Category Archives: University Interscholastic League

Get Ready for Texas UIL Solo and Ensemble

Get Ready for Texas UIL Solo & Ensemble

Need music for Texas UIL Solo & Ensemble? We’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled the Prescribed Music Lists for your perusal — just choose your student’s instrument section and arrangement and our website will guide you to the exact music selections for your class!

To get started, select your section and arrangement below:
Woodwind Solo
Woodwind Ensemble
Brass Solo
Brass Ensemble
Percussion Solo
Percussion Ensemble
String
Vocal

Want some help from our staff? Here at Pender’s we are well-versed in UIL performance requirements and would be happy to help you find the right composition. Give us a call at 800-772-5918 to talk with us today!

Get Ready for 2018 contest season

It’s Time to Prep for Spring 2018 Contests!

The 2018 contest season is just around the corner, and here at Pender’s we have all the band and orchestra music you need! Our prescribed music lists make it easy to find your sheet music, and our friendly staff are experts when it comes to performance requirements for state contests — they can help you find whatever you’re looking for!

Check out these lists on our website to find new music, marching materials, sightreading, and more!

Texas UIL Band PML Additions 2017 – 2018
Texas UIL Band PML
Texas Concert Band Marches
Texas UIL Band Sightreading
Texas UIL String Orchestra PML
Texas UIL Orchestra Sightreading

Oklahoma OSSAA Band
Oklahoma OSSAA Orchestra

Mississippi Band
Mississippi Band Sightreading

Don’t forget to order competition scores for the judging panel! For assistance locating materials, give us a call at 800-772-5918. We’d love to help, and best of luck competing in 2018!

Texas UIL Contest Music

UIL Contest Music for Band, Choir and Orchestra

Get your student musicians ready for Texas UIL!  Find band, choir and orchestra contest music from the complete Texas UIL PML (Prescribed Music List). Begin by choosing a category below, and our website will guide you to the appropriate music selections for your band, choir, or orchestra’s contest.

CHOOSE CATEGORY:
UIL Band Contest and Sightreading Music
UIL Choral Contest and Sightreading Music
UIL Orchestra Contest and Sightreading Music

Our knowledgeable staff are well-versed in the performance requirements for state UIL contests and can guide you in selecting the right composition. If you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, find us in-store or give us a call at 800-772-5918. We’d be delighted to help you find exactly what you need.

TX UIL Solo and Ensemble

Get Ready for TX UIL Solo & Ensemble

Equip your student musicians with solo and ensemble music from the complete Texas UIL PML (Prescribed Music List). Begin by choosing your student’s instrument section and arrangement. From there, our website will guide you to the appropriate music selections for your class.

CHOOSE SECTION AND ARRANGEMENT:
Woodwind Solo
Woodwind Ensemble
Brass Solo
Brass Ensemble
Percussion Solo
Percussion Ensemble
String
Vocal

Our knowledgeable staff are well-versed in the performance requirements for TX UIL solo & ensemble, and can guide you in selecting the right composition. If you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, find us in-store or give us a call at 800-772-5918. We’d be delighted to help you find exactly what you need.

Where Sheet Music, Competition & Creativity Collide (in TX)

If you live in the state of Texas, and you’re involved in music and education in the schools, then the two acronyms TX UIL and TX PML likely spill freely and frequently from your lips. And even if you’re not from Texas, but are involved in music education somewhere in this great country of ours, then you probably know what they mean, right? Just in case you don’t, though, here’s the information in a nutshell taken from the UIL home page: “The University Interscholastic League (UIL) exists to provide educational extracurricular academic, athletic, and music contests for schools in Texas.”

As it pertains to UIL music, of course, this includes marching band, concert band, full and string orchestra, both instrumental and vocal solo and ensemble, and choir. Solo and Ensemble music events in band, choir and orchestra are scheduled in 28 TX UIL Music Regions, and portions of the choral and instrumental sheet music to be performed must come from the Prescribed Music List (PML).

Hence, since the performance at least in part must come from the UIL music list that is not of your own making, the sheet music selection itself is a very important part of the process, because no individual soloist or music performance group wants to play sheet music that is either too easy or too difficult. Nor do they want to play from just any sheet music that is on the UIL music list. It needs to be sheet music that is specifically relevant to their group. Picking out what sheet music is to be played at a competition (or in essence, at a mini concert), is perhaps one of the most difficult parts of the TX UIL music process. That PML piece must be representative of the overall performance level of either that one person (in a solo), or the entire group of musicians involved. Because it’s all about the competition, right? Or is it?

Students want to earn that Division One Rating at the region competitions, so that they are eligible to advance to the TX UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest that is traditionally hosted in Austin every year on Memorial Day Weekend. The annual trek is to Austin, because it was the University of Texas at Austin that created the TX UIL in first place in 1910. So consider that. What has grown into the largest inter-school organization of its kind in the world, has a more than one hundred year history, and the model from which it was created here in Texas is now emulated all over the country.

But is it really all for just the competition? Most certainly not. Yet in almost any music circle, you’ll find there is usually a constant debate about competition, its merits, and how it relates to music and the arts. There is a school of thought that since music and the arts are creative pursuits, why must competition or the participation in music contests be an integral part of it, particularly in the school classroom? It almost seems contradictory doesn’t it? Music | Creativity | Expression. What is competitive in that? How can you measure creativity? Expression?

Yet (again from the internet pages of the TX UIL), “the Music Program [specifically]…is designed to support and enrich the teaching of music as an integral component of the public school curriculum in the state of Texas.” Support…enrich…compete, too…and don’t forget to play or sing that choral octavo or instrumental sheet music as creatively and expressively as you can. Because luckily for us, UIL music and competition have and will continue to coexist beautifully together, because as anyone knows, the heart and soul of a school’s music organization is its concert ensemble, whether it be the top-level choral group, or the elite wind ensemble in the concert band program. It is by no coincidence at all that the best marching band programs are a direct reflection of the best concert bands; that the best a cappella choral groups are an extension of the premiere choir in the school; that the wind trios, brass quartets, and percussion ensembles that compete in the TX UIL music contests are usually formed from the top players of their respective programs.

So play on and compete. Seek and find the best band sheet music, choir sheet music, and instrumental sheet music which speak not only to you, but to your students as well. The time to do it is now. Christmas is right around the corner and the TX UIL music competitions will be here before you know it. Therefore, let the sheet music, competition and creativity collide, and trust Pender’s Music Co. to help you. The result will be worth it.

Helpful links:

Band PML | New Selections for 2011 | Texas UIL (slideshow)
New Texas UIL | PML Concert Band Additions for 2011-2012 (pdf)
Choral PML | New Selections for 2011 | Texas UIL (slideshow)
New Texas UIL | PML Choral Additions for 2011-2012 (pdf)
Orchestra PML | New Selections for 2011 | Texas UIL (slideshow)
New Texas UIL | PML Full & String Orchestra Additions for 2011-2012 (pdf)
Texas UIL | PML Vocal
Texas UIL | PML Instrumental
Texas UIL | PML String