Russian Sailor's Dance - Glière (5-Part Flex Band Gr. 4.5)

Expertly arranged to accommodate any size band with very achievable technical demands, this edition maintains the fiery spirit and dramatic character of the original Russian ballet music from Glière’s The Red Poppy in all its glory! A great showpiece for introducing your students to orchestral literature, it will not only captivate and motivate them, but it is also sure to bring your audience to its feet with its famous blazing conclusion.

Genre: 5-Part Flex Band | # of Players: 5+
Series: The SpectraFlex Series
Level: 4.5 | Duration: 3:45

Instrumentation
Transposed Score (showing all transposed parts)
Condensed Score (only "C" parts)

Adaptable Parts
(2 copies of each of all parts for each listed instrument)

Part 1: Flute, Oboe, B-flat Clarinet, B-flat Trumpet

Part 2: B-flat Clarinet, B-flat Trumpet, E-flat Alto Saxophone

Part 3: B-flat Clarinet, B-flat Trumpet, E-flat Alto Saxophone, F Horn

Part 4: B-flat Tenor Saxophone, F Horn, Trombone/Euphonium/Bassoon

Part 5: B-flat Bass Clarinet, E-flat Baritone Saxophone, Trombone/Euphonium/Bassoon, Tuba, Double Bass

Piano

Percussion Parts
Timpani (3 drums)
Xylophone
Percussion 1 [2 players]: Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Triangle
Percussion 2 [2 players]: Crash Cymbals, Suspended Cymbal, Triangle

Program Notes
Reinhold Glière was born in Kiev, Russia in 1875, the second son of a wind instrument maker. He entered the Kiev school of music in 1891, where he learned the violin. In 1894 Glière entered the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated in 1900, having composed a one-act opera called Earth and Heaven which received a gold medal in composition. In the following year Glière accepted a teaching post at the Moscow Gnesin School of Music. One of his private students was the eleven-year-old Sergei Prokofiev (later of Peter and the Wolf fame) whom he taught on Prokofiev's parental estate. Glière studied conducting in Berlin from 1905 to 1908. One of his co-students was Serge Koussevitzky, who conducted the premiere of Glière's Symphony No. 2, Op. 25 in Berlin on 1908.

Inspired by a Russian ballerina, he wrote the music for the ballet Krasny mak ("The Red Poppy"), later re-titled as Krasny tsvetok ("The Red Flower") to avoid the association with the opium drug. The Red Poppy was praised "as the first Soviet ballet on a revolutionary subject." This is his best known work worldwide. One piece from the score, his arrangement of a Russian folk song called Yablochko ("little apple"), consists of an introduction, a bass statement of the theme, and a series of increasingly energetic variations ending with a blazing orchestral climax. It is described in the ballet score as Dance of the Sailors from the Soviet Ship, well-known today as the Russian Sailor's Dance. It is probably his most famous single piece, and is still heard at symphony concerts around the world, frequently as an encore.

ABOUT THE SERIES
The SpectraFlex Series for adaptable wind band offers flexibility with pieces across all grade levels, featuring traditional high-to-low scoring with 5 or 6 parts and optional percussion. Each part is transposed and playable by a multitude of wind or keyboard percussion instruments while maintaining the spectrum of sound we have grown to love about the wind band.