After the Cakewalk

Despite his having moved to the United States with his family when he was 11 years old, Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) was born in Canada where glimpses of his talent had already begun to manifest themselves at an early age. Among Dett's earliest titles was his “Characteristic March Two-Step”, After the Cakewalk. Perhaps written when Dett was just a teenager, this current edition is wholly based upon its original 1901 band publication that was arranged by Lee Orean Smith. Smith was also responsible for preparing Dett's piano solo version for publication, as well as its form for “theatre” orchestra and “mandolin club.” Owing to the fact that Smith's highly idiomatic scoring was prepared for a band of that period, this edition adapts, edits and extends Smith's instrumentation in order to make it possible for Dett's music to become available to a new generation of musicians and listeners alike. (Grade 4)