WASBE Newsletter - World Association for Symphonic Bands and ...

WASBE Newsletter 

Volume XX, Number 4 December 2005 

Message from the President 

Bert Aalders 

After my first message, I received a 

lot of responses, and I am very 

pleased that so many WASBE members 

are expressing their opinions 

and ideas. Such contributions make 

WASBE a real world organisation. 

Unfortunately, during the same 

period, we also received the very sad 

news that two long time WASBE 

members passed away. Alfred Reed 

and Warren Benson were very much 

involved in the world of wind music 

and WASBE, and we shall miss Alfred 

and Warren very much. 

In your organisation, a lot of 

things are happening, even if one is 

not always aware of them all. 

Anthony Reimer is very active with 

the WASBE website. On the WASBE 

website, members can find information 

about upcoming events, the 

WASBE Board of Directors, and the 

WASBE Committees and Networks. 

Trevor Ford has established a 

Committee of Past Presidents to 

advise the WASBE Board of Directors. 

Concerning the WASBE Treasurer, 

there have been delays in getting the 

accounts transferred to our new 

Treasurer, Marianne Halder. However, 

by the time you read this, everything 

should be working well. A 

special thanks to Egil Gundersen for 

his continued contributions during 

this transitional period. Marianne 

has already prepared the Annual 

Dues Statements — it is enclosed 

with this newsletter. 

The WASBE Board and the Artistic 

Planning Committee for the 2007 

Conference will be working hard 

during the 

Midwest 

Band and 

Orchestra 

Clinic in 

Chicago. 

On 

Monday, 12 

December, 

the WASBE Executive will meet from 

13:30 Hrs. to 17:00 Hrs. On Tuesday, 

13 December, the WASBE Board will 

meet from 09:00 Hrs. to 17:00 Hrs., 

and on Wednesday, 14 December, 

the Conference Artistic Planning 

Committee will meet from 09:00 Hrs. 

until 13:00 Hrs. 

The Local Organising Committee 

for the Killarney WASBE Conference 

2007 and the WASBE Artistic Planning 

Committee have been preparing 

the artistic concepts, proposals and 

time schedule for that Conference, so 

that they may be presented to the 

WASBE Board for approval in Chicago. 

There are a number of artistic 

strands that we are considering: 

• Pillar Concerts 

• An Orchestral Strand 

• A Percussion Strand 

• A Choral Strand 

• Repertoire Concerts 

The Conference, which will also 

include masterclasses, workshops 

and reading sessions, will take place 

from Sunday, 8 July to Sunday, 

15 July 2007, when the WASBE Golf 

Classic will take place. After the 

meetings in Chicago, we shall 

Continued on page 2 

In This Issue 

Karel Husa turns 85 in 2006. 

Odd Terje Lysebo writes about 

the man and his works, with 

particular emphasis on his 

Concerto for Wind Ensemble ...5 

Dario Sotelo gives us an 

overview of Brazilian wind 

music and highlights four 

composers of note .......................9 

The second half of 2005 saw 

the passing of a number of 

noted band composers and 

conductors.We pay tribute to 

Warren Benson, Alfred Reed, 

Clyde Roller and Eric Osterling 

..........................................................12 

Find WASBE at the Midwest 

Band and Orchestra Clinic, as 

well as information on other 

upcoming wind events......17, 18 

We review a detailed cultural 

history of the American wind 

band, a timely book on Warren 

Benson, and the latest recording 

from John Boyd ...................21 

Annual Dues 

Statement 

Enclosed 

“Promoting symphonic bands and ensembles as serious and distinctive mediums of musical expression and culture.”

WASBE Newsletter Vol. XX, No. 4 

Editor ......................................................................Dr. Leon J. Bly 

Publisher..........................................................Anthony Reimer 

Editor, Spanish Edition ....................................Glenn Garrido 

Assistant Editor......................................................Jon Mitchell 

Assistant Editor......................................................Keith Kinder 

Assistant Editor / Special Projects..................John Stanley 

Submissions to the WASBE Newsletter 

Send materials to: 

Dr. Leon J. Bly 

Editor, WASBE Newsletter 

Graf-von-Galen-Str. 28 

D-70565 Stuttgart, Germany 

Tel: +49 / 711 / 715-7747 

Fax: +49 / 711 / 715-7761 

Email: WASBE@T-Online.de 

Submission Deadlines: 

15 January for March issue 

15 April for June issue 

15 July for September issue 

15 October for December issue 

The opinions expressed in all reviews and feature articles 

are solely those of the writers and should in no way 

be interpreted as reflecting official WASBE statements. 

© 2005 WASBE and/or the authors of the articles. 

Officers 

President Bert Aalders, The Netherlands 

President Elect Glenn Price, Canada 

Past President Dennis L. Johnson, USA 

Secretary James Ripley, USA 

Treasurer Marianne Halder, Germany 

Executive Director Leon J. Bly, Germany 

2 

WASBE Council 

President’s Message 

Continued from page 1 

provide you with more information about the Conference 

and present the proposed time schedule. 

The WASBE reception in Chicago will be on Wednesday, 

14 December 2005 from 5:30 to 7:00 P.M. The reception 

will be sponsored by the Killarney Conference Local 

Organising Committee, Biblioservice Gelderland, The 

Netherlands/CDMC France, and World Projects. During 

the reception, there will be short presentations by the Killarney 

Conference Local Organising Committee and World 

Projects. I hope that many WASBE members will join us. 

During the WASBE Conference in Singapore, I had a 

very good conversation with Deborah Gibbs from World 

Projects. World Projects will make a proposal concerning 

sponsorship to the WASBE Board in Chicago. We shall 

announce the areas of cooperation with World Projects at 

the WASBE reception in Chicago and inform the rest of 

our membership at the beginning of next year via our 

publications. 

In closing, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a 

Happy New Year! 

This issue of the newsletter has been 

generously sponsored by 

Biblioservice 

Gelderland/CDMC 

and floricor editions 

Board of Directors 

Peter Bucher, Switzerland 

James Cochran, USA 

Martin Ellerby, UK 

Adam Gorb, England 

Ralph Hultgren, Australia 

Tian-Tee Lee, Singapore 

Odd Terje Lysebo, Norway 

Johann Mösenbichler, Austria 

Dario Sotelo, Brazil 

Rodney Winther, USA 

Yeh Shu-Han, Taiwan 

Volume XX, No. 4 (December 2005) WASBE Newsletter

Youth Camp Scholarship Program 

Joseph T. Alme 

The WASBE International Youth 

Camp Scholarship Program was 

established to assist students to study 

at a music camp in a country other 

than their own. This youth cultural 

exchange would not only add to the 

student’s musical development but 

would also enable participating students 

to develop a greater understanding 

and appreciation of each 

other through their mutual interest 

in music. 

The scholarships include the cost 

of meals, lodging and tuition during 

the student’s stay at the camp. Each 

student is responsible for the cost of 

his or her own transportation to the 

music camp. 

During the past 23 years (1982– 

2005), nearly 150 students from seventeen 

countries have participated in 

the International Youth Camp Scholarship 

Program. Music camps in 

Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, 

Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and 

the United States have provided 

scholarships. This is an excellent way 

of providing a unique opportunity 

for a young musician while promoting 

your camp worldwide! 

Music camps interested in providing 

scholarship opportunities should 

contact: 

Joseph T. Alme, International 

Scholarship Co-Chairman 

1930 23 rd Ave SE 

Minot, ND 58701 

USA 

info@internationalmusiccamp.com 

[Publisher’s Note: A form is enclosed 

with this newsletter for camp organizers. 

The form can also be downloaded 

from the WASBE web site: click on 

Programs, then on International 

Youth Scholarship Program.] 

WASBE Scholarships 

Available for 2006 

International Music Camp 

International Peace Garden 

North Dakota/Manitoba 

Number of Scholarships: 2 

Dates: 18 June – 1 July 2006 

25 June – 8 July 2006 

16 July – 29 July 2006 

Age Level: 15 – 18 

Contact Person: Joseph T. Alme 

joe@internationalmusiccamp.com 

www.internationalmusiccamp.com 

University of North Carolina – 

Greensboro 

Summer Music Camps 

PO Box 26170 

Greensboro, NC 27402-6170 USA 


Dates: 9 – 14 July 2006 

16 – 21 July 2006 

Contact Person: John R. Locke 

Tel: +1 / 800 / 999-2869 

Fax: +1 / 336 / 334-5349 

lockej@uncg.edu 

www.smcamp.org 

Arapahoe HS Warrior 

Marching Band 

2201 E. Dry Creek Rd. 

Centennial, CO 80122 USA 


Dates: 5 – 14 June 2006 

2 – 16 August 2006 

Contact Person: Dr. Ed Cannava 

Tel: +1 / 303 / 347-6031 

ecan11@msn.com 

Schools Network Repertoire Survey Ending Soon! 

The 4 th WSN Repertoire Survey is still accepting submissions until the end of 

December. We invite school music educators to report on what they programmed 

in 2005 by filling in our web form — you will want to have scores 

handy if at all possible so that you can enter information like composer and 

publisher. Once the results are in, we will compile the results and post them 

on this web site. So visit the WASBE Schools Network home page at 

www.wasbe.org/wsn and click on “Submit 2005 Survey.” 

Board of Directors 

Committees 

Networks Also 

In This Issue 

The TKWO announces its first 

composition competition..........4 

A recipient of one of the 

conducting scholarships 

reports on her experiences 

this summer....................................4 

Volume XX, No. 4 (Dec. 2005) 3

Composers Network 

Rolf Rudin and Vicente Moncho 

The First Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra Composition Competition 

In commemoration of the 100 th anniversary of the birth 

of Nikkyo Niwano, founder of the Toyko Kosei Wind 

Orchestra, and the 10 th anniversary of the appointment of 

the late Frederick Fennell as Conductor Laureate, the 

Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra has announced its first wind 

orchestra composition competition. Cash prizes of 

1,000,000 yen, 500,000 yen, 300,000 yen, and 200,000 yen 

are being offered for unpublished, unperformed compositions 

for wind orchestra with a duration of eight to fifteen 

minutes. A CD production and the publication of the first 

prize winning work is planned. The first prize winner may 

also be awarded a 1,000,000 yen commission for a new 

work to be performed in 2008. 

Works must be scored for a minimum of 26 players and 

may not exceed 3 flutes/piccolo, 2 oboes/english horn, 2 

bassoons/contrabassoon, 13 clarinets (E flat, B flat, alto, 

bass, contrabass), 2 sop/alt saxophones, 1 tenor saxophone, 

1 baritone saxophone, 5 trumpets/cornets/flugelhorns, 

4 horns, 3 trombones, 2 euphoniums, 2 tubas, 

4 

2 contrabasses, 5 percussion, 1 piano/celesta/synthesizer, 

and 1 harp. 

The competition, which is open to composers of all 

nationalities and ages, has an entry fee of 15,000 yen, 

US$100, or 100 Euros. 

