HOMEPAGE SEPTEMBER 2005

Welcome to the Tim Reynish Website

GREETINGS to anyone browsing this site.

The photograph is of Captain Johnson Lee of the Singapore Armed Forces, conducting the Wind Orchestra in part of Martin Ellerby’s Paris Sketches on the 2005 Canford Summer School with our webmaster Mike Grieff playing Oboe and Cor Anglais, and his wife Cassie playing Flute.

More Canford news below.

REPERTOIRE

Another new academic year at least for the North, another spate of enquiries aboutworks from directors of school bands, honour bands, amateur bands, university bands and even military bands.

It is easy at a Conference where we might hear up to a hundred unfamiliar works, to overlook a score of real value. I have three special recommendations for this month, all of works which appeared in WASBE Conferences and have been unjustly neglected. The Woolfenden we featured at Canford, the Bourgeois I shall conduct later this month at guildhall, and the Zabel I want to programme in the Spring at Ithaca.

While I try to answer repertoire questions, my replies simply underline my own personal likes and dislikes, and really all my recommendations are usually in these web pages……… somewhere. Mike and I will try to tidy up a little this Autumn, Fall or Summer. In the August homepages I recommended various pieces from the WASBE Singapore Conference, and under Repertoire or Conference, you will find other reviews from the last fifteen years and a few lists of repertoire ….. but always remember that one man’s meat is another man’s poison……I am glad I am vegetarian.

Good hunting.

Best wishes

Tim

INDEX

Canford summer school conducting course 2006

The Gran Partitta Puzzle

New music from New England

New School music series at Grade 2/3 from MAECENAS MUSIC

Three great commissioning opportunities

New works by Bourgeois, Swerts, Scott and Connor

Composition competitions

        ABA/Ostwald Deadline 11 November 2005

        CBDNA Young Band Music Competition Deadline 21 November 2005

        HARELBEKE International Competition Deadline 6 January 2006

        COUPS DE VENT International Competition Deadline 3 April 2006

        First TOKYO KOSEI Composition Competition Deadline 18 April 2006

Concerts & premieres in London

        Tuesday 13th September at St Johns Smith Square

        COLDSTREAM GUARDS

        Cries of London by Martin Ellerby

        Monday 24th October at Barbican 

        GUILDHALL WIND ORCHESTRA

        Slow Dawn by Michael Berkeley

THIS MONTHS RECOMMENDATIONS

INDEX

NEW FILES:

22/09/05 Repertoire: World Premieres 2003-2005

20/09/05 Home page Index

20/09/05 Programme Notes

CANFORD SUMMER SCHOOL WIND BAND CONDUCTING COURSE

Dates for 2006 Sunday August 6 – Saturday August 12

You can still view the brochure on-line for 2005 on this link:

CANFORD SUMMER SCHOOL CONDUCTING COURSE

The course at the new venue of Sherborne School was a huge success, facilities were excellent, the food was absolutely first rate and living in a gracious market town was an added bonus. Repertoire for 2006 will be posted later this fall.

CANFORD CONCERTS IN 2005

THURSDAY LUNCHTIME

SATURDAY 5.00

OTHER WORKS STUDIED

INDEX

THE GRAN PARTTITA PUZZLE

6.15pm on Saturday 1st October at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield

AN ENQUIRY….When did he write it? Why did he write it? Why did he spell it Partitta? Or did he? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

An investigation of Mozart's three great Serenades for Wind, with particular reference to his Gran Partita in Bb KV361 and the mystery behind its composition.

A talk by Timothy Reynish, formerly Head of Wind & Percussion at the RNCM and President of the World Association for Symphonic Bands & Ensembles, followed at 7.30 by a performance by Ensemble 360.

