Product Description
One of the most beautiful and haunting of Americas native-to-the-soil melodies, "Shenandoah" dates probably from the early 19th century and continues to be performed and to enchant to this day. Said to be the product of voyageurs, fur trappers canoeing down the Missouri River, it has accumulated numerous sets of lyrics over the years. In perhaps the most familiar of these, a voyageur sings of his love for the daughter of the Oneida chief Shenandoah while paddling the river. Boatmen on their flatboats heard this melody and took it for their own, passing it along to sailors of Mississippi River vessels. It made its way down to the sea, where it became a popular sea shanty and was thus spread around the world.
This arrangement opens with Horn in F playing the melody as an unaccompanied solo; Horn plays the tune yet again, this time being joined gradually by the other four instruments. The melody repeats five times interspersed with two changes of key. Suggested metronome setting for the majority of the piece is 72 and most notes are well within the range of each instrument. Possible exceptions: Trumpet 1 has an A-flat above its staff at measures 43 and 60, Trombone has an F-sharp above its staff at 42 and Tuba has F-sharp in its staff at 43 and 44. All come together as a wonderfully imaginative and poignant setting of an all-American favorite.
Completed in 2020, performance time for "Shenandoah" runs about 3 minutes, 47 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.
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