A copy of the full score only must be submitted, and all 

entry materials must be received by 20 April 2006. For 

more information and entry forms contact: 

Secretariat of the Organizing Committee 

TOKWO Composition Competition 

2-6-1 Fumon Hall 4F Wada 

Suginami-ku 

Tokyo 166-8537 

Japan 

Tel: +81 / 3 / 5341-1155 

Fax: +81 / 3 / 5341-1255 

www.tkwo.jp 

comp@tkwo.jp 

Energize 2005 Conducting Symposium 

Erin Bodnar, Canada 

This past summer, I received a WASBE scholarship to 

attend the Energize 2005 Conducting Symposium at the 

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After one year of teaching 

middle school band, this symposium really opened my 

eyes to the world of conducting, American universities, 

and the endless opportunities in the conducting and 

music education world. 

What struck me about the symposium at the University 

of Michigan was the variety of clinics offered with an 

overall conducting focus. The clinics done by Bruce Dinkins 

and Diane Gorzycki were especially valuable for the 

music educator/conductors. In particular, I found Mrs. 

Gorzycki’s middle school session helpful in providing an 

achievable model for a great middle school program. She 

gave specifics on recruiting, teaching and achieving excellence 

with middle school band students. She was very 

beneficial to me by addressing some questions especially 

pertinent to my program and suggesting a few creative 

solutions to my challenges. 

I also attended two other clinics with a music education 

focus — Herbert Marshall’s session on Movement and 

Betty Anne Younker’s session on Singing. Both clinics 

were hands-on sessions and provided excellent examples 

of exercises and materials that I feel confident in taking 

back with me to my band room. Michael Haithcock’s and 

Jerald Schweibert’s sessions on conducting and movement 

were also full of practical exercises. 

The most impressive aspect was the truly welcoming 

feeling that everyone involved in this symposium displayed. 

It made me and every other participant feel at 

ease and comfortable. I enjoyed the reception and the 

picnic they organized for us, which gave us time to network 

with the other participants as well as the clinicians. 

For me, this time was very advantageous, as I was able to 

speak with a variety of people about conducting, masters 

programs, and American universities. 

I should like to thank WASBE for this opportunity to 

further my education in conducting and music education. 

[Publisher’s Note: The WASBE Conductor Scholarship 

Program annually offers scholarships to young conductors 

wishing to attend a workshop or symposium in a 

country other than their own. The participant is responsible 

for the costs of transportation to and from the conducting 

course. In 2005, scholarships were generously 

provided by Central Missouri State University, the University 

of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan, 

CBDNA, the State University of New York at Fredonia, 

and the University of Calgary.] 


Karel Husa Turns 85 in 2006 

Odd Terje Lysebo 

❝ We are all part of the time we live in. I hope 

that I write music ‘of today’ – that is, music 

that speaks of today’s life, its problems, and 

its excitement.❞ 

This quotation is from one of the most respected and important composers of 

the twentieth century, not only for the wind band/ensemble, but for the world 

of music. He will be 85 years old in 2006. This Czech–American composer was 

born in Prague on 7 August 1921 and is still very active as a composer. 

Karel Husa is a gentleman, one of the kindest that I know. We first met in 

1990, when he guest conducted my wind ensemble at the ISCM World Music 

Days in Oslo, Norway. That was the very first time in the history of ISCM that a 

wind ensemble concert was on the program. Along with music from Polen, 

Uruguay, and Norway, there were two of Husa’s compositions on the program 

– the Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Orchestra with Ole Edvard Anthonsen 

as the soloist and the Concerto for Wind Ensemble. 

Husa is a sincere artist, who makes no compromises. He knows what he 

wants, and he gets it, even if it takes some time for the musicians to be able to 

perform his music. In 1967, when he wrote his Concerto for Alto Saxophone 

and Concert Band, he sent it to the great Sigurd Rascher who was to play the 

premiere. Husa quickly got a letter from Rascher, who at that time was in 

Norway, saying that there were twenty some places in the concerto that were 

impossible to play on the saxophone. Two weeks later, Husa got another letter 

from Rascher that said that he had worked more on the music and that there 

were only around ten places that are impossible. Husa then got a new letter 

saying that there were about seven places. This continued until it was only one 

place that was unplayable, and that was because Rascher had a special key on 

his saxophone that made a trill impossible; on a regular saxophone the trill 

was no problem at all. 

This story tells a lot about the creativity of Karel Husa. This composer is 

always ahead of the performers. The story, however, would not be very important 

if the music were just a case for difficulties, but for Husa, the music — the 

musicality — is always of utmost importance. He always has something to say 

with his music, and in his compositions, there are never any extraneous notes. 

Husa’s creative strength derives from his uncompromising individuality and 

firmly held ethical beliefs. Despite the disruption and dislocation caused by 

the intersection of his life with the political turbulence of our time, Husa has 

managed to create a large and distinguished body of music. His style is capable 

of assimilating and adapting such varied techniques as serialism, microtones, 

and aleatorism within a wide expressive range. Husa’s humanitarian 

concerns are central to his music, which rises to great eloquence when 

protesting tyranny or mourning the victims of violence and cruelty. 

Husa came to understand the meaning of oppression early in life. Born in 

Prague, his father, the owner of a small shoe business, provided a thorough 

education for Karel and his younger sister. Although Husa’s parents, particularly 

his mother Bozena Dongresova Husová, wanted him to become an engineer, 

they allowed their son to take lessons in music and painting as well. He played 

the violin from the age of eight and began piano lessons at the age of thirteen. 


Karel Husa at the 1995 

WASBE Conference 

Feature Also 

In This Issue 

Brazilian Wind Music....................9 

János Gyulai Gaál .......................11 


Husa at 85 


He did not attend a concert until he was eighteen, because 

as he said, “My parents didn’t go. My father’s business 

kept him at work from 7:00 in the morning to 8:30 at 

night. They also had the impression that one didn’t go to 

a concert without an evening jacket, that concerts were 

for high society only.” 

The Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia sent Husa’s life 

asunder. A student protest in 1939 provided the Germans 

with the pretext they sought for closing all the universities 

in Prague, including the technical institute where Karel 

was then studying. Furthermore, they ordered most of the 

students deported to Dresden to work in munitions factories. 

However, the conservatories for art and music were 

allowed to remain open. Thus Husa barely escaped deportation 

in 1941 by gaining admission to Jaroslav Ridky’s 

composition class and Pavel Dedecek’s conducting class 

at the Prague Conservatory. Husa’s rapid development is 

exemplified by the concise formal structure of his first 

published work, a charming neoclassic sonatina for piano 

from 1943. The years at the Conservatory were filled with 

stress and uncertainty. All the classes at the Conservatory 

were suspended in 1945, the year in which Husa graduated 

summa cum laude. 

In 1946, he went to Paris to study at the Ecole Normale 

de Musique and later the Paris Conservatory. He studied 

composition with Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger 

and conducting with Jean Fournet and André Cluytens 

and with Eugene Bigot at the Conservatory. Back in 

Prague in 1948, he won his first award, the Czech Academy 

of Sciences and Arts Prize for his Sinfonietta for 

Orchestra. And the Prague newspaper Práce referred to 

him as “one of the greatest hopes of Czech music”. 

In 1949, the Communist government revoked his passport 

when he declined to return to Czechoslovakia and 

serve an oppressive regime. Officially a refugee, he lived a 

precarious existence in Paris, earning an irregular income 

as a free-lance conductor. As a conductor, he made the 

first recording of Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin in 

1953. He conducted numerous orchestras in western 

Europe, including the Oslo Philharmonic, the Chamber 

Orchestra of Lausanne, the Grand Orchestre Symphonique 

of the Belgian Radio-Television, the Stockholm 

Radio Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, and the 

Orchestre National de France. 

During his Paris years, he wrote several works. In 1947, 

he composed Three Fresques, Opus 7 (1947) for orchestra, 

which he in revised in 1963 and in 1974 reworked into Al 

Fresco for wind band. In 1948, he composed Divertimento 

for string orchestra and the String Quartet No. 1, which 

was awarded the Prix Lili Boulanger and the Bilthoven 

6 

Festival Prize in The Netherlands. Other works composed 

during this period are the Piano Sonata (1949), Evocations 

de Slovaquie for Clarinet, Viola and Cello (1951), 

The First Symphony (1953) and the Second String Quartet 

(1954). 

In 1954, at the invitation of the American musicologist 

Donald J. Grout, Husa accepted a position at Cornell University 

to teach music theory and conduct the university 

orchestra. Husa remained at Cornell for over 30 years. 

Husa’s music of the 1940s and and early 1950s had its 

roots planted firmly in the soil of Czech and Slovak folk 

music. By the end of the 1950s, he began to move away 

from these styles and extend the tonality on which they 

were predicated towards a more austere, atonal and 

experimental idiom. Husa made a detailed study of serialism, 

adapting serial procedures for his own use in the 

Poeme for Viola and Chamber Orchestra (1960) and the 

Mosaiques for orchestra (1961). This period of experimentation 

and expansion was succeeded by a time of 

reflection and consolidation in the mid-1960s. 

Husa’s international reputation was enhanced in 1969, 

when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music for his 

String Quartet No. 3. This introspective and private work 

was commissioned by the Fine Arts Quartet. The music 

critic for the Baltimore Sun wrote: “In this third String 

Quartet are some extraordinary and novel devices and 

techniques…. All are bound together with a harmonic 

language flexible and dramatic, at times freely chromatic, 

at time implying serial techniques, always tinged with 

rhythms which are colorful and self-propulsive.” 

His Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by the 

New York Philharmonic and completed in 1986. Elliot 

Galkin wrote in Musical America that the work is 

“…fervent and luminous…. There is much in this concerto 

which recalls the intensity of Bartok and the mystical 

eloquence of Mahler…but there is no sense of the 

derivative in Husa’s rhetoric, his language is personal 

and deeply felt.” 

In 1987, he wrote a trumpet concerto for Adolph Herseth 

and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1993, he 

wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra, which was 

commissioned for the 150 th anniversary celebration of the 

New York Philharmonic and composed especially for the 

orchestra’s concert master, Glenn Dicterow. 

Concerning Husa’s music, David Ewen in Composers 

Since 1900 wrote: “Husa writes functional music and virtuoso 

music with equal facility and aptitude styles of 20th 

century music that meets the demand of the composition. 

There is no imitation, only a feeling of assimilation in his 

eclectic style, which embraces Debussy’s impressionism, 


Bartok’s neo primitivism, Schoenberg’s dodecaphony, 

Haba’s microtonality as well as slavic lyricism and 

emotionalism.” 

Husa says: “What I have been trying to do is to preserve 

what little is still viable and useful from the past, 

but mostly my concern is to write music from today, and 

also find some paths for tomorrow. Most of the works of 

the past and present mirror the period in which they were 

composed, so I hope my music can reflect the exciting, 

passionate, also tragic times of today.” 

