Noteworthy Sheet Music publishes "Moon Shadows" for Winds and Percussion by Walter Finlayson

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - Sept. 19, 2017 - PRLog -- Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC (NSM) is an online sheet music publishing enterprise with a catalog of >150 editions, most of which are unavailable from other sources.  NSM specializes in, but is not limited to, sheet music for flute and alto flute.  They offer original contemporary works by distinguished American composers, facsimile editions of rare historical scores, and unique transcriptions of pieces from the classical repertoire.  Selected NSM publications are offered as professionally-printed hard copy versions, and most of NSM's catalog listings are available as convenient pdf downloads from the NSM website.  Visit www.NoteworthySheetMusic.com for additional information about the new release mentioned below and other NSM editions.  New sheet music selections are uploaded often, along with preview pages, contributing composer biographies, useful links, reviews and articles.

Walter Finlayson (1919-2000) was an American composer, musician, educator, and music innovator, with nearly twenty original compositions and some forty arrangements to his credit.  While serving in the navy, he played saxophone and clarinet in the US Naval Reserve dance band, seated next to the great Artie Shaw.  Finlayson's ASCAP output includes music for band, dance band, orchestra, voice, and chorus.  His compositions and arrangements have been published by Boosey & Hawkes, EB Marks, Boston Music, and Mercury Music, and performed by major college marching band programs.  One of his best-known compositions is I Had a Premonition, which was written for voice and piano, but which was later arranged for the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, one of the preeminent bands of the swing era.

Noteworthy Sheet Music received Finlayson's previously-unpublished score for Moon Shadows from the composer's daughter, and the NSM editors were impressed with its quality and sophistication.  For a piece written in the late 1930's or early 1940's, as the composer's daughter recollects (the score was not dated), Moon Shadows seems remarkably ahead of its time.  The work is scored for two flutes, two B♭ clarinets, bass clarinet, bells, vibraphone, xylophone, finger cymbals, maracas, bongos, roll cymbals, temple blocks, and tympani. NSM notated their modern edition of the piece as faithfully as possible based on the hand-written Finlayson score; their edition of Moon Shadows includes both score and parts.  This new publication should lead to some exciting wind and percussion performances and spark a broader re-discovery of Walter Finlayson's other works as well.  Additional information about Moon Shadows and its composer can be found on the publisher's listing page at https://www.noteworthysheetmusic.com/sheet-music/ensemble-tags/flute-wmixed-ensembles/545-finlayson-moon-shadows-winds-and-percussion and their "Our Composers" page at https://www.noteworthysheetmusic.com/about-us/composer-bios.