I dod noy kknow if you guys have heard of these pieces but they tend to be a little difficult. Russian Christmas music for Symphonic Band by Alfred Reed. My director tried this piece last year but we did not have time in our concert for it but it took us from the first day of school till the concert came to be able to get all the parts to come in where they were supposed to. Another is Poet and Peasant by F. Vox Suppe. This song we started in the beginning of the year for our spring stage compeition. It was the hardest piece this year but we recieved and excelent rating for it. No group got a rating of superior on the trip.

i did play Russian Christmas music. I do think it was a difficult piece, but we did get it together for our concert in less than a month (what fun that was...very stressful!!!) i think it couldve been better, but it wasn`t too difficult of a piece. the 6/4 part in the middle is REALLY hard to play that long on one breath, and with two on a part, alternate breathing doesnt make much difference. it was a fun piece tho.

I also thought the 6/4 part was difficult but I eventually got it. Unfortunately this year I am playing flute in concert band so I think that I might have a little trouble with it.

well.. we played Mars`` in my 8th grade HonorBAnd ( which onlee ended like.. 3 weeks ago).. and it wasn`t too hard.. just a bunch of tounging..)
we also played Fort Canterurbury and Trumpets of Seville, (those two are some of our favorite.. when the bands together with no instruments.. we just sing our parts.. sounds great still, lol)Celebration of Winds, Woodland Odyssy (which sounds awesome),and about.. 9 other songs..

our highschool is oplaying El Toro Caliente and Remembrance.. those are pretty cool.

I also know about pieces from The Planets. In my freshman year we played Jupitor. At that time I thought it was really hard but now I think it is really easy.

yeah, but did you guys play the solo line? I`m still not havin a great time gettin that high A to come out.

.............are we takling the same thing when yawl say "The Planets" and I say "Mars?" If yawl have played that piece, lemme know

Holst composed a suite of pieces called the planets. It is composed of (and this is the order) Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

I am not a clarinet player... so you can discount this if you will, but the hardest technical piece I have ever heard is Navigation Inn. We played that this last year in the top band at our school. I play euphonium part... which is basically the same throughout the first pg as the flute and clarinet part. That was the most technically challenging piece I played (next being the Cowboys).

o..well after like... maybe 3 weeks (one day each week, 3 hours) of practice my middle school Honor Band.. played it pretty well.. Mars just had a bunch of tongin n rythm n style... it was FUN! i loove the Tempist too!

I agree with those who said that the Mozart isn`t so much technically challenging as it is artistically. It`s one of those things that`s so lyrical that if one line doesn`t come out quite right, it just sounds like a mess. Even though it`s not a tough piece to finger, it is hard to maintain the focus needed throughout that whole thing.

If you`re looking for a tough piece on your hands, I`d reccommend the Stravinsky three pieces for unaccompanied clarinet. It`s all over, it`s fast, it`s slow, and one movement ... well, let`s say that it`s fun to hand to people and play Missing Pictures with Take one look and you`ll know what I mean. I know at All-State almost everyone was like "Oh god, how could you play that, just look at it, it`s a mess." But to me, it sounds amazing once you`ve got it right. Has anyone else here played it?

Try the Denisov Sonata or the Martino Set.... That`ll keep you busy.

try these for a bit of fun:

Stravinsky three pieces for clarinet solo
copland clarinet concerto
bernstein sonata (not as hard as the other two, but some great rhythms)
Ravel piano concerto in g major Eb clarinet part
last page of Weber second clarinet concerto
Shostakovich 9th symphony (1st or 2nd part)

all of these have different challenges, most technically, all musically. and all are very rewarding once learned.

and on the mozart thread, I though the concerto was a walk in the park in about 7th grade and told my teacher that. he looked amused, and proved to me in about 5 minutes that there is much more to that piece than some easy arpeggios and scales. now i`m a junior in college and a music major, and the mozart concerto is still what i turn to for a serious musical challenge. and there is a reason that every major audition requires this piece to be prepared.

good luck!

Check out Weber`s Concertino for Clarinet. It`s not the world`s most knock-you-over-because-it`s so technically-challanging piece but it has some awsome technical elements and some awsome dramatic elements as well. It has some wicked runs that are good to work on.

I`ve been working on the Copland concerto. To date it is either the most difficult or second most difficult piece I`ve played. The hardest part of that number is (surprisingly) not the cadenza or super-fast ending. The hard part is enormous jumps in the first movement that always jump up to the altissimo range. Never walk up and jump down. That would be to sensible, wouldn`t it?

Has anyone around here played the Finzi Clarinet Concerto. Although the Five Bagatelles are great fun in their own way, Finzi`s concerto was just blow-me-away great. This would be the other most difficult or second most difficult piece I`ve played. It changes keys several times, and very few are "easy" keys. If you really put some heart into it though, it`s a very rewarding piece. Especially the second movement. And especially the third movement. (And the last 12 measures or so is the most technically challenging set of 16th notes I`ve ever seen).

I really like playing the Mozart. I don`t think it`s the most difficult thing out there, but definitely not easy. There`s a couple measures near the end of the Rondo that still give me trouble. And, yes, making it original is a challenge.

peebo: I`m probably gonna start working on the Bernstein sonata next. I happened across a recording, and now must play it. As for the Ravel piano concerto, I saw the LA Phil play it at the Hollywood Bowl, and their Eb player chunked his solos in the first movement. So gotta have respect for that part. Otherwise, the second movement is perhaps the most beautiful piano piece I`ve ever heard.