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Official Magazine of the World Association for Symphonic <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>s <strong>and</strong> Ensembles<br />

WASBE<br />

December <strong>2009</strong><br />

W RLD<br />

Focus on Repertoire:<br />

<strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 1<br />

<strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong> <strong>2009</strong>


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IMPRINT IN THIS ISSUE<br />

WASBE World<br />

Vol. 1, <strong>No</strong>. 2 December <strong>2009</strong><br />

Retail price: 12 USD / 8 EUR<br />

Editor: Markus Mauderer<br />

Assistant Editors: Anthony Reimer, Mark Heron<br />

Publisher: DVO Druck und Verlag Obermayer GmbH,<br />

Bahnhofstr. 33, 86807 Buchloe, Germany<br />

Submission to WASBE World:<br />

Send material to:<br />

Markus Mauderer<br />

WASBE Executive Director<br />

Kolpingstr. 2<br />

76456 Kuppenheim, Germany<br />

Tel. + 49 72 22 / 77 40 30<br />

Fax + 49 72 22 / 77 40 40<br />

Email: wasbeworld@gmail.com<br />

Submission Deadlines:<br />

15 January for March issue<br />

15 April for June issue<br />

15 July for September issue<br />

15 October for December issue<br />

The opinions expressed in all reviews <strong>and</strong> feature articles are<br />

solely those of the writers <strong>and</strong> should in no way be interpreted<br />

as reflecting official WASBE statements.<br />

© <strong>2009</strong> WASBE <strong>and</strong>/or the authors of the articles<br />

WASBE Board of Directors:<br />

Officers<br />

President Leon J. Bly,* Germany<br />

President-Elect Odd Terje Lysebo*, <strong>No</strong>rway<br />

Immediate Past-President Glenn D. Price,* Canada<br />

Secretary James Ripley,* USA<br />

Treasurer Marianne Halder,* Germany<br />

Board Members<br />

Virginia Allen, USA Gustavo Fontana, Argentina<br />

Rosa Briceño, Venezuela Fergus O’Carroll, Irel<strong>and</strong><br />

Danny Carroll, Irel<strong>and</strong> Juan Ramirez,* Columbia<br />

James Cochran, USA Rafael Sanz-Espert, Spain<br />

Eugene Corporon, USA Rolf Schumacher, Switzerl<strong>and</strong><br />

Martin Ellerby, UK<br />

* indicates member of the Executive<br />

Rodney Winther, USA<br />

Cover<br />

The <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>a Municipal de<br />

Bilbao conducted by Rafael<br />

Sanz-Espert playing the<br />

“<strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 1”.<br />

Photo: BilbaoMusika<br />

Message from the President _________________ 4<br />

<strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong> Chicago<br />

Building on a Rich History –<br />

Beginning a New Tradition ____ _________________ 6<br />

Interview<br />

WASBE Pioneers: Leon J. Bly ________ ___________ 9<br />

Portrait<br />

Cape Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensemble _________12<br />

The Conductor’s Responsibility<br />

by Felix Hauswirth _________________________13<br />

Focus on Repertoire<br />

A Musical Analysis of José Suñer-Oriola’s<br />

“<strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 1 for Concert <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>” ____14<br />

News<br />

WASBE International Scholarship Program ________19<br />

Calendar __________________________________21<br />

CD Reviews<br />

World Wind ________________________________22<br />

Europa Sinfonie Vol 1 & 5 _____________________22<br />

Innovare: A Celebration _______________________23<br />

Book Review<br />

A Guide to the Top 100 Works _________________25<br />

News from the Music Industry _______________26<br />

WASBE World 3


MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT<br />

In my first message in the September issue<br />

of WASBE World, I wrote that Jim<br />

Cochran is chairing the taskforce “Creating a<br />

New Synergy between Composers, Conductors<br />

<strong>and</strong> Publishers”. The purpose of this<br />

taskforce is to get composers, conductors<br />

<strong>and</strong> publishers working together to improve<br />

the quality of the music for wind b<strong>and</strong>/<br />

ensemble, especially at the lower grade<br />

levels.<br />

There is a great deal more quality music<br />

for wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble today as there was<br />

when I began my career in the 1960s.<br />

However, whereas the majority of the fine<br />

works for wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble composed<br />

before the 1990s can be played by good<br />

amateur b<strong>and</strong>s, the majority of the fine<br />

works composed later are only playable by<br />

the finest conservatory <strong>and</strong> professional<br />

wind b<strong>and</strong>s/ensembles. There is a need for<br />

composers to once again heed Hindemith’s<br />

call for Gebrauchsmusik for the amateurs.<br />

This does not mean that fine works have not<br />

been composed for amateur groups during<br />

the past two decades, for there certainly<br />

have been many of them also. However,<br />

what Frank Battisti calls “the loss of a shared<br />

repertoire” is one of the problems that this<br />

taskforce probably needs to consider.<br />

Having grown-up in a musical family,<br />

where both my father <strong>and</strong> his father were<br />

b<strong>and</strong>masters, the discussion of quality b<strong>and</strong><br />

music has been one that I have heard all of<br />

my life. My gr<strong>and</strong>father was a violinist who<br />

conducted both b<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> orchestras. For<br />

him, the b<strong>and</strong> was the poor man’s orchestra,<br />

but the irony is that he programmed orchestra<br />

concerts more like the Boston Pops than<br />

the Boston <strong>Symphony</strong>. Whereas my gr<strong>and</strong>father<br />

spent most of his adult life trying to<br />

come to terms with 20th Century music, my<br />

father simply rejected it as inferior to that of<br />

4 WASBE World<br />

the 18 th <strong>and</strong> 19 th Centuries. When I was an<br />

undergraduate student, I had a friend who<br />

was an organist; for him, there has been<br />

little music composed after the Baroque that<br />

is worth considering.<br />

Why do I bring this up? Because much of<br />

the discussion about good <strong>and</strong> bad b<strong>and</strong><br />

music has little to do with the inherent<br />

quality of the music itself <strong>and</strong>, as with all<br />

music, much to do with personal tastes.<br />

Sousa once said that he “would rather be<br />

the composer of an inspired march than a<br />

manufactured symphony.” Although not all<br />

of Sousa’s marches seem to be inspired,<br />

most would probably agree that those that<br />

one usually hears today are. That is unless<br />

one does not like marches, in which case the<br />

inherent quality of the music, inspired or not,<br />

is immaterial.<br />

In some countries of the world, wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s are a part of the school curriculum.<br />

This is a wonderful way to teach applied<br />

music, as is participation in an orchestra or a<br />

choir, but if the music curriculum consists<br />

only of performance ensembles, children will<br />

be limited in their exposure to their musical<br />

heritage. If a young person only sings in a<br />

madrigal choir, he or she will not become<br />

familiar with the operas of Verdi or the<br />

symphonies of Beethoven, <strong>and</strong> if a pupil’s<br />

only exposure to music is playing the violin<br />

in a school orchestra, he or she will not learn<br />

about the music of Palestrina or Duke<br />

Ellington <strong>and</strong> probably not have a chance to<br />

play the symphonies by Mahler or Bruckner.<br />

Although wind b<strong>and</strong>s have always played<br />

transcriptions of music of all genres, styles<br />

<strong>and</strong> periods as well as works originally<br />

composed for winds, participation in a wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble, like in any other performance<br />

ensemble, has its limitations as a<br />

vehicle for teaching young people about<br />

great music. Simply stated, music education<br />

needs to consist of more than applied music.<br />

This, however, has little to do with the<br />

quality of the wind b<strong>and</strong>’s repertoire <strong>and</strong><br />

everything to do with a music curriculum.<br />

This is a problem for the music teachers in<br />

these countries to solve <strong>and</strong> probably should<br />

be peripheral to any discussions within<br />

WASBE.<br />

What is not peripheral is an honest discussion<br />

of the music for beginning <strong>and</strong> developing<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s. There are two ways to train<br />

musicians. One is the old conservatory<br />

system whereby a pupil first learns to play<br />

his instrument <strong>and</strong>, when he becomes<br />

accomplished enough, plays in an ensemble.<br />

The other is to train pupils through a combination<br />

of private or group lessons <strong>and</strong><br />

ensemble playing from the beginning. The<br />

second has become popular for training<br />

wind players throughout most of the world,<br />

<strong>and</strong> this has produced a great market for<br />

pedagogical music for beginning <strong>and</strong> developing<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s. Over the past century, there has<br />

been a tremendous development in this<br />

music. If one looks at some of the first<br />

attempts to provide music for beginning<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s, one must wonder how young players<br />

ever managed to play much of it. Today’s<br />

works are much more sophisticated both<br />

harmonically <strong>and</strong> rhythmically with playable<br />

parts for all instruments <strong>and</strong> usually written<br />

to develop certain musical skills. As pedagogical<br />

material, it is equal, if not superior, to<br />

that available for training musicians to play<br />

other instruments, but is it music?<br />

Maybe to be fair, we need to look briefly<br />

at the pedagogical music for string instruments<br />

<strong>and</strong> the piano. These materials were<br />

developed to a very high level during the<br />

19 th Century. The amount of pedagogical<br />

music for piano <strong>and</strong> violin is staggering. <strong>No</strong>t<br />

only were thous<strong>and</strong>s of etudes written, but<br />

also a vast number of sonatinas <strong>and</strong><br />

concertos by composers unknown today to<br />

anyone not studying these instruments. That<br />

will probably be the case with most composers<br />

writing pedagogical works for wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong> today.<br />

Is it possible to write pedagogical works of<br />

quality? There are works for keyboard<br />

instruments by Bach, Schumann, Tschaikowsky,<br />

Bartok <strong>and</strong> others that clearly<br />

demonstrate that it is. However, it amounts<br />

to a small fraction of the pedagogical music<br />

that has been written for keyboard instruments.<br />

Are there pedagogical works for wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble of quality? Certainly, <strong>and</strong><br />

people like Felix Hauswirth, Eugene<br />

Corporon, Thomas Dvorak <strong>and</strong> Richard<br />

Floyd have been doing much to help identify<br />

it.<br />

Admittedly, most wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble<br />

music at all levels has a shelf life of yogurt. It<br />

is written to be played today, because something<br />

else will be played next season.<br />

However, this is not something completely<br />

foreign to music history, nor is it always bad.<br />

Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann<br />

<strong>and</strong> Joseph Haydn like most other


successful composers before the 19 th<br />

Century were hired by their employers to<br />

compose <strong>and</strong> perform new works, not the<br />

music of the past. Even Bach’s sons did not<br />

perform much of the music of their father,<br />

considering it to be outdated. When one<br />

considers that Leonard Bernstein was already<br />

complaining fifty years ago that opera<br />

houses were museums, <strong>and</strong> most symphony<br />

orchestras are more interested in performing<br />

the music of the 18 th <strong>and</strong> 19 th Centuries than<br />

contemporary works, the wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble world is an exciting place,<br />

where new compositions at all levels are<br />

awaited in expectation <strong>and</strong> eagerly sought.<br />

It probably would be good to put aside a<br />

few generalities when discussing wind b<strong>and</strong><br />

music. First of all, the wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble<br />

has no monopoly on poor music. At the<br />

advent of recordings, Sir Arthur Sullivan said,<br />

“I am terrified at the thought that so much<br />

hideous <strong>and</strong> bad music will be put on<br />

records forever”, <strong>and</strong> he was not talking<br />

about b<strong>and</strong> music. At best about 20% of all<br />

the compositions for every medium that<br />

were ever written can be classified as really<br />

good music <strong>and</strong> only about 2% as master<br />

works.<br />

Just because a composer has written music<br />

for symphony orchestra or the opera house<br />

does not mean that his music is good or that<br />

his compositions for wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble<br />

are automatically good. In his book Wind<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>s <strong>and</strong> Brass <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>s (1985) Kevin<br />

Thompson says it very well: Over the years a<br />

few internationally renowned composers<br />

have contributed to the repertoire, though<br />

the quality of some of these works is arguable.<br />

Naturally wind b<strong>and</strong>s impose limitations<br />

on composers, though no more so than<br />

any other ensemble. Paradoxically, when<br />

composers elect to limit themselves to a<br />

particular medium, it appears to channel<br />

rather than restrict their creative effort.<br />

There are kitsch pieces by well-known<br />

composers just as there are imaginative,<br />

interesting works by unknowns. The<br />

medium seems to bring out either the best<br />

or worst in them.<br />

The popularity of a composer’s works<br />

during his lifetime is no measure as to<br />

whether his music will survive or not. The<br />

music of Richard Eilenberg <strong>and</strong> Richard<br />

Schlepegrell was very popular in the 19 th <strong>and</strong><br />

early 20 th century, but few today have even<br />

heard of them. The same is true for<br />

hundreds of composers.<br />

Being a “formula” composer does not<br />

make one’s music good or bad. Emile Waldteufel<br />

was a “formula” composer; still that<br />

SCORE STUDY by Felix Hauswirth<br />

The effectiveness of a conductor’s job largely depends on prior<br />

study of the score. Yet this is the single most neglected subject in<br />

conductors’ training programs. The idea for this<br />

guide came about as a result of this fact, hence<br />

it is entirely orientated towards practical work<br />

with an orchestra.<br />

The first part deals with the theoretical aspects<br />

of score study. The second part consists of an<br />

analysis of a real example, a programmatic work<br />

entitled “Pilatus” by Steven Reineke. The intention<br />

is that of providing an effective guide to score study aimed at<br />

making rehearsals more effective, thus limiting the need for unnecessary<br />

extra work.<br />

bnh414 SCORE STUDY (English)<br />

bnh411 PARTITURSTUDIUM (German)<br />

bnh412 ÉTUDE DE LA PARTITION (French)<br />

bnh413 STUDIO DELLA PARTITURA (Italian)<br />

Available in good music shops or directly from the publisher.<br />

does not keep anyone from playing Les Patineurs.<br />

Serious music is not automatically good<br />

music, as thous<strong>and</strong>s of works well testify,<br />

nor is entertainment music automatically<br />

poor music. If this were the case, the Vienna<br />

Philharmonic would not perform programs<br />

of the music of Johann Strauss, <strong>and</strong> everyone<br />

would not be performing Leroy Anderson’s<br />

Sleigh Ride during this season.<br />

You may or may not agree with much of<br />

what I have written here, <strong>and</strong> that is fine.<br />

These are simply some of my observations<br />

<strong>and</strong> thoughts. What is much more important<br />

is how you can contribute to the taskforce<br />

“Creating a New Synergy between Composers,<br />

Conductors <strong>and</strong> Publishers”. The whole<br />

point of the taskforce is to get everyone –<br />

composers, conductors <strong>and</strong> publishers –<br />

working together constructively to make<br />

things better for the next generation, as Bob<br />

Reynolds is fond of saying. If you have<br />

strong feelings, insights <strong>and</strong>/or opinions on<br />

this subject, please get in contact with Jim<br />

Cochran (jcresource@aol.com); he will be<br />

very happy to have you as a part of his<br />

team.<br />

Leon J. Bly<br />

Ruh Musik AG<br />

Soodstrasse 53 – 8134 Adliswil – Switzerl<strong>and</strong> – www.ruh.ch – contact@ruh.ch<br />

SCORE STUDY<br />

FELIX HAUSWIRTH


MIDWEST CLINIC CHICAGO<br />

The move to McCormick Place West:<br />

Building on a Rich History –<br />

Beginning a New Tradition<br />

by Richard C. Crain<br />

During <strong>Midwest</strong> 2008, attendees<br />

st<strong>and</strong>ing in the hallway on the third<br />

floor of the Chicago Hilton Hotel <strong>and</strong> Towers<br />

had little room to move as the Waldorf<br />

Room <strong>and</strong> the Williford Room were both<br />

filled to capacity <strong>and</strong> had “st<strong>and</strong>ing room<br />

only” for clinic sessions. As the hallway was<br />

full <strong>and</strong> attendees were being turned away<br />

by monitors, many were not able to benefit<br />

from the clinics being presented. Because of<br />

the large number of attendees wanting to<br />

attend concerts in the International<br />

Ballroom, the need for a ticket-track policy<br />

added to the list of growing concerns. An<br />

additional concern was the noise of the air<br />

Conference Registration<br />

On-Site Registration Hours<br />

Attendees can also register at McCormick Place West. Registration is located in<br />

the F1 lobby.<br />

Monday, December 14 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.<br />

Tuesday, December 15 8:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.<br />

