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REPERTOIRE REVIEW OF SELECTED PREMIERES 2005-2007
WIND PREMIERES 2005-2007
illarney was the second WASBE Conference at which I was accepted to give an overview of new works in the previous two years. As before, my thanks are due to the many conductors and composers who sent information and sometimes scores and CDs of new works of significance premiered since the last WASBE Conference in 2007. With over 250 works proposed, my lecture merely skimmed the surface. If anyone needs more information, please get in touch at timreynish@tiscali.co.uk and I will try to respond as soon as possible.
An additional excitement was the joy of attending four superb
conferences, in
ROLE FOR WASBE
It has been a fascinating and sometimes frustrating task to put together
this biennial listing of new works for wind ensemble, fascinating
because of the wealth of great music being composed, frustrating because
of the lack of information sometimes
available. Both WASBE and CBDNA give generous space to previews or
reports of new pieces, but rarely do they give information on duration,
orchestration and publication, so that the busy band director might well
decide to save time and programme something that he or can find easily
in the library. I have very few other contacts, with
OUTLINE OF LECTURE
My lecture concentrated on six areas
A-Z OF CONTEMPORARY WIND MUSIC
MAJOR COMPOSERS
REYNISH COMMISSIONING PROJECT
WORKS BY WASBE COMPOSERS & PUBLISHERS
THE JAZZ ELEMENT - CROSSOVER
BCM & JOHN MACKEY
One of the few things I remember from Geography was the teasing question
“compare and contrast the climate of
A IS FOR ALARCON – and MARCO POLO
The Dutch conductor and publisher, Frank de Vuyst, is editor for the
major Spanish publisher, Piles, and also conductor of one of the
principal Spanish wind orchestras. Frank sent me this summer a great
video recording of the 2006 Certamen in Valencia, with a performance of
Marco Polo by Luis Alarcon,
premiered by Banda Sinfónica de la Unión Musical Utielana conducted by
Frank. I played the audience in with this DVD, with its extraordinary
range of colour, featuring as it does a number of ethnic wind, string
and percussion instruments. This is to my mind a major addition to our
repertoire. The sheer virtuosity of Spanish bands and the cut-throat
competition in their contests results in some wonderful music. Frank de
Vuyst has sent a scores of Marco
Polo and Preludio y Danza
Z IS FOR ZYMAN – and CYCLES
Samuel Zyman is a
distinguished teacher from Juilliard, one of three Mexican composers to
be included this year. I first came across Zyman’s work when I joined a
consortium put together by Gary Ciepluch to commission his
Duo
Concerto.
Cycles was premiered in 2005
and is now available on a fine recording by
Steven Steele and
MAJOR COMPOSERS
As a rough guide to “great” composers,
I simply took a list of the winners of the Grawemeyer Award as a
kind of blueprint for those whom WASBE might be inviting to write:-
Currier, Kurtag, Tsontakis, Unsuk Chin, Saariaho, Kernis, Boulez,
Ades, Tan Dun, Simon Bainbridge, Tcherepnin, Adams, Takemitsu, Husa,
Joan Towers, Chinary Ung, Penderecki, Corigliano, Birtwistle, Ligeti and
Lutoslawski are all award winners. Most of them are either dead or have
never written for wind. When Frederick Speck was asked to put on a
concert at Carnegie Hall including wind music by these “great”
composers, he struggled to find repertoire – a pair of fanfares
byLutoslawski and Takemitsu, a new commission from Karel Husa, a CBDNA
commission from Joan Tower, all of which he programmed brilliantly at
WASBE, and an arrangement of a movement by John Corigliano, though he
might have chosen a work by Chinary Ung,
Grand Spirals. So a
survey of composers of international stature who have contributed
to our genre in the past two years will be sadly very brief. Since
David Chaitkin
Celebration
Karel Husa
Cheetah
Christopher Rouse
Wolf Rounds
Steven Stucky Hue and Cry
As usual there seems to have been little or no national or international
press covering these. However, Fred Speck was at Conference and
performed Cheetah in his
concert with
DAVID CHAITKIN
It is 16 years since WASBE last featured music by David Chaitkin, his
Summersong was programmed in
the 1991 WASBE Conference, played by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by
Gunther Schuller. I find a wonderful luminosity and lyricism in his
music and a refreshing delight in colour. Chaitkin wrote to me recently
about his latest piece.
