ARTICLE 5: REPERTOIRE FOR COMMUNITY, MILITARY AND SCHOOL BANDS

BASBWE 1981-1991

BRIDGING THE YAWNING GAP

Here they talk about nothing but 'Figaro'. Nothing is played, sung or whistled but 'Figaro'' No opera is drawing but Figaro'.

W.A. Mozart writing from Prague, 15 January 1787.

It is fascinating to look back just over two hundred years and view the position of' serious music in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Possibly at no other time, apart from the period following the French Revolution, have the great composers of the day and the general public taste been so much in tune, though even in Vienna popular enthusiasm was more directed at the work of composers such as Soler and Salieri. Perhaps even the musical Viennese found that Mozart had 'too many notes'.

What is most exciting for we wind buffs is the position in 18th century everyday life of the serenade, divertimento and cessation, wind music for the Harmonie or military band. In pubs, in salons, in streets and alleys, the evening air was filled with arrangements from the operas and new pieces written for entertainment. Here in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the musical taste of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie met in the opera house, the church and at the open air concerts, echoed in the taverns and Weinstube of the Wiener Wald.

Reflecting on the first ten years of the development for BASBWE, it is of course folly to imagine that we in BASBWE have caused a renaissance of that golden age, but at a time when 'serious' music seems to be moving back towards a greater lyricism or simplicity, it is not too far fetched to suggest that the wind band and wind ensemble have a major part to play in the development of a repertoire that bridges that yawning gap, real or imaginary, between the 'serious' musician and the ‘man-in-the-street'.

WE PLAY THE CLASSICS

At a recent concert of wind band pops', my wife was delighted to hear a couple of members of the audience humming along with Guy Woolfenden’s Gallimaufry. In July 1991 a BBC Promenade Concert started with David Bedford’s Sun Paints Rainbows on the Vast Waves which is played now by school, youth and college bands worldwide.

We play the classics ... Holst Suites and Illyrian Dances, answered a tuba player when asked in audition what sort of music his school wind band plays. On a tour of Hungary in 1989 by the Royal Artillery Band, apparently two of the most popular works were Gregson Overture Festivo and Woolfenden's Gallimaufry. The oldest wind band in the country founded in 1762 while the regiment was on service in Minden, and one of the newest from a comprehensive school in South Wales, are both playing music which had been commissioned and published as a direct result of BASBWE.

Clearly Guy Woolfenden's pieces cannot for another half century, claim the term 'classic' in the sense of 'traditionally accepted, long established', but another meaning in my Chamber's is 'excellent, standard (slang)'. Our young tuba certainly thought of the Woolfenden as being 'standard', and the continued development of a 'standard' repertoire is perhaps our biggest challenge for the nineties.

It is interesting that any list of the great masterpieces for wind band and ensemble keeps coming back to works by the greatest composers; the Schoenberg Theme and Variations premiered by the Goldman Band, the Hindemith Symphony in Bb commissioned by the US Army Band, Holst's Hammersmith commissioned by the BBC. While clearly we must continue to commission works from 'band' composers, those who know the medium and perhaps derive a large part of their income from Gebrauchsmusik or utility music for educational and communal use, we also need to commission those perceived to be first-rate composers.

Perhaps the fact that excites me most about is that a number of major British composers (with commissions from international symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles or opera houses to their credit) who got involved in our medium, most for the first time: John McCabe with Canyons, Richard Rodney Bennett with The Four Seasons,, Paul Patterson with The Mighty Voice Nicholas Maw with. a BBC Commission for the Proms, American Games, Robin Holloway with Entrance; Carousing; Embarcation. It is possible that some of these works may be not very approachable, although all of these composers have a natural lyricism and wit, and an ear for sonority that augurs well for some splendid listening.

Jim Arrowood, in his fascinating sessions at the 1989 BASBWE Conference on standards' for the school band, drew attention to a whole largely American repertoire with which we are slowly becoming familiar. However, apart from Holst, Vaughan Williams and Jacob, there was no British composer in the listings whatever. Nor was there any French except for Berlioz, Catel, Gossee, Jadin and Méhul, and as far as 1 could tell, there were no compositions from Holland, Sweden or Hungary, apart from one work by Csaba Deak, a Hungarian now settled in Sweden.

