The Asteria March, (original 1994, brass arrangement 2003)

File:
asteria_march.nwcApril 20036 kB00:03:16
Composer:Kaplan, Howard L. (1948- ), Canadian
About:http://www.thrinberry-frog.com
Lyricist:Kaplan, Howard L. (1948- ), Canadian
First Line:Echinodermata are we. We have complex, spiny skin.
Genre:Chamber march
Instruments:Two trumpets, one french horn, one trombone, one tuba, percussion
Submitter:Kaplan, Howard L
Email:howard (e-mail)
Website:http://www.thrinberry-frog.com
If you do not try to read the notation or the lyrics as you simply listen, you may find this a rather peculiar march. If you do try to read the lyrics, you may find this an even more peculiar march, albeit a less inexplicably peculiar march.
The Asteria March originated as a song in 1994; the current arrangement is for brass quintet with percussion. The incentive to create the arrangement was the march competition conducted on various Noteworthy Composer newsgroups in March 2003; it won third prize out of 24 entries. If you like using ten dollar words, you can call this a "chaconne" instead of a song arrangement -- that means that the same melody plus chorus line, 12 bars worth, keeps showing up in different instruments and different octave transpositions.
I used the Unison sound font on an SB Audigy card; if you use a different font, your mileage (or balance) may vary. I've notated the brass at concert pitch.
Since the song melody moves from instrument to instrument, I have also created a silent instrument in the top staff to hold the lyrics and a copy of the melody, regardless of what instrument is currently playing that melody. This staff also holds the chord symbols that a folk musician would use if accompanying this song. The instrument is not muted, but all of its notes are set to a volume of 0. Having the lyrics on a single inaudible channel also makes it easier for me to make a .kar file from the .mid after importing the latter into Melody Assistant.
Grant of permission - I hereby grant the Scriptorium, a web site devoted to posting examples of music composed or notated using Noteworthy Composer, found at http://nwc-scriptorium.org/ as of March 2003, the non-exclusive right to post the information in the form submitted above and in the .nwc file described by the form.
Original song composed 1994, brass arrangement composed 2003