BandQuest

BandQuest® is a series of new works for band created by composers from many life experiences. New additions to the BandQuest catalogue include a composer residency that values direct connection between creator and performer. From conversations to workshopping to co-creation, each BandQuest artist builds a relationship with the ensembles through the process of creating a new work together. BandQuest music has reached millions of musicians over the course of its 20 years. Along with the music, our integrated curricula – created after the residency – gives more musicians tools for expression and creativity, encouraging them to explore and to appreciate historical and cultural contexts.

BandQuest is exclusively distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation.

Explore BandQuest Compositions

Email programs@composersforum.org to request a complimentary audio catalog of all pieces in the BandQuest series.

Composer: Kevin Puts

Charm

Grade 3

Charm is a fun, joyful piece written in the meter 7/8 that features clapping. It conjures up magic and that intangible quality possessed by certain people and places that truly can cast a spell.

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Composer: Alex Shapiro

Paper Cut

Grade 3

Paper Cut is a piece reminiscent of a movie soundtrack. The players themselves are part of the action with choreographed maneuvers- in fact, the band members don’t even play their instruments until halfway into the piece – instead they “play” paper along with a prerecorded track!…

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Composer: James M. Stephenson

Deep Dish

Grade 3

This engaging piece serves up a bluesy feel with challenging chromatic passages and saucy harmonies. It also gives students the opportunity to create their own percussive sounds with found kitchen utensils.

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Composer: Christopher Theofanidis

Sweet like that

Grade 3

Sweet like that, an urban march, is exuberant, joyful, and with a whiff of gospel; capsulizing the sound of the American street and instrumental doo-wop.

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Composer: Dana Wilson

Odysseus and the Sirens

Grade 3

Inspired by The Odyssey written by Homer, this work illustrates Odysseus’ dramatic encounter with the sirens.

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Composer: Chen Yi

Spring Festival

Grade 3

Spring Festival captures the spirit of the Chinese New Year and all the traditions that accompany this special Chinese festival. While the melody is drawn from a southern Chinese folk ensemble piece, the form of the piece is based on the idea of the Golden Section.

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Composer: Chris Brubeck

Ghost Walk

Grade 3.5

The piece combines the composer’s experiences with both jazz and classical idioms, creating a work that’s as fun to play as it is to hear. The theme inspires a minor mode and haunting atmosphere.

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Composer: Susan Botti

Eye of the Hawk

Grade 4, Advanced

Inspired by the beautiful and majestic Hudson Valley, this piece features a middle schooler’s “spirit animal,” the hawk. The fierce creature who owns the sky is portrayed through music conveying power, freedom, and confidence.

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Composer: Robert Xavier Rodriguez

Smash the Windows

Grade 4, Advanced

Smash the Windows is a vigorous piece full of energy and motion. Based on a traditional Irish jig, the music gradually builds from its quiet beginning to a brilliant flourish.

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Composer: Judith Lang Zaimont

City Rain

Grade 4.5, Advanced

In her tone poem with complex jazz chords, the composer paints the image of rain through the rhythmic motive and use of body percussion and alternative instruments such as tapping patterns on music stands.

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Composer: Gunther Schuller

Nature’s Way

Grade 5, Advanced

Nature’s Way embraces the composer’s personal style and concepts of form, continuity, texture, and instrumentation in a way that stretches young performers.

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Composer: Michael Gandolfi

Steps Ahead

Grade 2.5

This new piece takes young players on a journey! Along the way, there are musical/compositional techniques that are intended to educate the performers about basic compositional techniques.

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The BandQuest Education Curriculum

The national standards for arts education make it even more imperative that teachers have access to curriculum materials that link music with other subjects. Through the BandQuest curriculum, students will gain a richer and deeper understanding of the music they rehearse and perform. A growing number of pieces are accompanied by an innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum designed to facilitate the learning process and enhance their understanding of the music, its basic elements, its context and how it relates to other aspects of life and learning.  BandQuest curriculum, written by Joanna Cortright and Herb Dick, is based on use of the Facets Model. To learn more about the Facets Model, you may download a PDF here.

Funding

National Endowment for the Arts

I.A. O’Shaughnessy Foundation