“Simple Song” and the multi-movement “Urban Scenes” are both recent commissions by the young composer/conductor Andrew Boysen for middle school concert band.

The lyrical nature of “Simple Song” revolves around the strength of scoring, harmonic language and use of color. The opening and closing sections of this work highlight soloists who develop their melodic lines to form a woodwind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn) with percussion accompaniment. A significant part for flugelhorn is prominent as well and very necessary to achieve the effectiveness of the transitional areas (cross cueing of the soloists is not indicated in the score). Confident principal players will make this work shine in addition to the challenging middle school percussion parts.

Percussionists will be very involved with five parts covering timpani, vibraphone, marimba/crash cymbals, suspended cymbal/bells, triangle/chimes. “Simple Song” is a sincere opportunity to experiment and expand the musicians awareness of harmonic language and color of for the middle school or young high school concert band.

As a five movement programmatic work, “Urban Scenes” represents the daily life of the city: I. Skyline at Sunrise; II. The Business Day; III. Church Steeples; IV. Rush Hour; V. Skyline at Sunset. The harmonic language is developed even further than “Simple Song” to include singing, aleatory and multi-meter sections that compliment the thematic approach well. Although the scoring is slightly more compact than “Simple Song” with limited parts for trumpet (3), horn (2) and the removal of the Eflat contra-alto clarinet and flugelhorn parts; the complexity of percussion writing remains intact. Percussion needs include the welcome addition of two garbage can lids in movement IV.

Many thanks to Music Directors of the Jefferson, Washington, and Kennedy High Schools of Cedar Rapids, Iowa for their joint commission of “Simple Song” and the Lenox (IA) Junior High School Band for their commission of “Urban Scenes”. Their leadership in commissioning new works for the wind band repertoire is congratulated and applauded. Boysen has additional works for band, orchestra, clarinet and piano and brass choir available from Kjos Publishing on request.