Our combined elementary orchestras just performed my arrangement of "Banuwa" for our district-wide String Fest again, so I thought it was about time I shared the arrangement here. Second-year players performed "Banuwa" in December for the winter concert, and then they played it again for String Fest a month later--this time together with the first-year players. It's a very straight-forward arrangement (with a little syncopated section towards the end that can be taught more by rote), with the beginning parts all in unison and only using the D string notes plus open D and A. Intermediate parts use D Major scale notes (including F# on the E string for violins). Intermediate cellos get featured at m. 41 along with a little solo moment at m. 44 and m. 48, and intermediate basses have a couple of spots when they are the only instrument playing on beats 3 and 4.
I updated the parts this year to include a version with limited alpha notes, like just at the beginning of a phrase or at a bigger skip, and then printed parts out double-sided, regular notation on one side and the alpha version on the other, so students could choose which side they wanted to read from.
I like the sound of the different layers adding and building, with a big unison phrase at the end.
Sheet music (PDF):
- Score and parts (includes both regular notation and alpha parts)
Audio (WAV files) to preview or for students to play along with to practice:
Enjoy! I'd love to hear if you end up trying out this arrangement with your students!
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