Today, we will continue with the music of William Schuman and begin a series of three posts on his New England Triptych. This piece, as mentioned in yesterday's post, is made up of three movements that can all stand on their own. The three (in order) are Be Glad Then, America, When Jesus Wept, and Chester. Of the three, Chester is probably the most well-known, and therefore, we will begin with this, the final movement of the suite. Chester is a piece that is familiar to most

Irish Tune from County Derry, another Percy Grainger classic for wind band, is certainly one of the more popular and one of the most beautiful pieces written for band. In band performances, it frequently appears with Shepherd's Hey (which will be featured in tomorrow's blog post) since the two pieces for many years were published together. Like most of Grainger's music, Irish Tune features a traditional folk song, this time in the form of Danny Boy. The setting is a beautiful

Felix Mendelssohn's Overture for Winds has a long and somewhat problematic history in wind band music. Mendelssohn scored the piece for harmoniemusik (wind octet) plus flute, trumpet, and an English bass horn. However, Mendelssohn lost the score to the eleven-instrument version and submitted for publication a revised version for twenty three instruments plus percussion. The autograph of the original has since been recovered and both versions are considered viable in the wind

Based on yesterday's post on Apotheosis of this Earth, this blog post will continue with the music of Karel Husa and explore his Concerto for Wind Orchestra. Written in 1982, Husa's Concerto for Wind Orchestra is a relatively late piece in Husa's output for winds and was written long after Husa had been established a composer in band circles. The piece was a commission from Michigan State University and was the winner of the first Sudler International Composition Competition

Today, two composers were featured on Composers Datebook: Aaron Copland and William Schuman. Although both of these composers played a role in wind and band development in the 20th century, today's blog post will focus on Schuman. Although the piece featured on Composers Datebook is not George Washington Bridge, the information is interesting nonetheless. You can find the Composers Datebook text as well as the audio link at the bottom of this post. William Schuman was a compo

Today's post will be the last post on Grainger for the time being and will focus on another classic of the wind band repertoire: Hill Song No. 2. Hill Song No. 2 is an example of another piece that has been arranged in several ways. Grainger orchestrated the piece for Piano 4-hands, orchestra, and wind band. Since the wind band version was only written for twenty three instruments, many people have revisited the piece to make it more suitable for a larger ensemble. However, t

In another posting on the music of Percy Grainger, today's blog post will focus on Irish Tune from County Derry's sister piece Shepherd's Hey. The link between the two pieces has nothing to do with anything compositionally or anything intended by Grainger, but was instead a publishing consideration since the pieces were published together for many years. The tune that is featured in Shepherd's Hey is a Morris Dance, a tune that is also featured in his very popular Country Gar

And now for something completely different... This week (and probably some of the next), the blog will focus on the band music of Percy Grainger. Although we have already discussed his masterpiece, Lincolnshire Posy, many of his other works certainly deserve recognition as well. Today, this post will explore his piece, Children's March--Over the Hills and Far Away. Although Grainger is somewhat marginalized in the orchestral world, his contributions to the band world cannot b

Today will be the final post on Edgard Varèse. We have explored all of Varèse's wind works (and one percussion work) in depth and we will end with a piece that encapsulates what Varèse is probably most remembered for--works with magnetic tape. When Varèse received a tape recorder from an anonymous donor in the 1950's, his compositional dreams had been realized. He had waited in vain for technology to evolve to a point where it could express his musical ideas and that had arri

Although not necessarily a piece for wind band, Edgard Varèse's Ionisation has been performed on too many wind ensemble concerts and is too important a piece to not be mentioned in a blog dealing with wind music. If you are interested in background on Varèse, please look through previous posts on the composer. Widely regarded as the first piece written for "percussion ensemble", Varèse wrote Ionisation in 1929-1931 after most of his works for winds had already been composed.