Autobiography

From Wind Repertory Project
Robert Russell Bennett

Robert Russell Bennett


General Info

Year: 1979
Duration: c. 14:40
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: G. Schirmer
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $75.00   |   Score Only (print) - $10.00

For further availability information, see Discussion tab, above.


Movements

1. 1894: Cherry Street – 2:10
2. 1899: South Omaha – 2:00
3. 1900: Corn, Cows, and Music – 1:45
6. 1926: A Parisian in Paris – 1:50
7. 1935: What was the Question? – 2:00


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion (4 players), including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Blocks (2)
  • Bongo
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Gong
  • Marimba
  • Military Drum
  • Orchestra Bells
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Temple Blocks (2)
  • Tom-Toms (2)
  • Triangle
  • Vibraphone
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Composer Robert Russell Bennett writes this about his Autobiography for Band:

The form is seven short pictures, each about two minutes long, of my own personal seven ages. The three of my seven ages in Part One took us to the legal end of my youth. Gathering up my unspectacular belongings, including my entire fortune of less than $200, I swooped down on New York for no more reason than it was New York and had a street in it called Broadway. The music borrows two or three rhythms from the era, but the only note-for-note quote is what the bugler at Camp Funston played every morning while we put on our shoes. Later, when we get to Paris, some of the cute old French tunes that everybody knows came tripping by. This is the full extent of musical quotes, at least conscious ones.

- Program Note from Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music


“The suggestion that I write my autobiography was made at a time when anyone who did not write one risked being called eccentric ... The only answer I could think of with any degree of enthusiasm was this one, written purely for whatever pleasure it could give. My own part of the pleasure is mostly in utilizing the musical language of the concert band, with its apparently inexhaustible colors and its fabulous vitality. The form is seven short pictures, each about two minutes long, of my own personal seven ages. The two-minute idea may be the result of the loudspeakers spread all over the hotel in Arizona where the piece was composed.”

Robert Russell Bennett composed this work in 1976 for a 1977 premiere by the Goldman Band. Each movement carries a specific title and chronology, starting with “1894: Cherry Street” and concluding with “1935: What Was the Question?” Each movement also carries a signature melody or rhythm, but the only music he obviously quoted appears in “1916: Mo. to N.Y.,” in which Bennett borrowed “what the bugler at Camp Funston played every morning while we put on our shoes.” This tribute to his own life and musical development stands as the last of Bennett’s major compositions.

- Program Note from Ohio State University Wind Symphony concert program, 3 November 2016


Media


State Ratings

  • Florida: V
  • Louisiana: IV
  • Virginia: IV


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Nebraska Wind Symphony (Omaha) (Josh Kearney, conductor) - 3 July 2022
  • Pomona (Calif.) College Band (Graydon Beeks, conductor) - 28 April 2018
  • The Ohio State University (Columbus) Wind Symphony (Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor) – 3 November 2016


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

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