So another concert band season is upon us (I play percussion )… and so it’s time to go through the old repertoire and mine the internet for publicly available MP3s and recordings.

The only song I’m actually playing for this round (concert in a few weeks) is Divertimento for Winds and Percussion by Roger Cichy. Various people note that the song is supposed to be “jazzy”, and this description of the song comes from his faculty page at Providence college :<blockquote>In 1994, he was commissioned by the Des Moines Symphony for an orchestral work. The resulting composition, Divertimento for Strings, Winds and Percussion, was later transcribed for wind band and has received numerous performances from premiere college and professional wind bands in the U.S. The work has been released on a 1995 recording by the North Texas Wind Symphony, conducted by Eugene Corporan, on the Klavier label. </blockquote>

I don’t have the Klavier recording (although presumably the estimable Dr. Keith Kinder (no home page…) does). So here I present some recordings I’ve found online, all of which are perfectly legal for you to download and listen to.<ul><li>The best one comes from the University of Maine Symphonic Band - unfortunately they only recorded movement III and movement IV . Still, it’s pretty good stuff. And it sounds like with a few minor exceptions I’m playing the snare the same way they do. Which is always nice. In fact their snare drags a bit sometimes ;-) </li><li>Next up is Rutgers University Orchestra but they only provide just a bit of movement I . Still, sounds good. </li><li>Rochester “River Campus” gives us a very brash movement II (although they fall apart for a few bars near the end). </li><li>And finally, I’ll throw in a slighly less high-quality set from Norwell high school in the states - II , III , and IV . </li></ul>

Enjoy.