Husa’s interest in the wind band medium started in the 

1960s. He had lived in the USA for about ten years and 

was very impressed with the level of the college and university 

bands. Except for his Musique pour Harmonie 

(1951), Divertimento (1958) for brass and percussion, 

Festive Ode and some chamber / solo works for winds, his 

main production for the medium started at that time. 

Works for Winds 

Music for Prague 1968 is by far Husa’s most performed 

composition. More than 10,000 performances are rather 

extraordinary for contemporary music of such large form 

and that is so complicated. Music for Prague was the first 

of a triptych that Husa calls his three “manifest” scores 

intended to address serious issues of international concern. 

“Musical notes become the sounds of protest; 

through these sounds music has its only power; it has no 

bullets or bombs or death anger; all it can do perhaps is 

warn what the future might be.” Apotheosis of this Earth, 

the second score of the triptych, is a prophetic warning 

about the dire consequences of humanity’s rape of the 

Compositions for Wind Band/Ensemble 

Al Fresco – 1974 

An American Te Deum for Band and Mixed Chorus with Handbells – 1976 

Apotheosis of this Earth for Band and optional Mixed Chorus – 1971 

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Concert Band – 1967 

Concertino for Piano and Winds – 1984 

Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble – 1970/71 

Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Orchestra – 1973 

Concerto for Wind Ensemble – 1982 

Les Couleurs Fauves – 1996 

Divertimento for Symphonic Winds and Percussion (arr. John Boyd) – 

1974/95 

Festive Ode for Band and Mixed or Men’s Chorus – 1955 

Music for Prague 1968 – 1968 

Smetana fanfare – 1984 

Compositions for Brass Ensemble 

Divertimento for Brass Ensemble and Percussion – 1958 

Fanfare for Brass and Percussion – 1981 

Midwest Celebration for Three Choirs of Brass and Percussion – 1996 

environment. The third manifest is a dramatic orchestral 

work, the ballet The Trojan Women based on a play by 

Euripides. Here the ghastly toll exacted upon women and 

children by the ravage of war is played out upon the 

stage, evoking our horror and pity. 

The Concerto for Wind Ensemble (1982) was commissioned 

by the Michigan State University Alumni Band and 

dedicated to the Michigan State University Band, Stanley 

De Rusha, director. The first performance was given on 

3 December 1982 by the Michigan State University Wind 

Symphony under the direction of the composer. The work 

won the first biennial Louis Suddler International Wind 

Band Composition in 1983. 

Divided into three movements, the Concerto is a display 

of virtuoso passages for different solo instruments 

as well as groups within the ensemble. These groups play 

in a concertant manner, especially in the first and last 

movement. 

In the first movement, Drum Ceremony and Fanfare, 

the brass section performs in groups of four brass quintets 

(2 trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba or baritone), 

spread from left to right in the back row. The saxophones 

are placed in front of the brass quintets, and the woodwind 

occupy the front of the stage, with percussion on the 

left and right sides. The unique seating arrangement provides 

the opportunity for interesting spatial effects. The 

movement opens with an extended timpani solo played 

on five timpani which are later joined by marimba, tubas 

and trombones in the low register. This is a wonderful 

“Drum Ceremony” before the trumpet fanfare starts first 

in unison and then developed like a canon in different 

effective ways. 

The second movement, Elegy, was 

written in memory of Husa’s father. It 

opens with a solo for flute that moves 

to a flute duet. Several solo passages 

lead to larger forces and many 

instances of timbral modulation. In 

this movement, Husa creates some 

marvellous colors in the woodwinds 

and the brass. Husa is a great musical 

“painter”, and in every composition, 

he uses new and different colours. 

Other compositional techniques 

employed include the use of quartertones, 

aleatoric passages, and uneven 

vibrato. Other devices are muted oboes 

and timbre trills. 

The last movement, Perpetual 

Motion, is fast and virtuous with jazzy, 

quasi aleatoric solos for most of the 


www.wasbe.org Volume XX, No. 4 (December 2005) 7

Husa at 85 


instruments. The middle section is a long and powerful solo 

for the whole saxophone section. It moves between unison 

and dissonant chords. In Aria, the second movement of 

Music for Prague, the same powerful saxophone ensemble 

writing is employed. Here in the last movement of the 

finale it has an enormous power, and it builds to a musical 

climax. The Concerto for Wind Ensemble is in my opinion, 

one of the most important wind works ever written. 

All the concerti for solo wind instrument accompanied 

by wind ensemble that Husa has written are important 

works. Concertino for Piano and Wind Ensemble is a 

wonderful work comparable with Stravinski’s Concerto for 

Piano and Winds. More of us should perform it more 

often. The instrumentation is basically orchestral winds 

with saxophones (3fl, 2ob,1Eb cl, 2Bb cl, 1 bass cl, 1Bb cb. 

Clar, 4 saxes SATB, 2 trp, 2 hns, 2 trbs, 1 euph, 1 tuba, 3 

perc.). This sixteen minutes work is a revised version of an 

earlier work, Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, which 

was composed in Paris in1949 and premiered in Brussels 

in 1952. In this early work, Husa is closer to Bartok than in 

any of his other works. It is an exciting and very beautiful 

composition. The three movements are: 1. Allegretto moderato, 

2. Quasi fantasia. Moderato molto and 3. Allegretto 

moderato. The main theme is presented in the fifth measure 

of the first movement and displays the Slovak dance 

character with its implied mixed meters. The second theme 

is contrasting and very romantic in nature. 

Apotheosis of this Earth is an exciting work which has 

had many performances. I would like to draw attention to 

the version for wind ensemble and choir. Adding the 

chorus to the score gives it a new dimension. The twentyfive 

minute work was composed in 1970 and uses a lot of 

contemporary techniques. It is a great and powerful work, 

especially when done with the chorus. 

Les Couleurs Fauves is Husa’s latest work for large 

wind ensemble. It was commissioned by the Northwestern 

University School of Music in tribute to its Director of 

Bands, John Paynter, upon his retirement. Sadly this wonderful 

musician and champion of new music died before 

the work was premiered in November 1996. Husa wrote 

about this composition: 

I have always been fascinated by colors, not only in 

music, but also in nature and art. The paintings of the 

impressionists and fauvists have been particularly 

attractive to me, and their French origin accounts for the 

French title of my piece. The two movements (Persisting 

bells and Ritual dance masks) gave me the chance to 

play with colors — sometimes gentle, sometimes raw — 

of the wind ensemble, something John (Paynter) also 

liked to do in his conducting, 

8 

The seventeen minutes work has a slow and rather 

short first movement, building to a tremendous climax 

before it dies away and ends with a bird song in the 

piccolo. The second movement is divided in two parts, 

first a fast motif in the trumpets and horns over some 

beautiful colors in the low brass and woodwinds. The 

second part is a great “bolero” with a long solo in the Bb 

clarinet. There really are some vivid colors in this great 

music. For the last movement, there are optional 

antiphonal brass part. They are not sold with the set but 

are available from the composer. You need a very large 

hall to get it to work with the extra brass, but if you have 

one, it is a tremendous ending. 

Next year all of us should play more the great music of 

Karel Husa. He is one of the most important composers of 

the last forty years, and we are very grateful for all the 

sincere and wonderful music he has given to the wind 

band. Thank you Karel – let us have a Husa year in 2006! 

Membership 

Recruitment Incentives 

WASBE needs members, and you are WASBE’s best 

recruiters. Recruit new members and take advantage 

of either one of the following two offers: 

Incentive I — Membership Discount 

Get a reduction on your membership dues.You 

need only recruit 5 new members this year to get a 

reduction of 10% on your 2006 membership fees, 

but why not recruit 25 new members and get a 50% 

discount or 50 new members and have a year’s free 

membership? 

Incentive II — Free CDs 

Get free CDs of leading American college and university 

bands.You need only recruit 5 new members 

to get a free CD recording. Recruit 25 new members 

and get 5 free CDs. 

How To Participate 

Every time you recruit a multiple of five new members, 

send a list with the names of these members 

to the WASBE Executive Director Leon Bly (contact 

information is on Page 2). State whether you are 

taking advantage of Incentive I (Membership 

Renewal Discount) or Incentive II (Free CDs). As 

soon as these members pay their dues, you will 

receive your free CD or have your discount credited 

towards your 2006 dues. 


Brazilian Wind Band Music 

Dario Sotelo 

Traditional Wind Band Repertoire 

The traditional wind band 

repertoire is probably 

Brazil’s largest body of 

music. With their European 

roots, mainly Italian, 

Spanish and Portuguese, 

the bandmasters of the 

past taught wind instruments, 

rehearsed the 

bands and conducted the 

retretas — the weekly 

open-air performances — but above all, they composed 

and arranged traditional music for the concerts. It is 

necessary to mention that access to printed music was 

almost impossible for the community bands until the 

early 1970s; only the military bands were able to buy 

printed music from abroad. The huge number of original 

compositions — marches, dobrados (Brazilian paso 

dobles), sambas, waltz, maxixes, maracatus, songs and 

works for solo instruments — and the fact that the quality 

of this music is so good has resulted in a project to 

search for the best of this repertoire and to re-orchestrate 

it for modern wind band. 

Times of change 

During the early 1970s and ’80s, the Conservatoire of 

Tatui — a state music school supported by the Sao Paulo 

State Government — established a very good student 

band. For this group, Maestro Antonio Carlos Neves 

Campos, who had recently arrived from the USA, where 

he had been a pupil of Arthur Frackenpohl, made his first 

wind band arrangements of Brazilian music, starting a 

very important process of modernizing the Brazilian 

repertoire for winds, using transparent instrumentation 

and modern harmony within the scope of the symphonic 

wind band. Some of these arrangements can be heard 

on the Brazilian Wind Orchestra CDs: Compositores 

Brasileiros (Brazilian Composers) from 1995, Compositores 

Brasileiros – Pró-Bandas from 1997 and Retratos 

(Portraits) from 2002. Maestro Neves has been the Director 

of the Conservatoire of Tatui for more than twenty 

years now, and during this period, he has been responsible 

for establishing the Brazilian Wind Orchestra as a 

leading advocate of Brazilian wind music and for the 

largest commissioning project for symphonic bands in 

the history of Brazil. 

The composers Mario Ficarelli and Amaral Vieira 

taught at the Conservatoire of Tatui during the 1970s and 

early 1980s. During that period, Amaral Vieira composed 

Tecladofonia for 2 pianos, celesta, bells, children’s keyboard 

and band (1974) and the Concerto for Three Trumpets 

and Band (1981). In 1985, Mario Ficarelli composed 

Vita Nuova and Liturgy for Winds. 

In 1989, the Sao Paulo State Band was established as 

the professional symphonic wind band of the State of Sao 

Paulo under the direction of Maestro Roberto Farias, who 

was succeeded by Daniel Havens and Abel Rocha, and for 

which Erika Hindrickon has served an assistant conductor. 

Maestro Farias started commissioning composers to 

write for this band, and as a result a large number of new 

works were composed and performed by some of Brazil’s 

leading serious composers. 

