The previously unpublished autobiography and additional essays by the orchestrator-composer of some of America's most important musical theatre productions. The remarkable career of composer-orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett [1894-1981] encompassed a wide variety of both "legitimate" and popular music-making in Hollywood, on Broadway, and for television. Bennett is principally responsible for what is known worldwide as the "Broadway sound" and for greatly elevating the status of the theater orchestrator. He worked alongside Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, and Frederick Loewe on much of the Broadway canon, eventually providing orchestrations for all or part of more than 300 musicals between 1920 and 1975. This work is the first publication of Bennett's autobiography, which was written in thelate 1970s. It also includes eight of his most important essays on the art of orchestration. George J. Ferencz is Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.

Although Robert Russell Bennett was perhaps best known for his expert orchestrations of musical comedies, he also wrote operas, symphonies, concerti, chamber music, etudes, sonatas, and works for concert band. Written originally for cornet solo and concert band accompaniment, Rose Variations is presented here for trumpet with piano accompaniment. The theme and variations are titled: Introduction: The Garden Gate * Theme: Carolina (Wild) Rose * Variation I: Dorothy Perkins (Rambler) Rose * Variation II: Frau Karl Druschi (White) Rose * Variation III: Cinnamon Rose (With Humming Birds) * Variation IV: American Beauty (Red) Rose.

SATB with piano or orchestral accompaniment. Suite 1 includes: Good Christian Men, Rejoice * Silent Night * Patapan * O Come, All Ye Faithful. Duration, 11:20 min. Orchestral accompaniment available for rent from Alfred Rental Library. Contact: [email protected] or visit www.alfred.com/rental.

SATB with piano or orchestral accompaniment. Suite 4 includes: Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light * The First Nowell * O Little Town of Bethlehem * I Saw Three Ships * Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly. Duration, 12:00 min. Orchestral accompaniment available for rent from Alfred Rental Library. Contact: [email protected] or visit www.alfred.com/rental.