My new
Celebration for
winds was indeed premiered on March 4 by the
To this tiny group I would add two other works which I think have
stature. First I would like to play part of
Gleams from the Bosom of
Darkness by the Israeli composer, Lior Navok. His music was
described recently by the Boston Globe as
colorful, haunting, accomplished
and exciting. Gleams
actually dates from 2002, but its premiere is recent. It is an
extraordinary bit of writing and one of the most exciting finds for me
in this two years.
Richard Danielpour is another New Yorker, one of the most distinctive
voices of the American scene – the first movement of his
Voice of the City was
premiered in 2005, and I very much hope that he will finish the second
movement and that we can hear the whole work this Fall. In the first
movement, jazz elements, hints of Bernstein in the funky accompaniment,
perhaps of
OPERA - BANDANNA
& THE SCARECROW
Perhaps the most exciting wind ensemble events of the past two years has
been in the field of opera
with one major recording of Daron Hagen’s
Bandanna and a series
of productions of Joseph Turrin’s
The Scarecrow.
I was contacted during the year by Joseph Turrin with details of
The
Scarecrow. You can hear the
whole opera on his website,
http://www.josephturrin.com/music.html
This is a major addition to the repertoire, the overture itself would
make an excellent concert number, and the first line of the first aria
must bid to be one of the most memorable ever.
WHEN I WAS A YOUNG WITCH, THE WOMEN SNARLED AT ME
The other is the release of a recording of
Bandana with
Hagen's masterful score captures the rage, intrigue, and tender
resignation of the tale."
Jerry Young, Austin
American Statesman, 2/99
"You will find Bandanna's weave most intricate."
Andrew Osborn,
"Sonorous, highly-varied, rhythmically gripping, dramatic music; one can
scarcely imagine another living composer pulling it off."
"The drama is powered by a strong emotional thrust, most of it conveyed
in the form of popular song, and leads to a shattering climax."
Read
WILLIAM REYNISH COMMISSIONING PROJECT
Since
Berkeley, Michael
Slow Dawn
OUP
Carroll, Fergal
Blackwater
Maecenas
Hesketh, Kenneth
Vranjanka
Faber
Hesketh, Kenneth
Cloud of Unknowing
Schott
Horne, David
Waves and Refrains
Boosey &
Hawkes
Jackson, Timothy
Passacaglia
Maecenas
Marshall, Christopher
Resonance
Maecenas
McNeff, Stephen
Image in Stone
Maecenas
Pütz, Marco
Trumpet Concerto
Bronsheim
Roxburgh, Edwin
Elegy for
for solo oboe and ensemble
Maecenas
Roxburgh, Edwin
Aeolian Carillons
Maecenas
Nine pieces are by professional composers with no particular attachment
to the wind ensemble world, and of these, three are attached to British
orchestras as composer in residence, Michael Berkeley to the BBC
National Orchestra of Wales, Stephen McNeff to the Bournemouth Symphony
and Kenneth Hesketh to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic where he was
preceded by David Horne. McNeff and Berkeley have a burgeoning
international reputation in the opera house. Edwin Roxburgh has recently
completed a massive opera, Chris Marshall’s international reputation is
largely based on his choral music, while Timothy Jackson follows a
renaissance-like career as composer, conductor, natural and modern horn
player, jazz pianist.
Two then are more involved with wind music, though not exclusively;
Fergal Carroll is a conductor in Ireland with one of the military bands,
Marco Pütz is a fine saxophone player and teacher in Luxembourg, and is
perhaps best known as a specialist in wind music, usually for amateur
bands.
WORKS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL WIND ENSEMBLE
It is tempting to divide these recent commissions into two genres. In
the first we might include those “serious” works aimed at the
“professional” wind ensemble,
Slow Dawn, Cloud of Unknowing, Waves and refrains, Resonance, Image in
Stone and Elegy for Ur.
