oboe

Trio, Hob. XV:25 ‘Gypsy’, by Franz Joseph Haydn

arranged for Woodwind Quartet by John W. Pratt

Score and Parts for Flute, Oboe, B♭-Clarinet, and Bassoon; plus, an alternative A-Clarinet part; PDF $16.97

Short summary adapted by NSM from John W. Pratt’s foreword to the edition: The trios Hob. XV: 24-26 were, in Robbins Landon’s account (Haydn, Indiana, 1976), probably the last works Haydn delivered to his publishers before he left England in 1795.  They were written for strong amateur pianists and weak string players, and although the string parts are essential for their effects on sonority, they are not terribly interesting. Such a scenario lends itself beautifully to arrangement of these piano trios for wind quartet.

Haydn labeled the finale of Hob. XV: 25 "in the Gypsies' style", and the trio became an enormous favorite. In the key of G, it opens with a particularly lovely slow movement having alternating minor and major variations.  The third variation is in the relative minor (e), anticipating the key, E major, of the even slower, but subtle and melodically rich, second movement. This retardation heightens the effect of the famous finale.

We have provided alternative parts for clarinet in B-flat and in clarinet in A.  Some players may wish to use the A-clarinet only in the second movement, for the sake of the friendlier key signature and perhaps also for sound, depending on the instrument.

Click to listen to computer-generated audio samples from the score; audio clips from movements I (m42-48, m72-78), II (m57-63), and III (168-190) are separated by brief pauses. 

Score in concert pitch, 17 pages; Flute part, 6 pages; Oboe part, 4 pages; B♭-Clarinet part, 6 pages; Bassoon part, 4 pages; alternative part for A-Clarinet, 6 pages; Total, 56 pages.

Danzas Mecánicas, by Peter Van Zandt Lane

Contemporary Composition for Wind Quintet, PDF $30.00

Peter Van Zandt Lane is a Boston-based composer and bassoonist.  His compositions have been performed across the United States, as well as in Europe and South America, by acclaimed musicians and ensembles such as The Cleveland Orchestra, SIGNAL, International Contemporary Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, New York Virtuoso Singers, Triton Brass, Xanthos Ensemble, East Coast Composers Ensemble, EAR Duo, Quux Collective, and NotaRiotous.  He has written for chamber ensemble, wind ensemble, orchestra, and choir, and often employs the use of electronics in his works.

Lane's Danzas Mecánicas - for woodwind quintet (2011) is an exciting 3-movement, 10-minute piece of fairly high difficulty scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon.  A recording of the piece performed by the Solar Winds Quintet at Slosberg Hall, Brandeis University, in October, 2013 can be heard on YouTube.

Score, 26 pages; Parts, 49 pages; Total, 78 pages.

Seven Rants, by Peter Van Zandt Lane

Contemporary Composition for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, and Piano, PDF $0.00

Peter Van Zandt Lane was commissioned to compose this piece for the 67th Composers Conference and Chamber Music Workshop at Wellesley College, which took place in the summer of 2011.   The annual Conference is a wonderful two-week event, which brings together prominent young composers, superb professional musicians, dedicated amateur chamber musicians, and enthusiastic listeners.   The professional musicians premiere the composers' new works and also coach the amateur musicians in chamber ensembles. Concerts are free and open to the public.  For more information on the program, please visit the Composers Conference website.

After the Conference each year, one of the composer fellows is selected to create a new work for the next year's chamber music workshop participants.   That composer returns the following summer to coach two groups of players on the new composition, in preparation for performances in the Saturday evening concerts of Week I and Week II.   Peter Van Zandt Lane's Seven Rants was an enormous success in 2011, absolutely loved by the players and received exceptionally well by the audience.   Written for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano, Seven Rants is a series of seven delightful and diverse movements.  The first and last movements are strict palindromes.  The five middle movements or "rants" are "mini-concertos", each highlighting a different wind instrument.   Great fun to play, and highly accessible.

With permission from both the composer and the Wellesley Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center, Noteworthy Sheet Music is thrilled to offer our customers a free PDF download of Seven Rants by Peter Van Zandt Lane.   And please check out more of this terrific young composer's work, including two other listings in the NSM catalog, Danzas Mecánicas and Transverse Fractures.

Score, 37 pages: Flute part, 10 pages; Oboe part, 9 pages; Clarinet part, 10 pages; Horn part, 9 pages; Bassoon part, 9 pages; Piano part, 15 pages; Total, 103 pages.

Concert Piece No.1, Op.113, by Felix Mendelssohn

Transcribed for Various Wind Instruments and Piano by John W. Pratt
(originally for Clarinet, Basset Horn, and Piano)

The following is excerpted from John Pratt's © foreword:
"In 1833, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) wrote two Concert Pieces for Clarinet, Basset Horn, and Piano, op. 113 and op. 114, as show-pieces for the famous clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann (1784-1847) to play with his up-and-coming son Karl (1811-1885) on the basset horn. // Mendelssohn's two Concert Pieces are very suitable for transcription, even aside from the rarity of the basset horn today. We provide, as well as the original clarinet part, transcriptions of it for flute and oboe. Transcriptions of the basset horn part are provided for bassoon, clarinet, and English horn. These primo and secondo parts can be mixed and matched at will. For the score, we use Mendelssohn's instruments rather than some other arbitrary pair. This enables anyone interested to check any transcribed part against the original. The score gives the parts in concert pitch, because a transposition would apply to only one of the possible winds, and because the pianist can then easily play any part at original pitch."

Please note that PDFs of the original score and clarinet-primo part are available free of charge in the public domain (see the listing of this work on IMSLP.org), and our transcribed primo and secondo wind parts can readily be used with the original score. Therefore, you should purchase our original instrument Score or Clarinet-primo part only if you would like measure numbers or Mr. Pratt's score (for piano with clarinet and basset horn) in concert pitch.