IGNORANCE FUELLED BY LACK OF ADVENTURE

The big barriers are not just the Atlantic, the Pacific, the English Channel and North Sea or our natural chauvinism, but our ignorance, fuelled by our lack of adventure and by the difficulties of access to the music, either the printed or written page, or the record, tape or disc recording. Similarly, The Instrumentalist has recently issued a list of recommended works for Grade 3, 4 and 5 bands, and again not one contemporary European or Asian piece was included. 1 cannot believe that nothing published recently in Holland, Germany, Hungary, France, Scandinavia or Japan is worth an American band playing. But then, how much contemporary music from those countries are we programming?

A DECADE OF BRITISH WIND MUSIC PUBLISHING FOR SCHOOL, COMMUNITY AND PROFESSIONAL BANDS

In case Jim or The Instrumentalist plan a re-issue for the next decade, can 1 mention a few British pieces published mainly in the eighties which I think are worth exploring by school, youth and sometimes professional bands. This is not elitist music, not music which you would not dare to inflict on your Aunt Sarah, though she might get a frisson of excitement from some of the massed harmonies of Bedford, sudden shouts of Crosse, the jazz elements of Horovitz, the aleatoric motifs of Wilby. Two things are encouraging and exciting. Not only are several works now readily available which in 1991 were still unpublished, but in the past decade the pace of producing really useful music for this genre has increased and is still increasing.

Bedford                         Ronde for Isolde Novello

                                      Sun Paints Rainbows Novello

                                      Praeludium Novello

Bourgeois                       Serenade  G&M Brand

                                      Symphony of Winds G&M Brand

                                      Diversions Vanderbeek & Imrie

Bridge                            Pageant of London Da Capo

Butterworth                    Tundra Vanderbeek & Imrie

Crosse                           Quiet OUP

Dalby                             A Plain Man's Hammer Novello

Dodgson                        The Eagle Wick

Gardner                         English Dance Suite OUP

Gregson                         Festivo Novello

                                      Metamorphoses Novello

Hoddinott                       Welsh Dances Wick

Horovitz                         Bacchus on Blue Ridge Molenaar

                                      Wind Harp Molenaar

Ireland                            A Maritime Overture G&M Brand

                                      A Downland Suite G&M Brand

Orr                                 A John Gay Suite Novello

Sparke                           Concert Prelude G&M Brand

Sparke                           The Year of the Dragon Studio Music

Thorpe-Davie                 Variations on 'The Wee Cooper of Fife' ms

Wilby                             Catcher of Shadows Chester

Woolfenden                   Gallimaufry Ariel

                                      Illyrian Dances Ariel

ALL WE CAN DO IS TO MAKE IT BETTER FOR THE NEXT GENERATION.

It was Robert Reynolds of the University of Michigan who, on my first visit to the States, gave me a text on which we might base any work for our national and international associations, whether for BASBWE or WASBE, CBDNA or CBA, ABA or WBDNA, JBA or IGEB or any of the other dozen. We need conductors and performers to let us know what in their experience they want to share with other bands, whether community or college, whether school or military. At whatever level you are working, you should share your thoughts on repertoire with the international band community through WINDS and other national and international magazines, and with the Repertoire panel of WASBE set up Frank Battisti.

In BASBWE, we have achieved a great deal in the last eight years; the repertoire is richer, the performing standards are higher. In WINDS we have a magazine of international repute as our flagship, composers at all levels are writing and often publishing, our regional committees are developing links with community, school and professional bands. We still have much to do to break down the international barriers and, while we should never be complacent, we should certainly look back on more than eight years of sustained activity with some pride.

WASBE CONSORTIUM COMMISSIONS

As so often, our American and Canadian colleagues are in the van on this organisational plan. Already it is common for perhaps 20 school wind bands to chip in with $100 or £50 and commission a work for £1,000 which is guaranteed 20 premieres. This could be organised on a county or country basis and BASBWE could be a clearing house.

A major new piece by Robin Holloway, Entrance: Carousing: Embarkation Op. 70, Boosey & Hawkes, has been commissioned by a consortium of New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Florida State University and the US Air Force Band, led by Frank Battisti. Here WASBE could play a vital part and a future consortium could be international with simultaneous premieres in a score of cities worldwide. Both BASBWE and WASBE could be a vital link in this chain in both putting together consortia, in helping to get a piece published and then in disseminating information. We must have frank appraisal of new works and information on how to obtain it.

PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED

... is a phrase with new meaning as one publisher goes bankrupt, another puts large-scale material on hire, another is taken over and then re-sold like a tin of baked beans. In the eities 300 copies of a work by a major British composer (Alun Hodinott's Welsh Dances, OUP) a work which 1 happen to particularly enjoy, were shredded to make shelf space. (It is now in 2004 available from Denis Wick publications). As we move towards more computerisation, will this mean the end of our local retailer in whose stocks we can browse happily and the start of a brave new world in which that missing set can be FAXED or emailed to our local music terminal within an hour. This may be very exciting but 1 believe that there is no substitute for building a library of 'standards', of works in which one believes.

For a work such as Quiet by Gordon Crosse, commissioned by Harry Legge for the British Youth Wind Orchestra and published by OUP, there is only one set of parts in existence. That set is now in Japan and should be played at the WASBE Conference. (I was writing in 1990/1 – it was not played) This is a first-rate minimalist piece, charming, very different. It needs to be played; the publishers need to know that world-wide there are hundreds of bands of Grade 4 standard looking for a work like this for their programmes.

How should we continue to develop the impetus of a WASBE conference? The International Board has set up over a score of sub-committees worming their way towards agreement on a score of exciting issues. 1 hope that one piece of the jigsaw that we could put in place will be national WASBE concerts in the 23 months between conferences which will feature one or more works which emerge in the previous conference.

President Vondis Miller's networking could then reach out to thousands of band directors, probably millions of players, who might tackle the new pieces for school band by Guy Woolfenden or Rafi Krause, the new pieces at Youth Band level by Paul Patterson or Kamllo Lendvay, the new pieces at professional level by Bud Bazelon or David Maslanka.

In the next ten years, how will we build on the past decade? With cuts in music in education, with slashing savings in military music, with rate-capped councils cancelling concerts, with publishers going to the wall, are we approaching a musical recession? The echoes resound through Eastern Europe with the introduction of a free market economy forcing up ticket prices, forcing the sacking of staff, while in our role models in USA and Japan, the economic problems of industry are already biting at the arts in a similar fashion.

Despite the gloom and doom, 1 am more than optimistic about the position of the wind band and wind ensemble in both professional and amateur musical life. At the same time that 1 learn of the commissions from Glyndebourne of series of wind serenades linked to their Mozart season, I also learn of a brass quintet of former students adopted as musicians in residence by the City of Salford, with a one-day salary for two of them to raise sponsorship for their series of concerts. Here are five players in their early twenties making their living from brass chamber music.

Exciting moves are afoot in the military circles here in UK. For the first time since the twenties, the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, under our BASBWE Chairman Frank Renton, is commissioning a series of band pieces to follow those of Holst, Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob. Through WASBE and WINDS, our communication network is growing. If we all support our new composers and their publishers with purchase of works and performances, we could continue to create a meaningful repertoire which could gradually fill a number of gaps.

A TRUE MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE

Some time ago, Gavin Henderson when chair of the Arts Council Music panel talked in a speech about the loss of the sense of a living culture, of people being directly engaged in music and indeed music for their time. We must provide good musical experience through better trained conductors and better crafted music for the vast numbers of our school musicians who will be searching for an outlet in community bands. We should be able to continue to build a repertoire which neither alienates the musical aesthete nor the mythical man (or woman)-in-the-street. No piece of music is going to please everyone but if we can remove our own musical blinkers and appreciate a good march, a good concerto or overture, a good avant garde experiment, whether written for Grade 6, 5, or (much more difficult!) 4 or below, then we can put the wind band and ensemble back into the place in which it rejoiced two hundred years ago, in revolutionary France and in the Hapsburg Empire, a true music of the people whatever their tastes, bank balance or position in society.

M.E.T

I believe however that it is essential that we stop patronising our players and audiences by feeding them instant musical gratification, selections from Phantom of the Opera, the latest arrangement of Abba, a rock version of Bach’s Toccata in D Minor. These may well have their place in a “pops” concert, and heaven knows our orchestras are dumbing down to that level night after night. But in the concert band programme let us vie with our orchestral, vocal and jazz colleagues in presenting the best of wind band music, not the worst, and let us challenge our players and audiences in three ways:

Musically – Emotionally - Technically