Michael Berkekey’s Slow Dawn
is short, cogent and wonderfully austere, sharing the sound world
perhaps of Judith Bingham’s
Bright Spirit. David Horne is one of the brightest talents in
Horne's music can be viewed both as a response, and as a reaction, to
modernism. His language has evolved naturally from the classically-orientatated
modernist masters, exploring essentially abstract musical ideas. Yet
Horne deploys these with an attractive lyricism, an impressionistic ear
for instrumentation, and with invigorating energy
EDWIN ROXBURGH
The young Edwin Roxburgh was described by Nadia Boulanger as the new
Stravinsky, but I think that a career as a composer was too narrow for
him, he is a fine professional oboist, was a teacher at the Royal
College of Music where he for many years conducted the contemporary
group, and he brings these skills to his composition Eddie was a
featured composer at BASBWE – celebrating his 70th birthday
this year, the BASBWE conference played all three of his works for wind,
Time’s
Harvest, An Elegy for Ur and
Aeolian
Carillons. The oboe concerto,
An Elegy for Ur, is a
wonderfully understated, haunting rhapsody on the destruction of one of
the world’s oldest cities,
Kenneth Hesketh has emerged during this decade as one of the most
exciting new talents in the wind world. Many of you will know
Danceries and the bright and
breezy Masque,
getting to know his
Dances for Diaghilev, a
wonderful swirling score of impressionistic colourings. His
Cloud of Unknowing inhabits
that world, perhaps the same kind of continuous expression through sound
that we find in Debussy’s Jeux
or Schoenberg’s Erwartung
with very little development. Part of my commissioning scheme is to
attract composers of international importance liker Horne, Hesketh, Gorb
and Roxburgh, to write challenging music with no holds barred,
but also to invite them to contribute easier pieces for the less
experienced players. This is extremely hard and not everyone accepts the
challenge. One who has is Hesketh , an essentially
practical composer who like Adam Gorb and Dana Wilson writes for
less experienced players without patronizing, setting them the same
musical problems as in the works for more mature players. He followed
Cloud of Unknowing with a
wonderful score of terrific Balkan energy,
Vranjanka.
As with all his score4s, there are challenging parts for second
and third players, and a teasing set of variations mainly in 7/8 on a
Serbian love-song.
Cloud of Unknowing
2005
Published Schotts
Vranjanka
2006
Published Faber
Chris Marshall is a New Ze
Sometimes the single-minded pursuit of originality severs too many links
with the past. Without existing music as a reference point,
communication may be lost. By the same token, a composer who restricts
himself to the techniques and aesthetics of the past is irrelevant. The
challenge, as I see it, is to produce music that is recognisably of our
time, yet also timeless.
His first work, Aue, was
commissioned by the WASBE Schools Network, and here again we find an
Ivesian montage of melodies and rhythms. He paints a picture of the
At the climax, his reminiscences of a missionary great grandfather
resolve onto a 19th century hymn melody – (shades of the
myriad of wind and brass band works which are based around Salvation
Army hymns or Southern Harmonies!) but Chris is amazing skilful in his
set of variations, and finally the piece dissolves into a magically
beautiful ending. As with his great grandfather’s sermons in the forest,
the song of the birds overwhelms the music.
2005
Resonance
2007
Renascence
FOR THE LESS EXPERIENCED GROUPS
The second may be considered as works aimed at the less experienced
group which is looking for more of an intellectual, emotional and
technical challenge than is often afforded by wind repertoire
I am of course massively biased, but I do think that each and
every work written for me recently represents a valuable addition to the
repertoire, and many of these works are able to stand alongside earlier
major commissions such as Adam Gorb’s
Dances from Crete or
Christopher Marshall’s L’Homme
Armé. Another work by Roxburgh, the exciting efflorescent
Aeolian Carillons, and an
extraordinarily moving
Passacaglia by Timothy Jackson which has a Brahmsian spaciousness,
couched in a contemporary idiom.