INDEX

K 11150 

GHOSTS         NOW AVAILABLE

PHILHARMONIA A VENT, John Boyd, Conductor

BENNETT: Morning Music

McNEFF: Ghosts

HOLST: Capriccio (arr. Boyd)

MARSHALL: L'Homme Armé Variations

K 11152           ALSO NOW AVAILABLE

METROPOLIS

RNCM WIND ORCHESTRA, Timothy Reynish & Clark Rundell, Conductors

GORB: Metropolis

ELLERBY: Paris Sketches

POOLE: Sailing with Archangels

CLARKE: Samurai

INDEX

*************************

SYMPHONY OF WINDS - DEREK BOURGEOIS

Commissioned by the College Band Directors National Association, CBDNA, for the 1st International Conference for Symphonic Bands & Wind Ensembles in 1981. Premiere by Californian State University, Northridge, conducted by the composer.

Hurricane

Zephyr

March Winds

Derek Bourgeois’ Symphony of Winds written for the first international Conference is a virtuosic exploration of the wealth of luxurious sound that is the wind orchestra. The Symphony and the subsequent Sinfonietta, commissioned by Harry Legge for what is now the National Youth Wind Orchestra, are both difficult technically but not musically, and in a way I think that many of us were embarrassed at having music which was enjoyable, challenging the players but not the audiences.

It was suggested that the intellectual demands just did not match the technical requirements; now, in a post-modern era, when instrumental technique is far more advanced and composers once again dare to write real tunes and traditional harmonies, it is high time that we revisited both of these. The first movement is almost a moto perpetuo, a swirling gale howls through the woodwind, punctuated by syncopated chords and a jazzy far-ranging theme for brass. In contrast, the second movement paints an English idyll, gently moving chords and trills are set against an almost Delian melody for brass, with a little scherzando middle section. The finale is an unashamed summing up of every Pomp and Circumstance march ever penned, with several outrageous jokes, and a trio to end all trios. The first and third movements have all of the restless energy of Tchaikovsky and Walton, faultlessly sliding through totally unrelated keys but always returning home safely, and in the finale there is an Elgarian nobilmente tune of great sweep and originality, given full chromatic treatment – what a Master of the Queen’s Music Derek would make!

INDEX

*************************

MAECENAS GRADE 2/3 LAUNCH AT BASBWE

School Band Repertoire sponsored by Maecenas Music, 1100 - 1200 in the RNCM Opera Theatre on Saturday 5 November

Works in the Maecenas catalogue aimed at school bands, with current British recommended retail prices include:

MAECENAS MUSIC FOR SCHOOLS AND AMATEUR WIND BANDS

Excerpt from complete catalogue of Maecenas Music

I have included three major works very suitable for bands at any level, already classics in their own time, and a good high school band would enjoy tackling them. Martin Ellerby’s Paris Sketches is a score full of film-music effects, with many quirks and surprises, rhythmical and melodic, of the type also found in Adam Gorb’s Yiddish dances and Stephen McNeff’s Ghosts. The movements of all three works can stand as concert pieces.

In Song of Lir Fergal Carroll has achieved the difficult feat of writing a 7 minute piece at Grade 3 which keeps players interested, while Bill Connor’s Tails aus dem Voods Viennoise goes further, providing Grade 3-4 groups with the experience of Mahlerian textures and emotional content, a 22 minute work of great beauty and intensity. Edwin Roxburgh equals this feat by writing a work at about Grade 4 which is cast in contemporary language suitable for the London Sinfonietta, while the WASBE Schools commission for 2003 from Marco Putz resulted in Dance Sequence, a fascinating three movement work which is never sentimental. Finally at Grade 3-4 level, Michael Ball’s Saxophone Concerto and Adam Gorb’s Euphonium Concerto cleverly pit a virtuoso solo part against an easier orchestral accompaniment.

Bridgewater Breeze is simply five extremely good original tunes dished up by Adam Gorb again with the usual surprises of phrasing and orchestration while his other works in this series will test the counting and confidence of your players. Maecenas has recently commissioned twelve works at Grade 2 – 3 level by Adam Gorb, Malcolm Binney, Gareth Wood and Fergal Carroll, to be published later this year.

