Mountain Serenade

"Mountain Serenade could be called a musical love letter to a place near and dear to my heart - the mountains of Western North Carolina.  I love to walk early in the morning on the ridges just off the Blue Ridge Parkway only a few minutes from my home.  On a clear day one can see a hundred miles.  It is really beautiful just as the sun rises with the mist clinging to the ridges and the fog lying in the valley below.  It is especially lovely in the fall when it is ablaze with color and refreshing in the spring and summer when everything is green and cool.  From the simple beauty of the dew on the meadows to the mighty majesty of its peaks, our mountains nourish and refresh us like nothing else.  This piece is intended to represent those experiences.  I hope it will nourish and refresh you as well.

A Word for the Conductor

As a piece in the Making Music Beautiful series, Mountain Serenade has a dual purpose: aesthetic and educational.  Pedagogically it is designed to help young players develop the ability to sustain with a lovely, characteristic, blending sound.  It is extensively cross-cued so the conductor has maximum flexibility.  In this piece, beauty of sound, blend, pitch, and balance are always more important than timbre.  Please do not hesitate to mix-and-match voices to achieve this.  I've included some "optional" parts: oboe, bassoon (tuba cues), bass clarinet, baritone sax, and string bass (all basically doubling tuba).  There are also some "just in case" parts included which I've included as well.  They are: Clarinet 3 (doubling Alto Sax), and Trumpet 3 (doubling Horn). For divisi parts the tubas should play the lower octave if comfortable.  Otherwise play the top notes.

I hope this piece is helpful to you and your students and that it will be a pleasure to play and to hear.

 All the Best,

George Naff

This composition is what we could consider a grade 2.5, and may appropriate for a number of ensembles of various ages and abilities.

Instrumentation:

• Flute
• Oboe (optional)
• Clarinet in B♭ 1-2
• Clarinet in B♭ 3 (optional, doubles alto saxophone)
• Bass Clarinet in B♭ (optional, doubles tuba)
• Bassoon (optional, doubles tuba)
• Alto Saxophone 1-2
• Tenor Saxophone
• Baritone Saxophone (optional, doubles tuba)
• Trumpet in B♭ 1-2
• Trumpet in B♭ 3 (optional, doubles horn)
• Horn
• Trombone
• Euphonium
• Tuba
• String Bass (optional)
• Timpani
• Cymbals (Suspended)
• For Tom-toms
• Mallets (Chimes and Glock)