Finally finished this, I've been busy typesetting a large choral work for a Chistmas Concert and have had no time to post it. So here goes...
Welcome to what I hope will be a companion series to Dumbo’s “Thursday Classical Music” diaries.
The wind band, more commonly known today as the concert band, wind ensemble, symphonic winds or any combination of the above can trace its lineage back to the military ensembles and harmonien of the 18th century.
These unofficial ensembles were employed by a patron (a nobleman or general) and ranged from small groups made up of drums and fifes to larger ones which included wind and brass instruments. They would provide entertainment at outside parties and political or ceremonial events. A typical harmonien of the period consisted of at least six instrumentalists: 2 oboists, 2 horn players and 2 bassoonists. At times they would participate in performances with the string orchestra employed by the patron thereby allowing composers to add to the musical texture with wind parts while keeping costs down .
Emperor Joseph II employed a harmonie which added two clarinetists to the other six members, of which one was Anton Stadler whom Mozart composed his Clarinet Concerto and Quintet for Clarinet and Strings. Composer and oboist Johann Went was also a member.
Both Mozart and Joseph Haydn wrote music for Harmonien. Mozart composed many works for harmonien including this gem written sometime in 1781-82 for 12 winds and string bass. Serenade in B Flat, K.361 consists of 7 movements and is known as the Gran Partita. We’ll listen to the third movement which Peter Shaffer has Salieri comment on in his play Amadeus:
I heard it through the door – some serenade – at first only vaguely … but presently the sound insisted – a solemn Adagio in E flat. It started simply enough: just a pulse in the lowest registers – bassoons and basset horns – like a rusty squeezebox. It would have been comic except for the slowness, which gave it instead a sort of serenity. And then suddenly, high above it sounded a single note on the oboe. It hung there unwavering, piercing me through, till breath could hold it no longer, and a clarinet withdrew it out of me, and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight it had me trembling. The light flickered in the room. My eyes clouded! The squeezebox groaned louder, and over it the higher instruments wailed and warbled, throwing lines of sound around me – long lines of pain around and through me. Ah, the pain! Pain as I had never known it. I called up my sharp old God, “What is this? What?!” But the squeezebox went on and on, and the pain cut deeper into my shaking head, until suddenly I was running, dashing through the side door, stumbling downstairs into the street, into the cold night, gasping for life.
Serenade in B Flat Major K. 361 Movement 3. Adagio
There is another story (possibly apocryphal) in which Mozart is supposed to have remarked after the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro that he had to rush home and quickly arrange the selections from the opera for harmonie otherwise someone else would do it first as many a harmonie’s repertoire included selections from various operas.
19th CENTURY- Continental European Wind Band
Harmonien underwent an expansion thanks to contact with Turkish Janissaries. They quickly adopted the bass drum, cymbals and triangle as well as adding the piccolo to their instrumentation. Gradually they also added more clarinets and brass instruments as they were further developed to balance out the percussion. It was this grouping of instruments in the the early 19th century that the modern wind band has as an antecedant.
The March #1 for Military Band in F by Ludwig van Beethoven was written in 1808, for the Bohemian Militia and is the first of three military marches written by Beethoven. Also known as the Yorkscher Marsch, it gets its name from the Prussian General Johann David Ludwig Graf York von Wartenburg who was instrumental in convincing the kingdom of Prussia to ally itself with Russia against it’s former ally France in the War of the Sixth Coalition.
March #1 for Military Band in F Major “Yorkscher”
Commissioned in 1840, the Grande Symphonie Funebre et Triumphale, OP 15, by Hector Berlioz was meant to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the revolution which overthrew Charles X and replaced him with Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans. The work was written for a wind band of 200 players and consists of three movements, it made him 10,000 francs even though he was not a supporter of the new regime.
