elementary cool
Andrea La Rose
About this work:
When I taught elementary band in Nashua, New Hampshire, the high school band director and I decided it would be good to have an all-city band, mainly to prepare the sixth graders for their junior high experience with more challenging music. We did two six-week sessions meeting once per week with a concert at the sixth meeting. During the first session, we played a published piece that was a simple rock song. It wasn't bad, but, being the young upstart that I was, I thought I could do better. At least, I hoped I could, because although I listen to tons of popular music, everything I had written up to that point was atonal and not what you'd call ear-candy. Even my more pop/jazz influenced tunes ("we don't march anymore" and the first movement of "two songs for an odd quintet") had a very high "quirk quotient." I pulled out my guitar, and, drawing inspiration from some of my favorite britpop tunes came up with a little ditty. The students were very excited about piece and gushed forth some lovely comments ("You should get this published, Ms. La Rose!").
Year composed: 1998
Duration: 00:03:00
Ensemble type: Band:Concert band
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: Written to sound complete with just flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumet, trombone, snare drum, and bass drum, but comes with full-band scoring.