Wednesday, December 16 8:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.<br />

Thursday, December 17 8:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.<br />

Friday, December 18 8:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.<br />

Saturday, December 19 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.<br />

Registration Fees<br />

To keep the <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong> accessible <strong>and</strong> affordable, we are pleased to offer adult <strong>and</strong><br />

college student rates that have not increased since 2006. The rates for primar y <strong>and</strong><br />

secondary students have been in place since 2005.<br />

• The educator, industry representative, <strong>and</strong> other non-student rates are $90<br />

(preregistration) or $100 (on-site registration).<br />

• The full-time college student rates are $40 (preregistration) or $45 (on-site<br />

registration). College students must present their school IDs when picking up their<br />

name badges.<br />

• Primary <strong>and</strong> secondary students can register (on-site only) for $15.<br />

On-site registration may be paid with cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express or by<br />

check. Checks should be made payable to The <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong>.<br />

6 WASBE World<br />

conditioning in the Ballroom. It has been<br />

obvious for several years that more room<br />

<strong>and</strong> flexibility have been needed. However,<br />

any decision in 2008 to move from the<br />

historic site of the Hilton would have been<br />

most difficult. The thought of changing a<br />

35-year tradition in the Hilton was rather<br />

sobering. In August of 2008, it was my<br />

privilege to be asked to serve as the<br />

chairman of an ad hoc committee that was<br />

charged with making an on-site inspection<br />

of the recently-completed McCormick Place<br />

West Convention Center. The purpose of the<br />

committee was to investigate the possibility<br />

of making a recommendation to the Board<br />

of Directors for a possible change of venue<br />

for The <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong>. <strong>Midwest</strong> Board<br />

members Richard Dunscomb, Glenn Holtz,<br />

Nancy Golden, Denny Senseney, <strong>and</strong> Mark<br />

Kjos were members of the committee. We<br />

were joined by Executive Director Kelly<br />

Jocius <strong>and</strong> new <strong>Midwest</strong> event manager<br />

Anna Collinge; Dawn Young of the Chicago<br />

Convention <strong>and</strong> Tourism Bureau; <strong>and</strong> Gayle<br />

which were presented later to the full Board<br />

by the chairman of the committee.<br />

Significance of changing the venue<br />

The ad hoc committee met in the Chicago<br />

Hilton on the evening prior to our tour in<br />

order to develop a strategy <strong>and</strong> create a<br />

schedule for the tour. Since we all wanted to<br />

go into the actual tour of the facility with<br />

open minds, it was important that the<br />

members had no preconceived impressions.<br />

The members realized the significance of<br />

changing the venue from the Hilton to<br />

McCormick Place West, <strong>and</strong> the possibility<br />

of a move weighed heavily on the<br />

committee members. At that time, 2010 was<br />

Exhibit Booths<br />

Visit the F1 Exhibit Hall for More<br />

Displays than ever before<br />

• Music Publishers<br />

• Uniform Companies<br />

• Instrument Manufacturers<br />

• Colleges <strong>and</strong> Universities<br />

• Fundraising Companies<br />

• Festivals, Travel <strong>and</strong> Competitions<br />

• Music Accessory Companies<br />

• Recording Companies<br />

• Photographers<br />

• Stage Equipment Manufacturers<br />

• Music Journals<br />

• Software <strong>and</strong> Video Manufacturers<br />

<strong>and</strong> Distributors<br />

• Military Services<br />

• Performing Organizations<br />

• Music Camps<br />

• Instrumental Music Associations<br />

Exhibit Hours<br />

Wednesday, December 16<br />

9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.<br />

Thursday, December 17<br />

9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.<br />

Friday, December 18<br />

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.


The new Convention Center at the McCormick Place West<br />

a target date for any possible change of<br />

venue. Departing from the Chicago Hilton<br />

Hotel <strong>and</strong> Towers, we took only nine<br />

minutes to reach the Hyatt Hotel at<br />

McCormick Place West (MPW), where our<br />

tour began. The immense volume of MPW<br />

became apparent immediately as the<br />

committee walked across the covered air<br />

bridge from the Hyatt Hotel to the<br />

Convention Center. There are two main<br />

floors where meeting rooms, a large exhibit<br />

hall, <strong>and</strong> ballrooms are located, with a<br />

mezzanine second floor that contains a food<br />

court, a restaurant, <strong>and</strong> shipping/communication<br />

services. Rooms suitable for various<br />

kinds of clinic sessions are located on the<br />

first floor. Attendees will be able to<br />

disembark from the free shuttle buses in the<br />

covered bus depot <strong>and</strong> walk just a few feet<br />

to enter the Convention Center. Escalators<br />

<strong>and</strong> elevators near this entrance <strong>and</strong><br />

throughout the building will transport<br />

directors to the second <strong>and</strong> third floors.<br />

Concerts will be on the third floor in the<br />

spacious gr<strong>and</strong> ballroom, which will be<br />

divided into three separate halls. The center<br />

room will serve as an equipment-storage<br />

area as well as providing a sound buffer<br />

between the two concert venues. Since<br />

seating in the larger of these two concert<br />

halls will be more than sufficient to accommodate<br />

a <strong>Midwest</strong> audience, there will no<br />

longer be a need for a two-track ticket<br />

policy. The full jazz track will be held in a<br />

separate designated area, the <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong><br />

Jazz <strong>and</strong> <strong>Chamber</strong> Center, located on the<br />

first floor in the southeast part of MPW,<br />

resulting in no conflict of scheduling<br />

between the jazz track <strong>and</strong> the b<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

orchestra tracks.<br />

The exhibit hall, which is large enough to<br />

accommodate all of the exhibits in one open<br />

area, is conveniently located directly across a<br />

wide hallway from the concert halls, <strong>and</strong><br />

there are plans to create a refreshment area<br />

at the back of the exhibits for the use of<br />

both exhibitors <strong>and</strong> attendees. Because<br />

MPW was planned <strong>and</strong> built for use by<br />

conventions rather than as a hotel,<br />

unloading into MPW by exhibitors will be<br />

exponentially easier, more efficient, <strong>and</strong> less<br />

expensive than at the Hilton Hotel. The<br />

width of individual exhibit spaces has been<br />

enlarged from 8 feet to 10 feet because of<br />

the spacious size of the exhibit hall. After a<br />

lengthy tour of the MPW facilities, the<br />

committee returned to the Hilton for a<br />

debriefing session. Doug Jones, an acoustical<br />

engineer retained by the <strong>Midwest</strong> Board,<br />

gave his report on the acoustical qualities of<br />

the main ballroom where the concerts would<br />

be held. Earlier in the summer, Mr. Jones had<br />

made recordings of the <strong>No</strong>rthshore Concert<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> in the main ballroom. Jones stated that<br />

with no additional treatment of the MPW<br />

ballroom, the acoustical properties of this<br />

Highlights Of McCormick Place West<br />

Convenience: Everything connected with the <strong>Midwest</strong> experience will be held under<br />

one roof. <strong>No</strong> concerts or clinics will be held at another location.<br />

Housing: Since the <strong>Midwest</strong> Board <strong>and</strong> staff, exhibitors, <strong>and</strong> some clinicians will be<br />

housed at the Hyatt at MPW, there will be room for many more attendees to be housed<br />

at the Chicago Hilton. Buses will be provided for transport from the Hilton <strong>and</strong> other<br />

conference hotels to MPW at regular intervals at no added expense to attendees.<br />

Weather Protection: The walkway from the Hyatt to MPW is an enclosed walkway. The<br />

bus-unloading area at MPW is covered <strong>and</strong> unloads directly into the convention center.<br />

Attendees: Will have free bus transport from official conference hotels to MPW. There<br />

are spacious lobby areas outside of concert halls <strong>and</strong> clinic rooms where attendees can<br />

congregate between events. Spacious hallways will allow for many more attendees to<br />

traverse the halls at a time.<br />

Exhibitors: Can unload with greater ease, exhibit with lower expenses, will have food<br />

courts nearby, <strong>and</strong> will be located just across a hallway from the concert venues.<br />

<strong>Clinic</strong>ians: Can present to much larger audiences because of larger facilities. Large<br />

Concert Halls: <strong>No</strong> need for repeating concerts or issuing tickets.<br />

Food Facilities: Restaurant <strong>and</strong> food courts can be found in MPW as well as a<br />

restaurant <strong>and</strong> a refreshment area in the Hyatt.<br />

WASBE World 7


MIDWEST CLINIC CHICAGO<br />

new facility would still be an improvement<br />

over both the Gr<strong>and</strong> Ballroom <strong>and</strong> the International<br />

Ballroom in the Hilton. Even though<br />

the acoustics in the concert halls in<br />

McCormick Place West are superior to the<br />

Hilton ballrooms, the Board has made the<br />

commitment to add sound enhancement<br />

elements to the largest performance hall.<br />

With the observations of the committee<br />

members <strong>and</strong> armed with the reports<br />

presented by the various professionals<br />

retained for this study, the committee met<br />

again the next day, <strong>and</strong> the unanimous<br />

decision was made to call a special meeting<br />

of the full <strong>Midwest</strong> Board of Directors with<br />

the recommendation that the <strong>2009</strong> <strong>Midwest</strong><br />

<strong>Clinic</strong> be held at McCormick Place West. The<br />

Board met in September <strong>and</strong> came to the<br />

conclusion that a move to McCormick Place<br />

West would allow <strong>Midwest</strong> to exp<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

would improve the <strong>Clinic</strong> in all areas of<br />

operation. One of the services at MPW will<br />

be providing free, regularly-scheduled<br />

shuttle service from the different hotels that<br />

will house attendees.<br />

Free shuttle system<br />

Since the Hyatt at McCormick Place will<br />

only be able to house the <strong>Midwest</strong> Board,<br />

staff, exhibitors, <strong>and</strong> clinicians, most<br />

attendees will find lodging in the Chicago<br />

Hilton Hotel <strong>and</strong> Towers, Palmer House,<br />

Essex, Blackstone, <strong>and</strong> downtown hotels.<br />

The Exhibit Hall has more displays than ever before<br />

8 WASBE World<br />

A free shuttle system has been set up<br />

between these “<strong>Midwest</strong>” hotels <strong>and</strong> MPW.<br />

This shuttle service will be extensive, <strong>and</strong><br />

The <strong>Midwest</strong> Board made the decision to do<br />

whatever it takes to ensure that there will<br />

always be a sufficient number of buses to<br />

move attendees to <strong>and</strong> from MPW.<br />

Topcoats may even be unnecessary for<br />

attendees as buses will be boarded just steps<br />

from hotel doors <strong>and</strong> will unload in a<br />

covered entrance to MPW. However, there<br />

will be a space to check coats <strong>and</strong> parcels for<br />

those that need this service. Incidentally,<br />

parking for those who will be driving is<br />

ample <strong>and</strong> less expensive than at downtown<br />

hotels. Kelly Jocius <strong>and</strong> the <strong>Midwest</strong> office<br />

staff have performed a superb job of<br />

organizing <strong>and</strong> administering the details<br />

involved with this huge endeavor of moving<br />

an entire clinic. Every detail of this historic<br />

decision by the Board of Directors has been<br />

made with the welfare of the attendees<br />

being paramount. <strong>Midwest</strong> now will have<br />

the space <strong>and</strong> flexibility to maximize the<br />

offerings for attendees. With the great<br />

lineup of concerts <strong>and</strong> clinics <strong>and</strong> with<br />

special guest artists including Ellis Marsalis<br />

<strong>and</strong> Mark O’Connor, the <strong>2009</strong> <strong>Midwest</strong><br />

should be the best ever. We all hope to see<br />

you in December at McCormick Place West.<br />

Everyone connected with The <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong><br />

is working toward the goal of making the<br />

<strong>2009</strong> experience rewarding for everyone.<br />

Donations to the<br />

WASBE Foundation<br />

in <strong>2009</strong><br />

Gold (USD 100 or more)<br />

Bert Langeler*<br />

Stockholms Lans Blasarsymfoniker<br />

Shih-Chien University Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong><br />

Edizioni Musicali Wicky<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>a de Musica Municipal de Bilbao<br />

Associacao <strong>Orchestra</strong> Filarmonica de<br />

Sao Carlos<br />

Maximo Ronquillo*<br />

Donald Lovejoy<br />

Kirby Fong*<br />

<strong>No</strong>rges Musikkorps Forbund*<br />

Fraser Linklater*<br />

Casimiro Garcio Llamas*<br />

*Foundation Membership<br />

Silver (USD 50 to 99)<br />

Wen-Jung Cheng<br />

Vladimir Mustajbasic<br />

Roberto Farias<br />

<strong>No</strong>boru Ohgishi<br />

Laszlo Marosi<br />

Javier Mir<strong>and</strong>a Medina<br />

Hugo Josao Lopes<br />

Goran Hulphers<br />

Gary Nyberg<br />

David V<strong>and</strong>ewalker<br />

Keith Kinder<br />

Karel Husa<br />

Jose Ignacio Petit Matias<br />

Jim Cochran / Shattinger Music<br />

Bronze (to USD 49)<br />

Mark Heron<br />

Joan Jones<br />

Janis Purins<br />

Arild Andersen<br />

Vicente Moncho<br />

Carlos Enrique Camejo Patron<br />

Clyde Shive<br />

Russell McCutcheon<br />

Marvin Eckroth<br />

José Pascual-Vilaplana<br />

Anthony Reimer<br />

Adam Hilkert<br />

Terence Milligan<br />

John W. Daniels<br />

Franco Brusini<br />

Fabian Antonio Di Mattia<br />

Colleen Richardson<br />

Anthony Houghton<br />

Alberto Roque<br />

Steven Accatino<br />

Mark Fonder


INTERVIEW<br />

WASBE Pioneers: Leon J. Bly<br />

by Anthony Reimer<br />

This is the last in a series of interviews with people who were a part of WASBE from its<br />

beginnings. Through these interviews commissioned by the previous editor of the WASBE<br />

Newsletter Don DeRoche, we hope to give our current members a sense of history <strong>and</strong> the<br />

philosophical point of view that gave birth to the concept of our international wind organization.<br />

This interview with Leon J. Bly was held during the 14 th WASBE Conference in<br />

Cincinnati, USA.<br />

Anthony Reimer: In 1981, at the time of the<br />

first International Conference for Symphonic<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> & Wind Ensembles, Conductors,<br />