Some examples of this repertoire are the dramatic 

overture Travassos by Alexandre Fracalanza, the symphonic 

poem Harpi by Daniel Havens, and the Tropical 

Suite by Ronaldo Miranda, all of which have been recorded 

on the CD Tropical Suite by the Banda Sinfonica do 

Estado de Sao Paulo (www.bandasinfonica.com.br). Tropical 

Suite is a symphonic work based on the music from 

the northeast of Brazil; the brilliantly orchestrated four 

movements reflect the colors and themes of the rich musical 

heritage of this area. The works of Fracalanza and 

Havens follow the tradition of German composers with 

their finely crafted symphonic structures. 

Other important wind band compositions of this period 

are the Symphony No.1 by Mario Ficarelli with its four 

linked movements, exploring different compositional techniques, 

such as atonality, modality, polyphony, and with a 

background plot of a Circus, Frevata for four trombones 

and band by Edmundo Villani-Côrtes, and the same composer’s 

Confusion for jazz quintet and band, in which the 

liveliness of Brazilian pop styles — Frevo and Baiao — 

are combined with symphonic writing. 

With the establishment of the Sao Paulo State Youth 

Band (www.bandasinfonicajovem.hpg.ig.com.br), Monica 

Giardini developed a number of concerts and shows with 

popular Brazilian and international music, always commissioning 

original works for the several parts of the 

performances. 

The Brazilian Wind Orchestra was established in 1991 

at the Conservatoire of Tatui. A commissioning project 

was started with the idea of creating a new repertoire 

for bands that includes all Brazilian musical styles and 

genres from original symphonic works to popular music 

arrangements and transcriptions of the classical Brazilian 



Brazilian Wind Band Music 


composers such as Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri. 

This repertoire now comprises over fifty original symphonic 

compositions and more than seventy arrangements 

and transcriptions of Brazilian music. 

Three composers in residence at the Conservatoire of 

Tatui — Antonio Carlos Neves Campos, Hudson Nogueira 

and Edson Beltrami — have composed new works and 

part of this repertoire has been recorded on six CDs of the 

Brazilian Wind Orchestra (www.cdmcc.com.br). The Conservatoire 

of Tatui has also commissioned works from 

composers such as Mario Ficarelli, Sergio Vasconcelos 

Correa, Ricardo Silva, Renato Goulart, and Edmundo 

Villani-Côrtes. 

Wind Orchestra Works by Four Brazilian 

Composers 

Edmundo Villani-Côrtes 

Brazilian Rhapsody on Children’s Themes (1993) is an 

excellent example of Villani-Côrtes’s writing for winds; his 

masterful orchestrating clearly illustrates the games 

played by children while singing the songs included here. 

Caete Jurure – The Supplication of the Forest (1997) is a 

10 

very powerful two part composition with the first part 

depicting the jungle in its natural state and the second 

man’s intervention destroying nature. Villani-Côrtes’s preoccupation 

with the forests and jungles of the world is 

reflected in much of his music, which is influenced by the 

impressionism of Debussy. The three movement Sinfonia 

No. 1 by Villani-Côrtes employs traditional sonata form 

for the first and third movements, with the second movement 

in ABA form; his mastery of creating special features 

for each section of the development turns this symphony 

into one of the most important of the Brazilian repertoire, 

deserving serious analysis of its musical content. 

Sergio Vasconcellos Correa 

Sinfonia No. 1 “Anoia” (1998) by Sergio Vasconcellos 

Correa employs a theme collected from the native Brazilian 

indian tribe Parecis for the first movement. Each of 

the other three movements is based on original material 

and a folk dance. The modal and polyphonic structure of 

the music along with the rhythms of indian rituals creates 

the atmosphere of the total symphony. 


AUStralian International 

Music Festival 

June 20 - 26, 2006 

Performances at the Sydney Opera House,the Sydney 

Town Hall and Angel Place City Recital Hall. 


Hudson Nogueira 

Hudson Nogueira’s Brazilian Portraits (2000) was commissioned 

by the Conservatoire of Tatui for a special event 

in Hungary in the year 2000, when it was premiered and 

recorded live by Hungarian State Radio. It is composed of 

four sections, Amazon Jungle, Big Cities, African Influence, 

and Carnival in Rio and in the Northeast of Brazil. 

Each of the sections has sub-sections that portray important 

features and images of Brazil. It is included on the 

Brazilian Wind Orchestra’s CD Do Coraçao e da Alma. 

Nogueira’s Milenio – A Divertimento for Band (1998) 

is a symphonic divertimento based on two themes and the 

rhythmic motives of two Brazilian styles — Choro and 

Maracatu. His Do Coraçao e da Alma (From the Heart to 

the Soul) from 2003 takes the popular Choro and its form 

and creates a symphonic work through expansions and 

development of the original; its refined orchestration and 

contrasting colors of the sections makes this composition 

one of his most expressive works. 

Edson Beltrami 

The Concerto for Band (2001) by Edson Beltrami is a 

three-movement, twenty-five minute composition at grade 

6 level. It is a massive work with very impressive textures 

and clear themes in ABA form. It is tonal music with some 

modal sections. Beltrami’s Concertino for Flute and Band 

(2004) is dedicated to the North American flutist Angela 

Jones, who played its premiere in 2004. It requires a first 

class soloist to perform the solo part, which is technically 

and musically quite advanced. The orchestration is so well 

crafted that the solo passages can be heard with an 

accompaniment full of imagination. His Sabbath – An 

Ancient Ritual is a very powerful symphonic work, scored 

for 8 horns and 8 trumpets; it is based on challenging 

rhythmic motives that create the atmosphere of the 

human sacrifices of the ancient civilizations. His Mass for 

Choir and Band is scored for a band without saxophones 

and consists of the five traditional parts of the Mass: 

Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei; it contains 

modal writing based on Gregorian chant but incorporates 

dissonances and special colors to stress the meaning of 

the texts. 

The compositions mentioned above are only a few 

examples of Brazil’s very broad repertoire, most of which 

remains in manuscripts. In addition to those mentioned 

above, the following Brazilian composers have written at 

least one work for wind orchestra: Alexandre Daloia, 

Ricardo Alves, João Vitor Bota, Marcos Mesquita, Normando 

Carneiro, Andersen Vianna, André Mehmari, and Fernando 

Moraes. For further listings of compositions or the 

availability of performance materials, please contact the 

Conservatoire of Tatui or Dario Sotelo 

(dsotelo@uol.com.br). 

János Gyulai Gaál 

Bert Aalders 

János Gyulai Gaál was born in 1924 in Budapest, Hungary. 

He graduated from the Ferenz Liszt Academy of 

Music in Budapest, both as a violist and pianist. In 1941, 

he won the Hubay Prize as a violinist. From 1954 to 1984, 

he acted as music editor for Hungarian Radio. His varied 

career included composing, arranging, and conducting. 

He was awarded the prize of the Concours de Musique 

Symphonique Légère in Belgium in 1956 and the Excel 

Prize in Hungary in 1967. 

Among his many compositions are 

two piano concertos, a concerto for 

harp and orchestra, a rhapsody for 

violin and orchestra and a violin 

concerto. In 1983, he wrote a duet 

for violin and cello. He also wrote 

five musicals and a great deal of 

stage and film scores. His interest in 

wind music led to his composing for 

wind band. Four of his compositions, 

Bull Ring, Promenade, Toys Suite, and Triumphal March 

are currently available from the Music Information Centre 

Arnhem, The Netherlands, and after 1 January 2006, they 

will be available from Gobelin Music. 

Concerning his music, Márta Rubin has written: “The 

works of János Gyulai Gaál are characterised by a melodic 

structure of great dimensions and sequences of jazzy harmonies 

as well as demanding instrumental virtuosity. 

…[H]e gives the performers a lot to do with his technical 

bravura and the joyful realisation of his multi-colour 

switches of atmosphere.” 

For more information about the composer and his 

music, contact the Music Information Centre Arnhem, 

The Netherlands at bert.aalders@wxs.nl or 

joop.boerstoel@planet.nl. 

New Members 

WASBE welcomes the following new members: 

Karen Fennin, Conway, AR, USA 

Miguel Etchegoncelay, Hégenheim, France 

Christopher Neal, Abilene,TX, USA 

James D.Wayne, White Plains, NY, USA 

Darren Sim, Singapore 

Andrea Csollàny, Mannheim, Germany 

Francois-Xavier Bailleul, Paris, France 

Frédéric Borri, Cannes La Bocca, France 

Fabrice Kastel, Metz, France 

Ivan Milhiet, Paris, France 

Orchestre d´Harmonie de St. Priest – Henri Bissuel, 

St. Priest, France 


News & Events 

Also In This Issue 

News in Brief ................................15 

Music Industry News.................17 

International Events ..................18 

Premières ......................................20 

12 

Volume XX, No. 4 (Dec. 2005) 

Obituaries 

Warren Benson 

Warren Benson, composer, conductor, 

educator, performer and author, 

passed away on 6 October 2005. Born 

in Detroit on 26 January 1924, he 

studied percussion and French Horn 

at Cass Tech High School and completed 

Bachelor’s and Master’s 

degrees in Music Theory at the University 

of Michigan in 1951. He 

began performing professionally at 

the age of fourteen in theater orchestras 

and big bands, was the timpanist 

of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 

1946, and was offered the Philadelphia 

Orchestra timpanist’s position 

by Eugene Ormandy in 1948. 

Don Sinta described Warren’s 

teaching as “a different style of 

teaching characterized by an inquiry 

into the student’s mind and an openness 

about providing challenge to 

that student.” As a young educator 

Warren held positions at the Brevard 

Music Center in North Carolina, 

Anatolia College in Salonica, Greece 

(funded by two successive Fulbright 

Fellowships), and Mars Hill College 

in North Carolina. He then taught 

percussion, composition, and theory 

at Ithaca College from 1953 to 1967 

and composition at the Eastman 

School of Music from 1967 to 1994. 

During the 1960s, he designed and 

implemented two pilot programs for 

the Contemporary Music Project. 

His first book, Creative Projects in 

Musicianship, was an outgrowth of 

these projects. Other publications 

include his second book, …And My 

Daddy Will Play The Drums: Limericks 

for friends of drummers, 

completed in 1999. 

Frank Battisti in describing 

Warren’s significance once said: “He 

has made a great contribution 

because he has been a compass. He 

constantly reminds us of what ‘true 

north’ is, and his participation in 

organizations, his involvement, has 

always been one in which he questions. 

He re-focuses when certain 

things are 

overlooked. 

I 

think that 

he’s basically 

made 

the profession 

more 

aware of 

their 

Warren Benson in 2004 

responsi- at the Midwest Clinic 

bilities to music, to art, and to creativity.” 

This was quite evident 

through his participation in WASBE. 

