YouTube has become an incredible resource for us musicians, as well as fans of music. Every time I go digging around for stuff, I find new things to get pumped about. Today's blog is a few selections of famous composers conducting their own works, all of which have transcriptions for band. The last one not only has audio, but actually includes video as well! Enjoy!
Hindemith Conducts "March from Symphonic Metamorphosis"
I actually have this recording on my mp3 player. A review I read for a different album said this about Hindemith that while he wasn't a great conductor, he had a unique ability to make his music sound the way it was supposed to. I love the intensity of this march, and I love the way it sounds with the symphony orchestra.
By the way, there is a video of Hindemith himself conducting, but it's not a work that there is a band transcription for. You can find that video by clicking here.
Copland Conducts "El Salon Mexico"
I was incredibly lucky to get to play this with my high school band. It wasn't until much later that I learned the significance of this work. This is another recording that I have in my personal CD collection, and listening to the full symphony orchestra, with Copland himself conducting, well, it's like magic.
Stravinsky Conducts "The Firebird"
Stravinsky's "The Firebird Suite" was the first piece of music that I really fell in love with. Every once in a while I will go back and listen to it again, and still it sounds magical (there's that word again). There is a video on YouTube of him conducting the entire work, but both the video and audio quality were not very good, so I chose this one instead, where he conducts the Finale. Enjoy!
What do you think of these? The way Stravinsky handled those chords in the build up to the end as hits more than elongated chords was a surprise to me. Also when Hindemith slowed down suddenly at 3:36, that was a shock the first time I heard it. Did anything surprise you? Let me know in the comment section, as well as if you have any cool videos you'd like for me to check out. Thank you as always for reading, and until next time, take care!
Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper
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