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Begin the Beguine
Cole Porter (arr. William Teague)
General Info
Year: 1935 / 1941
Duration: c. 3:45
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Harms
Cost: Score and Parts – Out of print.
For availability information, see Discussion tab, above.
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Piccolo
D-flat Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
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 Cornet I-II-III
B-flat Trumpet I-II
E-flat Horn or Alto I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Percussion, including:
- Bass Drum
- Snare Drum
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Begin the Beguine is a popular song written by Cole Porter. Porter composed the song between Kalabahi, Indonesia, and Fiji during a 1935 Pacific cruise. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee, produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.
At first, the song gained little popularity, perhaps because of its length and unconventional form. Josephine Baker danced to it in her return to America in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, but neither she nor the song were successful. Two years later, however, bandleader Artie Shaw recorded an arrangement of the song, an extended swing orchestra version, in collaboration with his arranger and orchestrator, Jerry Gray. Begin the Beguine became a best-selling record in 1938, peaking at No. 3, skyrocketing Shaw and his band to fame and popularity.
A beguine was originally a Christian lay woman of the 13th or 14th century living in a religious community without formal vows, but in the creole of the Caribbean, especially in Martinique and Guadeloupe, the term came to mean "white woman", and then to be applied to a style of music and dance, and in particular a slow, close couples dance. This combination of French ballroom dance and Latin folk dance became popular in Paris and spread further abroad in the 1940s, largely due to the influence of the Porter song.
- 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
- Atascadero (Calif.) Community Band (Fletcher Ferrara, conductor) – 28 October 2018
- United States Marine Band (Washington, D.C.) (Michelle A. Rakers, conductor) – 11 March 2018
- Foothill Symphonic Band (Palo Alto, Calif.) (David Bruce Adams, conductor) – 12 March 2017
- Houston (Tex.) Pride Band (Jason Stephens and Deborah Hirsch, conductors) – 15 October 2016
- John A. Logan Community Band (Michael Hanes, conductor; Gene Stiman, trombone) – 14 April 2013
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Anything Goes (arr. Higgins) (1934/1984)
- Ballet for Band
- Begin the Beguine (arr. Peters) (1935/)
- Begin the Beguine (arr. Teague) (1935/1941)
- Can-Can (arr. Bennett) (1953/1956)
- Cole Porter: A Symphonic Portrait (arr. Robinson) (1969)
- Cole Porter Classics (arr. Wagner) (2004)
- Cole Porter in Concert (arr. Borgo) (1994)
- Cole Porter Medley (arr. Bennett) (1973)
- Cole Porter on Broadway (arr. Barker) (1986)
- Cole Porter Selection (tr. Bennett) (1947)
- Cole Porter Songbook (arr. Bulla)
- Cole Porter Songs (arr. Bennett) (1946)
- Don't Fence Me In
- I Love Paris
- I've Got You under My Skin
- Night and Day
- On Stage with Cole Porter (arr. Warrington) (1963)
- What Is This Thing Called Love?
- Wunderbar
Resources
- Begin the Beguine, Wikipedia Accessed 18 October 2016
- Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "Cole Porter." Accessed 18 October 2016
- Porter, C.; Teague, W. (1941). Begin the Beguine [score]. Harms: New York.