We were very proud and honored to have an entire programme dedicated to
William played in
Elder Conservatory Wind Ensemble,
L’Homme Armé
Christopher Marshall
Song of Lir
Fergal Carroll
Bright Spirit
Judith Bingham
Symphony for William
Derek Bourgeois
Dances from
MUSIC FOR YOUNG BANDS
Writing expressive, lyrical music for young bands without being
patronizing, condescending and sentimental, is difficult; few of even
our most distinguished colleagues manage it. Adam Gorb manages it
usually, and one composer who writes well is Fergal Carroll, who has
followed his Song of Lir
with another effective Irish piece,
Blackwater.
A third, though not in my
commissioning series, was premiered recently and is called
Silverwinds. All three are
published by Maecenas.
The most recent work my commission series is by Marco Pütz who was the
featured composer in the BASBWE Conference held in Glasgow
WORKSFEATURED IN GLASGOW
Putz, Marco
Trumpet Concerto
Pütz, Marco
Die Judenbuche
Putz, Marco
Derivations
Pütz, Marco
Flute Concerto
Pütz, Marco
Choralis Tonalis
The Irish Youth Wind Ensemble gave the public premiere of his
Trumpet Concerto with John Wallace, and this is a fine three movement
work, typical of Marco’s style which is traditional and yet challenging.
It starts with a cadenza, followed by an intense introduction which
breaks into the traditional allegro.
CONCERTOS
As I was putting this lecture together, I reflected that there were very
few concerti to report but gradually I came to the conclusion that it is
in fact something of a vintage two years. Most of these concertos are
referred to later in the lecture but I would like to draw attention to a
composer who made a strong impression on Adam Gorb and myself in
NEW CONCERTI
An Elegy for
Liquid Gold
Dana Wilson
Clarinet
12.40
The Avatar
Dana Wilson
Bassoon
16.00
Concerto
Mike Mower
Saxophone
22.14
Horn Concerto
Simon Wills
Horn
16.41
Trumpet Concerto
Marco Pütz
Trumpet
19.00
Passagi
Steven Gryc
Trombone
22.42
Trombone Concerto
Martin Ellerby
Trombone
15.06
Dance Diversions
Ralph Hultgren
Trombone
Black Fire
Nigel Clarke
Violin
26.02
Marimba Concerto
Zecharaiah Goh
Marimba
13.21
Concerto Saxophones Eddie Mora
Bermudez
Saxophone Quartet
Concerto
Hermann Regner
Piano
11.00
WASBE COMPOSERS WRITING FOR SCHOOL BANDS
Writing for High School students is an immense challenge – how to engage
their interest and challenge them intellectually but write enjoyable
music with being patronizing. I am glad I am not a composer. In the
library you will find scores and a CD of music by a member of WASBE,
Thomas Rohrer, Director of Bands at the
Carroll, Fergal
Silverwinds
Ellerby, Martin
Tales from Andersen
Hultgren, Ralph
Jessie’s Well
Hultgren, Ralph
My Sister’s Tears
Nitsch, Jason
Elegy for a Ghost Town
Nitsch, Jason
On the Banks of the
Rohrer, Thomas
Transcontinental
One British composer who has carved a new life and career in Spanish
band music is Derek Bourgeois, who many years ago was largely
responsible for taking the British Brass band music into the 20th
century.
Four Mallorcan Folk Songs
Concerto for Bass Trombone
Felanitx Fiestas
The well of the Moon
Band Land
He now lives in
WASBE COMPOSERS – MARTIN ELLERBY
I have always felt that WASBE should be taking care of its composers,
making sure that we have easy access to information about their works,
and conversely composers should be contacting WASBE as a central source
for information. There are two composers on the Board at present,
Martin Ellerby who incidentally is fifty this year, and
Last year Martin rescored his miniature Symphony
Natalis for wind and it was
premiered by the Royal Marines.This is a dramatic work, typical of his
music for the last few years with strong contrasts. Here is the opening,
perhaps reminiscent of Paris
Sketches in its emotional
content and scoring. This has been a productive two years for Martin
Ellerby, Martin
NeapolitanSerenade for flute
Ellerby, Martin
Trombone Concerto
Ellerby, Martin
Chivalry – a Tone Poem
Ellerby, Martin
The Canticle of the Sun
Ellerby, Martin
Terra Australis
Ellerby, Martin
Tristan Encounters
Ellerby, Martin
Mass of St Thomas Aquinas
Ellerby, Martin
Commemorations
Ellerby, Martin
The Cries of London
Ellerby, Martin
Tales from Andersen
Ellerby, Martin
Prelude from Hampstead Heath
Ellerby, Martin Natalis, wind band version
Natalis
is one of the first publications in the new Maecenas series,
Accolade.
