WASBE Day 3

There was a discussion two years ago in Killarney about whether it was possible and whether any composer in their right mind would write a piece for wind band that never went louder than mezzo piano. I'm still not sure what the answer is but Adam Gorb gave it a good try.

Tuesday morning started with the second repertoire session hosted by the Royal Northern College of Music and their three directors, Tim Reynish, Clark Rundell and Mark Heron. They presented 6 works from the UK for winds, one of which was a piece by Adam called Tranquility. This pieces stays below mezzo piano through much of it's probably 6 minute duration but it does climax significantly stronger. There is some beautiful quite writing though. The piece ends with a series of gorgeous quiet brass chords and is, so far, one of my favourite pieces from the reading sessions. The rest of the session included a great new(ish) piece by Kenneth Hesketh called The Guilded Theatre and pieces by two new composers to me: Emily Howard and Duncan Ward.

I attended and reviewed a session on rehearsal strategies later in the morning. It was hosted by a wonderful high school band from Texas and run by Gary Hill and Clark Rundell. Some brilliant insight to rehearsal techniques in light of current research on neuroscience and cognitive psychology. If you want to read more about this one, go to the WASBE blog.

The two concerts de jour began with the Frysk Fanfare Orchestra. Many PSWE members had the opportunity to hear them in Singapore and know that this is essentially a European invention that is an extended brass/saxophone section from the wind band. There are a couple of instrument that we don't usually have in the band like Eb Tuba and a fluglehorn section but otherwise, they are very similar. The players in this group are truly outstanding and they presented an extremely well prepared concert that focused primarily on Dutch composers. The highlight for me came in the form of two pieces by Marco Pütz. One was a rescoring for a piece that he written for wind band called Die Judenbuche and the other was a premiere of Four Earth Songs for Soprano and Fanfare Band based on the poetry of Graeme King.

The second concert was given by the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chamber Players. Again the program was exceedingly well prepared and performed. The first half introduced me to a Martinu and an Ibert work. La Revue de Cuisine was by Martinu was particularly entertaining.