fortress by Frank Ticheli

[scarycool100]

Im doing this on clarinet in honor band but we play the song a lot faster

*132 is the tempo for us

[blakewilliams13]

Had to sight read this for Festival. (I play Tenor Saxophone)

[404jipjip]

i love this song it is very fun to play. i played this in ocean springs middle band in 8th grade.

[xxnikitasaurxx]

i love the climax ar around 3:50. very fun to play in an ensemble as well!

[fowlerpowerr]

I play bass clarinet and I would say as ensemble this piece is amazing but my part a little boring but I love it anyways

[silververona]

ALL OF THE TRITONES.

[337336324317313306]

@silververona Sorry. No other pieces get to use tritones because this one used all of them up.

[MrBlusterousXoX]

oh this brings back memories.

[9reasy5am]

we play this song in band class, and I nicknamed it "Castlevania."

[XrandomnessXrocksX]

I love the bass clarinet part on this song...it's muh favorite! :) It's just too bad that my band may not play it though, cuz I reallly lurvs this song :(

[BandGeek7280]

French Horn FTW

[peru1995]

im a seventh grader and my middle school band is playing dis. Go French horns

[ColleenFab]

FLUTE IS A LOT BETTER

[HelloMyNameIstBob]

A fabulous musician indeed.

[HelloMyNameIstBob]

I LOVE Frank Ticheli's Abracadabra. We are playing it as our next piece. We just got it and are nowhere near the speed it's supposed to go, but I just wanna' say I LOVE Mr. Ticheli's music.

[00Yahiko]

@HelloMyNameIstBob Dude, we're playing Abracadabra as well, and my band director is actually writing in a Flugelhorn part for me! It's so exciting!!!

[xseriousSAM0099]

SAXOPHONES ALL THE WAY!!!

[ambizzlify]

@nicnicoleify Awesome (: I'm in the 2nd band and we have 2 lol. Top band has 3 :) But I go to a really big school. Oboe is awesomee. And that's great!

[ambizzlify]

@nicnicoleify Well each instrument has their own sound. I actually hated how I sounded my first year of playing oboe, it was really loud and obnoxious, but after many years, I've become a much better player and I've grown to LOVE the oboe sound, it's very difficult to control the oboe sound correctly so it doesn't sound squawky. Also, since you play flute, of course the part might not sound as good on flute. But different people have different preferences and I won't judge you on yours :)

[notconfusinihope]

@ambizzlify I play oboe and last year was my first year. I also was terrible my first year. Our band director always cut me out and i was really flat. Now I'm finally good. I love the oboe also and I finally got good. And I completely get what you're saying about the sound and stuff :)

[ambizzlify]

@notconfusinihope

Yeah, oboe is definitely a bit hard to get the hang of :) It takes some practice, but the end result is nice!

[wherecutethingsare]

this is the first time i'm hearing this song but our middle school is going to play it!

[SephirothandZack]

this song makes me think of a industrial city working :p

[HenryJohansen]

so weird....

[raisedbyacupofcoffee]

Playing this in my high school symphonic band. 2nd chair. Gonna change that soon. Also playing Vesuvius.

[ambizzlify]

Played this last year in Jr. High Honors Band :] Oboe solos ftw!

[masonbandgeek]

Pretty pretty :)))

[avg1dart]

I absolutely loved this song when we played in band a year ago. I did the little saxophone solo!!! Go Saxes!!!!

[brianthebeast101]

we r playing this in my jr high wind ensomble

[Twinmadness523]

3:38 is the best part of this piece

[cca0511ecu]

I played this at an honor band. :) yeahhh clarinets. :)

[mermaidmelody8]

go saxes!!!!!! YOU ROCK i want the solo for sax in band so badly!!!

[mikedaguy]

this song is so creepy

[dieck06]

love this song! one of my favorite frank ticheli songs!

[rachelgreg51105]

OMG, we played this song in high school when I was freshman. That was in 1994. Wow haven't heard it since then. I played the clarinet

[tobilover629]

we played this for high school band

we werent this good but not horrible, either

one of my favorite instrumental songs that isn't a theme song for a show xD

[xTheFreakySisters]

Best part is measure 108. So much fun to play.

[dieck06]

@xTheFreakySisters i agree!

[ThisOneSucksStars]

My gosh this is my favorite song by Frank Ticheli..

[abear409]

I love this song. its one of our mpa songs!! Yay! fav part on clarinets measure 92-94. so fun to play

[rasenganzanpakuto]

Playing this song reminded me of the Fort Condor minigame in Final Fantasy VII ^.^

[JakeArino]

i am in band were playing this song and 2 other songs.

[cellofellow1223]

I love how the bassoons open

[mishkachan]

It's pretty weird to listen too, but this piece is a lot of fun to play. c:

[mishkachan]

...I cannot believe I just made that typo. Kill me, please.

/facepalm

[cliffordlejonsen]

FORTRESS!!!!!

[Jonacy1212]

this song is just too modern for me.

