Welcome to the Tim Reynish Website
Home page for December 2004
Updated 30 Novermber 2004
LETTER
FROM SINGAPORE
Dear Colleagues
First, greetings to everyone from Singapore. I just missed the feasts here of Diwali and Eid Al-Fittr, so I hasten to be early to wish everyone a great time at Hannukah, Christmas and the New Year, whether you are on the beach or by the fire.
Secondly, this is an opportunity to give my first impressions below on SINGAPORE and urge everyone to consider attending the WASBE Conference next summer.
Thirdly a very big vote of thanks to my indefatigable webmaster Michael Grieff, IT technologist and fine oboist – which reminds me of the great story in a recent edition of The Instrumentalist, where an oboist was having trouble with a solo in the Hummel Trumpet Concerto, and at last the exasperated conductor burst out “Its not rocket science”, to be answered by the oboist “but I am a rocket scientist”.
People world-wide ask about repertoire; I hope that within these reviews and recommendations you will find something that is intriguing and worth trying. I would recommend anyone remotely interested in good wind music to purchase the complete set of records of the 2003 WASBE conference in Sweden from Mark Custom Records. www.markcustom.com
Here you will find 100 works in a wide variety of styles, levels of difficulty and from a wide range of countries, all in excellent performances.
Finally thanks for emails on a variety of subjects; the next homepage and news update to this website will take place during January. Please send any comments or news to me at timreynish@tiscali.co.uk by January 15th.
Have a great holiday.
Tim
FREDERICK FENNELL
Dr. Frederick Fennell passed away peacefully at home in Florida on Tuesday December 7th. As a tribute to his memory, I would like to quote him on the choice of repertoire:
"We must learn to teach music - not band, not orchestra, not chorus, but music itself...Choosing music is the single most important thing a band director can do, and is the only thing a band director can do alone, made more important because of the substandard repertoire continuously being published. So many publishers in the business today are printers who don't care about quality, but only about what will sell. We must not allow them to give the band a bad reputation nor to make our decisions for us, since the music we choose today can affect students for ever."
Frederick Fennell
NEW THIS MONTH
A number of new files have or will be posted in the closing weeks of this year. They are nearly all repertoire based, and should carry the usual government health warning that One man’s meat is another man’s poison. These include:
BRITISH WIND MUSIC 1981-2004 completed
CONDUCTING MASTERCLASS
DEREK BOURGEOIS, AN IN-DEPTH ASSESSMENT PARTS 1 & 2
TWO ROMANTIC MASTERPIECES BY STRENS AND RODRIGO
YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS – a look at Boosey & Hawkes repertoire
WASBE CONFERENCE 2003 – final repertoire review
SCORES OF THE MONTH
Professional or Conservatoire - Derek Bourgeois’ A Cotswold Symphony
School or Honours Band - Bill Connor’s Tales aus dem voods Viennoise
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH - Derek Bourgeois
CDS FOR CHRISTMAS
Donald DeRoche/DePaul Wind Ensemble
Chris Davis/Band of HM Royal Marines
Christian Lindberg/Swedish Wind Ensemble
Michael Haithcock/University of Michigan
David Waybright/University of Florida
FIND OF THE MONTH Symphony no 4 “Syrinx” by Jean Louel
NEWS
2004 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR WIND COMPOSITION
2004 International Harmoniecompositiewedstrijd Harelbeke Muzieksta
2004 PRIZES & AWARDS FOR MAECENAS COMPOSERS
including nominations for awards by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters:
2005 CONDUCTORS COMPETITION
Click your mouse below for details.
3rd European Conductors Competition 2005
NEW SCORE Paris Sketches by Martin Ellerby
SCORE OF THE MONTH - PROFESSIONAL
If you enjoy the sound world of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe or Kenneth Hesketh’s Diaghilev Dances you will certainly love the opening of Derek Bourgeois’ A Cotswold Symphony, is a one movement work of nearly thirty minutes, ravishingly scored with great tunes and a wonderful programme. It is available from Louis Martinus, and you can order it online through the HaFaBra website, together with a finely played CD by the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides under Norbert Nozy, on HAFABRA ES 47.409 CD.
The six sections are entitled:
Pastoral-Dawn mists rise over the vale of Gloucester
Maypole
The iron march of Rome
Church Bells; “As sure as God’s in Gloucester”.
The Old City: Gloucester
Epilogue: Pastoral
This is virtuosically scored and needs virtuoso playing, but I believe that its echoes of Elgar and Vaughan Williams , all brilliantly absorbed into Bourgeois fluent and finely calculated architecture will provide rich rewards for anyone who enjoys the big romantic sweep of a Maslanka Symphony. A lot happens in the Cotswolds in a short space of time.. Score, CD and Parts from
Louis Martinus
Hafabra Music
Village/Dorp 84,
3790 Fourons/Voeren
Belgium
SCORES OF THE MONTH - SCHOOL OR HONOURS BAND
Bill Connor’s Tales aus dem voods Viennoise
When Bill Connor’s Tales aus dem vood Viennoise (Crazy name, Crazy score!) was premiered by Richard Jones, I noted that this was the closest piece I knew to give younger bands the feel of playing a Mahler Symphony. I have not changed my view in the slightest over the decade since its publication. The scoring is a little strange, and based on the Richmond School band of ten years ago. There are parts for rijpieno flutes, clarinets and trumpets who prefer to play a limited number of notes and rhythms (shades of the VW Concerto Grosso with its parts for those who prefer to play open strings). The other oddity is that there are only two horn parts, though it requires two oboes and cor anglais and four tubas. The last movement requires twirlers, to be found at any British seaside resort, but not yet in Singapore. For a performance with the Junior Colleges Band I plan to use vibraphone or marimba, perhaps using double bass bows.
