At the Fall Instrument Concert, the Algonquin Wind Ensemble performed Ralph Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite.  The wind ensemble students spent nine weeks rehearsing the score, and studying the composition, composer, and history behind the piece.  We discovered Vaughan Williams based the entire work on folk song sources that he gathered from traveling across England, incorporating a total nine English folk songs into his composition.

The Wind Ensemble students set out to find two American Folk Songs, and create an arrangement of their sources in Ternary Form.  The students notated their arrangement, and recorded themselves performing their composition!  It was very exciting to hear students dabble in some arranging and hear their creativity come to life!

Here are three examples of the recordings:

Kaitlyn Shreeve, flute: American Folk Song 

Eric Coughlin, trombone: Sounds of America

Matt Burmeister, trumpet: It’s Raining Down By the Bay