As intended, the band would accompany a procession of caskets containing the remains of those who had died fighting in the revolution. They were to be reinterred under a memorial column that had been built on the site of the Bastille. Records indicate that the music couldn’t be heard due to the cheering of the crowds that lined the route. This would become his most popular work in his lifetime and in 1842 he added optional strings and chorus to the final movement with a text by Antony Deschamps. Note that the video below includes celli and string basses, leaving out the violins and violas.
1. Marche funebre (Funeral March) a work greatly admired by Wagner (00:00 – 1549)
2. Oraison funebre (Funeral Oration) a movement whose music was an aria lifted from the abandoned opera Les franc-juges. The vocal solo is replaced by a trombone. This movement segues right into… (15:50 - 23:28)
3. Apotheose (Apotheosis) a triumphal march (23:28 - end)
Grande Symphonie funebre et triumphale, Op 15
The Trauersinfonie of Richard Wagner is based on themes from Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Euryanthe, it was first performed on December 14, 1844. The occasion was the reburial of Weber’s ashes in Dresden; he had died 18 years before in London. Weber had visited Wagner’s family while he was a child. One of the themes comes from the overture the other is the cavatina "Hier dicht am Quell.” It is scored for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba and snare drums. Wagner even dictates the number of players per part and when all are employed it needs 85 players.
Trauersinfonie
Other composers of 19th Century Europe who composed for wind band were Felix Mendelssohn (Overture for Wind Band, Op 24 “Notturno” and Trauer-Marsch), Edvard Grieg (Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak), Antonin Dvorak (Serenade Op 44), Charles Gounod (Petite Symphonie in B Flat), Gaetano Donizetti, Gioacchino Rossini and Richard Strauss (Serenade in E Flat and Sute in B Flat)
Winds Bands in the US
In the United States during this time large wind bands were mostly military bands. They performed for ceremonial or festive occasions; original repertoire consisted of mainly marches. When these bands played concerts they performed transcriptions of orchestral works or arrangements of operatic pieces as there were very few original concert pieces composed for wind bands.
Patrick Gilmore was the first important band leader in the United States. He was an Irishman who was a cornetist of a military band stationed in Canada. In 1830 he left the military band and moved to Boston where he became band leader of the Boston Brass Band. After three years he moved to the Salem Brass Band where he remained five years, at which time he took over the Boston Brigade Band and renamed it the Gilmore Band. The band served the 24th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment during the years 1861 and 62 in the Civil War. In 1862 all military bands were phased out of service to save money. During this time he would begin performing ‘extravaganzas’ which would make him famous. Gilmore would also add the relatively new saxophone to the list of instruments in the wind band. He would eventually be eclipsed by a man by the name of John Philip Sousa.
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA
Born in Washington D.C. in 1854 where his father was a trombonist in the Marine Band. In 1868 he apprenticed with the band where he served for seven years. In 1880, while on tour with a variety show in St. Louis he received a telegram asking him to become the 14th director of the Marine Band.
Upon assuming the baton he discovered a group where performance standards were poor and literature was non-existent. He immediately began ordering music from European composers so the repertoire would reflect the composers of the day. He instituted a rigid schedule of rehearsals to increase musicianship. This necessitated creating a procedure so that disgruntled performers could seek a quick discharge. He ended up with a group of 33 at which time he recruited younger replacements. He reorganized and reshaped the Marine Band into a first-rate ensemble.
As a composer he is known as the March King, but his output is quite extensive and varied, it includes art song, operetta, suites, concert overtures, instrumental solos, arrangements of orchestral music and of course marches.
He resigned from the Marine Band in 1892 and formed his own professional band.
Sousa did not invent the brass instrument that bears his name, he commissioned its creation by C.G. Conn as he was unhappy with the Helicon (an instrument of the tuba family). It was also not intended to be used in a marching band.
A sampling of music that Sousa programmed…
20th CENTURY – THE WIND BAND BEGINS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY
It was in 1909 when Gustav Holst wrote the first notable and influential work for wind band, the First Suite in E Flat, Op28 #1. It was premiered in 1920, and with its premiere many composers became convinced that ‘serious’ music could now be written for the wind band. The suite is considered to be so well written for wind band that musicologists believe he must have had experience with these kinds of groups. He played the trombone and while in college he played in various bands where it is known that he was not happy with the repertoire.