The second is an arrangement by Martin of Prelude for Hampstead Heath,
which has proved very popular in its brass band version
His Trombone Concerto
is in three movements, an extremely energetic first, a heartfelt elegy
as a second and a third which returns to the extraordinary high spirits
of the first.
Many of his works have been written for the Coldstream Guards or the
Royal Marines, including the most recent,
Commemoration, premiered two
weeks ago. Martin is now General editor for Studio Music, and two new
works from their catalogue which have been brought to my attention are
by Nigel Clarke. In a few weeks, the Royal Military School of Music,
Kneller Hall, will premiere Nigel’s work written to celebrate their 150th
anniversary, Fanfares and
Celebrations. The same
composer’s Black Fire for
violin and concert band was recorded recently by the Royal Marines in
ADAM GORB
Despite a hectic year teaching and traveling, Adam Gorb has written
three strongly contrasting works as well as a work for the BBC
Philharmonic Orchestra.
I was lucky enough to hear his very moving piece for choir, soloists and
brass, Scribblings on a Blank
Wall. The drama of it made me think that it is time that he wrote an
opera. This is a rare piece in the choral repertoire, a work which
escapes the somewhat cloying
style of the English choral tradition.
Adrenaline City
Studio
Sunrise & Safari
Maecenas
Scribblings on a Blank Wall
Maecenas
This Spring saw the premiere of
Sunrise and Safari commissioned by the Singapore Youth Band
Festival. The score is on the Maecenas stand.
In this he introduced a little aleatoric bird song, but was asked
to notate it with bar lines, thus making it far more difficult. Perhaps
the answer is the path taken through the
The third piece is the very virtuosic
Adrenaline City, a sort of
son or cousin of Awayday and
Metropolis, incredibly energetic and unfortunately for conductors in
10/8; commissioned last year by the US Army.
DANA WILSON AND ADAM GORB
At a funeral recently, composer Giles Swayne spoke
of composition which challenges
the intellect while engaging the heart. It is interesting that so
much of the wind music of the last two years achieves this, often in
crossover styles. Writing
in the vernacular utilizing jazz and pop elements has been very much
part of the art of those two WASBE stalwart composers, Adam Gorb and
Dana Wilson and I would love to get them both round a table for a
discussion since both are essentially practical in their approach to
composition, writing music which will test the finest ensemble without
over-taxing that important element the audience.
Dana has written three works in the past two years which are
important additions to our repertoire. . Both Dana and Adam write
marvelously for professionals like Larry Coombs and the US Military
Academy, Gail Williams or Evelyn Glennie, but they also write some of
their best music for amateur and students. Last summer Dana wrote a work
to celebrate the career of Frank Battisti,
Day Dream This is a work of
sixteen minutes in three movements, dedicated to Frank
who asked that it should be playable by ensembles of varying
abilities. After a first
movement in which Dana portrays a dramatic sunrise, he moves on to a
second movement typifying Youth.
Dana uses a kind of written out aleatoric technique where the
wind players are invited to play ostinati at whatever speed they prefer,
giving a blurred effect against which very tight funky rhythms are in
sharp contrast.
For me, the harmonic procedures
of the finale bring to mind the mature Richard Strauss. What Strauss
never quite discovered was the jazz potential of the bassoon.