Composers <strong>and</strong> Publishers, from what I<br />

underst<strong>and</strong>, you were just about to move to<br />

Germany from the United States. So first of<br />

all, what brought you to the Conference in<br />

Manchester?<br />

Leon J. Bly: Well, actually, I had just moved<br />

to Germany about three weeks prior to<br />

conference. Therefore, I thought it would be<br />

a great opportunity to go to Manchester to<br />

what I thought was going to be a one-time<br />

opportunity to get to hear b<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> b<strong>and</strong><br />

music from around the world – <strong>and</strong> actually,<br />

that’s what it was. It was the first time that<br />

many of us had a chance to hear some b<strong>and</strong><br />

music from Eastern Europe as well as many<br />

other parts of the world, to hear b<strong>and</strong>s at all<br />

levels perform music from their own country.<br />

Frank Battisti <strong>and</strong> Leon J. Bly<br />

There were b<strong>and</strong>s at all levels performing all<br />

types <strong>and</strong> grades of music. It was a very<br />

exciting time for all of us that went, <strong>and</strong><br />

because of the fact that we thought it was<br />

going to be a one-time-only event, many of<br />

us thought it absolutely necessary to be<br />

there.<br />

AR: I sometimes forget, being here at the<br />

14 th WASBE Conference, how far it has<br />

come since that first conference. You said<br />

there was a wide variety of music. Can you<br />

give me a picture of what that conference<br />

was like musically?<br />

LB: The conference was musically a real<br />

mixture of everything from school <strong>and</strong><br />

amateur b<strong>and</strong>s to fine university wind<br />

ensembles <strong>and</strong> professional b<strong>and</strong>s as well as<br />

some chamber music. The days were filled<br />

with lots of music. There were a great many<br />

concerts during this conference but not a<br />

whole lot of other things were planned.<br />

There were some lectures, but this conference<br />

consisted mainly of concerts. In order<br />

to get b<strong>and</strong>s to attend this conference, they<br />

had invited b<strong>and</strong>s from as many countries as<br />

possible, but there was no way of selecting<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s (as there is now for WASBE Conferences),<br />

so you had some average school<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> youth b<strong>and</strong>s, you had, as I said,<br />

some excellent wind ensembles from universities<br />

<strong>and</strong> colleges in the United States, some<br />

very, very good community b<strong>and</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> some<br />

community b<strong>and</strong>s, again, that were average.<br />

In terms of the music that we heard, we<br />

heard everything from very fine pieces of<br />

music – some st<strong>and</strong>ard works by Hindemith<br />

<strong>and</strong> Husa – to music from musical shows <strong>and</strong><br />

film music, marches, <strong>and</strong> a lot of popular<br />

music from the various countries. So in this<br />

case, it was a real mixture of repertoire that<br />

was heard <strong>and</strong> a real mixture in terms of the<br />

performance levels.<br />

AR: Do you remember how you heard about<br />

this initial world b<strong>and</strong> conference?<br />

LB: I was <strong>and</strong> still am a member of CBDNA<br />

(College <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Directors National<br />

Association), <strong>and</strong> it was one of the main<br />

organizers of the conference, so I had gotten<br />

the advertising materials through the<br />

CBDNA.<br />

AR: So you became a member of WASBE<br />

when it was formed there, <strong>and</strong> you are one<br />

of the esteemed people who have a singledigit<br />

membership number. What took you<br />

from being a member to getting involved<br />

with service? Did someone recruit you? Did<br />

an opportunity come up that you took? How<br />

did that happen that you became more of a<br />

service member of WASBE?<br />

WASBE World 9


INTERVIEW<br />

LB: I think I was probably involved one way<br />

or another with WASBE from the very<br />

beginning. At the beginning of the week of<br />

the 1981 conference, there was some talk<br />

about forming an organization <strong>and</strong> doing<br />

that kind of conference every two or three<br />

or four years. At the moment when it was<br />

first talked about, I didn’t think it was such a<br />

terribly good idea. I thought it would<br />

probably be, for most people, terribly<br />

expensive to try to do this too often, <strong>and</strong> I<br />

wasn’t quite sure where it was heading. By<br />

the end of the week, things took a different<br />

shape, <strong>and</strong> I became much more impressed<br />

<strong>and</strong> excited about the whole idea, which is<br />

why I joined before I even left Manchester.<br />

That is also how I actually, at a very low level<br />

one could say, got involved. By the end of<br />

the week, Paul Yoder approached me about<br />

spreading the word about WASBE <strong>and</strong>,<br />

seeing that I was now living in Germany,<br />

asked if I would get involved with contacting<br />

the music organizations in Germany <strong>and</strong> the<br />

magazines there to try to get the word out.<br />

So I got involved at the very first with some<br />

PR for WASBE.<br />

AR: You mentioned Paul Yoder. Were there<br />

other people in the organization from the<br />

beginning that were key that you interacted<br />

with a lot?<br />

LB: I didn’t have a lot of interaction with<br />

people in the sense of the governing of<br />

WASBE at the beginning, but I did meet<br />

people at that first conference with whom I<br />

to this day, remain in contact, one of them<br />

being Egil Gundersen, who served as WASBE<br />

Treasurer for so many years. I made a lot of<br />

new European friends like Trevor Ford; many<br />

of the CBDNA people I had already known.<br />

AR: Later on, you got elected to the Board.<br />

LB: Yes, in 1991, I became a member of the<br />

WASBE Board. I am probably one of the few<br />

people who has managed to attend all the<br />

conferences – so this is my 14 th – <strong>and</strong> simply<br />

being in attendance at the conferences, one<br />

becomes known. I was asked about serving<br />

on the WASBE Board about four years<br />

before I finally said yes. At that time,<br />

because of other commitments <strong>and</strong><br />

especially having a young family, I could not<br />

say yes, but finally I decided to accept the<br />

invitation to run for the Board <strong>and</strong> was<br />

10 WASBE World<br />

elected as I said in 1991. I then served on<br />

the Board for six years.<br />

AR: Then you followed that immediately by<br />

taking a new position: the Executive Director’s<br />

position. You would have been on the<br />

Board at the time that position was created.<br />

Can you tell me a little bit about the thoughts<br />

behind creating an Executive Director’s<br />

position <strong>and</strong> how that came about?<br />

LB: Well, actually, I more or less created my<br />

own monster. I saw quite early that someone<br />

needed to be administering this big<br />

operation more or less on a daily basis, <strong>and</strong><br />

talked to other Board members about this<br />

idea. Most of it just remained talk until Felix<br />

Hauswirth became President Elect. At that<br />

time, Felix <strong>and</strong> I talked quite extensively<br />

about what this kind of a position should be.<br />

One of the biggest problems with the idea<br />

of having an Executive Director is that<br />

WASBE is a small society with a limited<br />

budget <strong>and</strong> has no way of really financing<br />

the office of Executive Director. But I worked<br />

with Felix on the idea of what should be<br />

done – what someone should be doing on a<br />

daily basis, how some of the work should be<br />

divided between the Board, the President<br />

<strong>and</strong> an Administrator – <strong>and</strong> we worked<br />

together on establishing a job description for<br />

an Executive Director. At the time, I did not<br />

have any idea that I would be the first<br />

person to do this job. I was expecting that it<br />

was going to be given to a professional<br />

administrator rather than a working music<br />

school b<strong>and</strong> director.<br />

AR: This is a two-part question. How has<br />

WASBE <strong>and</strong> being involved with WASBE<br />

changed you – the music you program, the<br />

people you associate with, the way you<br />

approach being a music director – <strong>and</strong> how<br />

has WASBE in turn changed the music<br />

world? So the first part: how has WASBE<br />

changed or evolved what you do?<br />

LB: I was a fairly young b<strong>and</strong> director at the<br />

time WASBE was formed, so simply having<br />

this interchange with colleagues at such a<br />

high professional level, with some of the<br />

finest b<strong>and</strong> directors from around the world,<br />

helped me to grow as a musician <strong>and</strong> as a<br />

conductor – watching others conduct<br />

concerts, attending conducting workshops at<br />

conferences, having this kind of interaction.<br />

Probably the most important thing that<br />

happened to me professionally was – right at<br />

Manchester – to recognize how rich the<br />

wind b<strong>and</strong> repertoire is. In 1981, few b<strong>and</strong><br />

directors looked outside of their own<br />

country’s borders, not only in <strong>No</strong>rth America<br />

but also within Europe – countries that are<br />

next to each other had their own traditions,<br />

their own repertoire, <strong>and</strong> had very little<br />

exchange <strong>and</strong> interaction with each other. I<br />

then realized how rich <strong>and</strong> exciting the wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>’s literature on an international basis<br />

really is. That was very exciting for me.<br />

Even to this day, I find that one of the most<br />

important things that WASBE does is to<br />

disseminate information about music from<br />

the various parts of the world. WASBE has<br />

done a great deal in this respect, however<br />

there are parts of the world where, even<br />

after almost 30 years, we still know so little<br />

about the wind b<strong>and</strong> music. Today (at the<br />

Conference) there are sessions on b<strong>and</strong><br />

music in South American. Except for the<br />

people in Latin America, most of this music is<br />

totally unknown, even though we have had<br />

sessions on Latin American music at WASBE<br />

Conferences before. There is so much more<br />

happening there than most people in <strong>No</strong>rth<br />

Leon J. Bly, Markus<br />

Mauderer <strong>and</strong><br />

Publisher Stefan<br />

Männlein (from left)<br />

creating the first issue<br />

of “WASBE World”<br />

at Leon J. Bly’s home<br />

in Stuttgart.<br />

Photo: Klaus Härtel


America or Europe know about. I also<br />

attended today a fine session about the<br />

b<strong>and</strong> repertoire in Portugal. These are the<br />

kinds of things that make WASBE, for me, a<br />

very exciting experience.<br />

AR: In the time since 1991, how do you<br />

think WASBE, as an organization <strong>and</strong> as a<br />

world force, has actually changed our music<br />

world in your view?<br />

LB: These kinds of things are very hard to<br />

measure. The world has changed, in many<br />

respects, a great deal. You have to realize<br />

that in 1981, there was no Internet, there<br />

were no CDs, there were not all of the<br />

opportunities to hear music from other<br />

countries that you have today. You couldn’t<br />

just go online <strong>and</strong> download musical<br />

examples, <strong>and</strong> it was very difficult to find<br />

out about b<strong>and</strong> music in other countries.<br />

That’s why conferences were then so<br />

important. I do think that WASBE has had,<br />

however, a great impact on disseminating<br />

the idea that there is music in other countries<br />

worth performing that we should know<br />

about, no matter which country we live in;<br />

that there is rich literature beyond our own<br />

borders. The world through various means<br />

has become much smaller with globalization<br />

or whatever you want to call it, <strong>and</strong> I think<br />

that WASBE has certainly had to some<br />

extent an impact on the world b<strong>and</strong> scene.<br />

At least, WASBE is seen today as a possible<br />

resource for obtaining information on b<strong>and</strong><br />

music from various countries. If you know<br />

exactly what you want from a certain<br />

country, it’s not too hard to learn about it in<br />

other ways, but if you are a b<strong>and</strong> director in<br />

the middle of Canada, the best way of<br />

finding out about music in Europe or in<br />

South America may be by going through<br />

WASBE rather than going through the Music<br />

Centres in each one of the countries on<br />

these continents. In addition to that, I think<br />

that WASBE has had a great deal of<br />

influence in certain parts of the world on<br />

raising st<strong>and</strong>ards for conductors <strong>and</strong> in<br />

raising performance st<strong>and</strong>ards.<br />

AR: In 2007, you were elected back on to<br />

the Board as President Elect as you ended<br />

your tenure as Executive Director. At this<br />

Conference, you will take over the President<br />

of WASBE role. What are some of the things<br />

that you are looking to accomplish during<br />

your tenure as President?<br />

LB: This is one of the most amazing things<br />

that has happened in my life to become<br />

President of WASBE. I never had any<br />

aspiration to be the President of WASBE,<br />

<strong>and</strong> when I look around me at all of my<br />

distinguished colleagues, I have to ask the<br />

question of how something like this could<br />

happen. I never intended to be the Executive<br />

Director. In 1981 I didn’t have any thoughts<br />

about being on the WASBE Board. Some<br />

things happen in life that we either fall into<br />

unexpectedly, or we are asked to do things<br />

<strong>and</strong> see a need to respond.<br />

What is probably the biggest problem for<br />

me with becoming President of WASBE?<br />

I know the workings of WASBE very well<br />

because of all the various positions <strong>and</strong> tasks<br />

that I have had. However, I see the position<br />

of President as being for someone with an<br />

artistic vision <strong>and</strong> pushing for WASBE<br />

leadership in the musical world, <strong>and</strong> this may<br />

not necessarily be one of my strongest<br />

points. I do have some ideas for changing a<br />

few aspects of our next conference to make<br />

it more of a working conference with all of<br />

the delegates being involved with various<br />

tasks rather than a spectator type of conference.<br />

I agree with our current President (Ed.<br />

<strong>No</strong>te: Glenn Price, at the time) who says that<br />

WASBE Conferences have become the Rolls<br />

Royce of conferences. I think that in many<br />

respects that is very true: the high level of<br />

performances, the high level of music. But I<br />

would like that at the next conference, we<br />

try to work on some of the problems that<br />

are facing wind b<strong>and</strong>s around the world.<br />

I should also like to try to develop some<br />

ideas that may help move our whole<br />

movement forward in certain ways. Within<br />

the next few months, the WASBE magazine<br />

especially will be dealing with these aspects<br />

of things (Ed. <strong>No</strong>te: See Leon’s President’s<br />

Message in the September <strong>2009</strong> issue of<br />

WASBE World). The WASBE Conference<br />

web site will be listing these various areas; I<br />

think we shall see some things happening<br />

there.<br />

However, as I said before, I’m not sure<br />

that I am a visionary. I’m certainly not a<br />

visionary in the sense of someone like one of<br />

the founders of WASBE, Frank Battisti,<br />

whose vision for an organization like WASBE<br />

is why it exists. I see myself more as a kind<br />

of functionary who sees that things get done<br />

<strong>and</strong> that the organization runs smoothly.<br />

What I am hoping to do is to get some of<br />

the committees, networks <strong>and</strong> various<br />

projects that WASBE has been attempting to<br />

do over the years, finally moving <strong>and</strong> things<br />

actually happening. I probably will leave the<br />

office of President as the most disliked<br />

President who ever served because people<br />

not doing their job in their service position<br />

will probably get fired <strong>and</strong> replaced with<br />

someone else.<br />

AR: I must comment at this point that one of<br />

the strengths that I have seen in you is that<br />

administrative ability <strong>and</strong> the ability to make<br />

sense of administration. I sense from your<br />

comments that is one of the things that you<br />

will move forward; that the ship itself will<br />

run better. It’s not the vision of where the<br />

organization is going; we have been working<br />

towards a vision but sometimes we have<br />

gone off in all directions <strong>and</strong> it is merely<br />

tidying up the ship so that the next Captain<br />

will then be able to move forward again. Is<br />

that a fair comment?<br />

LB: That sounds fair enough. If you want me<br />

to be the Janitor <strong>and</strong> clean up the ship, I’ll<br />

accept that kind of a title.<br />

AR: You made reference to the Conference<br />

in Taiwan. It looks very much like progress is<br />

being made quickly, that they are really<br />

excited in Chiayi City about the Conference.<br />

Can you tell me a little bit about how preparations<br />

are going for that conference?<br />

LB: The preparations from the side of the<br />

people in Taiwan are moving forward very<br />

well. They are very excited about having the<br />

Conference there. It is a rather amazing<br />

situation in the fact that everyone from the<br />

Mayor of Chiayi City down to the lowest<br />

levels within the City government are very<br />

excited about making Chiayi City, at least in<br />

Asia, the center of the b<strong>and</strong> world. They<br />

have been running for many years a very<br />

successful <strong>and</strong> very fine b<strong>and</strong> festival each<br />

year from the end of December to the<br />

beginning of January. I have been there<br />

twice. This festival, at least in Asia, is very<br />

well known. They would like now to have<br />

WASBE there to enhance their image, as I<br />

said, as a b<strong>and</strong> centre, as a place that not<br />

only provides their type of festival, but is<br />

also able to bring the very best of b<strong>and</strong>s to<br />

their city. What is also amazing is the<br />

amount of interest in b<strong>and</strong> concerts from the<br />

inhabitants of that city. I am sure that every<br />

performance that is given at the next Conference<br />

will be sold out simply because there is<br />

so much interest, especially when we bring<br />

very fine b<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> ensembles to that<br />

