La Comparsa (score & parts) - WW5

La Comparsa
Carnival Processions from "Afro-Cuban Dances"
for woodwind quintet
by Ernesto Lecuona (1896-1963) - Cuban composer and dance band leader

Arranged by Adam Lesnick

Originally composed for piano, "La Comparsa" was included in Album #3 of the coposer's "Afro-Cuban Dances". The composer describes the piece as follows:

During the Carnival season in Cuba each year there is a traditional parade and ceremony participated in by thousands of the native Negroes and mulattos, who are known there as nanigos. Joyously they play and sing the exotic Cuban melodies, oftentimes using instruments that are original and almost weird in their sound. This composition starts with the gradual approach of the procession and carries one through all the excitement until the last faint notes of the departing parade die away in the distance.