Repertoire Session II
Music for Schools and Community Ensembles
This is my very first WASBE conference and one which I have been looking forward to ever since I heard it would be in Singapore, which is just a 5 hour plane journey from my home town in Western Australia and has the added bonus of being in the same time zone — no jet lag. I was really looking forward to hearing new music from all over the globe and after Repertoire Session II, I was not disappointed.
One of the wonderful delights of WASBE conferences is the opportunity to experience new wind band music from all corners of the world. My interest is mostly focussed on music for schools, so I was especially looking forward to the varied works chosen for this session. There certainly was a large range of styles and range of levels from 2 to 5. I felt that some of the works were more difficult than their level indicated. The level 2s were more 3 and some of the level 3s should have been 4s. A few of the composers were new to me and I shall be keeping a close eye on any future compositions.
Before I make brief comments on some of the works, I must make special mention of the Hong Kong Young Musicians’ Wind Orchestra, who coped extremely well with the various demands of the music. There were certainly a lot of notes for them to cover and a huge range of styles. They also had to “put up with” quite a few guest conductors who all had their own unique way of directing the band.
The repertoire session opened with Ralph Hultgren’s Concert Prelude. This is another very fine work by Ralph, who certainly has established himself as Australia’s leading active Wind Band composer. [Editor's Note: I added the word "active," as I didn't think the writer was inferring that Grainger had been eclipsed, at least not yet.] This is an exciting and vibrant work well suited to a good high school and community band at a level 4. There are some solo moments for oboe and clarinet, however, generally the work has extensive tutti sections for wind, brass and percussion. An excellent choice as a concert opener.
Spring Festival by Chen Yi certainly is a work that depicts a “Confluence of Arts.” This work blends the spirit and sound of both Chinese and Western traditional music. The programme notes for this work are quite extensive and involve some very complex mathematical formulae. The work makes use of chinese gongs and cymbals and some very challenging lines for all brass and clarinets in particular. I would suggest this piece to be at least level 3 and a very interesting addition to the wind band repertoire.
Frank Ticheli’s Abracadabra was written in the Summer of 2004 and was the “newest” work to be presented at this session. Ticheli is such a fine composer and this work has exciting rhythms and thematic development as we have come to expect from him. This well within the range of a middle school band and has plenty of interest to appeal to students at this level of musical maturity. This is certainly worth adding to my band’s repertoire.
Old Churches by Michael Colgrass and Toledo by Bruce Carlson were, in my opinion, level 3-4 works that are more suited to community bands or senior high school bands. These works introduced students to more contemporary techniques and sounds which would be a challenge for directors with younger bands. Both of these works require a deal of musical maturity and levels of concentration that I believe are beyond most younger school bands.
Adam Gorb’s Three-Way Suite is a well-structured work, which is certainly at level 2–3. This has appealing melodic lines with mostly tutti passages making is more accessible for younger bands. The three movement format works very well and doesn’t require long moments of concentration for the younger band.
The final work I would like to mention is Carol Barnett’s Cyprian Suite. We heard just the second and the first movement, however, this appeared to be a well-structured work focussing on the sounds Eastern Europe. The dance-like feature of the first movement would appeal to students and the programmatic nature of the other movements would certainly add interest when teaching this work at a school level.
Congratulations to the WASBE board and particularly Jim Cochran for putting together this reading session — it was very enjoyable and I look forward to the other sessions throughout the week.
Wind Chamber Music — Session Report
Presented by Rodney Winther
The highlight of the workshops Wednesday had to be Rodney Winther's all-too-brief talk about wind chamber literature. I realized that these works were really the crown jewels of our band movement. Much like short stories, these works capture the beauty and essence of "wind colour" and remind us of why we started composing or conducting this material in the first place. Wind music has a unique voice of its own, like visual mediums of charcoal, oil paint or water colours. We are not a representation of string sounds or percussions sounds or exotic instruments. I thank Dr. Winther for making me feel like a kid again. I want to run away and start playing my instrument again… or learn some new instrument.
Nuance in Music — Session Report
“Do we really play with nuance or do we just give a token gesture to nuance?”
For me, this was the most important message I gained from the session presented by Dr Richard Strange, Director of Bands/Professor of Music Emeritus at Arizona State University. Dr Strange opened his clinic with the statement that he wasn’t going to give any answers regarding nuance, however, he was intending to provide discussion on the topic. He did this by looking at the definition of nuance in various dictionaries of music and then discussed in some depth the work of Pablo Casals.
In regard to nuance, Dr. Strange’s most powerful musical memory was of a two-week workshop given at Carnegie-Mellon University by Pablo Casals. At this workshop, Dr. Strange learned more about musical phrasing (nuances) in those weeks than ever before or after. Dr. Strange recommended everyone obtain a copy — at least borrow a copy, as it is out of print —of David Blum’s book Casals and the Art of Interpretation (Berkley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1977 ISBN 0-520-04032-5).
Dr. Strange used the music of Bach (if he was on a desert island and he could only take the music of one composer, it would be Bach) and in particular the prelude from his Cello Suite #1 to illustrate this concept of nuance. Firstly, a computer-generated version of this work was performed using 21st century technology: a laptop computer, amplifier and Finale (music notation) programme. This performance was just the notes with no added marks of expression and a reasonably realistic cello sound — even with some vibrato! This was then compared with a number of professional recordings of this movement to emphasise the degree of nuance used in various interpretations. Recordings included those of Rostropovich, Yo Yo Ma, an unnamed cellist and of course Casals himself. It was certainly fascinating listening to all of the different versions and noting down how the performers use of nuance affected the sound of the work. I am sure all the delegates present had their own particular favourite version, however, the point being that interpretation and the use of nuance is essential to bring the music to life. How does one learn more about nuance? Easy! Just listen to the world’s greatest artists, all of whom have many fine performances on CD.
Dr Strange presented delegates with 8 pages of typed notes covering the topic of nuance and interpretation. In these notes are 10 performance suggestions to remind us as conductors/performers of how to make music come to life by adding nuance. These are worth reading over and over again. The final sentence of this handout is worth noting here as it sums up the issue of nuance:
“Heartfelt (and logical) nuance makes any set of notes sound better. Use it carefully and wisely, but use it always.”
The challenge for me now is to relay this to the members of my ensembles through my conducting gestures.
Senzoku Gakuen College of Music
Wednesday evening's concert in the Esplanade Concert Hall was the third performance at a WASBE conference for the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music Wind Ensemble, along with those in Hamamatsu (Japan) and Schladming (Austria). The program was literally that of the "old and new," as the second half of the program featured a reconfigured wind ensemble with addtional electronic keyboard organs in what the school calls a new-age "Ensemble Nouveau." This assortment excluded horns and clarinets for the initial three offerings, while keyboards filled in unusual effects and orchestrated string voicings. The full wind ensemble took the stage for the final new-age arrangements of Naohiko and Ito. The ensemble proved to be a tremendous hit with the many youth present in the audience, and demanded an encore of Ito-san's Jupiter Fantasy.
A more traditional first half included this writer's favorite piece of the conference thus far, Salty Music of Miura Hideaki. A brisk-brusque concert opener with jazz-inflected interjections, the tempo marking of 192 beats per minute tells a lot of why this is a breathtaking piece. Frederick Speck's premiere of Kizuna was an effective blending of eastern and western musical gestures, with President Johnson leading the ensemble through a myriad of timbral and motivic changes. The first half closed with three Japanese marches, and allowed those in attendance to see Japan's revered "godfather" of the band world, Toshio Akiyama, in full command of his charges.
©2005 WASBE