Conference. There will be no questions<br />

about any vacant seats in any concert halls.<br />

That is one of the things that is very exciting.<br />

When the annual festival takes place there,<br />

the whole city becomes so much a part of<br />

that festival that you cannot walk down the<br />

street without seeing banners <strong>and</strong> signs<br />

about the festival everywhere. In two years,<br />

I am sure that from the time one gets off the<br />

train or bus at Chiayi City, one will see<br />

nothing but WASBE Conference posters <strong>and</strong><br />

banners <strong>and</strong> hear b<strong>and</strong>s everywhere. The<br />

City will not only become a convention<br />

centre where WASBE will be, but the City<br />

will be WASBE.<br />

WASBE World 11


PORTRAIT<br />

Cape Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensemble:<br />

Professional Opportunities for Disadvantaged Youth<br />

by John Stanley<br />

Since the end of apartheid in South Africa<br />

in 1994, the government established<br />

formidable measures to provide opportunities<br />

for a wide variety of programs for<br />

disadvantaged individuals who were<br />

formerly excluded from them.<br />

One remarkable measure was the creation<br />

of the Cape Philharmonic Youth Wind<br />

Ensemble along with its companion Cape<br />

Philharmonic Youth <strong>Orchestra</strong>. Launched in<br />

2003 as part of the Cape Philharmonic<br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong>’s development <strong>and</strong> transformation<br />

plan, most of the members of both youth<br />

ensembles come from previously disadvantaged<br />

communities. The members of the<br />

professional orchestra are committed to a<br />

program of teaching <strong>and</strong> training the young<br />

12 WASBE World<br />

musicians as well as young conductors<br />

through regular workshops <strong>and</strong> one-on-one<br />

tuition.<br />

The core business of the Cape Philharmonic<br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong> is performing as a<br />

symphony orchestra of international<br />

st<strong>and</strong>ard. Their Principal Guest conductor is<br />

Owain Arwel Hughes. However, the<br />

nurturing of future musicians <strong>and</strong> the<br />

development of youth music in Cape Town,<br />

plus developing new audiences in South<br />

Africa, are of equal importance.<br />

The influence of WASBE on the<br />

development of the wind <strong>and</strong> percussion<br />

movement is becoming very encouraging.<br />

In September, John Stanley, charter<br />

member of WASBE, made his second visit to<br />

Cape Town again to conduct the CPO Wind<br />

Ensemble. His first experience was in 2005<br />

when he along with other WASBE members<br />

was invited by Ina Leuvennink to participate<br />

in the WASBE South Africa Conference. He<br />

conducted two works with the CPYWE <strong>and</strong><br />

was enormously impressed with the<br />

potential of this enthusiastic <strong>and</strong> very<br />

promising ensemble. With the encouragement<br />

of Henriette Weber, the dynamic<br />

<strong>and</strong> tireless manager of the two youth<br />

ensembles, he returned in September this<br />

year to prepare <strong>and</strong> conduct a series of<br />

concerts for their Spring Showcase. (Yes,<br />

September is the beginning of spring in<br />

South Africa.) These were performed in the<br />

townships <strong>and</strong> included works by Dello Joio,


Woolfenden, Hanson, Biebl, Osser <strong>and</strong> Yi<br />

Chen.<br />

While the city was busily preparing to host<br />

the World Cup in 2010, John was able to<br />

observe the exceptional work in satellite<br />

training centers by music teachers provided<br />

by the CPO Outreach & Education Division.<br />

These remarkable music educators were<br />

successfully introducing instrumental music<br />

to nine-year-olds who less than two decades<br />

ago could not even dream of such a luxury.<br />

It was amazing to observe how innately<br />

musical these students were, becoming<br />

competent with western classical music<br />

along with their beautiful native melodies.<br />

These dedicated teachers were ably assisted<br />

by youth orchestra members, most of whom<br />

were from that particular township <strong>and</strong> who<br />

will ultimately progress into the CPYO <strong>and</strong><br />

CPYWE.<br />

John also presented a two-day conducting<br />

master-class following work started by Laszlo<br />

Marosi <strong>and</strong> Prof. Victor Yampolsky (<strong>No</strong>rthwestern<br />

University) over the past few years.<br />

A further dimension of the progress being<br />

made is by Sean Kierman, conductor of the<br />

CPYWE, who lends his talents to work with<br />

a special cadre of military b<strong>and</strong> personnel<br />

from Namibia. Some members in this<br />

remarkable b<strong>and</strong> were from Rw<strong>and</strong>a <strong>and</strong><br />

spoke no English or Afrikaans. One could<br />

only imagine how they appreciated the<br />

luxury of wind b<strong>and</strong> music in such a setting,<br />

contrasted with the conditions in their wartorn<br />

country.<br />

South Africa, like so many remote<br />

countries is benefiting from the support<br />

provided by WASBE <strong>and</strong> its efforts to raise<br />

the st<strong>and</strong>ards of performance <strong>and</strong> literature.<br />

The focus of the government to emphasize<br />

education through the arts as manifested by<br />

the CPO Outreach & Education program is<br />

beginning to pay rich dividends <strong>and</strong> serves<br />

as an exceptional model for initiatives in<br />

other locations.<br />

The conductor’s<br />

responsibility<br />

Stephen Budiansky’s clinic at the WASBE<br />

Conference in Cincinnati (or more particularly<br />

the reaction to it) inspired this second<br />

column in WASBE World.<br />

I refer to two of his texts: that of his clinic<br />

on July 10th , <strong>2009</strong> <strong>and</strong> his article (with<br />

Timothy W. Foley as co-author) in the WASBE<br />

Journal 2005 called ”The Quality of Repertoire<br />

in School Music Programs: Literature<br />

Review, Analysis <strong>and</strong> Discussion“ (you can<br />

find both texts at<br />

http://www.budiansky.com/music.html).<br />

Firstly: the clinic was given <strong>and</strong> the article<br />

was published for a World Association with<br />

participants <strong>and</strong> members from over 50<br />

countries around the globe. But we read<br />

about <strong>and</strong> listened to a mostly <strong>No</strong>rth<br />

American phenomenon. <strong>No</strong> acknowledgement<br />

was given anywhere about the fact<br />

that Budiansky‘s opinion refers only to the<br />

United States or <strong>No</strong>rth America.<br />

My impression is that there is a strong<br />

suspicion that Budiansky assumed that this is<br />

not just a <strong>No</strong>rth American, but a global<br />

problem. This must be the reason for his<br />

statement: “And it really makes me wonder<br />

how many people in the wind b<strong>and</strong> world<br />

read the arts criticism that appears in serious<br />

newspapers <strong>and</strong> journals. I suspect they don’t<br />

at all.“<br />

Budiansky has mistakenly transplanted his<br />

opinion of the <strong>No</strong>rth American b<strong>and</strong> scene<br />

onto the b<strong>and</strong> scene worldwide. This seems<br />

to me to be a sign of ignorance.<br />

How long will it take (despite the efforts of<br />

WASBE!) until we realize that the wind b<strong>and</strong><br />

movement exists not only between Boston<br />

<strong>and</strong> Los Angeles!<br />

Nevertheless, I have been interested in his<br />

main topic: ”repertoire“ for a long time. I<br />

have written articles, given dozens of lectures,<br />

<strong>and</strong> recently I finished the 8th edition of my<br />

book of selected repertoire for winds.<br />

I think we all have to focus much more on<br />

repertoire. Therefore I sympathize with a lot<br />

of points Budiansky mentioned. But it is<br />

absolutely wrong to think that every work of<br />

a ”significant composer“ is a great work. The<br />

list, presented by Budiansky <strong>and</strong> Tim Foley<br />

(table 4 in the WASBE Journal article)<br />

suggests this when you read it within the text.<br />

To speak about a ”great work“ when you talk<br />

about the ”Mini-Suite“ by Morton Gould is<br />

certainly wrong, though Gould was of course<br />

one of the great composers of the 20 th<br />

Century. The work is – no more, no less –<br />

pedagogical music, like a lot of the pieces by<br />

living composers which Mr. Budiansky<br />

attacked.<br />

The list shows also a lack of connection<br />

with reality: in it you will find – as grade 3<br />

pieces (”medium or lower difficulty“) –<br />

compositions like Gershwin‘s ”Rhapsody in<br />

Blue“ (the Grofé version) or Gershwin‘s ”An<br />

American in Paris“ (Krance)!<br />

I have problems with the fact that<br />

Budiansky is harsh on composers of easy <strong>and</strong><br />

pedagogical music. Just as there is no<br />

guarantee that every piece by a ”significant<br />

composer“ will be a good piece, a very<br />

difficult work doesn‘t guarantee a composition<br />

of high artistic level. On this level there<br />

are also a lot of ”sins“. The lack of artistic<br />

quality in the composition will fade into the<br />

background because of the highly virtuosic<br />

playing of the ensemble. The musical content<br />

falls by the wayside.<br />

Furthermore, the fact that a recognized<br />

composition of high artistic quality is being<br />

performed, doesn‘t always guarantee a<br />

musical triumph. All too often I have attended<br />

performances of Mozart which had nothing<br />

to do with proper performance practice. The<br />

name ”Mozart“ isn‘t sufficient to guarantee<br />

aural pleasure.<br />

We should always make sure that we, as<br />

conductors, take sole responsibility for the<br />

selection of repertoire <strong>and</strong> the quality of our<br />

performances. It is wrong to h<strong>and</strong> the responsibility<br />

for that (when it suits us) to publishers<br />

or composers. The better we are (<strong>and</strong> the<br />

more famous we are), the more we have to<br />

be conscious of this fact. A concert by a ”big<br />

name“ in our business always sets an<br />

example. These artists should always be<br />

aware of the significant responsibility they<br />

carry.<br />

Why should a High School conductor from<br />

the USA, Canada, Singapore or Japan, a<br />

conductor of an amateur b<strong>and</strong> in Europe or<br />

anywhere in the world be criticized for his<br />

programming or his unmusical interpretation<br />

of a piece, if he has used a bad example from<br />

one of his living idols?<br />

How often does it come down to the fact<br />

that a conductor is performing a piece<br />

because one of the ”big names“ recorded it<br />

on a CD?<br />

The big names of our profession have to be<br />

aware that they have a responsibility to set an<br />

example. As Winston Spencer Churchill<br />

(1874-1965) once said: ”The price of<br />

greatness is responsibility.“<br />

Best wishes,<br />

Felix Hauswirth<br />

WASBE World 13


FOCUS ON REPERTOIRE<br />

A Musical Analysis of José Suñer-Oriola’s<br />

“<strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 1 for Concert <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>”<br />

Análisis de la “Sinfonía de Cámara nº 1 para <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>a de Concierto” de José Suñer Oriola<br />

Texto original del compositor en español<br />

Traducción al inglés por Richard-Scott Cohen<br />

Original text in Spanish by the composer<br />

English translation by Richard Scott Cohen<br />

Intimismo y sensibilidad, dos sensaciones integradas en el<br />

postulado onomatopéyico del discurso musical, así como razonamiento<br />

y emotividad, son posiblemente el principal objetivo en las<br />

aspiraciones de un compositor.<br />

Intimacy <strong>and</strong> sensibility: these two sentiments are integral to any<br />

philosophical discourse on music. To capture these feelings, along<br />

with rationality <strong>and</strong> emotive impact, is perhaps the greatest<br />

challenge facing any composer.<br />

La Sinfonía de Cámara nº 1 para <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>a de Concierto fue creada<br />

entre 2005 y 2006 a raíz de las máximas influencias de mi quinteto<br />

para metales Tres finestres (Tres ventanas).<br />

De similitud estructural pero conceptualmente diferente, el punto<br />

de partida de la Sinfonía de Cámara fue la referencia de las sinfonías<br />

italianas del siglo XVIII. Por otro lado, es justo atribuir cierta influencia<br />

sino de características musicales, si emocionales, al hecho de que 100<br />

años antes, Arnold Schoenberg escribía su Sinfonía de Cámara nº 1,<br />

op. 9.<br />

<strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 1 for Concert <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> was composed in<br />

2005-2006 <strong>and</strong> is heavily influenced by my earlier work for brass<br />

quintet, Tres ventanas (Three Windows). The <strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> is<br />

based structurally on symphonies that emerged in 18th century Italy,<br />

although in other aspects it has a totally different conception. It is<br />

also influenced in the emotional language of Arnold Schoenberg’s<br />

<strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 1, op. 9, written 100 years earlier.<br />

El primer movimiento en forma Rondó (A-B-A’-C-A’’-B’-Coda) se<br />

presenta con el tema principal en cadencial I-IV,<br />

The first movement is set in rondo form (A-B-A’-C-A’’-B’-Coda).<br />

The first theme is presented over a I-IV cadential harmonic<br />

progression,<br />

Ejemplo 1 • Example 1<br />

14 WASBE World<br />

difumin<strong>and</strong>o la claridad melódica mediante suaves disonancias y el<br />

engaño visual de las enarmonías, solícitas a lo largo de toda la pieza.<br />

blurring the melodic clarity with mild dissonances <strong>and</strong> visually<br />

deceptive enharmonic spellings that permeate the entire work.<br />

Ejemplo 2 • Example 2<br />

El segundo tema es expuesto por una melodía secuencial interpretada<br />

por la flauta y en variación respondido por el tutti,<br />

The second theme consists of a melody which alternates sequentially<br />

between the flute <strong>and</strong> the full ensemble in variation,<br />

Ejemplo 3 • Example 3<br />

d<strong>and</strong>o paso a la exposición en tempo Allegro del tema principal,<br />

emple<strong>and</strong>o juegos canónicos y desplazándose transitoriamente hacia<br />

la forma libre C en el Lento donde su apertura en la marimba representará<br />

la misma secuencia del segundo tema anteriormente expuesto<br />

por la flauta, en rítmica diferente.<br />

giving way to the exposition in allegro (as in the opening theme),<br />

employing playful canonic imitations, <strong>and</strong> transitioning to the freeform<br />

C section of the movement. This lento section opens with the<br />

marimba using a sequential melody in similar fashion as the flute in<br />

the second thematic area, but employing a different rhythmic<br />

language.<br />

Esta parte central, crea su color gracias a la fusión tímbricoarmónica<br />

del vibráfono y la marimba, junto con los instrumentos<br />

dedicados al efecto base, realz<strong>and</strong>o el continuo gliss<strong>and</strong>o de las copas<br />

(al tradicional efecto de la copa con agua, frotada con suave presión<br />

del dedo por la parte superior de ésta, se le añade la continua inclinación<br />

de la misma, produciendo un gliss<strong>and</strong>o de características particulares).<br />

This central section features the timbres <strong>and</strong> harmonies of the<br />

vibraphone <strong>and</strong> the marimba in colorful fusion with a gliss<strong>and</strong>o<br />

effect created by goblets filled with water. Building on the traditional<br />

method of rubbing a finger along the ridge of these glasses to


produce a sound, here they are also constantly tilted back <strong>and</strong> forth<br />

to vary the pitch <strong>and</strong> create a very unusual gliss<strong>and</strong>o effect.<br />

El módulo central en forma libre expuesto por el solo de flauta nos<br />

conduce a la reexposición del tema principal, enlaz<strong>and</strong>o con el<br />

segundo tema también en reexposición, concluyendo con una breve<br />

Coda.<br />

The solo flute passage in this central free-form section leads us<br />

onto the recapitulation, where the first two themes are reintroduced<br />

<strong>and</strong> combined, <strong>and</strong> which concludes with a brief Coda.<br />

Ejemplo 4 • Example 4<br />

La simplicidad estructural y la instrumentación transparente son<br />

frutos de la referencia característica hacia dos compositores. La<br />

creación de este movimiento tuvo lugar en el 250 aniversario del<br />

nacimiento de W. A. Mozart y el 100 aniversario del nacimiento de<br />

Dimitri Shostakovitch, por tanto, el reflejo del movimiento interválico<br />

de Shostakovitch y la simplicidad melódica de Mozart son una<br />

constante.<br />

The structural simplicity <strong>and</strong> the transparent instrumentation of<br />

this first movement are influenced by the musical styles of two<br />

composers. This movement was composed in the same year as the<br />

250 th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, <strong>and</strong> in the same year as the<br />

100 th anniversary of the birth of Shostakovich. With this in mind,<br />

this movement reflects both the intervallic style of Shostakovich,<br />

<strong>and</strong> Mozart’s melodic simplicity.<br />

El segundo movimiento, de forma libre (A-B-C-D) intenta plasmar<br />

la fresca calidez del carácter mediterráneo en la primera de sus<br />

secciones.<br />

The second movement is set in free-form A-B-C-D fashion. The<br />

first section strives to capture the freshness <strong>and</strong> warmth of the<br />