The work is in three movements:
Cemetery
Dawn Assault
Just Retribution
There is a quite explicit slightly tongue-in-cheek programme, anti-hunting, anti-war. The musical language is reminiscent of Kurt Weill and of Mahler himself, but in general it is a unique sound-world which I think makes a big emotional impact. There is nothing cheesey here.
TIP OF THE BOURGEOIS ICEBERG
It is nearly a quarter of a century since I first commissioned a work for wind orchestra, the superb Symphony of Winds by Derek Bourgeois. Since then Derek has produced a stream of works, symphonic and slight. I am sure that there is something in his catalogue of over thirty works for wind which you will want to programme, and I have written a very personal view and assessment of his music.
SELECTED LARGE SCALE ROMANTIC WORKS
A Cotswold Symphony 29
Concerto for Three Trombones 21.30
Sinfonietta 26
Symphony for William 17
Symphony of Winds 14
The Mountains of Mallorca 77
SELECTED SHORTER CONCERT WORKS
2001 A Wind Odyssey 12.40
Diversions 13.00
Felantrix Fantasy 4.16
Green Dragon 7.13
Red Dragon 8.35
Roller Coaster 5.30
Wind Blitz 12.32
SELECTED SHORT GENRE PIECES
Biffo’s March 4.09
Metro Gnome 3.14
Molesworth’s Melody 3.44
Royal Tournament 5.00
Serenade 3.00
DISCOVERY OF THE MONTH
During a recent trip to Norway, Odd Terje Lysebo enthused about a Belgian Symphony he had found. JEAN LOUEL was born in 1914, studied in Brussels and Paris, and for many years was a professor at the Brussels Academy of Music. His Symphony no 4 was written for the Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides who gave the world premiere in 1990. The work is in four movements, the idiom inhabits a post-Stravinsky, post-Varese world, energetic, harsh and discordant but very exciting. At only a little over eleven minutes this must be one of the shortest four movement symphonies in the catalogue. It is actually still in manuscript, but there is a fine recording by the Norwegian Champions for 1996, Nanset Ungdomsmusikkorps, conducted by Odd Terje Lyseo on DOYEN CD 054.available from the Salvation Army shop in London on line. I wonder once again how many fine unpublished original works and transcriptions are in the library of the Belgian Guides.
The complete repertoire in this very good value CD is:
Symphony no 4 “Syrinx” Jean Louel 11.11
Figures Sonores Henk Badings 8.58
The Sword and the Crown Edward Gregson 14.03
The Forest of Arden George Lloyd 10.20
Second Suite for Band Alfred Reed 13.48
Festival Overture Dmitri Shostakovich 6.07
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCHOOL BAND
Discussion here in Singapore has often centered on the necessary cheesiness of repertoire at this level, with occasional moans about the dropout rate of students. I suspect that a surfeit of cheese is why they drop out, I believe that students need good musical nourishment. For my time with the school and college bands here I brought out from UK the following
SCHOOLS REPERTOIRE FOR SINGAPORE GRADE
|
Title |
Composer |
Grade |
|
A History of England in three Chapters |
Adam Gorb |
2 |
|
Aue |
Christopher Marshall |
4 |
|
Bridgewater Breeze |
Adam Gorb |
3 |
|
Eine Kleine Yiddische Rag Music |
Adam Gorb |
3 |
|
Gallimaufry |
Guy Woolfenden |
4 |
|
Ghosts |
Stephen McNeff |
4 |
|
Improvisations; Rhythms |
Andreas Makris |
4 |
|
Metro Gnome |
Derek Bourgeois |
3 |
|
Mountains of Mallorca (2 movements) |
Derek Bourgeois |
5 |
|
Song of Lir |
Fergal Carroll |
3 |
|
Tales aus dem Vood Viennoise |
Bill Connor |
3 |
I have added a rough guide to the grades. There are difficult passages which might persuade you that some of these grades are too low, but these reflect the general level needed.
Adam Gorb wrote A History of England in three Chapters for this trip to Singapore, and the work is deliberately conservative in its use of register and rhythms. We read it through almost at sight with a high school band of mixed ability. Aue is a wonderful Ivesian work, commissioned by WASBE Schools; technically the notes are not hard, but there are musical problems in counting, dynamics and balance. Bridgewater Breeze has five or so rattling good tunes, teasing in some of the twists of metre and phrase lengths but not difficult; nor is his splendid schools version of Yiddish Dances, Eine Kleine Yiddische Rag Music, but it is equally good fun to play. Gallimaufry was together with Philip Wilby’s Firestar, one of the first wind band work I commissioned; it remains a favorite, and many of the brilliant passages in the 2nd and 3rd movements are effects which need not be played perfectly. You do need a good piccolo soloist but the cor anglais solo is cued elsewhere.