The suite consists of three movements:
1. Chaconne: related the passacaglia the chaconne is a musical form that is a set of variations on a harmonic progression. (00:00-04:40) *
2. Intermezzo: is exactly what it sounds like a single movement in between two others in a larger multi-movement work. (04:40-07:30)
3. March: (this is pretty self explanatory) (07:32-end)
*The title of this movement has lead to a little controversy over its use; some musicologists believe it is actually a passacaglia.
Other works by Holst for band include Second Suite in F Op 28 #2, Moorside Suite, Hammersmith Op52
Kurt Weill arranged movements from his Threepenny Opera in 1928-29 into a suite called Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, its premiere was given by Otto Klemperer. The Suite consists of Overture, Ballad of Mack the Knife, Instead-of-song, Ballad of the Easy Life, Polly’s Leid, Tango Ballad, Army Song and Finale
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik
1. Overture (beginning – 02:17)
2. Ballad of Mack the Knife (02:20 – 04:36)
3. Ballad of the Easy Life (04:40 – 07:54)
4. Polly’s Leid (07:57 – end)
Click Here for the final three movements.
The question “what came first?” is a conundrum baffling people for decades (or more) but in the universe of the Wind Band there is a definite answer. As you read, much of the music for wind band during the 19th century and continuing on thru today comes from another medium (i.e. orchestra, opera, piano, theatre etc.). Until 1943, the reverse was virtually unheard of, a work written for the concert band being orchestrated and played by a symphony orchestra. This first in modern times is the Theme and Variations Op43a by Arnold Schoenberg (Op 43b is the orchestral version).
Schoenberg intended the work (commissioned by his publisher) to be played by high school band. Unfortunately the piece was too difficult for the average high school wind band and needed to wait until 1946 where it was premiered by Richard Goldman and his band in New York City. The orchestral version was premiered first in 1944 by Sergei Koussevitzky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The work is a theme with seven variations and while it was written when the composer embraced atonality, this piece is resolutely tonal in the key of g minor.
Theme and Variations, Op 43a
Here is a statement of Schoenberg’s describing the work as:
"one of those compositions which one writes in order to enjoy one's own virtuosity and… to give a certain group of music lovers something better to play."
Here is the orchestral version if interested.
On April 5, 1951 the U.S. Army Band premiered what is considered by many to be an essential work for wind band, the Symphony in B Flat by Paul Hindemith. The symphony consists of three movements in the traditional fast-slow-fast arrangement. Richard Goldman, a bandmaster and critic at the time dismissed the symphony as ‘singularly dead.’
Movement 1: Moderately fast, with vigor
For the other two movements see here and here.
One of the major composers of wind band literature was Vincent Perischetti. In 1956 his Symphony No 6, Op 69 (Symphony for Band) was premiered by the University of Washington Band. It has since become a cornerstone of wind band literature. The symphony is in a traditional four movement form.
Symphony No 6 op 69
1. Andante; Allegro
For the other three movements go here, here and here.
The next work was written on challenge between two composers. John Barnes Chance’s Symphony # 2 is the result of that agreement. The challenge: write a piece of music based on a motif of four notes (C#, D, F, E.) He finished first and when the other composer received the score he gave up.
Symphony no 2:
1. Sussurando
2. Elevato
3. Slancio
There are so many more works that are considered cornerstone or significant repertoire for wind band, of which these are only a few. I invite you all now to comment and include works you know should be included in this list.
Believe it or not I actually cut this diary down by about half
NEXT WEEK: The Music of Lee Hoiby
Coming Weeks: Prokofiev: Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution (one of my favorite works), Liszt: Les Preludes and either the Dante Symphony or the Faust Symphony, The Music of Tomas Luis de Vittoria, William Walton's Facade.