Mediterranean.<br />

En la segunda, la<br />

notable influencia de<br />

los Cantos Llanos son<br />

presentados por el<br />

fagot,<br />

The second section<br />

fuses plainchants<br />

presented by the<br />

bassoon,<br />

Ejemplo 5 • Example 5<br />

fusionándose con la metafórica representación de las místicas voces<br />

femeninas Búlgaras expuestas en la trompa.<br />

with the French horn’s metaphoric representation of the choral<br />

music style of the Mystical Bulgarian Women’s Voices (Le Mystère<br />

des Voix Bulgares).<br />

Ejemplo 6 • Example 6<br />

La tercera sección, de características transitorias, nos conduce a la<br />

última de éstas, la cual referencia a su vez las transparencias musicales<br />

que Gabriel Fauré dibuja en su Requiem.<br />

The third section is transitional <strong>and</strong> leads to the final section,<br />

which references the musical transparencies of Gabriel Fauré’s<br />

Requiem.<br />

Éste movimiento sitúa toda su emoción en los diferenciales<br />

referentes europeos.<br />

In conclusion, this second movement incorporates all of its<br />

emotion in a variety of European styles.<br />

El tercer movimiento, en forma quasi Sonata, parte con una<br />

explosiva introducción armónicamente en pertenencia a otra de mis<br />

piezas: Vasa.<br />

The third movement, in quasi-sonata form, leaps out with an<br />

explosive introduction, harmonically much like another one of my<br />

works, Vasa.<br />

La exposición, basada en la danza tradicional española Jota, es<br />

fragmentada por los continuos cambios de compás, los cuales<br />

propician una gran variedad en la acentuación musical del mismo<br />

tema.<br />

The exposition, based on the traditional Spanish dance known as<br />

the Jota, is fragmented by constantly changing meters that yield a<br />

wealth of variety in the accentuation of the theme.<br />

José Suñer-Oriola<br />

was born 1964 in El Puig, Valencia<br />

(Spain). He studied percussion,<br />

analysis, harmony <strong>and</strong> counterpoint<br />

at Valencia Conservatory, <strong>and</strong><br />

composition with Mr. Julio Ribelles,<br />

advancing his studies in Barcelona<br />

(Spain) <strong>and</strong> Luxembourg (Luxembourg).<br />

He has been player <strong>and</strong><br />

teacher for the San Sebastián<br />

Municipal <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>, the San Sebastián Conservatory, the Bilbao<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>Orchestra</strong> <strong>and</strong> the Gran Teatre del Liceu <strong>Symphony</strong><br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong> of Barcelona.<br />

His compositions are published by Catalana d’Edicions<br />

Musicals (Spain), Rivera editores (Spain), Blas-Basen (Sweden)<br />

<strong>and</strong> have been performed in Europe, Japan, Australia <strong>and</strong><br />

America.<br />

He is “Frederick Fennell Special Prize” winner in The First<br />

Tokyo Kosei Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong> Composition Competition 2006,<br />

Prix SACEM, troisième prix Coups de Vents 2008, Lille (France),<br />

<strong>and</strong> finalist in the 2 nd International Frank Ticheli Composition<br />

Contest <strong>2009</strong>, New York (USA).<br />

He is a member of the Valencian Composers Association<br />

(COSICOVA), the Spanish General Publishers <strong>and</strong> Authors<br />

Association (SGAE), <strong>and</strong> the World Association for Symphonic<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>s <strong>and</strong> Ensembles (WASBE).<br />

<strong>No</strong>wadays he plays at Valencia Municipal <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

conducts the Societat Musical Eslava d’Albuixech.<br />

WASBE World 15


Ejemplo 7 • Example 7<br />

Primer desarrollo.<br />

First Development.<br />

Densidad en la instrumentación y clara confrontación entre las dos<br />

líneas expuestas con nuevos motivos en la primera de sus dos<br />

secciones, cre<strong>and</strong>o una secuencia temática del leitmotiv en la segunda<br />

sección. Dicha secuencia será repetida en diferentes cambios instrumentales<br />

y acentuación rítmica durante 13 veces, e interválicamente<br />

por cuartas 11 veces.<br />

Composed in two sections, the first section features dense instrumentation<br />

<strong>and</strong> a clear confrontation between two new motivic lines,<br />

which form the basis of the thematic sequence a la leitmotif in the<br />

second section. This sequence is repeated 13 times with changes in<br />

instrumentation <strong>and</strong> rhythmic accentuation, <strong>and</strong> 11 times with intervallic<br />

changes at the fourth.<br />

Ejemplo 8 • Example 8<br />

Segundo desarrollo.<br />

Second Development.<br />

Caracterizado por motivos de la introducción y el tema principal en<br />

su presentación, deriva en una serie de secuencias, la primera de las<br />

cuales es ejercida por los clarinetes en movimientos cromáticos<br />

descendentes y ascendentes.<br />

The Second Development features a series of sequences based on<br />

motives from the introduction <strong>and</strong> the main theme. The first of these<br />

sequences is performed by the clarinets, with chromatically<br />

ascending <strong>and</strong> descending motions.<br />

Ejemplo 9 • Example 9<br />

La segunda secuencia obedece a un constante y ordenado cambio<br />

de compás.<br />

16 WASBE World<br />

The second sequence follows an ordered pattern of meter<br />

changes.<br />

Ejemplo 10 • Example 10<br />

La tercera, constituida a partir del tema principal del primer<br />

movimiento de la pieza, desarrolla un canon desde los instrumentos<br />

más graves hacia los agudos en una diferenciación interválica de<br />

segundas.<br />

The third sequence, based on the main theme from the first<br />

movement of the work, is fashioned as a canon at the interval of the<br />

second, <strong>and</strong> progresses from the lowest instruments to the higher<br />

ones.<br />

Ejemplo 11 • Example 11<br />

Estas tres secuencias son dominadas por un constante fluir en las<br />

flautas, oboes y clarinetes, mediante una melodía de característica<br />

latina, aport<strong>and</strong>o una mezcla de las influencias populares contemporáneas<br />

en contraste a los temas expuestos en forma tradicional.<br />

These three sequences are dominated by the fluidity of the flutes,<br />

oboes <strong>and</strong> clarinets, <strong>and</strong> are built around a characteristically Latin<br />

melody featuring a mixture of contemporary popular influences in<br />

contrast with traditionally treated themes.<br />

Transición.<br />

Transition.<br />

Como súbito final al segundo desarrollo, se presenta un puente<br />

relajante conducido por flautas y piccolo en una melodía fragmentada<br />

por los tres instrumentos, que será ampliada progresivamente por los<br />

metales.<br />

As a sudden ending to the second development, the flutes <strong>and</strong><br />

piccolo present a relaxing bridge with a melody that is fragmented<br />

by these three instruments, which is then progressively amplified by<br />

the brass.<br />

Ejemplo 12 • Example 12<br />

Variación del segundo desarrollo.<br />

Variation of the Second Development.<br />

Utiliz<strong>and</strong>o el mismo motivo que en la introducción, se desarrolla<br />

una variación de la melodía latina a ritmo de tango, volviendo a


presentar en los metales una variación del tema<br />

principal del primer movimiento, argument<strong>and</strong>o<br />

todo el conjunto una dominación rítmica que<br />

desembocará en el tema principal a tutti.<br />

Using the same motive from the introduction, a<br />

variation of this Latin melody is developed using<br />

the tango rhythm, while the brass present their<br />

own variation of the main theme from the first<br />

movement. This rhythmic drive dominates the<br />

entire group <strong>and</strong> eventually leads to a tutti<br />

restatement of the main theme.<br />

Variación del primer desarrollo.<br />

Variation of the First Development.<br />

Tom<strong>and</strong>o el primer desarrollo como modelo, se<br />

realiza una variante de ampliación instrumental así<br />

como distribución rítmica diferente al acaecido en<br />

el anterior. Contrast<strong>and</strong>o con las dos construcciones<br />

anteriores, esta variación difumina progresivamente<br />

el poder instrumental en un fino hilo que<br />

nos conducirá a la reexposición del tema principal.<br />

Taking the first development as a model, a new<br />

variation is created using a greater number of<br />

instruments <strong>and</strong> a different rhythmic treatment<br />

than used earlier. In contrast to the two earlier<br />

constructions, the instrumental power of this<br />

variation progressively dissolves into a fine<br />

thread, which leads us back to the recapitulation<br />

of the main theme.<br />

Reexposición del tema principal – Reexposición<br />

del primer desarrollo – Coda.<br />

Recapitulation of the Main Theme – Recapitulation<br />

of the First Development – Coda.<br />

Las tres partes restantes cumplen estrictamente<br />

su función, aplic<strong>and</strong>o unas variantes, en el caso de<br />

la primera un sentido irónico por las flautas. En el<br />

segundo, por una ampliación instrumental en las<br />

dos secciones de las que consta, para llegar a una<br />

Coda que fusiona la melodía del segundo<br />

desarrollo con la variación del tema principal del<br />

primer movimiento y el tema principal de éste<br />

mismo, ocult<strong>and</strong>o dos temas unidos en los graves<br />

pertenecientes el primero a mi obra Vasa y el<br />

segundo al Himno Español.<br />

The three remaining sections fulfill their traditional<br />

roles while employing some variation<br />

techniques. The first of these has the flutes set in<br />

a somewhat ironic tone. The second is set in two<br />

parts with exp<strong>and</strong>ed instrumentation. The coda<br />

merges the melody from the second development<br />

with both the variation of the main theme from<br />

the first movement <strong>and</strong> the main theme from this<br />

movement. At the same time, two other themes<br />

Ejemplo 13 • Example 13<br />

Richard Scott<br />

Cohen<br />

is Associate Professor<br />

of Music<br />

<strong>and</strong> Director of<br />

Instrumental<br />

Concert Ensembles<br />

at Ferris State<br />

University in Big<br />

Rapids, Michigan, USA. A native of Chicago,<br />

Cohen is a Phi Beta Kappa scholar from the<br />

University of Illinois, holds masters <strong>and</strong><br />

doctorate degrees in conducting from<br />

<strong>No</strong>rthwestern University, <strong>and</strong> is a former<br />

Fulbright Scholar to Spain. His numerous<br />

professional affiliations include membership<br />

on the boards of directors of the International<br />

Society for the Research &<br />

Promotion of <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Music (IGEB, Austria)<br />

<strong>and</strong> several local arts agencies. He is also<br />

frequent consultant to the Valencia<br />

Federation of Musical Societies (Spain), <strong>and</strong><br />

is a former member of the Editorial Board of<br />

the WASBE Journal. A WASBE member since<br />

1987, Cohen remains active as a conductor,<br />

trombonist, composer, arranger, music<br />

adjudicator, clinician, researcher, author,<br />

translator <strong>and</strong> lecturer throughout the<br />

United States, Canada, Europe <strong>and</strong> Asia.<br />

are hidden in the low instruments, with the first<br />

coming from my composition, Vasa, <strong>and</strong> the<br />

other being the Spanish National Anthem.<br />

Referencias a estilos y formas tradicionales son<br />

comúnmente contrastados en un mismo trabajo<br />

con influencias y temáticas más actuales. El trabajo<br />

de los grupos instrumentales, el constante cambio<br />

de compás y la búsqueda de colores, caracterizan<br />

el virtuosismo de este movimiento.<br />

References to traditional forms <strong>and</strong> styles are<br />

contrasted repeatedly with more present-day<br />

materials <strong>and</strong> influences. The interchange<br />

between various instrumental groups, the<br />

constant changes in meter, <strong>and</strong> the search for<br />

color characterize the virtuosity of this<br />

movement. José Suñer-Oriola<br />

Agradecimientos de ejemplos musicales:<br />

Musical Example Credits:<br />

<strong>Chamber</strong> <strong>Symphony</strong> nº 1: Rivera Editores,<br />

Valencia, España (Spain).<br />

Tres finestres, quinteto de<br />

metales: Instituto Valenciano<br />

de la Música, Valencia, España<br />

(Spain).<br />

Vasa: Blas-Basen Music<br />

Publishing, Stockholm, Suecia<br />

(Sweden).


© copyright by Rivera Editores. Used by permission. All rights reserved.<br />

18 WASBE World


NEWS<br />

WASBE Looking for Camps <strong>and</strong> Students to<br />

Participate in International Scholarship Program<br />

Joseph T. Alme <strong>and</strong> Dr. Evan Feldman, Co-Chairmen<br />

The WASBE International Scholarship<br />

Program was established to assist students<br />

wishing to study at a music camp in a<br />

country other than their own. This youth<br />

cultural exchange would not only add to the<br />

students’ musical development but would<br />

also enable participating students to develop<br />

a greater underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> appreciation of<br />

each other’s culture through their mutual<br />

interest in music.<br />

The scholarships include the cost of meals,<br />

lodging <strong>and</strong> tuition during the student’s stay<br />

at the camp. Each student is responsible for<br />

the cost of his or her own transportation to<br />

the music camp. Students interested in participating<br />

in the program should contact us at<br />

the address below.<br />

During the past 27 years (1982-<strong>2009</strong>),<br />

over 200 students from seventeen countries<br />

Wheaton College, a small, highly selective liberal arts college in <strong>No</strong>rton,<br />

Massachusetts, announces a full-time tenure track position for an<br />

Instrumental Conductor<br />

with an initial two-year appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor.<br />

This faculty member will lead two instrumental ensembles, a <strong>Chamber</strong><br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong> (currently 20 members) <strong>and</strong> a Wind <strong>Symphony</strong> (40 members).<br />

Each ensemble rehearses weekly <strong>and</strong> performs at least one concert per<br />

semester. The ensembles include both student <strong>and</strong> community<br />

musicians, <strong>and</strong> the c<strong>and</strong>idate must be able to effectively conduct students<br />

with varying ability levels. Additional teaching responsibilities include one<br />

course per semester. C<strong>and</strong>idate must be able to teach Music Theory up<br />

through diatonic Tonal Harmony; other courses may include a specialty of<br />

c<strong>and</strong>idate, Conducting, Introduction to Music, or as needed to cover<br />

departmental offerings. Music Department faculty members typically also<br />

have the opportunity periodically to develop a course in an area of their<br />

interest in Wheaton’s interdisciplinary First-Year Seminar program, <strong>and</strong> to<br />

teach the departmental Senior Seminar, a capstone course which rotates<br />

among our faculty <strong>and</strong> offers additional opportunity for course<br />

development. Doctorate, Artist’s Diploma, or equivalent professional<br />

experience required. Ideal c<strong>and</strong>idate will be able to demonstrate a track<br />

record of success in, <strong>and</strong> strong commitment to, teaching music within<br />

the context of a liberal arts education. Please submit letter of application,<br />

detailed c.v., <strong>and</strong> names of three referees electronically to:<br />

https://jobs.wheatoncollege.edu, by January 15, 2010, <strong>and</strong> please ensure<br />

that referees submit their letters of reference by that date. CD or DVD<br />

supplementary submissions should be sent to Search Committee, Music<br />

Department, Wheaton College, <strong>No</strong>rton, MA 02766. Any recordings sent at<br />

this time will be reviewed but will not be returned. Questions about the<br />

position may be directed to Matthew Allen, Music Department Chair<br />

(mallen@wheatoncollege.edu).<br />

For more information about Wheaton College, see http://www.wheatoncollege.edu<br />

Wheaton College seeks educational excellence through diversity <strong>and</strong><br />

strongly encourages applications from women <strong>and</strong> men of minority<br />

groups.<br />

have participated in the International<br />

Scholarship Program. Music camps<br />

throughout the eight nations of Belgium,<br />

Canada, Engl<strong>and</strong>, Finl<strong>and</strong>, <strong>No</strong>rway, Sweden,<br />

Switzerl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> the United States have<br />

provided the scholarships.<br />

If your camp is interested in providing this<br />

opportunity for an international student,<br />

please contact us. This is an excellent way of<br />

providing a unique opportunity for a young<br />

international musician while promoting your<br />

camp worldwide!<br />

Camps interested in providing scholarship<br />

opportunities should contact:<br />

Joseph T. Alme, International Scholarship<br />

Co-Chairman<br />

1930 23 rd Ave SE<br />

Minot, ND 58701, USA<br />

joe@internationalmusiccamp.com<br />

WASBE RECEPTION<br />

WASBE will have their regular<br />

meetings during the <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong> in Chicago this<br />

