#42 Suggested Repertoire from Around the World for Developing Bands

This 42nd installment of suggested repertoire is proposed by Portuguese conductor and teacher Renata Oliveira, Guest Wind Orchestra Teacher at the University of Évora. Active in the Portuguese and international wind band scene for over ten years, she holds Master’s degrees in Orchestra and Wind Band Conducting and has worked extensively with wind orchestras as a conductor and educator. She currently serves on the WASBE Board of Directors.

Grade 3

Coleção de Raízes (2024) – 10"

Francisco Ribeiro (Portugal)

Coleção de Raízes was commissioned by conductor and professor José Ricardo Freitas and dedicated to him, for the VI Wind Orchestra Course of the Academia de Música de São João da Madeira.

Inspired by *Otonifonias*, the only work Joly Braga Santos composed for wind orchestra, the piece consists of a prelude and three dances based on six Portuguese melodies.

The prelude draws on three lullabies—*Ó, ó, menino, ó*, *Dorme, dorme, meu menino*, and *Vai-te embora, ó papão*—interwoven in a meditative and expansive texture. The three melodies are treated equally, evoking the spirit of the first movement of Braga Santos’s work.

The three subsequent dances each focus on a single melody. *Passa, passa, Gabriel* is playful and almost primitive in character, driven by vigorous rhythmic energy. *Nossa Senhora do Souto* evokes a distinctly Portuguese sound world through the use of traditional instruments such as triangle and snare drum, as well as alternating simple and compound metres characteristic of certain Portuguese work songs. The final dance, *Mulher Gorda*, adopts an intimate, folkloric character, combining familiar harmonies with rhythms typical of the Portuguese *chula*.

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Grade 4

Zola - Double Concertino for 2 Alto Saxophones and Concert Band, Op.54 (2017) – 12' – Purchase at Sheet Music Direct

Luís Cardoso (Portugal)

"Zola" was composed for Banda Marcial de Fermentelos (Fermentelos Martial Band) for its 150th anniversary celebration in 2017. The title refers to the thematic construction of the work, with inspiration in the music of Astor Piazzolla.

The work is divided into three movements: 1. Allegro, 2. Adagio, 3. Vivo.

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Grade 4

Ecos do Barroso - suite nº2, op.104 (2017) – 12' – Purchase at Nelson Jesus

Nelson Jesus (Portugal)

Barroso, in the heart of the Trás-os-Montes region, possesses a unique identity: a land where paganism and religious devotion intertwine, where castles and villages coexist with rugged, silent landscapes, and where the resilience of its people endures. It was Miguel Torga who gave this region the name “Wonderful Kingdom”, an epithet that inspires and resonates throughout this suite, conceived as a sonic portrait of the many facets of the region.

Commissioned by Banda Musical de Parafita, Ecos do Barroso seeks to bring together memory and creation, tradition and modernity, the band and the ancestral voices, silences and songs that shape this land.

I. Shadows and Bonfires

The music delves into the pagan rites and mysticism of Barroso: nocturnal prayers, ancestral beliefs, witches and processions of fire. The contrast between darkness and light creates an enigmatic atmosphere of ritualistic trance.

II. Dance of the Four Towers

Inspired by the medieval heritage of Trás-os-Montes and the feudal imagination, this dance evokes fortresses and symbols of defence, faith and labour: the tower, the cross, the sickle and the people. The music portrays a dance of maidens at court, evoking a distant past.

III. Heartland

Here, the agricultural and natural landscape finds its voice. Barroso emerges as a living organism: the land that pulses, sustains and shelters, where flora and fauna intertwine. The music journeys among birds and rivers before concluding with cattle grazing in the pastures.

IV. Silences of Granite

A portrait of rural exodus and social depopulation. The granite remains steadfast, while the villages grow emptier, leaving behind echoes and silence. This movement takes the form of a procession, contemplative and intentionally lacking in harmonic consonance, reflecting the incompleteness of families left behind.

V. Woman of Stone and Honey

The concluding movement of the suite is a tribute to the woman of Trás-os-Montes: a figure of struggle and resilience, at once as hard as stone and as tender as honey. The music brings together vigour and lyricism, strength and delicacy, in a moving tribute to the guardian of this land.

More than a musical description, Ecos do Barroso is a journey of identity, a call to memory and to the appreciation of a heritage that, although often marginalised, pulses with the strength and beauty of a true “Wonderful Kingdom”. To further convey the region’s cultural and musical identity, traditional songs from the Cancioneiro do Barroso have been incorporated into the work.

Nelson Jesus, Vila Nova de Gaia, August 2025

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Grade 3

Sonho de uma Noite de Verão (2022) – 10'

João Malha (Portugal)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Composed in two contrasting movements, the first slow, dreamy, and filled with hope, and the second more energetic, joyful, and humorous, this work seeks to portray the emotions and experiences one might encounter during a wonderful and dreamlike summer night. It is not, however, directly associated with Shakespeare’s famous play.

The work was commissioned for the 4th Artistic Residency of the Sociedade Filarmónica Ermegeirense.

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Grade 4.5

Ti Ladainha d'Albarda - Concert Band and Choir (2023) – 7'12"

Camila S. Menino (Portugal)

“Let us speak of the people of Loivos! Ti Luís, indignant at having been unable to vote in the last elections; Mrs. Lúcia, who still knows the Mass in Latin; and João Manuel, who was the one to remember the miracle child of the Loivos festivities. They are the voices of this work, which pays tribute to this land of onions and to its people, while contributing to the chronicle of their stories.”

For wind band and choir.

In the Youtube link, please listen to minute 24'.

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