# Recommendations for a student with limited small ensemble music knowledge



## CTakacs (Nov 15, 2009)

I'm new to this forum so bear with me at first. Currently our school has a chamber group of faculty members, and the only small ensembles we have for students are for very specific genres/instrumentation (contemporary ensemble, string quartets, arabic ensembles, jazz combos, etc.). I want to try to get an equivalent of the faculty ensemble going for the students, but I currently have a very limited knowledge of chamber music repertoire. I also want this ensemble to play a wide variety of styles (dabbling into pop, world, jazz, etc.) As with the instrumentation, it is open to anything, only with one or two instrument per part in order to keep the group small, and the pieces do not need to be played with 100% instrumental authenticity.

Currently I'm trying to find or have come across pieces within these genres:


an early era (baroque/classical) - Handel's Water Music Suite No. 2with a string reduction (if this would be possible)
middle era (romantic) - nothing yet
20th century - Prokofiev Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and bass
world - a celtic piece found in the library
pops - (a movie soundrack suite)
I have also found a PDQ Bach piece that I think would be funny to do.

If you have any recommendations or "constructive" criticism (no blatant bashing please), please help me out. The overall goals of this group are supposed to be to provide small ensemble playing experience for students and to provide diverse flavors of music for the community to enjoy.


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## altiste (Jun 11, 2008)

*Prokofiev Quintet*

Prokofiev's Quintet is a great combination of instruments, surprising that this formation has been so little picked up by other composers. I wrote a quintet, Diversions, in 2003, and as I wanted something else other than the Prokofiev for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass to couple with my quintet, I asked a composer friend, Jonathan Besser, to write a quintet work. Jonathan's come up with _Three pieces from Ecstasy Suite_, actually a reworking of an earlier work and we will be performing the new version in the Paris Oboe Festival in March along with my Diversions. _Three pieces from Ecstasy Suite_ are about 10 minutes long, diverse in their influence.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

I coach small businesses and I suddenly got the feeling, reading your post, that this is just the problem they have. Apologies if you didn't want a lesson. 

You need to be really focussed. You list five bullet points, and one of them is 'world' (which was quite big, last time I looked). Choose one bullet point, probably a subset of it, and start form there. Any of the suggestions you make is worth pursuing, but not all at once. I am certain you don't have the resources to pursue them all. 

So, you could go for Handel concerti (it's an example of narrowing down your focus, not a suggestion you should play the music). So now, who do you know who knows people who are knowledgeable about the music and can provide parts? In this case, it's out of copyright, so it shouldn't be too expensive.

Small businesses want to sell to everybody, and when they say so, it just fazes the people they talk to. By analogy, for you, it's not what you play, it's what you say you play. tell people you're interested in X and I guarantee that they'll say 'actually I don't know any X, but I know some Y and Z.... and then there's A and B you might be interested in'.


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## Chopin_Fan777 (Apr 22, 2010)

For the Romantic Period, Grieg's Two Norwegian Airs Op. 63 would be a good choice for a small string group. I played in a small string ensemble group, and this piece did wonders (It's an unexplainable feeling) when played well.


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