** Indicates that (rough) recordings are available.

*****************************************************************************************************

INDEX

PICTURES OF IMAGINARY WINDSCAPES - FRANK ZABEL

Andante pittoresco 

Vivace furioso 

Adagio lamentoso

Conferences, whether national or international, are an essential part of our constant quest to enrich the repertoire, but it is so easy for a work to be forgotten and even ignored. Our concerts rarely merit critical press coverage, so composers or their publishers and agents are bereft of quotes to promote their music. One such “lost” work is Pictures of Imaginary Windscapes by Frank Zabel, played in Luzern. At the time I was impressed, but not enough to follow the piece up. However, the arrival of a recent recording by the very fine Deutsche Bläserphilharmonie under the excellent Walter Ratzek has convinced me that this is a first-rate work which deserves serious consideration by any ensemble good enough to tackle it. I wrote in my review for WASBE:

I felt that the afternoon concert gave us some of the best conducting of the Conference by Walter Ratzek, who in October of this year takes up the appointment of conductor of the Symphonic Band of the German Forces in Siegburg. His technique is organized and controlled, and the very large Landesorchester Baden-Wurttemberg achieved some wonderful sonorities. Kurt Weill’s Violin Concerto was the major contribution from the 20th century, though I welcomed another chance to hear Stephan Adams’ Movement Symphonique. Major new works by Frank Zabel and Rolf Rudin completed the programme.

The first movement begins molto pianissimo, the windscape is bleak, tiny fragments of themes are tossed between the wind and brass, occasionally boiling up to a dramatic climax and eventually dissolving into an allegro ritmico e marcato, instruments competing with each other, though the textures resolve every so often but briefly into huge romantic Hollywood-style pastiche. A sinister choral passage follows, dying away to nothing.

The second movement is described in the liner notes as “technically the most difficult movement …a mighty virtuoso capriccio.” This demonic headlong moto perpetuo is interrupted by a distorted reference to the second movement of the Saint-Saens A minor Cello Concerto. There is another moment of romantic tranquillity before the presto diabolico, a coda of great intensity which brings the movement to a close.

The last movement is reflective, with lyrical references to earlier material “reminiscent of the past dream”. The music dies away onto a chord of C major – “once again the dream vanishes into nothing”.

Pictures of Imaginary Windscapes was written for the Westfalen Winds and its conductor Franz Schulte-Huermann who gave the premiere of the second movement in 2000. It is a unique work of international stature; a similar score is Irwin Bazelon’s Midnight Music, published by Novello. The work can be ordered direct from the composer, and is available on CD WINDSCAPES (de Haske records DHR 15-015-3), played by the Deutsche Bläserphilharmonie, Conductor Walter Ratzek

Frank Zabel was born on 14 October 1968 in Meinerzhagen/Germany. He finished school in 1988 with the German Abitur. He was taught piano (Robert v. d. Beck) and violin/viola (Lieselotte Doecke, Karin Schmidt) at the Volmetal Music School. In his teens he received various national youth prizes in composition and took lessons in composition with Prof. Theo Brandmüller and Prof. Martin Christoph Redel. 

From 1990 Frank Zabel studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Köln and since 2001, he has been a professor at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf. His compositions have been played at various festivals in Europe, the USA and Japan. He has had compositions commissioned by the WDR (West German Broadcasting Service, Cologne), Deutscher Bundestag (German Parliament), Minguet String Quartet and many others. In 2004 he wrote a cycle of Shakespeare songs for countertenor Andreas Scholl.

Another work with similar scoring to the Pictures of Imaginary Windscapes is called Sinfonische Variationen - Hommage a Prokofieff. It is a set of variations on Prokofiev's March from the Love of Three Oranges. It is a little lighter in some moments, but the texture is characterised by the same expressive intent as in Pictures. Sinfonische Variationen - Hommage a Prokofiev was played in the Deutsches Bläserforum der WASBE in 2004 by the Sinfonisches Blasorchester der Musikschule Dortmund, conducted by Heinz Kricke.

