American Music 1850-1870. Sir Julius Benedict (1804-1885) - ''Hunters' Chorus, from 'The Rose of Erin'' (1862) | Текст песни

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• American Music 1850-1870. Sir Julius Benedict (1804-1885)
• ''Hunters' Chorus, from 'The Rose of Erin'' (1862)

"Hunters' Chorus, from The Rose of Erin" (Band). By Sir Julius Benedict. Arranger unknown. From the engraved full score published by John F. Stratton, New York, 1868.

Sir Julius Benedict (1804-85) was Jenny Lind's accompanist during her immensely successful American tour. Among his various compositions, the opera The Rose of Erin (1862), originally called and still known as The Lilly of Kilarney, enjoyed considerable success in England immediately and in America after the Civil War. This arrangement for brass band is an effective adaptation of one number for chorus and soloists. Except for the addition of a brief introduction, it follows the original measure-for-measure, transposed from D to the more suitable key of E-flat. The original vocal writing may have been somewhat difficult to bring off on a musical stage, where even moderately sophisticated homophonic part-writing, much less polyphonic effects requiring rhythmically precise ensemble work, often get lost in the shuffle of large production numbers. However, this brass band arrangement, definitely a concert piece, demonstrates admirably the capabilities of the saxhorn band.

John Stratton, whose factory in New York produced at least one and possibly the greater number of the horns used in this online recording, was an entrepreneur of the first rank. He himself claimed to have developed the first plant for the mass production of brass instruments, and at a most propitious time. Just before the Civil War, he recognized the market for band instruments that could be delivered immediately and were not made to order. The war and the great number of instruments required by the Union Army made him and his New York factory a great success.

Stratton may have arranged this piece himself. From 1866 through the mid-1870s he continued to publish band music, much of it in full score. At that time published band scores were most unusual in America, though not abroad; Stratton, who traveled and did business in Europe after the war, may have been attempting to introduce the foreign practice here. For the more popular quicksteps and polkas, he also published parts, though not in this case.

Some of his scores include at the bottom an optional E-flat clarinet part to double the E-flat sopranos. Here a piccolo part has been sparingly added.