December.<br />

All WASBE members are welcome<br />

to join our reception on<br />

Wednesday December 16, <strong>2009</strong><br />

5:30 - 7:00 pm<br />

at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom C.<br />

See you there!<br />

WASBE SCHOLARSHIPS<br />

MADE AVAILABLE FOR 2010<br />

SEASON<br />

UNITED STATES/CANADA<br />

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC CAMP<br />

International Peace Garden, <strong>No</strong>rth<br />

Dakota/Manitoba<br />

Number of Scholarships: 2<br />

Dates: June 20-July 3, 2010<br />

June 27-July 10, 2010<br />

July 18-31, 2010<br />

Age Level: 15 – 18<br />

Contact Person: Dr. Timothy Wollenzien<br />

info@internationalmusiccamp.com<br />

Website: www.internationalmusiccamp.com<br />

HOW TO IMPROVE BREATH,<br />

VOICE AND POSTURE<br />

In this manual you will learn more about<br />

breathing, voice <strong>and</strong> posture. New means of<br />

control will allow you to exploit your possibilities<br />

more economically to the ultimate effect.<br />

New!<br />

ISBN: 9783839121351 · www.dubymusic.de<br />

WASBE World 19


NEWS<br />

Sir Simon Rattle (UK) has signed a<br />

contract to remain director of the Berlin<br />

Philharmonic until 2018. Rattle has led<br />

Germany‘s top orchestra since 2002. The<br />

orchestra has exp<strong>and</strong>ed its educational <strong>and</strong><br />

youth outreach program, <strong>and</strong> Rattle also<br />

helped shepherd the change of its administrative<br />

structure into a foundation.<br />

Gustavo Dudamel (Venezuela) led the Los<br />

Angeles Philharmonic in the world premiere<br />

of John Adams’ City <strong>No</strong>ir <strong>and</strong> Mahler’s First<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong> for his Inaugural Gala <strong>and</strong><br />

opening night concert at Walt Disney<br />

Concert Hall on October 8. The New York<br />

Times wrote that it was “an exceptional <strong>and</strong><br />

exciting concert by any st<strong>and</strong>ard,” <strong>and</strong> that<br />

Dudamel’s interpretation of the Mahler was<br />

“probing, rigorous <strong>and</strong> richly characterized.”<br />

Marco Pütz’s “…then thy words will take<br />

wind…” for solo cello, children’s choir <strong>and</strong><br />

wind orchestra was premiered by the<br />

University of Osnabrück Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong><br />

under the direction of Jens Schröer at St.<br />

Kathrine’s Lutheran Church in Osnabrück on<br />

10 <strong>No</strong>vember <strong>2009</strong>. The concert took place<br />

in conjunction with an exhibition of the<br />

paintings known as Private Tolkatchev at the<br />

Gates of Hell by the Russian artist Zinovii<br />

Tolkatchev.<br />

Stephen McNeff’s Creation was premiered<br />

by the Birmingham Conservatoire Senior<br />

Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong> under the direction of Guy<br />

Woolfenden on 27 <strong>No</strong>vember <strong>2009</strong> at<br />

Adrian Boult Hall at the Conservatoire. The<br />

work was commissioned by a BASBWE<br />

College Consortium.<br />

Kenneth Hesketh has been commissioned<br />

by the Birmingham Symphonic Winds to<br />

compose a Danceries 2. To finance its<br />

commissions, the Birmingham Symphonic<br />

Winds encourages individuals to donate £25,<br />

£50, or £100 or more to a commission. In<br />

return, the contributers are credited in the<br />

score of the composition, receive an<br />

autographed front page of the score, <strong>and</strong><br />

may observe rehearsals of the Birmingham<br />

Symphonic Winds preparing the premiere of<br />

the work.<br />

Rachel Lockwood’s Fountains: Trafalgar<br />

Square Waking for woodwind dectet was<br />

premiered by the Royal <strong>No</strong>rthern College of<br />

Music in Manchester on 25 October <strong>2009</strong>.<br />

Lockwood sketched the piece while perched<br />

for one hour on the normally unoccupied<br />

20 WASBE World<br />

fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London<br />

on 1 September <strong>2009</strong> as part of Antony<br />

Gormley’s project One & Other. Concerning<br />

the experience the composer has written:<br />

I work on producing new music, <strong>and</strong><br />

producing a new artwork in the contest of<br />

another new artwork (atop a relatively<br />

venerable piece of architecture) was a rarely<br />

equalled opportunity for meta-art. The top<br />

of the plinth was a bizarre, as well as<br />

unusual, place to compose. On the plinth I<br />

was surrounded by all kinds of people…,<br />

but the height created a separation between<br />

my surroundings <strong>and</strong> me. I was in isolation,<br />

but surrounded by the bustel of Trafalgar<br />

Square as it woke on a truly beautiful<br />

morning.<br />

James Sclater has been commissioned by a<br />

consortium headed by the Mississippi Wind<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong> to compose a concerto for piano<br />

<strong>and</strong> wind b<strong>and</strong>. The proposed three<br />

movement, 20 to 25 minute concerto is to<br />

be premiered in June 2010 by pianist Angela<br />

Willoughby <strong>and</strong> the Mississippi Wind<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong>.<br />

Heinz Friesen, noted Dutch conductor,<br />

received the Amstel Music Award <strong>2009</strong> of<br />

5000 on 30 August <strong>2009</strong> at the final<br />

concert of the annual Grachtenfestival aan<br />

de Maas, where he conducted the<br />

Symphonic Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong> St. Michael of<br />

Thorn. Friesen received the prize for his<br />

outst<strong>and</strong>ing achievement as a conductor <strong>and</strong><br />

his valuable contributions to the promotion<br />

of the wind orchestra.<br />

Andrew Boysen, Jr. has been commissioned<br />

by the Western <strong>and</strong> <strong>No</strong>rthwestern<br />

Divisions of CBDNA to compose a single<br />

movement, Grade 4, seven to eight minute<br />

composition for wind b<strong>and</strong>. The work will be<br />

premiered by the University of Nevada Wind<br />

Ensemble on 12 March 2010 at the Western<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>No</strong>rthwestern CBDNA Conference in<br />

Reno, Nevada.<br />

Willi Vogl’s elegy for symphonic b<strong>and</strong>,<br />

Gelobtes L<strong>and</strong> (The Promised L<strong>and</strong>), was<br />

premiered by the Youth Wind <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> of the<br />

Alemannic <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Association under the<br />

direction of Ulrich Winzer on 4 October<br />

<strong>2009</strong> at the Burghof in Lörrach, Germany.<br />

Jan Cober conducted the Rundfunk<br />

Blasorchester Leipzig on a nineteen day tour<br />

of China in October <strong>2009</strong>. The 32 piece<br />

b<strong>and</strong> played nine concerts in eight cities,<br />

including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou,<br />

Ningbo, Wuhan, <strong>and</strong> Wuxi. The program<br />

included Mendelssohn’s Ouverture für<br />

Harmoniemusik, Op. 24, J.S. Bach’s Toccata<br />

<strong>and</strong> Fugue in D Minor, Leonard Bernstein’s<br />

Overture to C<strong>and</strong>ide, George Enesco’s<br />

Rumanian Rhapsody <strong>No</strong>. 1, <strong>and</strong> Anton<br />

Dvoˇrák’s Slavonic Dance, Opus 46, <strong>No</strong>. 3.<br />

Swiss composer Oliver Waespi won the<br />

second prize <strong>and</strong> the Kouvola audience prize<br />

ex aquo at the Second Uuno Klami-Composition<br />

Competition in Finl<strong>and</strong> for his Double<br />

Concerto for Guitar, Flute <strong>and</strong> <strong>Chamber</strong><br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong>. This is another important<br />

recognition of Waespi’s work as a composer<br />

after the George-Enescu-Prize 2003 <strong>and</strong> the<br />

2005 London Scholarship of the Zuger<br />

Kulturstiftung L<strong>and</strong>is&Gyr.<br />

CBDNA invites to participate in a Wind<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Commission by German composer Rolf<br />

Rudin. The instrumentation is for Symphonic<br />

Wind <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>, Grade 4-5. Commission Fee is<br />

$400 – includes score <strong>and</strong> parts. More information<br />

from Jim Cochran JCochran@shattingermusic.com<br />

The 63rd Annual <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong> will be<br />

held December 15-19, <strong>2009</strong> in Chicago,<br />

USA. To celebrate, The <strong>Midwest</strong> <strong>Clinic</strong><br />

commissioned a new work, Olympic Harvest<br />

(An <strong>Orchestra</strong>l Overture) for <strong>Symphony</strong><br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong>, from renowned violinist,<br />

composer, <strong>and</strong> educator Mark O’Connor. At<br />

the conference, the Las Vegas Academy<br />

Philharmonic will have the honor of giving<br />

the overture its world premiere during their<br />

concert (Wednesday, December 16, 5:30 –<br />

6:30 p.m.).<br />

We Need Your<br />

Correct Address!<br />

As we do the daily business of WASBE,<br />

we use email addresses as well as home<br />

addresses for electronic <strong>and</strong> “hard<br />

copy” mailing. When your email<br />

address, home address, phone number,<br />

or website addresses change, it is very<br />

important that we have that information.<br />

The ePostcard, WASBE World<br />

Magazine <strong>and</strong> WASBE Journal depend<br />

on us having up-to-date contact details.<br />

The listing of that information on the<br />

WASBE website is also the easiest way<br />

for members to locate <strong>and</strong> communicate<br />

with each other, <strong>and</strong> it should be<br />

accurate, too.<br />

Please help us to update your information<br />

by contacting our Treasurer:<br />

Marianne Halder<br />

Unter Nank 32/4<br />

D-72461 Albstadt / Germany<br />

mariannehalder@web.de


CALENDAR<br />

International<br />

Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong> Festival<br />

The Annual International Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong><br />

Festival Berlin will be held at the Admiralspalast<br />

in Berlin, Germany from the 12 th to<br />

the 16 th May 2010. The competition is<br />

exclusively for wind orchestra <strong>and</strong> harmonie<br />

orchestra. All musicians must be active<br />

members of the orchestra. <strong>Orchestra</strong>s can<br />

apply to compete in three categories. For<br />

more information:<br />

Günther Lange, Eventours<br />

Postbus 79, 6170 AB Stein<br />

The Netherl<strong>and</strong>s<br />

Tel.: +31-46-410-6565<br />

info@eventtours.nl<br />

www.eventtours.nl/index.en.html<br />

International Wind Music Festival<br />

Coups de Vents is organizing the First<br />

International Wind Music Festival, which will<br />

take place from 10 th to 14 th July 2010, on<br />

the Cote d’Opale (<strong>No</strong>rth Coast of France)<br />

<strong>and</strong> the 1st International <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Competition<br />

which will take place on 9 th <strong>and</strong> 10 th July<br />

2010 in towns of the <strong>No</strong>rd <strong>and</strong> the Pas-de-<br />

Calais regions.<br />

The call for submission for the festival <strong>and</strong><br />

participation for the competition has<br />

officially started. The competition is open to<br />

all non-professional symphonic b<strong>and</strong>s of the<br />

world. More than € 40 000 of prizes can be<br />

awarded. The participation in the competition<br />

implies the participation in the festival.<br />

But wind b<strong>and</strong>s can participate only in the<br />

festival.<br />

For further information: please contact<br />

coupsdevents@domaine-musiques.com<br />

Rules <strong>and</strong> registrations (free) at:<br />

www.coupsdevents.com<br />

International Youth Music Festival<br />

The 11 th Annual International Youth Music<br />

Festival Purmerade 2010 will be held in<br />

Purmerend, Holl<strong>and</strong> from 14 th to 18 th July<br />

2010. During the Purmerade, clinics will be<br />

organised for various instruments <strong>and</strong><br />

instrument groups. The Purmerade jury<br />

consists of a renowned <strong>and</strong> professional<br />

international team. For more information:<br />

Michael Ryan, Public Relations<br />

Purmerade 2010<br />

publicrelations@purmerade.nl<br />

www.purmerade.nl<br />

Singapore International<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Festival<br />

The 3 rd Annual Singapore International<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Festival will be held at the Republic<br />

Cultural Center Theater <strong>and</strong> Esplanade<br />

Concert Hall in Singapore from 21 st to 26 th<br />

July 2010. WBASingapore (formerly WASBE<br />

Singapore) sponsors this event which<br />

includes competition, international b<strong>and</strong><br />

exchange, workshops, <strong>and</strong> outreach<br />

programme. The Open Division 1 st Prize is<br />

S$19000. Applications must be received by<br />

Sunday, March 28, 2010.<br />

For more information:<br />

Mr. Steven Phua, Project Director<br />

Rave Group Pte Ltd<br />

271 Bukit Timah Road #02-05<br />

Singapore 259708<br />

Tel.: +65 6747 3721, Fax: +65 6747 7052<br />

info@sibf.sg, www.sibf.sg<br />

Atlantic Music Festival<br />

The 2010 Atlantic Music Festival<br />

announces its call for entries for Fellowship<br />

Program applicants. Submission forms can<br />

be completed online at the official Atlantic<br />

Music Festival website (http://www.<br />

atlanticmusicfestival.org/the-institute) AMF<br />

provides complete financial coverage for<br />

tuition <strong>and</strong> housing during the four weeks of<br />

residency. The Fellowship Program is open to<br />

orchestral instrumentalists, guitarists,<br />

pianists, opera singers, one composer, one<br />

conductor, <strong>and</strong> one recording engineer<br />

between the ages of 18 <strong>and</strong> 34. Accepted<br />

applicants will be featured as resident artists<br />

at The 2010 Atlantic Music Festival.<br />

Deadline to submit for the U.S. <strong>and</strong> International<br />

applicants for the 2010 Atlantic<br />

Music Festival is January 4, 2010. The<br />

submission form <strong>and</strong> complete information<br />

regarding eligibility <strong>and</strong> entry rules for the<br />

2010 Atlantic Music Festival are available on<br />

the Atlantic Music Festival website. Information<br />

is also available through the Atlantic<br />

Festival by email to community@atlanticmusicfestival.org,<br />

or by regular mail to<br />

Little Feather Works,<br />

228 Park Ave S #31975,<br />

New York, NY 10003.<br />

For more information, visit<br />

http://www.atlanticmusicfestival.org<br />

International Youth Wind <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong><br />

Festival Germany<br />

The 8 th International Youth Wind <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong><br />

Festival of the »Bund Deutscher Blasmusikverbände«<br />

will be held in Wehr, Germany,<br />

from 8 th to 11 th April, 2010. Besides concerts<br />

<strong>and</strong> workshops , youth b<strong>and</strong>s can participate<br />

in the international contest. All young b<strong>and</strong>s<br />

<strong>and</strong> ensembles of chamber music with<br />

musicians up to 27 years can participate.<br />

Applications must be received by December<br />

31, <strong>2009</strong>. For further information, visit<br />

www.jugendkapellentreffen2010.de<br />

or mail to<br />

Bund Deutscher Blasmusikverbände<br />

– Bläserjugend –<br />

Alois-Schnorr-Straße 10<br />

D-79219 Staufen<br />

GERMANY<br />

Conducting Seminars<br />

At the Singapore<br />

International<br />

<strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Festival<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s would be<br />

able to choose<br />

<strong>and</strong> perform<br />

within their most<br />

comfortable<br />

level.<br />

The Royal <strong>No</strong>rthern College of Music<br />

(RNCM) in Manchester is running a<br />

Conductor Training Weekend from 30 th April<br />

to May 2 nd , 2010 with Mark Heron <strong>and</strong><br />

Philippe Bach.<br />

Beside Mahlers 4 th <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>and</strong> the<br />

Brahms Violin Concerto, participants also will<br />

work on the Stravinsky Octet <strong>and</strong> Mozart<br />

Serenade for wind octet, KV 375. More<br />

information from www.rncm.ac.uk/images/<br />

media/docs/CWLeaflet2010.pdf<br />

WASBE World 21


RECORDING REVIEWS<br />

World Wind (Wisconsin Wind<br />

<strong>Orchestra</strong>, Carroll University Wind<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong>, Global Percussion<br />