Scores and parts for both works are available from the composer.

Kontakt: 

frank@frank-zabel.de

Frank Zabel 

Oberer Worthhagen 46

58507 Lüdenscheid

Phone 0049/2351/14811

Fax 0049/2351/667824

INDEX

CONCERTS IN LONDON THIS AUTUMN

Tuesday 13th September at St Johns Smith Square

Band of the Coldstream Guards

Conducted by Major Graham Jones

Monday 24th October at Barbican

Guildhall School of Music and Drama Wind Orchestra

John Harle, Saxophone

Richard Benjafield, Percussion

Tim Reynish, Conductor

INDEX

EDWARD GREGSON

COMMISSIONING OPPORTUNITY SYMPHONY FOR WIND ORCHESTRA

Discussions have been completed to commission a Symphony from EDWARD GREGSON (Website www.edwardgregson.com) by an international consortium for premiere performance in 2006. The commissioning contribution will be $500, and those entering the consortium will be provided with a score and a recording of the premiere, together with a set of parts, in addition to having your name and that of your organization appear on the commissioning page of the score.

Anyone interested in joining this consortium should contact Clare Scott at the following email, clare.scott@rncm.ac.uk declaring interest. Please send your name, title, title of ensemble and billing address. Commission fee will be billed to be paid by January 1, 2006.

STANISLAW SKROWACZEWSKI will compose a 12-15 minute work for wind orchestra: triple woodwinds (with doublings), including a trio of saxophones (soprano, alto, and baritone), three trumpets, four horns, three trombones, tuba, piano, and percussion. The work will be available to subscribers of this consortium by December, 2006. 

Maestro Skrowaczewski is among the most important conductors of the 20th century. He has been short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize on two occasions. This work will be his first for winds. The international consortium consists of professional orchestras and collegiate wind ensembles. At this time the following organizations are participating: Minnesota Orchestra, University of Minnesota, New England Conservatory, MIT, and the Saarbrucken Radio Orchestra. 

Please contact fharris@mit.edu if you are interested in participating in this project.

Information on Maestro Skrowaczewski may be obtained at the following sites:

http://www.intermusica.co.uk/artists/Conductor/Stanislaw-Skrowaczewski/biography/1500.aspx

http://www.mcknight.org/arts/news_detail.aspx?itemID=1539&catID=57&typeID=2

(free booklet and CD available from the McKnight Foundation upon request)

PETER CHILD, currently Composer-in-Residence with the Albany (NY) Symphony, will compose a 15 minute work for full wind ensemble available to subscribers of this consortium by December, 2006. This will be his first work for wind ensemble. This project is a coda to the Frank L. Battisti 70th Birthday Commission Project. 

Please contact fharris@mit.edu if you are interested in participating in this project. 

More information on Peter Child available at http://mit.edu/child/www

Recordings on Albany, New World, and Innova. 

A sample CD is available on request as well.

INDEX

NEW WORKS

DEREK BOURGEOIS has completed a 57 minute work for Narrator and Wind Band based on a Mallorcan Folk Tale called The Well of the Moon.

He has also arranged his brass band piece Apocalypse for Wind Band, Symphony No 16, Four Mallorcan poems to music for Soprano and Orchestra for Wind Band, and written a piece called Lliria Celebration as a present to the Valencian band that won the Certamen competition.

PIET SWERTS’ tone poem Cyrano, premiered at the 2003 WASBE Conference has been published by de haske publications bv, Holland www.dehaske.com

It has been chosen as the test piece for the wind band competitions in France in 2006 too. His most recent work is Dance of Uzume, a commission for Nobuya Sugawa, alto saxophonist of the TKWO, who recorded it in January recently.

