Jim
Beckel's music strives to be accessible to American audiences. His
music is largely tonal and programmatic in nature. Much of the music
Beckel has written was requested by conductors or program directors to fill an
empty "niche" in symphonic programming. For example, he has been asked
to write an orchestral fanfare for Christmas concerts. He received a grant to
write a children's piece called Waltz of the Animals. For the conductor who is tired of
programming the same old "Carnival of the Animals" or
"Young Person's Guide", this piece fills a real need.
Jim was
also asked to write a horn concerto which is programmatic in nature and should become standard solo fare for the horn on
subscription concerts, chamber concerts and recitals. The piano
reduction of this work is published by Hal Leonard Music.
He has thus far primarily written for orchestra, band and brass chamber
groups.
As a listener, perhaps the best thing about Jim's music is his rich
orchestration. He has been sitting in the middle of an orchestra for
most of his career as a performer, so he has a great sense of effective
orchestration.
His
more recent works were composed with the aid of Finale, so scores and
parts for most of his works are of professional published quality.
Please take some time to read about Jim's works. If you are a
conductor or music librarian, and would like more information about
performing these works, use the contact information to get in touch with the
composer.
Several documents within these pages are in Acrobat format. Load
free software for viewing Acrobat documents at the Adobe website by
clicking on this link.
To contact Jim about his works, you may either use the
Contact form at this link or email
him at this link .