Dana achieves some funky fagot playing in his three movement
concerto The Avatar, written for
There was no time to do more than mention three other fine concerti, for
horn by Simon Wills, and for trombone by Stephen Gryc and Martin Ellerby
The practicalities of composition are so important, none of the ivory
tower stuff for Adam nor Dana, nor indeed for the Austrian composer
Hermann Regner of the
EDUARD OERTLE & WASBE
I have always felt that WASBE should be actively encouraging the
commissioning of new music, and so I was delighted to be invited to
Stuttgart by Eduard Oertle to talk about my own commissions in memory of
William, but also to hear three fine concerts, one which featured the
world premiere of the
Sinfonietta by Axcel Ruoff,
played by the Blaserphilharmonie Heilbronn. I knew of this
composer already from Leon Bly, a cello concerto and a piano concerto,
but it was good to hear a piece live. A menacing introduction features
an omnipresent ostinato figure, and it gives way to a section of
wonderful lyricism
MUSIC FOR AMATEURS
As usual many works were written in Europe for amateur performance and
these included a fine
Sinfonietta by Oliver Waespi. Waespi many will remember from works
played in
Sinfonietta no 2
Moving Sculptures
Temples
Festive Impressions
What is important for wind music as a genre is to involve other
composers and artists who do not specialize in the medium. One such is
Carl Rütti better known for his choral music His
Ground for Band was
premiered in
ENGLISH LYRICISM
Far away in atmosphere is the lyrical rhapsody of Daniel Basford, a
young composer who graduated recently from the RNCM and who handles wind
orchestration with a sure touch.
Songs and Refrains
was premiered in 2005 and will be published later this Autumn by
Maecenas. It is a four
movement suite of twenty minutes very much in the English pastoral
tradition and perhaps in the faster movements reminding us of Gordon
Jacob in his handling of folk song.
COMPETITIONS
WASBE composers have been very active in competitions internationall
Luis Serrano Alarcon 1st in Corciano
Ferrer Ferran 1st in
Romualdo Romenco
Jose Suner Oriola Audience prize Tokyo
Jukka Viitasaari 1st Concorso Pernice
Jukka Viitasaari 2nd in Lambersart
and also in UK in the annual
British Composer Award
2004 Adam Gorb
Towards Nirvana
2005 Ian Gardiner
Toccata, Canzona &
Ricecare
2006 Andy Scott
Dark Rain
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
FROG’S EYE
I am always grateful to WASBE conductors and publishers who send me information about premieres that they rate as important. Gary Ciepluch, one of the few current WASBE members who attended the first international Conference back in 1981, wrote in about several works including an extraordinary piece by Monica Houghton, a nightmare tonepoem One Morning in September written after 9/11.
One conductor extremely active in the contemporary field if Fred Harris
at MIT and I recently received a wonderful recording of compositions by
Evan Ziporyn, a member of Bang on a Can. Part of the Boston Modern
Orchestra Project, this disc Frog’s Eye on CA 20140 includes this very
imaginative work for soprano and wind ensemble,
The Ornate Zither and the Nomad
Flute.
Like Fred Harris at MIT, . Cindy Johnson-Turner at Cornell has premiered
several great pieces this year.
One composer she has enthused about is XI WANG who won a Morton
Gould ASCAP award this year
JAZZ AND THE WIND ENSEMBLE
Another composer Cindy introduced is a professor at the University of San Pedro in Costa Rica, Eddie Mora, whose Concerto for Four Saxophones is his second work for wind band. It is is a sprawling three movement work which straddles several styles. The second movement starts with the quartet in a driving minimalist allegro, later underpinned by percussion and becoming really funky, while the finale begins with a languid laid-back tune.
Another interesting crossover piece was sent to me by Gordon Brock of the University of North Florida, a work entitled Scatter Down Light by Gary Smart.
A unique musician, composer-pianist Gary Smart performs, composes and
improvises music that reflects an abiding interest in Americana, world
musics and jazz, as well as the western classical tradition
While there is a wealth of music available, we must continue
commissioning, and I was delighted to be in touch with Andrew Gekoskie,
Director of Bands at Langley High School. Andrew heads up one of the
most vibrant High School programmes in the united states; with a series
of important commissions. There most recent was
Mosaico Mexicano which they
premiered in Carnegie Hall this Spring.
Crossover is becoming more and more part of our musical language, as it
becomes less and less important to be be modern. One WASBE member who is
investigating a whole tranch of exciting new musical sounds is Mike
Christianson with the Gotham Wind Symphony who describes the most recent
disc from Gotham Wind symphony
This is our Americana – the
version where we celebrate New York as the important cultural font it
is, the version where we recognise jazz as the great artistic
contribution it is (within every wind ensemble is a jazz band –
literally).
