Kalmus Orchestra Library

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), ever fond of poetry, found creative impetus for his beautiful romance The Lark Ascending, IRV 38, in an 1881 poem by George Meredith. Marie Pauline Hall, to whom th...

Georg Phillipp Telemann (1681-1767), among the most prolific composers with 900 or so works, is also notable for having written the first concerto for the viola. Written in four movements rather than...

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) wrote his overture King Lear (H 53), just after the abrupt dissolution of his engagement to Camille Moke. He had just arrived in Italy as the winner of the 1830 Prix de Rome...

When Karl Traugott Queisser, trombonist in the Gewandhaus Orchestra, asked Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy to compose a trombone concerto for him, the composer declined due to time restraints. The task we...

Walter S. Hartley (1927-2016), whose works for saxophone and low brass significantly expanded the repertoire available for those instruments, wrote the QUARTET CONCERTO for SATB saxophones in 1992 for...

Instantly recognizable from the Warner Brothers film Casablanca, As Time Goes By has become one of the most beloved tunes of the film world. It is a true classic. Instrumentation: 3.1+EH.2+BCl.2: 4.3....

The Universal film Going My Way was released during the years of World War II. The predominant musical style was swing, particularly from large dance bands. This Mike Lewis arrangement captures the st...

Written by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) sometime in 1733-1734, the Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C, BWV 1061 appears to have been originally written for only the two solo harpsichords. The string parts we...

Léo Delibes' (1836-1891) Coppélia (1870) is a comic ballet that tells the story of a sinister doctor who has made a beautiful, life-sized dancing doll (the title character), a young man who becomes in...

Composed by Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) in the spring of 1883, SCHERZO CAPRICCIOSO IN D-FLAT MAJOR, Op. 66/B. 131 is a favorite of the concert hall not only for its colorful humor but also for its rest...

When Karl Traugott Queisser, trombonist in the Gewandhaus Orchestra, asked Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy to compose a trombone concerto for him, the composer declined due to time restraints. The task we...

Richard Eilenberg (1848-1927) was a German composer of predominantly marches and dances for orchestra and military music, along with a ballet and a few operettas. The delightful galop Petersborough Sl...

At the close of the Allegro of the Overture, a climax of pleasurable activity, appears a stony figure of heroic mold - the Commendatore. Here, according to the opera-score, the trombones speak for the...

Walter S. Hartley (1927-2016), whose works for saxophone and low brass significantly expanded the repertoire available for those instruments, wrote the QUARTET CONCERTO for SATB saxophones in 1992 for...

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) wrote A London Symphony (also called Symphony No. 2, though never by the composer) between 1912 and 1913 at the prompting of his friend and fellow composer George Bu...

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) wrote the orchestral work BALLATA DELLE GNOMIDI (THE BALLAD OF THE GNOMIDES) in 1920, after he had already begun to gain international attention for his orchestral tone p...

Left incomplete at the time of his death, DOKTOR FAUST occupied Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) between the years 1916 and 1924. He had intended it to be his masterpiece. A completed version was construc...

Hauntingly lovely, this memorable selection from the Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks will mesmerize your audience. Keys are C and E flat, the full orchestra is involved, and a discrete drum set p...

Composed by Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) in 1910 originally for 2 pianos, MOCK MORRIS has been arranged for various ensembles, many of them by Grainger himself. Delightfully upbeat and lively,...

Composed by Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) in 1910 originally for 2 pianos, MOCK MORRIS has been arranged for various ensembles, many of them by Grainger himself. Delightfully upbeat and lively,...

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) wrote 8 Waltzes, Op. 54, for piano in 1879. At the suggestion of his publisher, he arranged two of the waltzes (nos. 1 and 4) for strings the following year. His transcripti...

Walter S. Hartley (1927-2016), whose works for saxophone and low brass significantly expanded the repertoire available for those instruments, wrote the QUARTET CONCERTO for SATB saxophones in 1992 for...

SUMMER EVENING is the first in a set of three short descriptive pieces (THREE SMALL TONE POEMS) for orchestra by Frederick Delius (1862-1934). Composed in 1890, it was not heard in concert until Sir T...

While his Symphony No. 9 is better known, Antonín Dvorák's (1841-1904) Symphony No. 7 is argued by many to be his best symphonic work. Inspired in part by his friend Johannes Brahms' new Symphony No....