?)
- Overture to "The Wasps" (tr. Frank Hudson) (1909)
- Prelude, 49th Parallel (arr. van der Beek) (1960/2018)
- Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Noble) (1941/2014)
- Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Winkler) (1941/1960)
- Prelude from "49th Parallel" (tr. Osmon) (1941/1960/1987/2002)
- Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes (arr. Curnow) (1954/1982)
- Prelude: The New Commonwealth (arr. Grauer) (1940/2006)
- A Ralph Vaughan Williams Portrait (arr. Wagner) (2018)
- Rhosymedre (tr. Beeler) (1920/1972)
- Rhosymedre (tr. Johnston) (1920/2011)
- Rhosymedre (tr. Baldwin) (1920/)
- The Running Set (arr. Daehn) (1933/2007)
- The Running Set (tr. Silvester) (1933)
- Scherzo alla Marcia (1956)
- Sea Songs (1924)
- Sea Songs (arr. Longfield) (1924/2006)
- Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
- Sine Nomine (arr. Cacavas) (1906/1998)
- Sine Nomine (arr. Houseknecht) (1906/1960)
- Sine Nomine (arr. Reed) (1906/1976)
- Songs of Travel (arr. Patterson) (1901-4)
- Three Dorset Songs (arr. Stotter) (1902-1903/2003)
- Three Studies in English Folk Song (arr. Harbinson) (1927/1999/2003)
- Toccata Marziale (1924)
- Toccata Marziale (ed. Battisti) (1924/2005)
- Variations for Wind Band (trans. Hunsberger) (1957/1988/1997)
- A Vaughan Williams Christmas (arr. Wagner) (1999)
- Wassail (arr. Smith)
Resources
- Brattin, Gary T. The Donald Hunsberger Wind Band Transcription of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Variations for Brass Band. 2012. University of Washington, DMA dissertation.
- Miles, Richard B., editor. "Variations for Wind Band." In Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. Volume 3. GIA Publications, 2000, pp. 580-591.
- "VARIATIONS FOR WIND BAND by Ralph Vaughan Williams (Great Britain, 1872-1958) Scored for large wind ensemble by Donald Hunsberger, IN MEMORIAM." WASBE. Web. (Featured as WASBE’s Composition of the Week, 13 November 2023). Accessed 15 November 2023
- Vaughan Williams, R.; Hunsberger, D. (1997). Variations for Wind Band [score]. Boosey & Hawkes: [England?]