Ernesto Lecuona: Andalucia Suite

Born in Havana Cuba in 1895 Ernesto Lecuona is arguably Cuba's greatest serious composer. He was a gifted pianist who wrote hundreds of songs and piano works before he died in 1963. Most of his music is composed in a rich authentic Cuban style. The most famous of his works is Malagueña the sixth movement of his Suite Andalucia for solo piano which was first published in 1928. Malagueña has been recorded as a popular song (with added lyrics) as a serious piano work (even by Lecuona himself in the 1950's) and also as a jazz standard (Bill Holman's arrangement for the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the early 1960's.) Over the years it has been arranged many times for variousother mediums ranging from symphony orchestra to field arrangements for drum and bugle corps.In 1976 James Barnes arranged Malagueña for the University of Kansas Marching Band. A few years later with permission from the publisher he expanded this original arrangement into a full work for symphonic band called Prelude Fantasy and Fandango on Lecuona's Malagueña. After several performances in the spring of 1978 (most notably at the MENC Convention in Colorado Springs) this work along with over 200 other Barnes manuscripts lay fallow in the KU Band Library. While packing up his office belongings when he retired from The University of Kansas in 2015 Barnes came across this long languishing Prelude Fantasy and Fandango which remained in condensed score. In the fall of 2016 he completely re-composed the opening portion of the work reduced the number of required percussion and disposed of the two harps in his 1978 version. This new setting features evocative thinly scored extended solo passages for clarinet bassoon and flute before the full wind band concludes the work with a powerful dramatic setting of the main themes of Lecuona's masterful Malagueña.

'Malagueña'  is a song by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona; written in 1928 it was originally the sixth movement of Lecuona's Suite Andalucia to which he added lyrics in Spanish. The song has since become a popular  jazz  marching band and drum corps standard and has been provided with lyrics in several languages. Arranged for Xylophone or Marimba.

Includes arrangements of six classic pieces by the legendary Lecuona: Alhambra · Andaluca · Crdoba · Gitaneras · Guadalquivir · Malaguea. Features notes and tablature.

A ‘Malaguena’ is a woman living in the Spanish port city of Malaga on the southern coast of Spain in the province of Andalucia. Lecuona’s Malaguena was originally the sixth movement of his Suite Andalucia and has been performed in many versions by artists such as Connie Francis Stan Kenton’s Orchestra and Bill Haley and the Comets as well as featuring as part of the Broadway musical entitled Blast! This brass band arrangement has been made by Mark Freeh. Brass Band Grade 3: Youth and 4th Section Duration: 6 minutes