Involved with WASBE since its inception, 

he served in a variety of ways, 

including a term on the Board of 

Directors from 1987 to 1993. During 

this period, he wrote the WASBE 

Statement of Understanding. Also 

memorable is his 1987 WASBE Conference 

address on the “Aesthetic Criteria 

for Selecting an International 

Repertoire.” Warren has had worldwide 

influence on bands, band 

music, chamber music, composition, 

and music education. 

Among his numerous accomplishments, 

we owe a unique tribute to 

Warren for his contributions toward 

the development of an artistic, aesthetically 

stimulating repertoire for 

the modern wind ensemble. Warren 

once said, “I write music for people: 

family, friends, professionals, and 

amateurs alike. It is to give us pleasure 

that we collaborate; not without 

serious commitment, exposure, and 

risk; not without striving for genuine 

expression, new challenge, and fresh 

solutions worthy of the art.” For 

these reasons, he composed nearly 

150 works for wind ensembles, 

orchestras, choirs, soloists, and 

chamber ensembles and is best 

known for his wind ensemble music 

and song cycles, many of which have 

been recorded. 

Warren received numerous 

awards and recognition through the 

years, including: four Fulbright 

Fellowships, three Consortium

Composer Fellowships (NEA), the John Simon Guggenheim 

Fellowship, three MacDowell Colony Fellowships, 

annual ASCAP Serious Music Awards, the Lillian Fairchild 

Prize, the Citation of Excellence from the National Band 

Association, Kilbourn Distinguished Professor, University 

of Rochester’s University Mentor, election to the NBA 

Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts, election to the 

Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame, and nominations for 

a Pulitzer Prize for Drums of Summer. These awards are 

insignificant, however, when compared to the numerous 

people whose lives have been changed by his innovative 

and visionary teaching and mentoring. 

I would like to leave you with one final thought in 

Warren’s words: “I wish I could hear more wind conductors 

and instrumental teachers using better and larger 

vocabularies that relate to beauty, aesthetics, to charm, to 

gentleness, strength and power without rancor or anger, to 

useful tonal vibrance, live sound, to grace of movement, to 

stillness, to fervor, to the depth of great age, the exultation 

of great happiness, the feel of millennia, the sweetness and 

purity of lullabies, the precision of fine watches, the reach 

into time-space of great love and respect, the care of 

phrasing, the delicacy of balance, the ease of warmth, the 

resonance of history, the susurrus of wind in the pines and 

whisperings in churches, the intimacy of the solo instrument, 

the kind weight of togetherness and the rising spirit 

of creating something, bringing something to life from 

cold print, living music, moving music.” 

He is survived by his wife, Patricia; a son and three 

daughters; and ten grandchildren. 

A Warren Benson Archive has been established at Eastman’s 

Sibley Music Library and a “Warren and Pat Benson 

Forum on Creativity” has been endowed. Contributions to 

this endowment can be sent to: 

Warren & Pat Benson Forum on Creativity 

c/o Eastman School of Music 

26 Gibbs Street 

Rochester, NY 14604, USA 

In loving reverence, 

Alan Wagner, 

Alfred Reed 

Alfred Reed passed away following a short illness on Saturday 

afternoon, 17 September 2005, at the age of 84. This 

world known band composer and long time WASBE 

member was born in New York City on 25 January 1921. 

As the son of Austrian immigrants, he grew up in a home 

where music was a part of daily life and became acquainted 

with the standard orchestral and opera repertoire 

while still a young boy. He began trumpet lessons at the 

age of ten years and was already playing in small hotel 

combos as a teenager. After studying theory and harmony 

privately with John Sacco, he 

worked as a staff composer and 

arranger for the Radio Workshop 

in New York. During World 

War II, he served as a trumpet 

player with the 529 th Army Air 

Corps Band, for which he composed 

and arranged nearly 100 

compositions. 

Following World War II, he 

studied composition with Vittorio 

Giannini at the Juilliard 

School of Music. In 1948, he 

became staff composer and 

Alfred Reed lecturing on 

acoustics in 1998 

arranger for the National Broadcasting Company and later 

served as staff composer and arranger for the American 

Broadcasting Company. 

In 1953, he enrolled at Baylor University in Waco, 

Texas, where he served as conductor of the symphony 

orchestra. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1955 

and a Master of Music degree a year later. His master’s 

thesis, Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra, was awarded the 

Luria Prize in 1959. 

He served as executive editor for Hansen Publications 

from 1955 to 1966, when he joined the Theory–Composition 

and Music Education faculties at the University of 

Miami School of Music. During his tenure at the University, 

he succeeded Frederick Fennell as conductor of the 

Wind Ensemble, served a executive editor of the University 

of Miami Music Publications, and developed the first 

music merchandising degree program, which he administered 

until his retirement in 1993. Following his retirement, 

he composed extensively and maintained a busy 

guest conducting schedule, with performances in North 

America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. 

Among his many honors and awards was an honorary 

doctor of music degree from the International Conservatory 

of Music in Lima, Peru, election to the American 

Bandmasters Association in 1974, and the Academy of 

Wind and Percussion Arts Award in 1979. 

His published works include almost one hundred compositions 

for wind band, including five symphonies and 

such popular works as the Russian Christmas Music, the 

Armenian Dances, A Festival Prelude, and El Camino 

Real. At the time of his death, “[h]e still had writing projects 

that he wanted to do,” according to his wife Margie. 

David McCormick has written, “His gift to the world is a 

body of music that will continue to thrill, charm and 

delight audiences in virtually every country of the world, 

as it has done for the last fifty years.” 

Leon J. Bly 



Obituaries 


Clyde Roller 

A. Clyde Roller, director of the Eastman Wind Ensemble 

from 1962 to 1964, died on Sunday, 16 October 2005 at 

the age of ninety-one. Roller was born on 13 October 

1914 in Rogersville, Missouri. He received a Bachelor of 

Music degree and a performance certificate in Oboe from 

the Eastman School of Music. He became principal oboist 

with the Tulsa [Oklahoma] Philharmonic in 1935 and 

conductor of the Oklahoma City Symphony in 1937. 

His extensive and varied career included resident conductor 

of the Houston Symphony, Musical Director of the 

Lansing [Michigan] and Amarillo [Texas] symphony 

orchestras, and principal guest conductor of the Oklahoma 

Symphony. He made six tours as conductor of the 

New Zealand Symphony. In addition to the Eastman 

School of Music, he also served as professor and conductor 

at the University of Houston, the University of Texas at 

Austin, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Southern 

Methodist University. He served as a conductor at the 

Interlochen Summer Arts Camp from 1951 through 2004. 

Leon J. Bly 

14 

Eric Osterling 

Eric Alfred Osterling, well known composer of such concert 

marches as Bandology and Totem Pole, died in Plant 

City, Florida on 26 July 2005 at the age of 79. He was born 

on 21 March 1926 in West Hartford, Connecticut, where 

he began his musical career at the age of fourteen, playing 

piano and arranging music for dance bands in the 

area. He received a bachelors degree in music from Ithaca 

College in 1948 and later did graduate work at the University 

of Connecticut and Hartt College of Music. In 1948, he 

became supervisor of music for the Portland, Connecticut 

school system, a position which he held for thirty-four 

years. In 1982, he became a faculty member at Florida 

Southern College, where he taught a jazz history course 

and conducted the jazz band six years. 

He wrote his first composition for wind band in 1950, 

and his first published work, Tropical Adventure, 

appeared in 1954. He composed and arranged over 600 

works, including overtures, symphonies, suites, and fantasies, 

but it was the distinct style of his numerous concert 

marches that made them popular around the world. 

Leon J. Bly 


News in Brief 

Bruce Adolphe has been commissioned 

by a CBDNA consortium to 

compose a multi-movement composition 

for sixteen wind and percussion 

players. The work, which is inspired 

by the concept of time, will contain 

around twenty-five minutes of music 

and five additional minutes of text 

as introduction to the various 

movements. 

Pannonisches Blasorchester (PBO) 

has released a new CD with music 

from the period of the Austro-Hungarian 

Empire. Copies of the CD may 

be purchased from: 

Pannonische Forschungsstelle 

Hauptplatz 8 

A-7432 Oberschützen 

Austria 

bernhard.habla@kug.ac.at 

A John Philip Sousa bronze statue 

was unveiled at the United States 

Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. 

on 5 November 2005 to celebrate the 

sesquicentennial of his birth. The 

statue, which portrays Sousa conducting 

in his Marine Band uniform, 

is located inside the gates to the 

Marine Barracks Annex and Band 

Support Facility. Sousa was conductor 

of the United States Marine Band 

from 1880 to 1892. 

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski has been 

commissioned by a consortium, consisting 

of the Saarbrucken Radio 

Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, 

the New England Conservatory, the 

University of Minnesota and the 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

to compose a twelve to fifteen 

minute work for wind orchestra. 

The composition will be scored for 

orchestral winds plus soprano, alto 

and baritone saxophones, piano and 

percussion. For information concerning 

participating in the consortium 

contact: fharris@mit.edu 

The University of Texas Wind Ensemble 

under the direction of Jerry 

Junkin broadcast the following program 

live via audio webcast on 

6 October 2005. 

Fred Lerdahl (b. 1943): 

Without Fanfare 

David Maslanka (b. 1943): 

A Child’s Garden of Dreams 

John Corigliano (b.1938): 

Gazebo Dances for Band 

Donald Grantham (b. 1947): 

Court Music 

Colonel Christer Johannesen, former 

Principal Director of Music for the 

Norwegian Military Bands and the 

present Director of the Norwegian 

Military Tattoo, was created a Knight 

1 st Class of the Royal Order of St. 

Olav on 23 September 2005 in the 

Flag Hall of the Akerhus Barracks in 

Oslo, Norway. This is the highest distinction 

ever awarded a band officer 

in Norway. Johannesen, a long-time 

WASBE member, conducted the Norwegian 

National Youth Wind Band at 

the first WASBE Conference in Skien 

in 1983. 

Dana Wilson has been commissioned 

by the Ithaca High School Band 

Alumni to write a ten to fifteen 

minute work for high school wind 

band/ensemble in honor of their 

former band director Frank L. 

Battisti. 

Martin Ellerby’s Cries of London was 

premiered on 13 September 2005 at 

St. John Smith Square in London by 

the Band of the Coldstream Guards 

under the direction of Major Graham 

Jones. 

Julie Giroux has been commissioned 

by the Psi Chapter of Phi Beta Mu to 

compose a grade 4 composition. The 

work, Empire, which is dedicated to 

the young musicians of Kentucky, 

will be premiered by the 2006 

Kentucky All State Band. Giroux’s 

Vigils Keep, based on the song Wayfaring 

Stranger, received its premiere 

from the Auburn University Symphonic 

Band under the direction of 

Johnnie Vinson on 15 April 2005. 

Virginia Allen, a former WASBE 

Board member, was appointed to 

the conducting faculty at The Curtis 

Institute of Music in Philadelphia 

in September 2005. She is also a 

member of the conducting faculty at 

The Juilliard School of Music in New 

York City and an instructor at the 

University of the Arts in Philadelphia. 

