ARTICLE – NOT A CORE REPERTOIRE LIST

Some time ago the late Warren Benson discussed "Aesthetic Criteria for Selecting an International Repertoire", and proposed three very personal issues, commitment, exposure and risk.

Sooner or later, we have to take the responsibility in our own hands for the progress of WASBE, individually. It's not an international conscience that we're talking about. We're talking about individuals and, when we all do that, there's going to be a glow…..I don't want WASBE to turn into a dispensary where people come every two years to get lists that they can go home and file and forget about and do the same old stuff they've been doing before.

As usual he was right, but the problem is that of course few dare to put their head above the parapet, and too often students are loaded with lists of that same old stuff without reference to developments of the past quarter of a century.

I still refer frequently to the repertoire lists put together in the 70’s and 80’s by H Robert Reynolds, Eugene Mirtaglio Corporon and others, and to the 1,000 selected international works by Felix Hauswirth. Another very complete listing is the doctoral work by Jay Gilbert, 1,158 pieces, considered by twenty evaluators.

However, I have been recently investigating the latest core repertoire list in the Journal of Band Research, lists at CBDNA regional conference, on websites and in schools of music, and very often it is clear that WASBE has had very little influence on programming; the majority of these lists contain nothing new from England, Scandinavia, Europe or from Japan. 180 possibly significant works for wind ensemble and band are listed below , mostly works NOT in core repertoire lists, though some might soon be given that accolade.

RNCM REPERTOIRE – NOT THE “CORE”

Below I list works which I have programmed or conducted since 1981, mostly at the Royal Northern College of Music, with references to by Norman Smith’s Program Notes for Band for biography and programme notes where available; most of these works have a programme note on my website. 

NB Works with a page number in column five are in Norman Smith’s book Band Programme Notes.