[Fidel3652]

were gunna play this in our band concert manana and we are going to fail..

[dasdaka]

@Fidel3652 what school do u go to? cuz i played this like the day before yesterday lmao and u posted this 3 weeks ago

[Fidel3652]

DCHS Symphonic Band

[crowderfan10]

good song... Definately not tichelli's best though...

Wild Nights

Vesuvius

Level 8 amazingnes songs

[pa5436]

what do you mean lvl 8? o.O pieces are rated grades 1-6....

[crowderfan10]

Depends on your system. the one we use where I am uses 1-10, 10 being professional level, and 6 being average high school

8 is like.. .honor band stuff (state band!!!!!! woot!)

[pa5436]

ohhhh, b/c i just use the grading scale used by the music publishers xD. okay.

[ShalaneShinesToday]

@pa5436 Yeah I was going to say, the only rating level I've known is 1-6. I played this piece my jr. year of high school. As principal Alto, some of those notes above the staff like E to F# were a PAIN to get in tune for State.

[gassyjeff]

fun song!

[czar93]

my school is playing this song for concert band XD I'm excited to play it on my instrument

[vaiol123]

Woah, mine is too... weird....

[czar93]

we have played ticheli pieces in the past and the whole band enjoys them

[bobthathead3]

ahaha i'm pretty sure my band is too

[nerd0yo0]

This isn't half bad.....It just sounds like you are trying too hard:) I always struggled with high f sharp on the piccolo. We got all ones aaaat uil:D

...good times...

[NejiSupreme]

We played this. It came out half as good, but then again not a lot of the band cares. It was a good piece though.

[EmoCat1313]

OMG! My band is gonna perform this in a month! :D we play it faster tho...owell, i LOVE fast! ♪

[bassoonrox]

oh my freaking god you have both bassoon parts!!!!!!

[HARDCORESTR8EDGE]

Nice name, I play bassoon too, my band started to play this but we were so horrible the band director stopped it.

[zziggymaan]

our middle scholl band played it and we were so good we got sweepstakes at uil!

[mrtrouble01]

Awesome. I've been playing solo bassoon for many years now, and this is one of my favorite pieces to play. Not sure why, though, because the 1st and 2nd bassoons only play in the beginning of this song. But, the music is wonderful.

[ExaExcellion]

Hm... you know, I've heard a lot of bashing this piece, yet in all honesty, I just think it sounds.... obscure, but it's not a bad piece.... but you gotta have the right instruments. e.g. when ur the only trombone player it's not very fun to play

[cruelsmurf]

very strange piece... I think i hear the tritone alot in it. anyone else?

[chezecaekfaktrie33]

*raises hand*

that and half step

[337336324317313306]

It's based on that. Bb - E

[key2anime]

lol u should see the conductor's score, my conductor was shaking when we first played it.

[pa5436]

the front cover sends a message xD

[textingflute]

my band its playing this this year is really good, i get the obo solo :D

[adomarc]

this song is so badly written i think it's one of the poorer pieces written by frank ticheli

the strong bass section does help make it sound better

at our school we have barely any bass so it sounds like random notes but it still does here as well a bit

[Davidace327]

It's not badly written. Understand that some of Ticheli's works are meant to be used by middle schools/ beginning bands. Can't expect anything too extravagant.

[adomarc]

there can still be beauty in simplicity yet i dont find that in this piece

[pa5436]

well, if you look at his conductor's score cover.....and i dun see how it's supposed to have "beauty"....and this song is not poorly written, its just that you don't like it

[adomarc]

i dont like it because it is poorly written

there is beauty in all pieces even if they may not be soft and classical

[mrtrouble01]

I would also have to disagree with you. I play in the wind ensemble in a major university in Germany and I find this song and Ticheli's music all very wonderful. It all sounds so beautiful.

[king4aday24]

Love this song, played it last year in band. The guy I sat next to called this his death song because of how it sounds.

[firecracker169]

alto sax & french horn <3

[bellagirl123456789]

oh yea im a percussionist. GO XYLOPHONE!!!

[bellagirl123456789]

my band is playing this we're Bak Middle School of the Arts, and were really good!!! like better than this (no offense)

[Klopy1414]

Heh. i'm playin this in band. Fun as hell, scared me too when we played through it first.

[pa5436]

yea, the front cover of the score is COOL

[dafontenot]

uuuhhhh.....ok....Go.....uhhh.­...slapstick! Great song, thanks Frank!

[sugarlips2010]

go clarinets!!!!!

[talleyho12]

at 2:55 sounds like a guy just snapped and resolved strongly to do something

[flippinghippos]

At first this song gave me a headache but now I really like it lol. [GO FRENCH HORNS!!! =-) ]

[key2anime]

oboe solo pwns

[skittleloid]

Hah I played this song a couple years ago. It was so much fun!! (Go Frenchies!!!! aka french horns. Duh!!!!)

[GeckoProductions3]

omg i <3 this song we are playing it in our Wind Ensomble (Go french horns!!!)