Ghosts is a kind of wind band answer to Enigma Variations, an easily recognisable tune, The Haunting which reappears in a final Chorale and is the basis for seven variations, each with its own ghost and very strong character. McNeff writes:
Ghosts is intended for players of intermediate ability. It is conceived to be performed as a whole, though where sections prove too difficult, movements (complete) may be left out. Individual items may even be performed separately.
Improvisations; Rhythms I first heard at the Mid-West; I was very struck with it, and I asked the conductor when it would be published; he answered probably never, its 15/8 Greek rhythms were too hard for American school bands, but it has been published recently by James Syler for Ballerbach editions. The mixed metres are absolutely natural for any Greek peasant, dancing on the threshing floor, and should not cause any trouble to students who work with computers, advances mathematical concepts, language laboratories and physics, biology and chemistry. The basic rhythm is easily characterised as:
Nash-ville Lex-ing-ton Lex-ing-ton Lex-ing-ton Chat-a-noo-ga
Metro Gnome is Derek Bourgeois’ sequel to his Serenade, more teasing mixed metres for conductors courses.
Song of Lir is a simple setting of a folk song with a good if sad story and some beautiful scoring. It is an extended piece for Grade 2/3 and, lasting about 7 minutes, and will be a welcome relief to shorter louder formulaic works.
Mountains of Mallorca is hard and needs a professional or conservatoire wind orchestra,
BRITISH COMPOSERS NOMINATIONS FOR MAECENAS COMPOSERS
Judith Bingham has won the prestigious Barlow Prize awarded by Brigham Young University, Utah.
She also received two nominations in this year's British Composer Awards, presented by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters, in association with BBC Radio 3 and sponsored by the Performing Right Society, The Christmas Truce in the Choral category, and Missa Brevis: "The Road to Emmæus" in the liturgical.
Nominations for the woodwind and brass category included Towards Nirvana by Adam Gorb.
As announced in November on this website, Stephen McNeff has been appointed composer in residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; his opera Clockwork was also nominated in the British Composer Awards. He is at present writing a Clarinet Concerto for Linda Merrick.
The announcement of the winners for 2004 will be made in London’s Ironmongers Hall on December 17th and extracts from the winning works will be broadcast by the BBC on December 21st.
THE 2004 INTERNATIONAL HARMONIECOMPOSITIEWEDSTRIJD HARELBEKE MUZIEKSTAD
Dear friends and colleagues
Just a quick note to share with you the good news that my piece Ramallah for alto saxophone and wind ensemble has won the first prize at the 2004 International Harmoniecompositiewedstrijd Harelbeke Muziekstad, in Belgium. Last year, the jury selected the piece as one of the three finalists chosen from 51 entries from 14 countries. The final stage of the competition took place in Harelbeke, Belgium, on November 7, 2004, when a second jury awarded the first, second and third prizes. The prize is worth 10,000 Euros. I was invited to Harelbeke to assist with the rehearsals and attend the public performance.
Robert
Dr. Robert Lemay
Music Department
Huntington/Laurentian University
Sudbury, ON
CANADA
NEW SCORE
Martin Ellerby and Maecenas celebrate the 10th birthday of Paris Sketches with a brand new edition computer set, which you can actually read. Get this new edition for your performances in 2005.
SINGAPORE is really a sensational city – to give you an idea, my copy of Singapore Business Visitor reports that the reasders of Conde Nast Traveller gave the folloliwng votes to Singapore:
96.23% best overseas city
96.83% for cleanliness
92.82% user friendliness (getting around etc)
96.73% safest city in the world
Changi Airport voted the best in the world
The Singapore economy ranks 7th in the world, it is a shopping paradise with huge shopping malls, food courts, bargain market stalls right in the city centre.
The four official languages are English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, but most people speak English.
The climate is equatorial, average temperature 28 – 31 degrees Celsius, high rainfall and humidity.
The food is magnificent: to quote again my Business Guide, “Singapore is a one-stop gourmet paradise. Whether it is Asian, European, or Middle Eastern cuisine, or local fare such as Chinese, Malay, Indian and Perenakan – you name it, we have it".
THE ESPLANADE is magnificent, with a plethora of shops and superb restaurants around the 1600 seater concert hall. I tried its acoustic out in a very good performance of Mahler 7 by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra; it is clean and clear without being too dry, though where I was sitting in the rear stalls, the middle register, second violins, violas, clarinets and bassoons, were often rather anonymous.
THINGS TO DO apart from eating and shopping will probably include boat rides, perhaps a trip to Malaysia, visits to the Zoo, the Bird-park, the Botanic Gardens and the magnificent Night Safari, open 7.30 pm until midnight, offering a tram ride to view the nocturnal activities of hundreds of animals and birds. And you can shop and eat throughout the night.