Noteworthy Sheet Music publishes "3 Pagan Dances" for Percussion Ensemble

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - Dec. 8, 2017 - PRLog -- Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC (NSM) is an online sheet music publishing enterprise with a catalog of >160 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 works by distinguished contemporary 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 editions, 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 releases 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Noteworthy Sheet Music received Walter Finlayson's previously-unpublished score for 3 Pagan Dances from the composer's daughter, shortly after NSM published another work by the same composer called Moon Shadows for winds and percussion.  The 3 Pagan Dances are exciting, fun to listen to, and really quite mesmerizing.  NSM opted to publish the work as three separate PDF editions, one for each of the three pieces, so players can download only one or two of the 3 Pagan Dances at a time, depending on their needs.  The NSM editors notated their editions as faithfully as possible based on the composer's hand-written documents, and maintained the composer's allocation of instruments per player.  Pagan Dance I. Goddess of the Earth is scored for (1) snare drum/suspension cymbal/gong, (2) tom-toms, (3) temple blocks/xylophone/cowbell, (4) bells, (5) chimes, and (6) timpani.  Pagan Dance II. Rain Forest is scored for (1) bongos/claves, (2) finger cymbals/suspension cymbal, (3) maracas/gong/wind chimes, (4) bells/tom-toms/gourd, (5) xylophone/timpani, and (6) vibraphone.  Pagan Dance III. Temple of the Sun is scored for (1) xylophone, (2) tom-toms, (3) temple blocks, (4) gong/suspension cymbal, (5) chimes/crash cymbal, and (6) timpani.  The publications include both scores and parts.

Audio samples from a 1964 performance of the work have been posted on the NSM website, on the listing page for 3 Pagan Dances at https://www.noteworthysheetmusic.com/sheet-music/ensemble-tags/percussion-ensembles/566-finlayson-3-pagan-dances-percussion-ensemble.  Give a listen and you'll likely find the music exhilarating and intoxicating.  Audiences, musicians in general, and percussionists in particular, will be grateful to NSM for aiding in the re-discovery of some of Walter Finlayson's compositions.  The 3 Pagan Dances would make great programming options for percussion bands from high school to professional level.  For additional biographical information about this remarkable composer, visit the Our Composers (https://www.noteworthysheetmusic.com/about-us/composer-bi...) page at www.NoteworthySheetMusic.com.