As a pioneer for women in military 

bands, she was the first woman conductor 

of the United States Army 

Field Band and the United States Military 

Academy Band at West Point. 

Gunther Schuller is composing a 

grade 3 composition for wind 

band/ensemble as part of the Composers 

Forum’s BandQuest series. 

The premiere of the work is scheduled 

for Spring 2006. 

David Whitwell, a former WASBE 

Board member and the former 

Director of Bands at California State 

University at Northridge, has been 

appointed Music Director and Conductor 

of the Austin Civic Wind 

Ensemble. 

Christopher Theofanidis has been 

commissioned by a consortium of 

nine universities in the USA to compose 

an eight minute work to be premiered 

in January 2006. 

Kevin Kaska’s Concertino for Euphonium 

and Wind Ensemble was given 

a co-premiere by euphonium player 

Adam Frey and the Emory University 

Wind Ensemble under the direction 

of Scott Stewart on 26 October 2005 

at Emory University. The grade 5, 



News in Brief 


fourteen minute concertino was 

commissioned by Frey, Euphonium 

Foundation and an international 

consortium of wind bands. 

Joanne Metcalf has been commissioned 

by a consortium organized by 

the Lawrence University Conservatory 

of Music to write a nine minute 

work, The Waters of Speech are 

Silent, for wind ensemble. The work, 

which should be about grade 5 in 

difficulty, is scored for one player to 

a part and features a saxophone 

quintet (SAATB). The composition 

should be available for performance 

by autumn 2006. The consortium fee 

is US$300.00 and includes a score 

and set of parts. For more information 

contact: 

Andy Mast 

Director of Bands 

Lawrence University 

Appleton, WI 54915 USA 

Tel: +1 / 920 / 832-6622 

Andrew.mast@lawrence.edu 

Peter Child, Composer-in-Residence 

with the Albany [NY] Symphony, has 

been commissioned by a consortium 

to compose a fifteen to twenty minute 

composition for wind ensemble. For 

information concerning participating 

in the consortium contact: 

fharris@mit.edu 

Aldo Forte’s Symphonic Scenes from 

Romeo and Juliet received its premiere 

by the Kansas States University 

Band on 3 May 2005. 

The International Society for the Promotion 

and Research of Wind Music 

has released the third volume in its 

IGEB Reprints and Manuscripts 

series – J. A. Kappey’s Military Music: 

A History of Wind-Instrumental 

Bands. The book, which was originally 

printed in London in 1894, may 

be purchased from IGEB or 

Musikverlag Kliment. 

16 

Hubert Bird’s Yoolis Carol was premiered 

by the Gordon College Wind 

Ensemble at the Gordon College 

Annual Christmas Gala Concert on 

2 December 2005. The fantasy is 

based on five Christmas carols. 

Judith Lang Zaimont has been commissioned 

by Saint Mary’s University 

Concert Band with funding from the 

Sam and Helen Kaplan Foundation 

to write a work for wind band based 

on Jewish thematic materials. 

Evan Zuporyn has composed a new 

work, The Ornate Zither and the 

Nomad Flute, for soprano voice, 

pairs of woodwinds, including soprano 

saxophones, pairs of brasses, 

string bass, percussion, and electric 

piano. The fifteen minute work, 

which was premiered in March 2005 

by Anne Herley and the Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology Wind 

Ensemble under the direction of Fred 

Harris, is based on texts by Li 

Shangyin and W.S. Merwin. 

Viktor Fortin’s Konzert für Alphorn 

und Sinfoniches Blasorchester 

received its premiere by Franz Schüssele 

and the Stadtkapelle Harmonie 

Kehl-Suntheim under the direction of 

Hansjörg Stürzel on 20 November 

2005 in the Town Hall in Kehl, 

Germany. The original April 2005 

date for the premiere of the concerto 

had to be postponed because of the 

conductor’s illness. 

Dallas Wind Symphony Fanfares 

The Dallas Wind Symphony has announced the following winners of the 2005– 

2006 Brass Fanfares Competition. The fanfares were or will be performed by 

members of the Dallas Wind Symphony at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony 

Center in Dallas, Texas on the dates noted. 

Greg Barnes A Hero’s Welcome 29 September 2005 

Nathan Langfitt A Fanfare for Frederick Fennell 25 October 2005 

William Harbinson Maestro’s Flourish 15 November 2005 

Tadd Russo Symphony Fanfare 31 January 2006 

Craig Thomas Naylo On The Head of a Pin 14 February 2006 

Roland Barrett Burn 14 March 2006 

Ellen Vanderslice Gothic Fanfare 18 April 2006 

WASBE Foundation 

Project No. 1 

Commissions of New Wind Music 

Goal: US$ 400 000 endowment 

Project No. 2 

Assist wind band people from 

underdeveloped countries 

to be able to participate in 

WASBE activities 


Project No. 3 

Provide educational assistance 

to less experienced conductors 

and performers through international 

wind band workshops 

and symposiums 


Help WASBE reach its goals; 

donate today! 

Donations are tax deductible in most countries 

and can be made at the time you renew your membership. 


Announcements from the Music Industry 

The following is provided as a service to the membership. The mention of products here or in the advertisements in this 

Newsletter is in no way to be construed as a WASBE endorsement of the products. 

Bronsheim Muziekuitgeverij in The 

Netherlands now publishes Marco 

Pütz’s Concerto for Bb Clarinet and 

Wind Ensemble. 

Boosey & Hawkes has just released as 

part of its Windependence series a 

new edition of Gustav Holst’s military 

band transcription of Johann Sebastian 

Bach’s Fugue a la Gigue. The 

new edition is edited by Jon Mitchell. 

Beriato Music recently released two 

transcriptions for wind band by Jan 

Cober, the Symphony No. 1 by Vasily 

Kalinnikov and the Der Rosenkavalier 

Suite by Richard Strauss. 

Stormworks-Europe recently published 

Vicente Moncho’s Tango 

Band, which was premiered by the 

Hugo Lambrechts Symphonic Wind 

Orchestra under the direction of 

Richard Greenwood on 8 August 

2005 at the Art Scape in Cape Town, 

South Africa. 

Ibermúsica has released a new CD 

recording of wind band compositions 

by Ferrer Ferran. The recording 

includes La Rodana, the symphonic 

poem Magallanes, two suite – En un 

lugar de la Mancha and Toyland, 

the flute concerto Euterpe, and the 

pasodoble L’Amistat. All of the works 

are published by Ibermúsica. 

Klavier Music Productions has rereleased 

the 1996 Serendipity recording 

Metropolis (K11152) by the Royal 

Northern College of Music Wind 

Orchestra under the direction of Timothy 

Reynish and Clark Rundell. The 

CD includes Adam Gorb’s Metropolis, 

Martin Ellerby’s Paris Sketches, Geoffrey 

Poole’s Sailing with Archangels, 

and Nigel Clarke’s Samurai. 

Maecenas Music now publishes 

Marcel Wengler’s Versuche über 

einen Marsch. 

De Haske now publishes Cyrano by 

Piet Swerts. The composition 

received its premiere at the WASBE 

Conference in Sweden in 2003. 

Ludwig Music Publishing Company 

now publishes all four movements of 

Ira Hearshen’s Symphony on Themes 

of John Philip Sousa. Ludwig Music 

also recently published Hearshen’s 

Fantasia on Aura Lee. 

Summit Recordings recently released 

the CD recording Velocity by the 

Columbus State University Wind 

Ensemble under the direction of 

Robert W. Rumbelow. The recording 

includes Percy Grainger’s Molly on 

the Shore, Morten Lauridsen’s O 

magnum mysterium, Michael 

Daugherty’s Bells for Stokowski, 

Eric Whitacre’s October and Andrew 

Rindfleisch’s The Light Fantastic. 

HeBu Musikverlag has released one 

of Alfred Reed’s last completed 

compositions, EBO-Signation. The 

grade 4, three and a half minute 

work was composed for the Euregio- 

Blasorchester and its conductor, 

WASBE Board member Johann 

Mösenbichler. The Euregio Wind 

Orchestra consists of selected amateur 

musicians from the Euregrio 

area of Bavaria and western Austria. 

Specialist Recording Company has 

released the CD recording Cries of 

London, SRC 109 by the Band of the 

Coldstream Guards under the direction 

of Graham Jones. The recording 

contains five compositions by WASBE 

Board member Martin Ellerby: Paris 

Sketches, Evocations, Cries of 

London, Venetian Spells, and the 

Clarinet Concerto. 

Rundel Musikverlag recently released 

Thorsten Wollmann’s grade 4 composition 

Northern Thai Suite, which 

received its premiered in July 2005 

at the Mid-Europe. 

WASBE @ Midwest Clinic 

WASBE in the Trade Exhibition 

Booth 908 (Southwest Hall) 

WASBE Reception 

Wednesday, December 14 

17:30–19:00 (5:30–7:00 P.M.) 

Lake Erie Room, 8 th Floor 

Sponsored by: 

• Killarney Conference Local 

Organising Committee 

• Biblioservice Gelderland, 

The Netherlands/ 

CDMC France 

• World Projects 


International Events 

This calendar of international band related events is provided as a service to the membership. A listing here is in no 

way to be construed as a WASBE endorsement of the event. This list is also available on the WASBE Web Site. 

The 59 th Annual Midwest Clinic: An 

International Band and Orchestra 

Conference will be held at the Chicago 

Hilton and Towers from the 13 th 

to the 17 th of December, 2005 in 

Chicago. The Clinic consists of a vast 

number of clinics and workshops, an 

extensive trade exhibition, and 

numerous band, jazz ensemble and 

orchestra concerts. For more information: 

Kelly Jocius 

Executive Administrator 

828 Davis Street, Suite 100 

Evanston, IL 60201 

USA 

Tel.: +1 / 847 / 424-4163 

Fax: +1 / 847 / 424-5185 

info@midwestclinic.org 

www.midwestclinic.org 

The 2 nd International “G. Verdi” Wind 

Band Contest will be held in Sinnai, 

Italy from the 27 th to the 30 th of 

December, 2005. The contest is open 

to non-professional wind bands, 

which may compete in one of five 

categories: Master Class, 1st Class, 

2nd Class, 3rd Class, and Youth 

Band. Each band must perform a test 

piece and a work of their own selection 

of the same grade of difficulty. 

Judges for the contest are Franco 

Cesarini, Johan de Meij and Angelo 

Bolciaghi. Prizes consists of certificates 

for purchasing instruments, 

music and other equipment. For 

more information: 

Assiciazione Musicale “G. Verdi” 

Via Perra, 61 - C.P. 84 

I-09048 Sinnai 

Italy 

Tel./Fax: +39 / 070 / 764 00 22 

postmaster@bandagverdisinnai.it 

www.bandagverdisinnai.it 

The 1 st Annual Muse Festival will be 

held from the 13 th to the 19 th of 

April, 2006 in Singapore. Music for 

18 

Everyone 2006 (Muse) is open to 

youth wind and brass bands, with a 

membership of 30 to 80 musicians 

between the ages of 12 and 18 years. 

