Tag: popular music

Mack the Knife (Handbells, 5-8 octaves, plus handchimes, 3 octaves, Level 5)

Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill wrote Mack the Knife in 1928 for the Threepenny Opera. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitgerald, and Bobby Darin performed it, guaranteeing its place in our music social awareness. It’s such a happy, bouncy song that you’d hardly know it was talking about a hit man. But the legend lives on, and …

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Mahler Swing (Handbells, 5-8 octaves, plus handchimes, 2 octaves, Level 5)

I fell in love with Mahler’s symphonies a long time ago. They’re gigantic works which stretch the limits (so far…) of how musical expression can be built. As of the twentieth century, they represent the pinnacle of orchestral composing. Mahler’s first symphony is about an hour in length (around three times the length of Mozart’s …

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