Www.matrix.mu

Www.pietswerts.be

ANDY SCOTT is the recipient of the latest commission from the BASBWE Consortium. His Dark Raindrops, (Concerto for Two Saxophones and Wind Orchestra) will be premiered on Sunday 6th November by Chethams Wind Orchestra at the BASBWE Conference in the RNCM Manchester, UK

JOHN REEMAN has set up a website www.johnreemanmusic.com

BILL CONNOR is writing a 10 minute work for saxophone quartet and wind orchestra. The Apollo Saxophone Quartet will premiere it in March 2006 with Huddersfield University Wind Band, and two days later Leeds University Wind Band. 

More details from Andy Scott andy@the-scotties.com and Rob Buckland robbuckland@onetel.com

INDEX

GUY WOOLFENDEN

At Canford, we worked during the week on Mockbeggar Variations, commissioned for the 1991 WASBE Conference from Guy Woolfenden. Again, this is a most charming work, perhaps overlooked alongside works such as American Games, the Trumpet Concerto by Lendvay, or Bennett’s Four Seasons, all from the same conference in 1991. 

Guy, composer, conductor and formerly a hornplayer with Sadlers Wells Opera, is perhaps the most successful BASBWE commissioned composer, bringing his experience of theatre to the medium; he was for many years director of music at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, with scores for every Shakespeare play to his credit. 

Two early BASBWE commissions, Gallimaufry (1983, Ariel) and Illyrian Dances (1986, Ariel) both draw on the Shakespeare canon; the language is a pastiche of late English renaissance, looking back to both 16th century and the early 20th century, but with twists in the metrical structure and a harmonic piquancy which avoid the obvious.

* Recorded on CD DOY 042: - GALLIMAUFRY RNCM Wind Orchestra conducted by Guy Woolfenden

More direct are Deo Gracias (1985, G&M Brand) and SPQR (1988). For the 1991 International Conference, he wrote a fine set of variations, Mockbeggar Variations (1981). The most recent pieces are Curtain Call (1997), commissioned for performance at the 1997 WASBE Conference, French Impressions (1998, Ariel) written for the Metropolitan Wind Symphony of Boston, and Rondo Variations (1999, Ariel) a movement for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble. Most recent pieces are Birthday Treat (1998), Firedance, (2002), Celebration (2003, Ariel) and the current commission Bohemian Dances, which received its first performance in St Paul, Minnesota on 6th May 2005. Like Gregson, he has recorded most of the works on professional disc with the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra; his wife under the name of Ariel publishes most of his music.

The works of Guy Woolfenden's are perhaps typical of this new wave of music for wind band, which has charm and wit. I believe that it is ignorance of the medium, which leads to this repertoire being largely ignored. Robert Maycock wrote of Woolfenden's Gallimaufry in The Independent:

In so far as music criticism deals seriously with radio at all, it tends to concentrate on Radio 3, such are the cultural blinkers most critics wear. At the least, this means that good things on the other networks get missed - such as the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra playing Guy Woolfenden last Friday, again on Radio 2. If you're in the new-music business and smirking, ask yourself if typecasting someone as a theatre composer isn't another case of cultural blinkers ...... A piece like Gallimaufry, with its witty ingenuities, expert layout, and a tune that stays with you as long as Carousel's, has helped thousands of players to cut their musical teeth and stirred thousands more with the adventure of living music. Yet how many "contemporary" specialists have heard a note of it?

INDEX

*******************************************

COMPOSITION COMPETITIONS

DEADLINE: November 11, 2005

50th ABA/Ostwald Original Band Composition Award

OUTLINE RULES:

Entries must be original compositions for band, which have been composed since January 1, 2004

The composition should be conceived and constructed so as to be performed effectively by professional, university and high school bands

It is suggested that one movement works be limited to 8-10 minutes, but this is not a requirement.

For complete details regarding this c