There are two commissions on the disc from the band, and my favorite is
a great 7 minute Prelude by guitarist James Chirillo, which reminds me
of those sweet little pieces by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet –
Prelude to A Minor Insenistivity
Another jazzer from the other side of the Continent getting very
involved in wind ensemble is
Fred Stride who has built up a fine connection with Pacific
Symphony Wind Ensemble under its conductor Marc Crompton, resulting in
three new works since Singapore, a Saxophone concerto, Trajectories
for trumpet and wind, and Seaquam.
There were several works reported by Robert Grechesky of Butler,
including a Spring
Serenade by Eric Ewazen and
Prayer by Michael Schelle
which was played at the last CBDNA Conference. I am grateful to Tony
Houghton, Ralph Hultgren, Philip Robinson, Robert Rumbelow, Ken
Thompson, Philip Wagner, Christian Wilhjelm and others for sending
information about premieres.
BCM and OSTI
I would like to end with a look at a group who I think will make a
difference to our programmes. Most composers are poor at self-promotion,
but this is a criticism that cannot be leveled at a group of five young
American composers who are contributing hugely to our repertoire. The
four who make up BCM are Steven Bryant,
Jam Bonney,
BCM began at the Juilliard School where 3 of the composers met while
studying with John Corigliano. Their credo:
Our goal is to create music for the wind ensemble medium not bound by
traditional thought or idiomatic cliché.
STEVE BRYANT
They often write in what we Europeans might think of as a typical
American style, noisy and brash, but they usually combine this style
with a sense of self-deprecating humour missing in some of their
colleagues.
Radiant Joy
Dusk
Suite Dreams
Steve Bryant speaks for them all when he says:
Here's what I really want to achieve when I compose:
I strive to write music that leaps off the stage (or reaches out of the
speakers) to grab you by the collar and pull you in. Whether through a
relentless eruption of energy, or the intensity of quiet contemplation,
I want my music to give you no choice, and no other desire, but to
listen.
JIM BONNEY
Jim Bonney is into electronics and really experimental noises; I
particularly enjoyed this recent quotation from him:
I’ve become very fond of
eschewing the creative confines of both “highbrow” and lowbrow music and
simply creating nobrow music
Threnody
Watercolors
Sticks & Stones for drumset and
band
JONATHAN NEWMAN
I think that all five of them
can write quiet music which is full of sentiment without being
sentimental. One of the lasting memories of the CBDNA conference in Ann
Arbor was of a beautifully paced and b
Avenue X
New work for solo flute & Ensemble
ERIC WHITTACRE
Eric Whitaker has been very busy this year with an opera which opens
this summer – for information go to his website. His gentle
transcriptions from his choral pieces are becoming extremely popular and
make a welcome change of pace to hard-hitting programmes.
JOHN MACKEY
Meanwhile over the past two years, a fifth young
composer, John Mackey, burst on to the scene with the prize
winning Red Line Tango of
2004, followed by Turbine,
surely two of the noisiest tunes in the repertoire. In
Strange Humors and music for
other ensembles he is showing a more lyrical side to his work.
Turbine
Turning
Strange Humors
The encouraging thing about this group of composers is that they all
have a formidable technique, they have the wildest imagination and
wackiest sense of humour, most of them are Juilliard trained and I
believe that they will show the way for a new generation of young
excellently trained composers who might provide us with a vast pyramid
music for wind ensemble, wind orchestra, wind band, some of which might
rival the great masterpieces of the past.
Thinking of masterpieces of the past, I would like to end with reference
to three composers born one hundred years ago. The contribution from two
of them was limited to a single work each for wind ensemble, both very
distinguished.
Music for Wind and Brass
Elizabeth Maconchy
Sinfonietta
Willem van Otterloo
The third is a composer who
never bothered at all with self-promotion, publication or a career. Here
is part of A Children’s Plea for
Peace by the great underestimated, under-rated maverick composer,
Alec Wilder. You will find more information about his music on my
website.
Children’s Plea for Peace
by Alec Wilder