Scores for Orchestra

Originally composed for piano, this orchestration from Lecuona's celebrated Andalucia Suite by Morton Gould is a sure crowd-pleaser! Instrumentation: 2(1dPicc).2.2+BCl..1: 4Sax(opt.): 2.3.3.1: Perc(2)...

The Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Lecuona (1896-1963) wrote many works labelled as "Afro-Cuban," and sorting them all can be difficult. While some are lost and others are scattered about, the 193...

The melody we know today for "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" was originally written by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) in 1840 as secular music for his Festgesang or Gutenberg Cantata to honor the creati...

Fresh from the loss of his oldest daughter Maria Mahler, and knowing he had a serious heart condition, Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) crafted Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) in the years 1908...

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) had originally intended for Images pour orchestre to be a sequel to the first set of Images for solo piano. However, around 1905, he had decided to orchestrate the compositi...

Ravel's longest work at almost an hour, the complete one-act ballet Daphnis et Chloe was described by the composer as a "symphonie choregraphique" (choreographic symphony). Ravel began the work, a rom...

Hilding Rosenberg (1892-1985) has been described as the first Swedish modernist composer. Influenced by Sibelius in his early years, he later absorbed the work of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Hindemith...

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....

The first of a few works that Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) wrote for wind band, ORIENT AND OCCIDENT, subtitled "grand march," better resembles a tone poem. Inspired by the world travels he undertoo...

Carl Emil Paul Lincke (1866-1946) served as a composer and theater conductor. Thought of as the "father" of the Berlin operetta, he was best known for his operetta Frau Luna, though his Berliner Luft...

Carmen-Quadrille nach Motiven der gleichnamigen Oper von G. Bizet (Carmen quadrille based on motifs from the opera of the same name by G. Bizet), Op. 134, was written by Eduard "Edi" Strauss (1835-191...

The piano trio version of La muse et le poète, Op. 132 was written by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) in 1910 during a vacation to North Africa, and that version premiered at Queen's Hall on June 7, 1...

Written by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) in 1934, this set of variations for piano solo and orchestra on Niccolò Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 for solo violin is much like a concerto, though it consists...

Count d'Ogny commissioned Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) to write three symphonies for the Concert de la Loge Olympique, which was then recognized as one of the finest orchestras in Europe. He complet...

Popularly known as the “New World Symphony,” Antonín Dvorák's (1841-1904) Symphony No. 9 in E minor was composed in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. A m...

The Chandos Anthems, HWV 246-256, are a collection of eleven anthems composed by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) when he was composer in residence at Cannons, the court of James Brydges, newly the...

The well-known hymn NIMM VON UNS, HERR, DU TREUER GOTT, also set to music by J.S. Bach, was written by Martin Moller during a period of plague and was often used as a plea against God's anger. Dietric...

Songs and Dances of Death (Pesni i plyaski smerti), composed in the mid-1870s, is widely considered the finest song cycle by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881). The composer selected four poems penned by h...

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) composed his Concerto for Cello in B minor, Op. 104/B. 191 in 1894. It was the last solo concerto that the composer wrote, and it was the final work that he wrote during his...

Two series of Slavonic Dances, each of them consisting of eight numbers and separated by eight years, were composed by Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904). The idea was suggested to the composer by the publish...

An der Schönen Blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube), Op. 314, written by Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) is one of the most popular works in classical music, and remains well-known in popular cul...

Two series of Slavonic Dances, each of them consisting of eight numbers and separated by eight years, were composed by Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904). The idea was suggested to the composer by the publish...

Two series of Slavonic Dances, each of them consisting of eight numbers and separated by eight years, were composed by Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904). The idea was suggested to the composer by the publish...

George Butterworth (1885-1916), an English composer whose life was cut short at the Battle of the Somme, wrote two song cycles based on A SHROPSHIRE LAD, a collection of 63 poems by A.E. Housman. Conc...

La Clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), K. 621 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) in 1791 after he had almost finished Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Commissioned to celebrate...