Preview of Flute primo part

- Piano Score with Clarinet and Basset Horn lines in concert pitch, 8 pages; Total, 10 pages (note that the original score is freely available on IMSLP.org)
- Clarinet in B-flat, primo part, 4 pages; Total, 6 pages (note that the original clarinet part is freely available on IMSLP.org)
- Flute, transcribed primo part, 4 pages; Total, 6 pages
- Oboe, transcribed primo part, 4 pages; Total, 6 pages
- Bassoon, transcribed secondo part, 4 pages; Total, 6 pages
- Clarinet in B-flat, transcribed secondo part, 4 pages; Total, 6 pages
- English Horn, transcribed secondo part, 4 pages; Total, 6 pages

Concert Piece No.2, Op.114, by Felix Mendelssohn

Transcribed for Various Wind Instruments (and piano) by John W. Pratt
(originally for Clarinet, Basset Horn, and Piano)

Primo parts for Clarinet, Flute, or Oboe, PDFs $5.99 each
Secondo parts for Bassoon, Clarinet, or English Horn, PDFs $5.99 each

Each wind part is 4 pages of music; 6 pages total.

Primo parts for Flute, Clarinet in B-flat (note that the original primo clarinet part is freely available on IMSLP.org), or Oboe.

Secondo parts for Clarinet in B-flat, Bassoon, or English Horn. Preview Bassoon II part

Not-Pooh Songs, by Tom Schnauber

For Female Voice and Flute or Female Voice and Oboe, 2 editions

Score for Female Voice and Flute, PDF $18.46
Score for Female Voice and Oboe, PDF $18.46

Tom Schnauber’s Not-Pooh Songs are absolutely delightful. The composer has set to music six children’s poems by A. A. Milne, four from When We Were Very Very Young (“The Alchemist”, “The Mirror”, “The Four Friends”, and “If I Were King”) and two from Now We Are Six ("The Charcoal Burner" and "The Engineer"). The work is offered by Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC in two publications, one for female voice and flute, the other for female voice and oboe. The oboe line is sufficiently different from the flute line in terms of register to warrant it being published as a separate edition (i.e., the flute version makes use of that instrument’s wider range by putting some material in higher octaves). Also, the flute edition includes an alternate variation of “The Mirror” for voice and alto flute, whereas the oboe edition includes an alternate variation of “The Mirror” for voice and English horn.

It’s clear from hearing this music that Schnauber gets a real kick out of Milne’s poetry. The flute/oboe comments, echoes, etc. go with or against the voice line very effectively and entertainingly. These songs will have broad appeal to both players and audiences, and there’s a lot that a pair of performers could do with them. The music isn’t easy, but provides just the sort of challenges that the adventuresome player loves; in places, for example, the flute jumps from C7 to C4, plays multiphonics, and executes finger snaps. But, as the composer has pointed out, just because the music is somewhat demanding doesn’t mean that it should be presented seriously in performance; on the contrary, players should have fun with these pieces and convey the intended joy and playfulness of the work.

Note that both performers are to play from the score, so flutists and oboists may want to print their copy of the score single-sided to avoid a few difficult page turns.

To listen to a recording of Not-Pooh Songs performed by Mitsi Westra, voice, and Pamela French, oboe, visit Tom Schnauber’s SoundCloud page at https://soundcloud.com/user-557772917/sets/not-pooh-songs.

► Schnauber - Not-Pooh Songs - Voice and Flute - PDF

Preview: Not-Pooh Songs for Voice and Flute, p1

Score for female voice and flute, 22 pages; Lyrics, 2 pages; Total, 28 pages.

► Schnauber - Not-Pooh Songs - Voice and Oboe - PDF

Preview: Not-Pooh Songs for Voice and Oboe, p7

Score for female voice and oboe, 22 pages; Lyrics, 2 pages; Total 28 pages

We Gather Together, by Adrianus Valerius

Arranged for Woodwind Quintet by John W. Pratt

Score and Parts for Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, F Horn, and Bassoon; PDF $5.99

Wilt heden nu treden, nowadays more commonly known as We Gather Together, is a Christian hymn of Dutch origin composed by Adrianus Valerius and first published in 1626 (imslp.org); it was later harmonized by Eduard Kremser (en.wikipedia.org).  In the United States, We Gather Together is the most popular song traditionally associated with the Thanksgiving holiday.  John Pratt has created an arrangement of We Gather Together for woodwind quintet that lends new excitement and interesting harmonies to this old favorite.  In his family, the tradition goes back as far as John Pratt (b. 1931) can remember, and when it fell to him to play all three stanzas at his family's annual gathering, he got interested in livening it up.  The opportunistic half-step modulations introduced to help amateur voices warm up also brighten successive stanzas for winds.  Our Noteworthy Sheet Music edition includes a score in concert pitch, as well as parts for flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, horn in F, and bassoon.

Note that for this publication, the parts should be printed one-sided since they are only one page each and we have not inserted blank filler pages.

Score, 3 pages; Parts for Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, F Horn, and Bassoon, 1 page each; Total, 10 pages.

Woodwind Duos, by Elizabeth Vercoe

Original Compositions for 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, or 2 Clarinets, $0.00 (free!)

Elizabeth Vercoe's Duos for woodwinds are available as free downloads from the composer's own website at http://www.elizabethvercoe.com/.  Dr. Vercoe kindly offered to allow Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC to make these duets available from our website as well.

The Duos, in versions for two flutes, two oboes, or two clarinets, are "fun and quite easy. They are suitable for intermediate students."

Photo of Elizabeth Vercoe courtesy of Caroline Alden.

Just click on the links below to download the Duos at no charge; each PDF includes all 5 short duets: