For those of you who are in the band camp spirit, today's Composers Datebook featured another piece for winds: Hector Berlioz's Grande Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale. You can read our post on the Grande Symphonie here. Composers Datebook audio link Berlioz gets hot Playing in a marching band isn't always as easy as it looks, musically speaking. Imagine the predicament in which Berlioz found himself on today's date in 1840, conducting 210 musicians under a broiling noontime s

Berlioz's Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale is a work that was "rediscovered" and given a modern adaptation by Richard Franko Goldman. Since that time, the piece has established itself as a staple of the modern wind band repertoire. Below is information on the piece from Wikipedia and a link to a Time magazine article on the work as a "forgotten" piece of music. The piece, rightfully so, draws many comparisons to Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum elsewhere