About the Album

The phrase “from the keyboard” is generally used to describe an ensemble performance that is conducted by a musician who is simultaneously performing on a keyboard instrument. For the purpose of this recording, however, the phrase is used in reference to the fact that each of these selections was originally conceived for a keyboard instrument and later transcribed for the concert band.

There is no instrument or family of instruments that has provided a greater body of repertoire for large ensemble transcriptions than the keyboard. Unlike most instruments that produce only one note at a time, keyboard instruments can produce as many notes as a player or players can activate simultaneously. In fact, many virtuoso keyboard works were designed to simulate the sound of an ensemble, creating the illusion of multiple players performing simultaneously. No keyboard instrument is more capable of sounding like a band of musicians than the mighty pipe organ. In addition to the rows of keyboards that are played with the hands and the stops that can be pulled to simulate the sounds of different instruments, there is a pedal keyboard that is played with both feet. The effect of an organ playing at full tilt is so powerful that it has generated the ubiquitous expression “pulling out all the stops.” It therefore seems appropriate that this showcase of keyboard music begins with the best known of all organ compositions, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

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Tracks

(Select bold title to download track)

1. Johann Sebastian Bach (trans. Nowlin*): Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

2-5. David Rakowski (transcribed for the Marine Band by the composer): Sibling Revelry

2. Zipper Tango

3. Strident          

4. Bop It             

5. Moody's Blues             

6. Sergei Rachmaninoff (trans. Lavender): Lento Assai from Symphonic Dances

7. Claude Debussy (trans. M. Patterson): The Engulfed Cathedral

8-22. Modest Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel/trans. Lavender): Pictures at an Exhibition

8. Promenade    

9. "The Gnome"

10. Promenade 

11. "The Old Castle"         

12. Promenade  

13. "Tuileries" (Children Quarreling after Play     

14. "Bydlo" (Cattle)         

15. Promenade 

16. "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks"       

17. "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle" 

18. "Limoges. The Marketplace" (Important News)           

19. "Catacombs" (A Roman Sepulchre)    

20. With the Dead in a Dead Language   

21. "The Hut on Hen's Legs" (Baba-Yaga)              

22. "The Great Gate of Kiev"

*Member, U.S. Marine Band