The Music of J. Scott McKenzie

Composer, Arranger, Conductor

Concert Band Pieces

Click on the titles below or scroll down for descriptions, recordings, and sample score pages (for most pieces).

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 3

Jaguar Dance (1999)--4.5 minutes

Composed for the Leonardtown (MD) Middle School Advanced Band.  Premiered Spring 1999.

Jaguar Dance begins with hammered dissonant chords which quickly give way to an ostinato in the saxophones.  Students will be challenged by the key of D minor (will require clarinetists to find the alternate low F# key), and low winds and tubas have unusually busy bass lines.  There are only two trombone parts, but there's an optional bass trombone part that adds some significant D's below the staff.  Though challenging for this grade level, Jaguar Dance is written carefully to sound tougher than it is

 

Spotsylvania Holiday (1997)--4.5 minutes

Composed for the Spotsylvania (VA) Middle School Advanced Band, Ruth Kochenour, Director.  Premiered Spring 1997.

Spotsylvania Holiday was my first shot at a middle school-level piece.  Lyrical lines over staccato accompaniment in F major describe the fast opening section.  Players will be challenged by quarter-note triplets over the eighth note pulse.  The slow middle section features a trombone melody in G minor, joined later by a countermelody in flutes.  Horns are not left in the dust--they get the melody, too.  Trumpets usher in the original tempo, then four bars in 6/4 build momentum into the recapitulation, which combines the fast and slow themes in counterpoint.

 

 

Grade 4

 

The Candidates' March (2001)--3.5 minutes

Premiered by the US Infantry Center Band, Fort Benning, Georgia, June 21, 2001.

This march was written for my graduating class of Officer Candidate School and premiered the day we were all commissioned second lieutenants in the US Army.  It is also a tribute to one of my favorite march composers, Henry Fillmore, whose music funneled out of the post's sound system every morning during physical training.  Marked "Tempo di Fillmore," this march is played somewhere between typical American Sousa and circus tempo.  Near the end, the mood becomes nearly circus-like with trombone glissandi, another nod to Fillmore.  There is an optional drum break preceding the trio that commemorates my time as the official drummer of Charlie Company (well, somebody had to keep a beat between the barracks and Building 4; might as well be the band guy).

 

Praeludium (2002)--5.5 minutes

This piece was written for and dedicated to Ben Parks of Pulaski Middle School, Pulaski, Virginia.  Ben let me crash on his hotel room floor at the Virginia Music Educators In-Service Conference after I showed up after having just graduated from an Army course in South Carolina.  I tried writing a Grade 3, but this one turned out just a hair on the difficult side.

Though this score was written for Ben and his group, I must also tip my hat to Claude T. Smith.  He was one of my most influential teachers, even though we never met.  His influence is more apparent in this piece than in any of my others; there are times I think it sounds like something he would have written.  If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Praeludium is a sincere tribute to a composer of endless rhythmic and harmonic invention.

 

Pride and Patriotism (1995)--3.5 minutes

  • Listen to mp3--(admittedly, a pretty terrible recording of a first-rate performance; makes it sound like it's a march that has been played for a hundred years, which was actually the point in composing it)

Premiered July 1995 by the Hagerstown (MD) Municipal Band.

My first march, composed for the Hagerstown Municipal Band.  This terrific group made up of mostly band directors and college students presents a concert series in Hagerstown City Park every summer.  I was a guest conductor in the summer of 1994, and I had such a wonderful time, I "invited myself back" by composing this march for them.  It's a very straightforward march, but with a few surprises at the trio--horns and trombones switch traditional roles, and there's some unexpected orchestration and a key change in the grandioso strain.  Dedicated to my Grandma "Charlie" (Shirley Hauk, sworn into the US Coast Guard on her 20th birthday during World War II), one of the most patriotic people I ever knew!  (She loved this march.)

 

The Roarsville Rag (2008)--3 minutes

I wrote this piece for the Rohrersville Band of Rohrersville, Maryland (my wife's hometown).  To my knowledge, this band is the second-oldest continuously active community band in the country, with the exception of the Allentown (PA) Band.  It's a traditional-sounding rag that presents three contrasting themes that all combine in counterpoint for the finale.

 

Sergeants' Time (2001)--3.5 minutes

When I was promoted to Sergeant in the Army, I had to attend the month-long Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC).  Though the daily schedule looked non-stop on paper, the course (like most other aspects of the Army) turned out to be a lot of "hurry up and wait."  This drove most people up the wall, but for me, it was a lot of time to dream up music.  I wrote down very little until after graduation day, when the march was virtually completed in my head.  It took only a day or two on Finale to get it all down on paper.  The 82d Airborne Division Band premiered it during the pre-ceremony concert at the very next graduation, just one month later.  Though there was no fanfare or announcement, it was nonetheless a moment I cherished.

 

Symphonic Palindrome (1995)--7.5 minutes

Just as the title implies, this piece is the same forwards as backwards.  What began as simply a challenge to myself blossomed into what I think is a valid piece of music, and one of my proudest accomplishments.  Once they realize what's happening, this will surprise and delight your band and your audience.  Palindrome is a slow Mysterioso throughout, and utilizes a few polytonal chords and special effects, including trombone portamenti.

 

Variations on Shenandoah (1991)--10 minutes

Composed for the Stonewall Jackson Senior High School (Manassas, Virginia) Symphonic Band.  Premiered Spring 1991.

This, my third piece for band, is the earliest piece you'll find in my public catalogue.  This is the piece where I felt I really started to get "good."  Shenandoah was written for a band with a lot of excellent first-chair players, but considerably weaker the deeper you dived into the sections.  Therefore, the challenges stem from the solo writing and the requirement for sensitive phrasing and expressivity.