Network, Trombones de Costa Rica,<br />

Lawrence Dale Harper, conductor);<br />

Mark Masters, 7393-MCD<br />

This recording features The Wind <strong>and</strong> Percussion<br />

Institute of Carroll University, a comprehensive<br />

program of music education <strong>and</strong><br />

performance experience for the high school<br />

player, the college student, <strong>and</strong> the professional<br />

musician. The institute’s philosophy<br />

<strong>and</strong> that of Carroll University reflect many of<br />

the goals of WASBE. Thus this recording, as<br />

the accompanying booklet tells us, “documents<br />

<strong>and</strong> celebrates the commitment of<br />

Carroll University to global unions, international<br />

relationships, <strong>and</strong> a world brought<br />

together by the fervent power of music to<br />

transcend differences.”<br />

The CD contains three large works – Jean<br />

Françaix’s Sept Danses d’après ballet, Les<br />

Malheurs de Sophie, Andres Åstr<strong>and</strong>’s Sju<br />

Kling<strong>and</strong>e Träd (Seven Pieces of Wood) <strong>and</strong><br />

Vinicio Meza’s Concierto “Trombones de<br />

Costa Rica”. The Sept Danses are played by<br />

the Wisconsin Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong>, the resident<br />

professional wind ensemble at Carroll University<br />

<strong>and</strong> are given a wonderful performance,<br />

capturing all of the clearity, lightness<br />

<strong>and</strong> wit that Françaix’s music dem<strong>and</strong>s.<br />

Françaix wrote the ballet Les Malheurs de<br />

Sophie for orchestra in 1935 <strong>and</strong> transcribed<br />

the seven movements for double wind<br />

quintet in 1970. Whereas the ballet is<br />

seldom performed, the Sept Danses have<br />

become one of Françaix’s most popular <strong>and</strong><br />

frequently performed chamber wind compositions.<br />

The recorded sound is excellent,<br />

22 WASBE World<br />

letting one hear crystal clear all of the lines<br />

of this charming music.<br />

The Swedish composer Andres Åstr<strong>and</strong> is<br />

a percussionist <strong>and</strong> one of the three<br />

members of the percussion ensemble Global<br />

Percussion Network. His music, like that featured<br />

by Global Percussion Network, is<br />

highly improvisatorial <strong>and</strong> combines a wide<br />

variety of popular <strong>and</strong> classical styles. The<br />

seven movement, thirty-eight minute Seven<br />

Pieces of Wood for double wind quintet,<br />

double bass <strong>and</strong> percussion ensemble began<br />

as a four movement suite commissioned by<br />

the Wisconsin Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong>. The premiere<br />

of the work on 24 March 2007 in Waukesha,<br />

Wisconsin was such as success, that<br />

the composer quickly added three movements<br />

to the work. The composition creates<br />

a fascinating sound world with a mixture of<br />

avant-garde, jazz, rock <strong>and</strong> folk idioms. For<br />

example, the aleatoric fourth movement,<br />

Meditation Groove, consists of three melodies<br />

from which the players choose to play<br />

any or all in whatever order they wish <strong>and</strong><br />

sets of chord progressions over an ostinato<br />

bass. Thus, the suite is the kind of work that<br />

dem<strong>and</strong>s complete dedication from all of the<br />

players, <strong>and</strong> that is exactly what Harper <strong>and</strong><br />

his musicians give it. Especially in the minimalistic<br />

sections, there is a commitment <strong>and</strong><br />

conviction rarely heard.<br />

The final work on this CD is Vinicio Meza’s<br />

three movement, eighteen <strong>and</strong> a half minute<br />

Concierto “Trombones de Costa Rica”.<br />

Meza is one of Costa Rica’s leading composers<br />

<strong>and</strong> writes in a wide variety of styles <strong>and</strong><br />

forms, reflecting his studies in both his native<br />

country <strong>and</strong> in the USA. The Concierto was<br />

written especially for the Trombones de<br />

Costa Rica <strong>and</strong> the Carroll University Wind<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>and</strong> provides a fine vehicle for<br />

demonstrating the virtuosity of this outst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />

trombone quartet. The Latin American<br />

folk music influence of the first movement<br />

makes it quite exciting, <strong>and</strong> the trombone<br />

quartet is in its element. The second movement<br />

contains some beautiful music, but<br />

much of it is too predictable <strong>and</strong> for many<br />

probably too Romantic. The final movement,<br />

like the first one, is a technical show piece,<br />

but this one is more influenced by the music<br />

of <strong>No</strong>rth America than that of Costa Rica.<br />

This is a recording that you will certainly<br />

enjoy. The playing by the trombone <strong>and</strong> percussion<br />

ensembles as well as the ensembles<br />

of The Wind <strong>and</strong> Percussion Institute of<br />

Carroll University is technically precise <strong>and</strong><br />

full of expression <strong>and</strong> emotion. Lawrence<br />

Harper <strong>and</strong> Mark Masters Records are to be<br />

thanked for making this disc available.<br />

Leon J. Bly<br />

Europa Sinfonie, Vol. 1 & 5<br />

(Pannonisches Blasorchester, Peter<br />

Forcher, conductor); Tyrolis Music,<br />

CD352 488 <strong>and</strong> CD352 543<br />

These are the latest two releases in the<br />

Pannonisches Blasorchester’s proposed series<br />

of six discs with symphonies for wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble by European composers.<br />

Volume 4 was reviewed in the September<br />

2008 issue of the WASBE Newsletter.<br />

Volume 1 contains three early symphonies<br />

from the 18th <strong>and</strong> 19th Centuries – François-<br />

Joseph Gossec’s Symphonie militaire, W.70,<br />

Joseph Küffner’s Musique militaire ou Sinfonie,<br />

Opus 163, <strong>and</strong> Hector Berlioz’s Gr<strong>and</strong>e<br />

Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Opus 15.<br />

Volume 5 couples Johan de Meij’s <strong>Symphony</strong><br />

<strong>No</strong>. 1 “The Lord of the Rings” with Serge<br />

Lancen’s Manhattan <strong>Symphony</strong>.<br />

Gossec’s Symphonie militaire was composed<br />

in 1793 for open-air celebrations during<br />

the French Revolution. Compared with some<br />

of the other works composed for the Revolution,<br />

it is a rather humble composition<br />

more related to the Pre-Classical symphonies<br />

of the late Baroque Period than the symphonies<br />

of the Classical Period. However,<br />

Forcher <strong>and</strong> his musicians give the work an<br />

outst<strong>and</strong>ing performance in the true Viennese<br />

Classical style. In fact, the performance<br />

is so fine that it may convince some who<br />

have long ignored the work to reexamine it.<br />

The exciting thing about a project like<br />

Europa Sinfonie is that one has a chance to


RECORDING REVIEWS<br />

hear <strong>and</strong> evaluate some little known compositions.<br />

That certainly is the case with the<br />

Musique militaire ou Sinfonie, Opus 163 by<br />

Joseph Küffner (1776-1856). Küffner was a<br />

court musician in his native city of Würzburg<br />

until Franconia became a part of Bavaria in<br />

1802. He then served as b<strong>and</strong>master for a<br />

Bavarian military b<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> was given the<br />

task of reorganizing the Bavarian regimental<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s, which led him to arranging <strong>and</strong> composing<br />

for them. After his retirement in<br />

1814, he dedicated himself to composing.<br />

His œuvres include an opera, seven symphonies<br />

for orchestra, numerous compositions<br />

for wind b<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> over 100 works for<br />

guitar, many of which are still performed<br />

today.<br />

There is nothing distinguishing about<br />

Küffner’s music, but the Musique militaire<br />

ou Sinfonie, Opus 163, which was composed<br />

in 1825, is well crafted <strong>and</strong> worthy of<br />

performance. It is a true symphony, quite<br />

typical for the period, with a first movement<br />

in sonata-allegro form preceeded by a slow<br />

introduction, an Andante second movement<br />

marked Romance, a Menuetto third movement<br />

with a tempo marking of Allegro assai<br />

<strong>and</strong> a finale with the tempo marking Allegro<br />

ma non troppo. Forcher <strong>and</strong> his musicians<br />

give it a fine reading that truly captures the<br />

style <strong>and</strong> essence of the work.<br />

Berlioz’s Gr<strong>and</strong>e Symphonie funèbre et<br />

triomphale, Opus 15 was composed for a<br />

large wind b<strong>and</strong> consisting of a minimum of<br />

95 wind players <strong>and</strong> 14 percussionists. For<br />

the performance on this CD, the size of the<br />

b<strong>and</strong> has been reduced in the ratio of about<br />

five to one. Without all of the doubling in<br />

the originial score, the performance here is<br />

very clean <strong>and</strong> exact. However, substituting<br />

a small b<strong>and</strong> for a large one makes for a thin<br />

sound that often lacks the drama intended<br />

by the composer, who never performed the<br />

work with less than 130 instrumentalists.<br />

This problem is most evident in the theatrical<br />

first <strong>and</strong> third movements. However, for<br />

those who find that b<strong>and</strong>s play too loudly,<br />

the controlled performance of the concluding<br />

Apothéose may be exactly what one is<br />

seeking. The beginning of the second movement<br />

is very well played with nicely balanced<br />

chords. The relative lively tempo of M.M. 84<br />

for the Andantino, however, does not allow<br />

for some of this music to breathe. Whereas<br />

with the first two compositions on this CD,<br />

Forcher catches the true spirit of the works,<br />

his reading of this symphony does not<br />

always succeed in reflecting the work’s true<br />

character.<br />

Europa Sinfonie 5 contains two well<br />

known 20 th Century symphonies – Johan de<br />

Meij’s <strong>Symphony</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 1 “The Lord of the<br />

Rings” <strong>and</strong> Serge Lancen’s Manhattan <strong>Symphony</strong>.<br />

The Lord of the Rings was premiered<br />

by the Great Symphonic <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> of the Belgian<br />

Guides under the direction of <strong>No</strong>rbert <strong>No</strong>zy<br />

on 15 March 1988 <strong>and</strong> almost immediately<br />

became popular around the world. The five<br />

movement symphony is based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s<br />

novels by the same name, but it is not<br />

program music in the traditional sense, as it<br />

does not attempt to musically tell the<br />

complex story, but rather is a musical portrait<br />

of certain characters <strong>and</strong> settings found in<br />

the novels.<br />

Most readings of this symphony are quite<br />

Romantic, but Forcher’s refined interpretation<br />

is almost Neo-Classical with excellent<br />

control of dynamics <strong>and</strong> attention to details<br />

often lost in other performances. This is<br />

expecially true in the excellent, transparent<br />

playing of the second movement,<br />

Lothlorien, <strong>and</strong> the fourth movement,<br />

Journey in the Dark. Forcher’s reserved portrayal<br />

of G<strong>and</strong>alf in the first movement<br />

reflects more of Tolkien’s description of him<br />

in his letters as being an angel than the gray<br />

wizard he is usually considered to be, while<br />

his playing of the third movement emphasizes<br />

most vividly the grotesqueness of the<br />

monstrous creature Gollum. In the final<br />

movement, the Hobbits are portrayted with<br />

all of their carefree, optimistic character, but<br />

Forcher never lets the music become superficial,<br />

which can happen too easily. Forcher’s<br />

no nonsense reading of this symphony takes<br />

almost five minutes off most other performances.<br />

Serge Lancen composed his Manhattan<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong> in 1961 following a trip to the<br />

USA. As with “The Lord of the Rings”, it<br />

became quite popular very quickly <strong>and</strong><br />

brought Lancen international recognition.<br />

The first movement – Arrival at Manhattan –<br />

depicts Lancen’s first impressions of New<br />

York City as he views it from a slowly arriving<br />

transatlantic steamer. The other four<br />

movements all portray famous locations in<br />

Manhattan – Central Park, Harlem, Broadway,<br />

<strong>and</strong> the Rockefeller Building. This is a<br />

Frenchman’s musical impression of an American<br />

city, <strong>and</strong> although the influences of<br />

American music are obvious, this is vintage<br />

Lancen, steeped in French salon music.<br />

Forcher captures Lancen’s lean, airy style<br />

very well, <strong>and</strong> his choices of tempos make<br />

this music sparkle.<br />

With these two recordings, the Pannonisches<br />

Blasorchester has completed half of<br />

the proposed six recordings documenting<br />

European symphonies for wind b<strong>and</strong>. The<br />

excellent quality of the playing <strong>and</strong> recorded<br />

sound of these first CDs make for a joyous<br />

anticipation of the next three. Leon J. Bly<br />

“Innovare: A Celebration” (University<br />

of Saskatchewan Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong>,<br />

Dr. Glen Gillis – Conductor)<br />

This CD entitled “Innovare: A Celebration”<br />

features all original wind b<strong>and</strong> works<br />

by contemporary composers <strong>and</strong> arrangers.<br />

The first selection, “Ride” by American<br />

composer Samuel Hazo certainly showcases<br />

the ensemble’s energy <strong>and</strong> ability to h<strong>and</strong>le<br />

a rhythmically challenging work. The pace<br />

<strong>and</strong> enthusiasm are evident from the first<br />

note to the last which I am sure would<br />

please the composer <strong>and</strong> an audience ready<br />

for a no holds barred introductory piece.<br />

The second work, “Raise the Roof” is by<br />

University of Michigan composition professor<br />

Michael Daugherty <strong>and</strong> has become one<br />

of his most often played wind b<strong>and</strong> compositions.<br />

The pensive suspended cymbal/tuba<br />

solo entrance slowly gives way to a flute<br />

melody which introduces the timpani. This<br />

instrument, according to Mr. Daugherty, is<br />

the “workhorse of the piece”. While the<br />

intonation <strong>and</strong> security of the opening was<br />

much in doubt throughout, the work gained<br />

WASBE World 23


RECORDING REVIEWS<br />

the proper momentum <strong>and</strong> I found the<br />

timpani playing quite accurate <strong>and</strong> impressive.<br />

The jazz styles were excellent both from<br />

the soloists <strong>and</strong> the various instrumental sections.<br />

“Radiant Joy” by Steven Bryant follows<br />

which garnered the winning composition at<br />

the 2007 National <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Association William<br />

