Click here to listen to THE WRANGLER as performed by The University of Colorado Wind Symphony under the direction of Allan McMurray.

Theodore Presser Company: www.presser.com 610.592.1222 ext. 225
www.shattingermusic.com (800.444.2408) – full score only

Commissioned by Ramiro Barrera for the James Logan High School Wind Ensemble. Premiered in Carnegie Hall NY, May 2006
DURATION: 7’45”

Piccolo
6 Flutes (1st dbl. picc.)
2 Oboes
English Horn
Clarinet E-flat
6 Clarinets B-flat
Bass Clarinet B-flat
Contrabass Clarinet B-flat (or Contrabassoon)
3 Bassoons
Soprano Saxophone B-flat
Alto Saxophone E-flat
Tenor Saxophone B-flat
Baritone Saxophone E-flat

6 Trumpets B-flat
4 Horns F
2 Tenor Trombones
Bass Trombone
2 Euphoniums
2 Tubas

Piano
Contrabass
Timpani
4 Percussion

Program Note:

The Wrangler (2006) was written for the James Logan High School wind ensemble under the baton of Ramiro Barrera.  It is billed in the score as a set of Cowboy Dances and evokes the Wild West in a similar way to the film scores of old Westerns.  The work also shares a syntax with Aaron Copland’s ballets Billy the Kid and Rodeo.  There are no outlaw characters in The Wrangler...instead, the hero is a good man, a free man – very confident and very competent with his stallion and lasso.  After a serene, chorale-like introduction he is set in motion to a constant gallop across the landscape.  On his journey he encounters gorgeous and treacherous terrain, stumbling upon a saloon where the patrons are engaged in a drunken dance.  He manages to evade locals looking for a fight while catching the eyes of many a beautiful women.  Our man is the proto-typical cowboy moving his way across the mountainous, sun-drenched West –a man who knows the land as the coyotes know the moon.

*Contact the composer for a reference recording of THE WRANGLER