In addition to their astronomically large output of symphonic music, and with the exception of Mahler, each of the aforementioned composers wrote music for smaller consorts of instruments, whether be they strings or winds.  It is with great satisfaction I tell you that much of their consort music exists for winds.  Yes!  Flutes, clarinets, bassoons, oboes (and all the variations thereof, including English horn, oboe d’amore, basset horn, etc.).  Chamber music we call it, but by definition, these works were written for musical consorts of wind instruments.  Here is a list of three works you may know:

• Mozart – Serenade in Bb “Gran Partita”, for 13 Wind Instruments (1781/2)
• Strauss – Serenade in Eb, for 13 Wind Instruments (1881/2)
• Stravinsky – Octet for Winds (1923)

Other notable works for winds by orchestral composers:

• Holst – First Suite in Eb for Military Band (1909)
• Vaughan Williams – English Folk Song Suite (1923)
• Respighi – Huntingtower Ballad (1932)
• Grainger – Lincolnshire Posy (1937)
• Persichetti – Symphony No. 6 (1956)
• Copland – Emblems (1964)
• Schwantner – …and the mountains rising nowhere (1977)

There are of course others, and far too many to list here.  Each of the above works is coveted in the concert hall, and on the rare occasion when a major orchestra programs one of them, it is likely that it will either sell out or receive a standing ovation.  Music for consorts of winds…bands of wind instruments.  Not too shabby.

My battle with the concert hall has become this:  if music for winds was being written in 1781, and it is still being written today, why is it we don’t hear any of today’s wind music performed in the concert hall?  Answers:

• “Band music isn’t serious music.”
• “Music without strings is not music.”
• “There are no professional concert bands.”
• “It is not academic.”
• “There are no serious or well-known composers for band.”
• “I don’t write for band because you cannot achieve the same sounds and colors.”
• “People won’t come to listen to band music.”

Remarkably, I feel comfortable enough in my own skin to rufute each one of these heinous excuses.  However, to sum it all up in one short answer, THEY ARE ALL WRONG AND UNFOUNDED!!

Band, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds, Wind Symphony, Symphonic Winds, Symphonic Band, Wind Orchestra, Symphonic Wind Orchestra–many guises, yes.  But all are equally as important, established, and legitimate as any Orchestra, Symphony, Philharmonic, or Chamber Orchestra.

For the next few weeks, I plan to feature composers that have successfully and willingly composed for both the orchestra and the concert band.  Some such composers include Robert Washburn, Cindy McTee, Joseph Schwantner, John Corigliano, Bruce Yurko, Steve Bryant, Jennifer Higdon, John Mackey, and Ron Nelson.  My aim is to feature some of these composers in an effort to not forget about music written for the concert band.  The cat is out of the bag:  Yes, I am a band advocate, but my love of the orchestra and the experience of hearing that music in the concert hall leaves me yearning for an explanation of the phenomenon.

I hope you enjoy the next series of posts.  Great music awaits, and some of it just happens to be for large consorts of wind instruments!

Known primarily for his art songs (which number over 500), he has been the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his Air Music for orchestra, as well both a Fulbright (1951) and Guggenhiem (1957) Fellowship. He is a three-time recipient of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, was named Composer of the Year in 1998 by Musical America, and in 2003 was the recipient of ASCAP’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rorem spent two years at Northwestern University before attending The Curtis Institute on scholarship. He later studied with Bernard Wagenaar at Juilliard, earning his B.A. in 1946 and his M.A. in 1948.
Stylistically, Rorem has rarely strayed far from diatonicism, though several of his works do employ other techniques, including altered chords, polytonality, and modified forms of serialism. His works have been commissioned by the Ford Foundation, the Lincoln Center Foundation, the Koussevitsky Foundation, the Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Chicago Symphonies, and the New York Philharmonic. Artists for whom these works were commissioned include Jeffery Khaner (principal flute, Philadelphia Orchestra), David Geringas (solo cellist), and Dame Evelyn Glennie (solo percussionist).

In 2003, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, the international music community joined in celebrating Rorem’s music with various festivals and performances. Highlighting this celebration was “Roremania,” sponsored by The Curtis Institute, which featured many different genres of the composer’s work.
Having enjoyed a career of more than 60 years as a composer, Rorem continues to write and compose, with his most recent diary Facing the Night having hit shelves in 2005 and the world premiere of his opera Our Town in 2006. Currently, Mr. Rorem resides in New York.

Look Down, Fair Moon, by Ned Rorem

Other Notable Works:

Evidence of Things Not Seen (1997), for four solo voices and piano, commissioned by the New York Festival of Song

Our Town (2006), an opera in two acts, commissioned by the Indiana University Opera Theater, and five co-commissioners

String Symphony (1985), for string orchestra, commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony

Name:  Elliot Carter

Born:  1908, New York

Current post:  Full-time composer

Previous post:  N/A

Publisher:  Boosey & Hawkes | G. Schirmer

Suggested listening:  Eight Pieces for Four Timpani

Quote:

Talking about a materialistic thing, I get about 13 times more royalties from Europe than I do from America.

-Elliot Carter

Elliot Carter’s “Canaries” from Eight Pieces for Timpani

Name:  Christopher Rouse

Born:  1949, Baltimore, MD

Current post:  Professor of Composition, The Juilliard School

Previous post:  Professor of Music, Eastman School of Music

Publisher:  Boosey & Hawkes | Schott-Helicon

Suggested listening:  Flute Concerto

Quote:

I got the opportunity to know Mr. Bernstein only in the summer of 1989, although I had admired his work as composer, conductor, and musical evangelist for most of my life. He remains for me a figure of inestimable importance in the history of music, one whose passion for and commitment to his art was insurpassable, and his sudden death in October 1990 robbed us all of an almost superhuman musical giant.

-Christopher Rouse on Leonard Bernstein, discussing the third movement of Rouse’s Trombone Concerto

Name:  Augusta Read Thomas

Born:  1964, New York

Current post:  Full-time composer

Previous post:  Composer-In-Residence, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Publisher:  G. Schirmer

Suggested listening:  Silhouettes

Quote: 

Don’t assume that someone else has the only “authentic” understanding of a work and that you “don’t know enough about it” to be engaged by it. Simply open your heart, ears and mind and listen YOUR way.

-Augusta Read Thomas, in an interview for a Chicago Symphony Orchestra program booklet