D. Revelli contest. Comprised of a driving<br />

<strong>and</strong> vital rhythmic pulse <strong>and</strong> a tonal<br />

language reminiscent of the 70s/80s<br />

jazz/funk/fusion era, the work features baritone,<br />

piano <strong>and</strong> saxophone solos along with<br />

various members of the percussion family.<br />

This non stop tour de force keeps all instrumentalists<br />

on their toes <strong>and</strong> provides great<br />

fun for performer <strong>and</strong> listener alike. Some of<br />

the tutti faster passages got lost in the acoustics<br />

of the recording hall but the energy was<br />

nonetheless impressive <strong>and</strong> appreciated.<br />

David Gillingham’s “Give Us This Day”<br />

follows which provides us some reflection<br />

after all that went before on this CD. The<br />

title is obviously taken from the Lord’s Prayer<br />

however David Gillingham notes that the<br />

inspiration is actually from Buddhism. Light<br />

<strong>and</strong> introspective clarinets, interspersed with<br />

piano <strong>and</strong> percussion darts open the work to<br />

draw the listener in. The Gillingham trademark<br />

of darkly scored chordal sections follow<br />

<strong>and</strong> the Saskatchewan group h<strong>and</strong>les this<br />

with great care <strong>and</strong> sensitivity. I appreciated<br />

the length <strong>and</strong> breadth of sound while not<br />

overdoing the written dynamics. While intonation<br />

in some of the softer exposed sections<br />

was of concern at times, (as was the<br />

dominance of bells <strong>and</strong> other keyboard percussion)<br />

the work moved inevitably towards<br />

the gr<strong>and</strong> conclusion, a very modal rendition<br />

of the powerful choral setting by J.S. Bach,<br />

24 WASBE World<br />

“Vater Unser IM Himmelreich”. Piccolo <strong>and</strong><br />

flute intonation is of concern here as is the<br />

overplaying of the bass drum but there is no<br />

doubt that the ensemble enjoyed this one.<br />

1949, a young 14-year-old Luigi Zaninelli<br />

was brought to the famous Curtis Institute<br />

of Music by Gian Carlo Menotti where he<br />

studied with Rosario Scalero, the teacher of<br />

Samuel Barber <strong>and</strong> Menotti. Zaninelli later<br />

taught at the University of Calgary (Canada)<br />

<strong>and</strong> is now on the faculty of the University<br />

of Southern Mississippi. His work, “The<br />

Golden Horn” appears next on this CD. The<br />

piece was originally written for the famous<br />

trumpet soloist, Doc Severinsen. The soloist<br />

in this recording is a senior trumpet student<br />

at the University of Saskatchewan, Ryan<br />

Cole. It’s obvious that Mr. Zaninelli was quite<br />

familiar with what “Doc” was capable of<br />

doing on the trumpet as it is not a great<br />

stretch to hear the famous Tonight Show<br />

b<strong>and</strong>leader in these passages. Mr. Cole is to<br />

be congratulated on a fine rendition although<br />

the C trumpet does not convey to me<br />

the dark, almost belligerent quality that Doc<br />

always possessed. It truly seemed as though<br />

the trumpet was his slave, with Doc totally in<br />

charge from note one. While I am not sure<br />

that this work st<strong>and</strong>s out among the many<br />

great solo pieces for trumpet <strong>and</strong> ensemble,<br />

it is one to consider if you have an outst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />

trumpet soloist.<br />

Next is Dana Wilson’s, “Day Dreams”.<br />

While not a new work, it certainly is indicative<br />

of Dana’s creative scoring techniques<br />

<strong>and</strong> sometimes me<strong>and</strong>ering compositional<br />

mind. This is not surprising since the piece is<br />

dedicated to <strong>and</strong> celebrates the life <strong>and</strong> work<br />

of Frank Battisti, WASBE founding member<br />

<strong>and</strong> retired faculty member of the New<br />

Engl<strong>and</strong> Conservatory. Most everyone in the<br />

ensemble gets a chance to shine <strong>and</strong> showcase<br />

their talents in this one. I don’t know if<br />

this take was done all in one setting but<br />

there seems to be some fatigue in the<br />

players towards the end.<br />

More frenzy follows with another Samuel<br />

Hazo work entitled “Rush”. The composer<br />

confesses that he actually wrote “Ride II”<br />

<strong>and</strong> most every trait that I identified earlier<br />

with “Ride” you can find in this sequel. It<br />

might be interesting to use these works as<br />

bookends on a concert program. However,<br />

much energy would need to be saved –<br />

especially for this work. It is a non-stop adrenaline<br />

rush.<br />

The penultimate work on the CD is the<br />

“Suite on Canadian Folk Songs” by countryman<br />

Morley Calvert. The three movements<br />

feature two French Canadian folk songs<br />

while the middle movement is taken from a<br />

popular Newfoundl<strong>and</strong> folk tune. Originally<br />

written for brass b<strong>and</strong>, the wind ensemble<br />

setting is charming but certainly not in the<br />

technical range of other selections on this<br />

CD. Consequently, I do not feel the ensemble<br />

paid as strict attention to detail (intonation,<br />

correct notes, etc) however these do<br />

prove pleasant listening.<br />

The final work on this ambitious CD is the<br />

paso doble, “Sol y Sombra” by American<br />

George Gates <strong>and</strong> edited by Van Ragsdale.<br />

Although the tempo taken is a bit brisk for<br />

works of this genre, I enjoyed the trumpet<br />

solo that leads to the final section <strong>and</strong> of<br />

course the final Spanish flair that is so typical<br />

of these marches.<br />

Overall the CD is a fine edition to anyone’s<br />

collection. I am somewhat dismayed at<br />

times with the recording quality <strong>and</strong> the<br />

acoustics of the room. The percussion is<br />

quite prominent throughout, even when<br />

they shouldn’t be <strong>and</strong> much of that (no<br />

doubt) can be attributed to the hall. The<br />

b<strong>and</strong> achieves a wonderful tutti wind b<strong>and</strong><br />

sound at times <strong>and</strong> plays with a great underst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />

of the literature before them. This is<br />

a wonderful tribute to their fine conductor. I<br />

highly recommend this CD for its vitality <strong>and</strong><br />

depth of literature <strong>and</strong> challenge.<br />

Dennis L. Johnson


BOOK REVIEW<br />

Great Music for Wind <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> –<br />

A Guide to the Top 100 Works in<br />

Grades IV, V, VI by Chad Nicholson.<br />

Galesville, MD, USA; Meredith Music<br />

Publications, <strong>2009</strong>; Language:<br />

English; US$ 19.99; 193 pages;<br />

ISBN-13 978-1-57463-092-3<br />

Putting a title like this on a book is bound<br />

to make it controversial. Most wind b<strong>and</strong>/<br />

ensemble conductors would probably agree<br />

that all of the works listed in this book are<br />

compositions of quality. If it is all great music<br />

or not, time will decide. However, who<br />

decides which works are the top 100?<br />

Although a well known conductor <strong>and</strong><br />

arranger in his own right, Nicholson did not<br />

select the “Top 100” himself, but as it states<br />

on the book’s cover, the compositions were<br />

selected by fourteen well known, current<br />

<strong>and</strong> past, university wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble<br />

conductors in the USA: Frank Battisti, Ray<br />

Cramer, James Croft, Thomas Dvorak,<br />

Richard Floyd, Michael Haithcock, Gary Hill,<br />

Jerry Junkin, Craig Kirchhoff, Thomas Lee,<br />

Stephen Pratt, H. Robert Reynolds, Mark<br />

Shatterday, <strong>and</strong> Richard Strange. Thus one<br />

can expect a partiality for American composers,<br />

<strong>and</strong> one might easily argue that the<br />

compositions listed here are most appropriate<br />

for performances by collegiate wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>/ensembles in the USA.<br />

However, if one is willing to lay aside the<br />

American bias <strong>and</strong> the notion that these are<br />

the “Top 100” works, one has here an<br />

excellent reference book full of valuable<br />

information about 100 major compositions<br />

for the wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble. The book is<br />

divided into three units according to grade<br />

of difficulty, <strong>and</strong> the entries are listed alphabetically<br />

according to composer. In addition<br />

to the composer, title <strong>and</strong> grade of difficulty,<br />

each entry includes the date of composition,<br />

duration, availability, publisher, information<br />

concerning instrumentation <strong>and</strong> any solos<br />

included, incipits, reference recordings, <strong>and</strong><br />

helpful comments by the author.<br />

As always with such a catalogue, some<br />

readers may find a few works graded as<br />

more difficult or easier than they may personally<br />

consider them to be. For example, most<br />

catalogues list Richard Wagner’s Trauermusik,<br />

WWV73 as a Grade IV composition.<br />

Nicholson lists it as Grade V but presents a<br />

good argument for doing so.<br />

The Grade IV listing contains Richard<br />

Franko Goldman’s transcription of J.S. Bach’s<br />

Fantasia in G Major, John Barnes Chance’s<br />

Elegy, Aaron Copl<strong>and</strong>’s Variations on a<br />

Shaker Melody, Percy Grainger’s Irish Tune<br />

from County Derry, Shephard’s Hey <strong>and</strong><br />

Molly on the Shore, Howard Hanson’s<br />

Chorale <strong>and</strong> Alleluia, Gustav Holst’s two<br />

Suites for Military <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>, Gordon Jacob’s Old<br />

Wine in New Bottles, <strong>and</strong> Ralph Vaughan<br />

Williams’s English Folk Song Suite.<br />

More than half of the compositions are<br />

listed as Grade V, meaning that they are<br />

playable by fine amateur b<strong>and</strong>s, whereas<br />

most of the compositions listed as Grade VI<br />

need conservatory students or professional<br />

players in order to be performed properly.<br />

Among the Grade V works, one finds compositions<br />

for various instrumental <strong>and</strong> vocal<br />

combinations, such as Anton Bruckner’s<br />

Messe in e-Moll, Antonin Dvoˇrák’s Serenade<br />

in D Minor, Reynaldo Hahn’s Le Bal de Béatrice<br />

d’Este, Robert Kurka’s The Good<br />

Soldier Schweik Suite, Gustav Mahler’s Um<br />

Mitternacht, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s<br />

Serenades <strong>No</strong>. 10 <strong>and</strong> <strong>No</strong>. 11, Francis Poulenc’s<br />

Suite Française d’après Claude Gervaise,<br />

Igor Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind<br />

Instruments <strong>and</strong> Richard Strauss’s Serenade,<br />

Opus 7 <strong>and</strong> Suite in Bb, Opus 4.<br />

The Grade V listing also contains a few<br />

transcriptions, including Donald Hunsberger’s<br />

transcription of Dmitri Shostakovich’s<br />

Festive Overture, Clare Grundman’s transcription<br />

of Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to<br />

C<strong>and</strong>ide <strong>and</strong> Frank Bencrisutto’s transcription<br />

of the “Profanation” from the Jeremiah<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong>. Although three American transcriptions<br />

of Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral<br />

by Richard Wagner are cited, no comparison<br />

is unfortunately presented. This is also<br />

the case with the various editions of the<br />

Ouvertüre für Harmoniemusik, Opus 24 by<br />

Felix Mendelssohn-Barthody, the Music for<br />

the Royal Fireworks by George Frederick<br />

H<strong>and</strong>el, <strong>and</strong> the Trauermusik, WWV73 by<br />

Richard Wagner.<br />

The other composers who have works in<br />

the Grade V list are Robert Russell Bennett,<br />

Warren Benson, Aaron Copl<strong>and</strong>, <strong>No</strong>rman<br />

Dello Joio, David Del Tredici, Morton Gould,<br />

Charles Gounod, Percy Grainger, Donald<br />

Grantham, Paul Hindemith, Gustav Holst,<br />

Karel Husa, Charles Ives, Gordon Jacob,<br />

Darius Milhaud, Roger Nixon, Vincent Persichetti,<br />

Walter Piston, H. Owen Reed,<br />

Joaquin Rodrigo, William Schuman, Frank<br />

Ticheli, Fischer Tull, Ralph Vaughan Williams,<br />

<strong>and</strong> Dan Welcher.<br />

Most of the conductors who have wind<br />

b<strong>and</strong>s/ensembles capable of performing the<br />

compositions listed as Grade VI will be well<br />

familiar with most of the compositions listed<br />

here. However, one does find a few works<br />

like Ross Lee Finney’s Skating on the Sheyenne<br />

<strong>and</strong> Verne Reynolds’s Scenes, which<br />

are not often programmed. The list also<br />

reminds conductors of the two great choral<br />

works with winds by Igor Stravinsky – the<br />

<strong>Symphony</strong> of Psalms <strong>and</strong> the Mass for<br />

Mixed Chorus <strong>and</strong> Double Wind Quintet.<br />

It really does not matter if the compositions<br />

listed in this book are everyone’s “Top<br />

100 Works” or not, they are all important<br />

works in the core repertoire of the contemporary<br />

wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble, <strong>and</strong> every<br />

serious wind b<strong>and</strong>/ensemble conductor<br />

should know them. This fine reference guide<br />

should be a part of your library. Leon J. Bly<br />

WASBE World 25


NEWS FROM THE MUSIC INDUSTRY<br />

• Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. now publishes<br />

Matthew Tommasini’s ASCAP/CBDNA<br />

Frederick Fennell Prize winning Three<br />

Spanish Songs for Soprano <strong>and</strong> Wind<br />

Ensemble as part of the Donald Hungsberger<br />

Wind Library.<br />

• Meredith Music Publications has released<br />

the fourth volume of A Composer’s Insight:<br />

Thoughts, Analysis <strong>and</strong> Commentary on<br />

Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>.<br />

This volume inludes eleven composers:<br />

Samuel Adler, David Bedford, Daniel<br />

Bukvich, David Del Tredici, Eric Ewazen,<br />

Walter Hartley, Joseph Willcox Jenkins, Joan<br />

Tower, Joseph Turrin, Dan Welcher, <strong>and</strong><br />

Dana Wilson.<br />

• Molenaar Edition BV recently released<br />

wind b<strong>and</strong> transcriptions of four major<br />

symphonic works: Bastiaan Blomhert’s<br />

transcription of Claude Debussy’s La Mer,<br />

Juan Mas Quiles’s transcription of Nicolai<br />

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Desiré<br />

Dondeyne’s transcription of Edward Elgar’s<br />

Enigma Variations <strong>and</strong> Ton van Grevenbroek’s<br />

transcription of Modest Mussorgsky’s<br />

Pictures at an Exhibition. Other new publications<br />

include two arrangements by<br />

Lorenzo Della Fonte: the overture to Gioacchino<br />

Rossini’s La Scala di Seta <strong>and</strong> Davide<br />

Della Cese’s Inglesina.<br />

• Beriato Music now publishes Jörg<br />

Murschinski’s arrangement of Leroy Anderson’s<br />

Concerto in C for Piano <strong>and</strong><br />

Symphonic Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong>. Although the<br />

solo part is grade 5, the wind orchestra parts<br />

for this three movement, twenty minute<br />

concerto can be played by a good grade 4<br />

b<strong>and</strong>.<br />

• Scomegna has announced the publication<br />

of two transcriptions for wind b<strong>and</strong> by<br />

Donato Semeraro: the Russian Easter<br />

Overture from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov <strong>and</strong><br />

the Konzertstück <strong>No</strong>. 1 in F-Moll für Klarinette<br />

und Bassethorn, Opus 113 by Felix<br />

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, which is playable<br />

with two B-flat clarinets.<br />

• Amstel Music recently published two<br />

transcriptions for wind b<strong>and</strong> by Johan de<br />

Meij: the symphonic suite from the opera<br />

Edgar by Giacomo Puccini <strong>and</strong> the Dance of<br />

the Amazon by Anatoli Liadow.<br />

26 WASBE World<br />

• HAFABRA Music new publications include<br />

five wind b<strong>and</strong> transcriptions by José Schyns:<br />

Ballad for Flute by Carl Reinecke, Nuraghi<br />

by Ennio Porrino, the first suite from the<br />

ballet Spartacus by Aram Khatchaturian,<br />

Caprice Brillant on a Theme from “Jota<br />

Aragonesa” by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka,<br />

<strong>and</strong> Polka de W.R. by Sergi Rachmaninoff.<br />

HAFABRA also recently published Trevor<br />

Ford’s arrangement of the Galatea Waltz,<br />

which was composed by Prince Albert, the<br />

Duke of Edinburgh around 1867.<br />

• <strong>No</strong>rsk <strong>No</strong>teservice AS recently published<br />

two 19 th Century marches by Oscar Borg:<br />

<strong>No</strong>rsk Gard Marsj arranged by Bjorn<br />

Mellemberg <strong>and</strong> Revue Marsj arranged by<br />

Jan Eriksen.<br />

• Editions Robert Martin recently released<br />

Roger Boutry’s transcription for wind b<strong>and</strong><br />

of Claude Debussy’s Fêtes.<br />

• De Haske now publishes Tohru Takahashi’s<br />

transcription for wind b<strong>and</strong> of Hector<br />

Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini Overture as part<br />

of its Great Classics Series.<br />

• Danzón no. 2 by Arturo Márquez was a<br />

very successful piece on the program of the<br />

Simón Bolívar Youth <strong>Orchestra</strong> of Venezuela<br />

conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. This work<br />

is now available in a transcription for<br />

Symphonic Wind <strong>Orchestra</strong> by Oliver Nickel,<br />

published by Baton Music from the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s.<br />

• The Journal of <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong> Research is an official<br />

publication of the American <strong>B<strong>and</strong></strong>masters<br />

Association <strong>and</strong> was begun in 1964.<br />

Contact for Advertising<br />

THANK YOU!<br />

Thanks to our <strong>2009</strong> sponsors of the<br />

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• World Projects (USA)<br />

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If you are interested in sponsoring<br />

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Published twice a year, in the Fall <strong>and</strong> in the<br />

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scholarly publication devoted to b<strong>and</strong> music,<br />

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