Participating bands will perform in 

competitions, concerts, workshops 

and fringe events throughout Singapore. 

Competing bands are required 

to perform one compulsory and two 

works of their choice for a maximum 

of 25 minutes duration. The competitions 

and closing ceremony will be 

held in the Ballroom of the Orchard 

Hotel. Entries must be received by 

Tuesday, February 21, 2006. For more 

information: 

Orient-Explorer 

141 Middle Road 

#03-02C GSM Building 

Singapore 188976 

Tel.: +65 6339 8687 

Fax: +65 6339 3731 

mail@orient-explorer.com 

www.orient-explorer.com 

The 1 st International Competition for 

Wind Band Conductors “Wind Maker” 

will be held in Vienna from the 6 th 

to the 9 th of June, 2006. The competition, 

which is being sponsored by 

the Austrian Wind Band Association, 

is open to conductors from all 

countries, and there are no age 

restrictions. A maximum of fifteen 

candidates will be selected to compete 

for cash prizes of €3000, €2000, 

€1000 and gold, silver and bronze 

trophies and diplomas. The first prize 

winner will receive an invitation to 

guest conduct at the Mid Europe 

2006. The registration deadline is 

Saturday, December 31, 2005. For 

more information: 

Thomas Ludescher 

Wind-Maker-Organiationsbüro 

Obergasse 11 

A-6706 

Austria 

Fax: +43 / 180 / 4805 39767 

office@windmaker.at 

www.windmaker.at 

The 4 th Jungfrau Music Festival will 

be held in the Swiss cities of Interlaken, 

Bern and Thun from the 8 th to 

the 15 th of July, 2006. The festival, 

which is open to both amateur and 

professional bands, will consist of 

concerts, competitions and workshops. 

For more information: 

Jungfrau Music Festival 

Postfach 79 

CH-3800 Interlaken 

Switzerland 

Tel.: +41 / 33 / 821 21 15 

Fax: +41 / 33 / 821 21 16 

info@jungfrau-music-festival.ch 

www.jungfrau-music-festival.ch 

The 9 th Annual International Alpine 

Music Festival will be held in Saas 

Fee, Switzerland from the 8 th to the 

16 th of July, 2006. The festival, which 

is open to all bands, includes a competition, 

workshops, and gala concerts 

by internationally recognized 

wind bands. For more information: 

Adrian Schnyder 

Alpine Music festival 

Tel.: +41 / 27 / 958 18 67 

Fax: +41 / 27 / 959 18 60 

events@saas-fee.ch 

www.saas-fee.ch 

The 9 th International Mid Europe will 

be held in Schladming, Austria from 

the 11 th to the 16 th of July, 2006. 

This year’s conference includes composer 

portraits of Franz Cibulka and 

Jan Van der Roost, the World Youth 

Wind Orchestra under the direction 

of Jan Cober, a contest for youth 

bands, and a music industry exhibition. 


Mid Europe Office 

Wolfharting 11 

A-4906 Eberschwang 


13 th WASBE Conference 2007 

The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, has agreed to be patron of 

the 13 th WASBE Conference, which will be held in Killarney from 

the 8 th through the 14 th of July 2007. Forty bands and ensembles 

from around the world have applied to perform at the Conference. 

As always, the Conference will include clinics, a trade exhibition, 

and concerts by bands from all over the world.The theme of the 

Conference in 2007 is “Recognition and Sur- 

prise.” An e-mail list has been established 

for those interested in being noti- 

fied of the latest updates about 

the Conference. Instructions 

on how to sign up are pro- 

vided on the Conference 

web site. For more 

information, visit: 

www.wasbe2007.com 

Austria 

Tel.: +43 / 7753 / 26 45 

Fax: +43 / 7753 / 26 45 33 

mid.europe@aol.at 

www.mideurope.at 

The 27 th ISME World Conference will 

be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention 

Center in Kuala Lumpur, 

Malaysia from the 16 th to the 21 st of 

July, 2006. The International Society 

for Music Education has already 

received applications from performing 

groups and presenters from over 

sixty countries for the conference. 


Secretariat 

27th ISME World Conference 2006 

Suite B-07-10 

Plaza Mont’ Kiara 

No. 2 Jalan Kiara 

50480 Kuala Lumpur 

Malaysia 

Tel.: +603 6201 0324 

Fax: +603 6204 2142 

isme2006secretariat@isme.org 

www.isme2006.com 

The 17 th Biennial Conference of the 

International Gesellschaft zur 

Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik 

(IGEB) will be held at the Vintage 

Band Music Festival in 

Northfield, Minnesota, USA from the 

27 th of July to the 1 st of August, 

2006. The international joint conference 

for musicologists, teachers, students, 

early music specialists and 

performers combines the research 

interest of two organizations. The 

main topic of the conference is: 

“Away from Home – Wind Music as 

Cultural Identification” and will 

include the presentation of research 

papers, lectures, demonstrations, and 

historical performances by American 

Civil War saxhorn bands, 18 th 

Century Harmoniemusik, and ethnic 

brass bands. For more information: 

Prof Paul Niemisto 

608 Zanmiller Drive, West 

Northfield, MN 55057-1207 

USA 

Tel.: +1 / 507 / 645-7554 

Fax: +1 / 507 / 646-3527 

niemisto@stolaf.edu 

www.stolaf.edu/events/ 

vintageband/ 

The 2 nd World Cup for Bands will 

take place at the Eastman Theatre in 

Rochester, New York, USA on the 3 rd 

and 4 th of August, 2006. It is the 

stated aim of the biennial World Cup 

to create friendship amongst people 

of all nations around the world 

though music. Jury members in 2006 

are Dennis Johnson, William Johnson, 

Toshio Akiyama, Peter Hosek, 

Yu Hai and Ernst Lester. For more 

information: 

North and South America: 

Dennis L. Johnson 

Music Department 

Murray State University 

Murray KY 42071 USA 

dennis.johnson@murraystate.edu 

Europe and Africa: 

Peter Hosek 

IMaGE Performing Arts Promotion 

GmbH 

Orangery at Schloss schoenbrunn 

A-1130 Vienna AUSTRIA 

peter@imagevienna.com 

Asia and Oceania: 

Kenichi Kodama 

12 Niibori Matsuida-machi 

Usui-gun Gumma-ken 

379-0221, JAPAN 

Kodama_ken-ichi@po.wind.ne.jp 


Premières 

Michael Berkeley: Slow Dawn 

The Guildhall Symphonic Wind Ensemble under the 

direction of Timothy Reynish presented the premiere of 

Michael Berkeley’s Slow Dawn on 24 October 2005 at the 

Barbican Hall in London. The work, which was commissioned 

by Hilary and Timothy Reynish in memory of their 

son William, depicts the gradual, somber appearance of 

the sun via what Bayan Northcott in writing for The Independent 

calls “a substantial dark processional with a 

more fiercely active central section.” In his review in 

www.classicalsource.com, Colin Anderson describes the 

work as “slow-moving strata… and reptilian intertwining 

of lines; craggy and primordal, the warmth of the sun 

seemed to be beginning another day in a non-human 

landscape.” 

Norbert Palej: Canzona III 

The Cornell Wind Ensemble under the direction of Cynthia 

Johnston Turner played the premiere of Norbert 

Palej’s Canzona III on 14 October 2005. The ten minute, 

one movement work was commissioned by the Cornell 

20 

Wind Ensemble. Concerning the composition, the composer 

writes: “The Canzona flourished as an instrumental 

form in the late 16th century. Giovanni Gabrieli composed 

a number of terrific canzone, which exploited the 

antiphonal possibilities offered by… the Basilica di San 

Marco in Venice. Choirs of instruments could be positioned 

in different balconies of the cathedral to allow a 

three-dimensional acoustic experience. Canzona III uses 

similar antiphonal effects: choirs of instruments drawn 

from the wind ensemble interact in various ways. They 

respond to each other, echo each other, or they mix to 

form new colors.” 

Palej, who was born in Miechow Poland, is studying for 

his doctoral degree in composition at Cornell University 

with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra. He holds a masters 

degree from the Juilliard School of Music and a bachelors 

degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He 

received the Benjamin Britten Memorial Fellowship for 

the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2000 and the ASCAP 

Young Composers Morton Gould Award in 2004. 


Books & Wind Recordings 

The American Wind Band: A Cultural 

History by Richard K. Hansen, Chicago: 

GIA Publications, Inc., 2005. Language: 

English ISBN 1-57999-467-9 US$45.00 

503 pages. 

A continued debate in the wind band 

community 

is the comparison 

between the 

vernacular 

and aesthetic.Conductors 

and 

scholars 

constantly 

struggle 

with the issue trying to validate the 

role of the band. Is the band a parallel 

to the orchestra or a medium for 

entertainment? 

Those seeking a balanced perspective 

should consult Richard K. 

Hansen’s new text, The American 

Wind Band: A Cultural History. The 

lengthy book will serve as a valuable 

tool for teachers of wind history and 

literature as well as to band 

researchers and scholars. 

The book is divided into three 

large areas: “The Story: Affirmations 

and Revisions of the Past,” “The 

Timetables: History is a Harmonious 

Structure,” and “Research: The Hopeful 

Pursuit of Discovery.” There are 

also five appendices along with 

extensive notes and bibliography. 

Those expecting a very traditional 

historical account, similar to Grout’s 

A History of Western Music, might be 

somewhat disappointed. The middle 

section, Hansen’s timetables, does 

provide very basic historical information 

in a chart format similar to 

that found in many history texts. At 

well over 100 pages, many events 

(general history, related arts, music 

in the United States, and American 

wind band music) are presented. 

Here readers can learn that Eisenhower 

was elected to the presidency 

of the United States, DeMille’s The 

Greatest Show on Earth won the 

Oscar, Gail Kubik won the Pulitzer 

Prize in music, and Fennell founded 

the Eastman Wind Ensemble — all 

in 1952! Readers can relate general 

historical and artistic events with the 

development of various aspects of 

the wind band. 

The first section of the book, 

“The Story: Affirmations and Revisions 

of the Past,” might be the most 

valuable. It is a history of the American 

wind band, but placed within a 

cultural framework, an approach 

very popular in the general field of 

musicology. It is here that Hansen 

immediately states the previously 

mentioned problem that confronts 

band scholars and performers: the 

clash between vernacular and cultivated 

music. Especially here, Hansen 

does well to address all issues in a 

balanced fashion. 

The third section is an attempt to 

establish a framework for scholarly 

research about bands. Many of the 

suggestions should prove quite valuable 

for young scholars looking to 

establish a research agenda. A 

second part of this chapter focuses 

on resources. This brief — although 

valuable — section omits a number 

of valuable recent additions to the 

literature including the series A 

Composer’s Insight edited by Timothy 

Salzman. In those books, many 

of the composer biographies cited by 

Hansen as needing to be written are 

indeed already completed. A number 

of other important publications by 

Meredith Publications are omitted as 

well; especially important are the 

writings of Robert Garafalo. Some of 

the GIA publications seem to be 

missing as well, including the Composers 

on Composing for Band 

edited by Mark Camphouse. As 

strong as this section and the bibliography 

are, they are not exhaustive. 

