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1981

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR

SYMPHONIC BANDS & WIND ENSEMBLES REPERTOIRE

AT THE ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, MANCHESTER UK

Tim Reynish June 2016

Chairman Frank Battisti

Executive Director Bill Johnson

Organised by the College Band Directors National Association and supported by:

Music Educators National Conference National Band Association

American School Band Directors Association Canadian Band Directors Association

Women Band Directors National Association Music Industry Council

The Instrumentalist The School Musician, Director and Teacher

A NEW REPERTOIRE FROM THE EIGHTIES

Suffice it to say that for many of us, that week in 1981 was seminal, and certainly it changed my entire life. Some pieces from 1981 still remain in my top “non-core” repertoire (see article on Not the Core Repertoire). I have never wanted to hear Londonderry Air arranged Sammy Nestico again, nor Humpety Jump, but it was great to hear the virtuoso Vallflickens Dance by Alven in 1981 and again in 2003 at WASBE Sweden; after 35 years someone must have published it by now. Sadly no wind band version on Youtube, but one for saxophone quartet and one for orchestra; what a great piece.

HERD MAIDEN’S DANCE for orchestra by Hugo Alven

THE TEST OF A NEW WORK FOR ME

I remember going to the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 and spending time in the Phillips exhibition designed by Le Corbusier, with its montage of light and colour to accompany the Poème Électronique by Varèse. Thirty years later I heard a recording, and many of those events and sounds came flooding back. That for me is the test of a work, whether I can recall events and structures over the years. Here is a list of new works which made an impression on me in 1981, some I heard for the first time, some premiered in Manchester.

FIRST THIRTEEN FROM THE CONFERENCE OF 1981

SCANDINAVIA

Both Norwegian bands played typical community programmes, though Sagene introduced us to the Fanfare and Choral by Hovland, a useful alternate to the Shostakovich Festive Overture, and Bispehaugen introduced us to the Grieg Funeral March and Sinfonietta di Soffiatori by Tweit alongside Humpty Jump and Jalouise and Londonderry Air arranged Sammy Nestico. The Tweitt has recently been recorded by Clark Rundell and the RNCM and should, with the Hovland and Grieg, be more widely played. The Gothenberg programme included the brilliant virtuosic tour de force Herd Maiden’s Dance from the Mountain King by Alven, heard also in Sweden, and Parade by Hambraeus which I remember impressed me at the time.

AMERICA

Another popular programme came from United States Collegiate Wind Band, with tunes from Cole Porter and Broadway shows, marches and one major piece new to us in UK, H. Owen Reed’s La Fiesta Mexicana.

Other performances which stay in the memory were the especially commissioned Symphony of Winds by Derek Bourgeois; like Dionysiaques, now in a splendid new edition by Felix Hauswirth, this is a virtuoso work well worth reviving. It is perhaps a little sentimental in the slow movement, but huge fun in the spoof march that is the finale.

Universities from Colorado and West Virginia played striking works by Dahl, Hindemith, Mike Francis and Chance. It was the repertoire and level of performance by the three American University wind ensembles that led me to go to USA in 1983 to look at the wind band training and repertoire.

SYMPHONY OF WINDS by Derek Bourgeois

UK AND OTHER GROUPS

Surrey County Wind gave us a first hearing of Gregson’s Metamorphoses, and the British Youth Wind Orchestra played selections from several of their commissions including which I had forgotten about but have been searching for, Concerto for Wind Orchestra by David Morgan. For those interested in Harry Legge’s commissions, I have lodged many of the scores with the Royal College of Music library, including this one. Listening again to a cassette of their concert, I fell in love with Epigrams from a Garden for soprano and clarinet choir by Stephen Dodgson, a really impressive work for this combination.

Many of the programmes are lost in my memory in the blur of the excitement of 35 years ago, but one outstanding work from the Japan High School was Asuka by Kushida; this I found a sensitive work, without the homage to Hollywood that so afflicts so much Japanese wind music.

ASUKA by Kushida

Outstanding works from Graz for chamber brass were by Praesent and Erod, and the other chamber ensemble, from Stockholm, gave a fascinating programme which included music from Drottingholm, introducing us to the mysteries of the luur.

Both BASBWE and WASBE were conceived and born during the Conference, and the past thirty five years have been a constant voyage of discovery in repertoire.

PROGRAMMES