Histories — culturally oriented 

or otherwise — are assumed to be 


Reviews 


Book & Wind Recording Reviews 


accurate. Unfortunately, this reviewer 

did find some minor errors. While 

not a true historian, I am familiar 

with a number of those American 

composers of the World War II generation 

who chose to write for band 

before it was even remotely acceptable 

in the larger musical world. It is 

here that I can speak with some 

authority. Hansen notes that H. Owen 

Reed’s La Fiesta Mexicana was published 

by Leeds Music in 1954 (p. 

90). It was actually published by 

Mills Music (copyright 1954, printed 

1956). Another example is that Roger 

Nixon’s Fiesta del Pacifico was composed 

in 1958-1959 and revised in 

1960. Hansen lists its composition as 

1960 (p. 277). It is hoped that there 

are not too many of these kinds of 

factual errors. 

All histories are at least somewhat 

subjective in nature. Cultural 

accounts are even more so. Some 

readers holding strong opinions 

about certain issues will find 

sections of the book problematic. 

Hansen balances all points of view 

to arrive at a holistic view of the 

field. He works to accomplish what 

so few have done: to balance the 

military/entertainment/functional 

roots with those from the cultivated 

aesthetic. Trying to place the band in 

such a diverse cultural framework is 

no simple task; it may be impossible. 

Hansen makes a valiant effort and is 

largely successful. 

However, there are times where an 

agenda becomes more clearly stated, 

and this is where the author enters 

some turbulent waters. Although 

there are some well-considered opinions 

provided in some of his conclusions 

(see pp. 166–175 for example), 

there are also questions left unclear. 

For example, there is considerable 

discussion as to why the Pulitzer 

Prize has not been awarded to a 

work for band. A number of major 

22 

figures in the field have advocated 

this. New York is certainly a musical 

center, but it is not a center for 

bands, as the recent CBDNA conference 

clearly proved. Yet Hansen’s 

discussion on this topic, on that of 

“quests”, and the “shortsighted” view 

of education music all seem to go to 

the older views of Modernism rather 

than to a more inclusive cultural orientation. 

As Larry Livingston suggested 

at the CBDNA conference, the 

band needs to find its own way, not 

the path of other musical traditions. 

This would seem to be the Post- 

Modernist view. 

Hansen’s book will prove to be 

valuable to those conductors considering 

their place in the larger musical 

context. Also, the book will be 

invaluable to those scholars whose 

research agenda focuses on the band 

movement. (This reviewer will be 

using it as a text in graduate conducting 

courses.) Even with the 

issues raised, the text is a thoughtful 

and important resource. It is 

required reading for the serious 

band aficionado. 

William Berz 

A Bio-Bibliography of Composer 

Warren Benson by Alan D.Wagner, 

Lewiston, NY, USA:The Edwin Mellen 

Press, 2005. Language: English, 415 

pages, ISBN 0-7734-6241-4 US$129.95 / 

£79.95 

Here is a timely book that belongs in 

every serious wind conductor’s 

library. Although not intended as a 

memorial, Benson’s death shortly 

after its publication certainly makes 

it a tribute to this great composer 

and teacher. 

As with all bio-bibliographies, the 

purpose of this book is to provide a 

resource on the life and works of its 

subject, and the layout of this volume 

does this excellently. In true scholarly 

fashion, chapter one reviews the 

existing research on Benson and his 

music and establishes the format for 

the rest of the book. 

Chapters two and three cover the 

biographical information, with chapter 

two covering Benson’s life up 

until 1953, and chapter three his 

years on the faculty at Ithaca College 

and the Eastman School of Music. 

Wagner lets Benson tell much of this 

story in his own words, which gives 

the reader a wonderful insight into 

Benson’s life, humor, wisdom, and 

kindness. Wagner also lets those who 

knew and studied with Benson relate 

some of their experiences. Because 

Benson’s mind was always seeking 

and probing, his teaching methods 

were often quite unconventional, as 

many of the stories related here and 

in chapter thirteen clearly show. 

Chapters four through eleven deal 

with Benson’s music and other writings. 

Each of his compositions are 

discussed and complete reference 

information provided, including publisher; 

date and location of the completion 

of work; copyright date; 

commissioning person(s) or institution(s); 

dedication; duration; location, 

date and performers of 

premiere; sources of texts for choral 

and vocal works; and instrumentation. 

Wind band/ensemble conductors 

will be most interested in 

chapter four, which deals with 

Benson’s music for wind ensemble 

and wind orchestra, and chapter six, 

which covers his music for solo or 

soli instruments and wind ensemble. 

A perusal of chapter eleven and 

appendices five, nine, ten, and eleven 

provide an excellent look at a portion 

of Benson’s extra-musical creativity, 

including his poetry, humorous writings, 

and scholarly publications. 

Chapter twelve deals with Benson’s 

musical style and language, and 

chapter thirteen includes Benson’s 

thoughts on teachings, interpretation, 


composing for orchestra, academic 

composers, inspiration versus craftsmanship, 

risk-taking, creativity, competition 

and artistic taste, and living 

versus making a living. This chapter 

should be required reading for 

anyone attempting to perform 

Benson’s music. 

The first three appendices are listings 

of Benson’s works – the first one 

chronological, the second alphabetical, 

and the third by genre. Appendix 

four is a discography of all known 

commercially produced LP and CD 

recordings of Benson’s music. Appendix 

six contains selected programs of 

his music, and appendix seven a listing 

of performances of his works by 

The United States Marine Band, the 

Eastman Wind Ensemble, and the 

Meadows Wind Ensemble. Benson 

was inducted into the Percussion Arts 

Society Hall of Fame in November 

2003, and appendix eight contains 

two letters that were written on 

behalf of his nomination and reflect 

his professional accomplishments. 

Alan Wagner has written an excellent 

survey of Benson and his music. 

In addition to the purely scholarly 

and resource value of the book, those 

who knew Benson will find much of 

it purely enjoyable reading. Here one 

can hear Benson’s small but articulate 

voice continuing to expound, 

admonish and encourage in his 

uniquely perceptive and humorous 

way. For those who did not have the 

chance to know Benson personally, I 

can think of no better way than to 

listen to his music with this volume 

in hand. 

Leon J. Bly 

Ghosts (Philharmonia à Vent Wind 

Orchestra, John Boyd, conductor) Klavier 

Music Productions, K 11150 

One has come to 

expect quality 

music and performances 

from 

John Boyd and 

the Philharmonia à Vent and from 

Klavier Music Productions, and one 

will not be disappointed with this 

CD, which includes Stephen McNeff’s 

Ghosts, Richard Rodney Bennett’s 

Morning Music, Christopher Marshall’s 

L’Homme Armé Variations, 

and Boyd’s transcription for wind 

orchestra of Gustav Holst’s Capriccio. 

The CD is accompanied by excellent 

program notes — unfortunately in 

English only — by Giles Easterbrook. 

The CD opens with Bennett’s 

Morning Music in an excellent performance 

of chamber music transparency. 

The composition, which 

received its premiere by the 

Northshore Concert Band under the 

direction of John Paynter at the 

WASBE Conference in Boston in 

1987, is a major work by any standard 

and one of the best in the wind 

band/ensemble repertoire. The work, 

like three others on this recording, is 

in variation form and consists of a 

prelude, five variations and a finale 

played without pause. Although the 

work is dodecaphonic, it is very 

lyrical and quite accessible to any 

mature audience. 

Boyd gives Stephan McNeff’s 

Ghosts a very symphonic reading, 

which makes the work more “scary” 

and less frivolous sounding than 

some readings that this reviewer has 

heard. The ghosts that one encounters 

here are humorous but believable 

and never silly. Like Morning 

Music, the work is formally in variation 

form, with a “haunting” theme, 

seven variations — all ghosts — and 

a chorale finale, which is most 

convincingly performed here. 

Boyd must also be praised for this 

reading of Christopher Marshall’s 

L’Homme Armé Variations, which 

captures the full scope of this composition, 

which received its premiere 

at the 2003 WASBE Conference in 

Sweden. Because the fifteenth century 

song L’Homme Armé lends itself 

so well to development and variation, 

it has been used as the basic for 

innumerable compositions for the 

past five hundred years. Marshall’s 

exploitation of the theme’s potential 

and the wind ensemble’s vast palette 

of colors makes for a kaleidoscopic 

array of mood changes and temperaments. 

Unfortunately, therefore, performances 

of the work often sound 

disjunctive and lacking in depth, 

and it can become hard to grasp 

Marshall’s message — musical or 

non-musical. Boyd and his musicians 

pull it all together, giving meaning to 

Marshall’s message and letting one 

grasp the larger picture. 

The only work that is not in variation 

form on this recording is Boyd’s 

transcription of Gustav Holst’s 

Capriccio, which Esterbrook calls “a 

curiously delightful gem with a curiously 

tantalizing history.” Holst originally 

wrote it for Nathaniel Skilkret’s 

Victor Salon Orchestra, the instrumentation 

of which Esterbrook calls 

“half wind band – half orchestra.” 

However, it was never performed by 

Skilkret or anyone else during Holst’s 

life time. It was revised, edited and 

rescored for orchestra by Holst’s 

daughter, who also gave it the title 

Capriccio. It was given its premiere 

in this form in London in 1968. Five 

years later Boyd went in the other 

direction and revised, edited and 

rescored the composition for wind 

band. It is this version that is presented 

here. Although this is no 

master work, Boyd is a true believer 

in it and gives it a reading that is in 

character with the transparent textures 

and simplicity of the original. 

This is a first class recording both 

for the music and the performances. 

This CD belongs in every serious 

wind band conductor’s collection. 

Leon J. Bly 


� 

THE 2 nd WORLD CUP FOR BANDS 2006 

Rochester, New York, State, U.S.A. 

AUGUST 3�4�2006 

�It is our aim to make friends with people of all nations around the world 

through music� 

Even we can’t make ourselves understood in a foreign language�we hope that 

our way will lead to a peaceful world and a mutual understanding�� 

�� Name of contest�The World Cup for Bands 

�� Dates�AUGUST 3-4�2006 

Following contests will be held every second year 

�� Place�Eastman Theatre 26 Gibbs Street Rochester�NY 14604-2599 

�� Organizer�The executive committee for the World Cup for Bands 

�� 

William Johnson 

Professor of Music at 

California Polytechnic State University 

Toshio Akiyama 

Honorable President of 

Japan Band masters Association 

Peter Hosek 

Chief Executive of 

IMaGE Performing Arts Promotion 

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Dennis L. Johnson 

Professor at 

Kentucky Murray State University 

Yu Hai 

Leader of the Military Band of 

P.L.A of China 

Ernst Lester 

Conductor of the Takasaki 

Philharmonic Society Orchestra 

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