Comments on Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble: WASBE Resonance - Quality Repertoire

He preaches well! As important as all the commiss...

2009-08-06T20:43:45.618-07:00

He preaches well! As important as all the commissions is the work he does to make sure the music reaches a wide audience. His website is great, and I've listened to some some fascinating recordings and bought a few books after reading about them there.

Thanks, Lora: No, I haven't seen the BASBWE b...

2009-08-04T21:25:58.785-07:00

Thanks, Lora:

No, I haven't seen the BASBWE blog, but will take a look now! Tim certainly has done a lot for wind repertoire, particularly in the UK. He's commissioned a lot and is constantly preaching the gospel!

"that was a band?!?!?!?!?!" That was e...

2009-08-04T18:09:27.096-07:00

"that was a band?!?!?!?!?!"

That was exactly my reaction when I first heard "and the mountains rising nowhere" by Schwanter - it took me a while to finish listening to the CD because I kept replaying that piece. "Wildflowers" is one of the first band CDs I got, and still one of my favourites :-)

There was starting to be good rep in the 70s and 80s, but I guess it had not been noticed by the high school teachers yet. As well as WASBE, I think Tim Reynish and BASBWE had done a lot.

Have you seen BASBWE's blog? http://basbwe.wordpress.com/

They have some interesting links, including to your blog - that's how I found you. Another link I got from their blog is this by John Mackey on self publishing - http://ostimusic.com/blog/music-publishing/

The internet has certainly made it easier to find out about new music!

Hi Lora, There are an increasing number of my col...

2009-08-04T09:21:30.611-07:00

Hi Lora,

There are an increasing number of my colleagues that do listen to wind repertoire I think that I am lucky in that I surround myself with those folks, but there are still way too many who are surprised when I play a recording of very good wind repertoire and they respond "that was a band?!?!?!?!?!"

I was in high school in Vancouver in the 80's and I know that the repertoire that we played was average. Some good transcriptions but I honestly don't remember much of the original music for band. I think that there is more quality repertoire now. Why? I'm not entirely sure. I think that groups like the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) have done a lot of work to raise awareness of the issue and promote the commissioning of quality works. I also think that it helps that the publishing industry and technology is at a point that makes it easier for composers to self publish and distribute their work. We directors have to spend more time searching these composers out, buying their music and commissioning the ones we feel are good to write more great music.

I eventually found the source of the comment - it ...

2009-08-01T12:23:15.168-07:00

I eventually found the source of the comment - it was from the forward of of the book, “Best Music for High School Band” by Thomas Dvorak, published in 1993. It certainly is a long-term issue - my year in band-class was late 70s in Montreal.

I'm surprised to hear that your colleagues don't spend much time listening, but if my high school band teacher was like that, it would explain a lot about the class. As part of the course we had to do listening - he played a lot of stuff, including rock, folk, world music, and classical, but no wind music. We were a small group, and limited in what we could play, but he could at least have put the occasional Fennell record on for us so that we would know what a good band sounded like.

I actually learned more about music in church than I did in high school, and it's because of that influence that I decided to finally study music when I went back to university after my daughter left home. I actually had other plans when I started, but after crossing paths with the amazing band teacher at York, and falling in love with wind music, I've decided that's what I want to study.

Thanks Lora! Do you know when Fennell made that c...

2009-08-01T11:28:38.198-07:00

Thanks Lora!

Do you know when Fennell made that comment? It is interesting that this problem seems to be a long term issue. Part of the problem lies in the relative newness of our repertoire for wind band. Art music for large wind groups only has been written in any significant quantity for the last 100 years or less. We readily agree that there are certain composers and works within the orchestral repertoire that are "quality" (or at least popular). History hasn't given us the perspective yet to sort the wheat from the chaff. Does this give us an excuse to programme crap? NO! But it does make the job more difficult - and more important.

I am saddened by the number of my colleagues who don't listen to band repertoire. When the idea is suggested, I feel like I'm suggesting the rediculous. If we don't believe that the music that we are teaching is good enough to listen to on our own time, then why are we teaching it? Maybe every school should be a rock school if that is what the teachers know and believe in. That is, provided that we can find ways of ensuring that all aspects of music throughout history are addressed.

I truly believe that wind bands remain one of the best vehicles for music education in our schools. Although bands should not play all forms of music - a band playing Hip-Hop or Indian folk music just won't get close enough to the mark to be authentic - it is flexible enough to address a wide variety of repertoire well. We, as music educators, need to use this to our advantage and find the best repertoire in a variety of styles to educate our students. Not every student will like every piece that we study, but perhaps, like what seems to have happened to you, Lora, we will strike a chord with each student often enough to start a life-long love of music!

Several years ago, somebody posted this quote to a...

2009-08-01T11:07:45.072-07:00

Several years ago, somebody posted this quote to an email list I was reading.

> >THE MUSIC WE CHOOSE TODAY CAN AFFECT STUDENTS FOR EVER
> >We must learn to teach music - not band, not orchestra, not chorus, but music
itself...Choosing music is the single most important thing a band director can
do, and is the only thing a band director can do alone, made more important
because of the substandard repertoire continuously being published. So many
publishers in the business today are printers who don't care about quality, but
only about what will sell. We must not allow them to give the band a bad
reputation nor to make our decisions for us, since the music we choose today can
affect students for ever.
> >
> >Frederick Fennell
> >

And this was my reply:

"What an amazing quote! When is it from, and is the situation in publishing
really that bad now?

I don't play any instrument now - I just sing, and I've returned to school to
study music history - but I was in a highschool band. I played oboe, which I
loved & was sad to give back when I left that school, but so much of the music
we played was really bad that it was over 20 years before I listened to any band
music again. In the past year I have started listening again & learning more
about this type of music, but it is only luck - last winter I attended a concert
at school because I was too ill to sing evensong, and most of the concert was
unremarkable, but I heard one piece that I thought was really amazing & decided
that I had been to quick to decide that band music was all crap.

The one thing I don't understand is why the substandard music sells - it sounds
like we need to educate the educators.

Lora"

Although I am sad to hear that the crap music is still being inflicted on students, I am glad that people are talking seriously about it - three cheers for Budiansky! - and hope things improve. When I was in choir (up to grade 8) and in orchestra (grade 9&10), we played good music - the teachers somehow managed to find quality stuff that was within our technical skills - and we also listened to recordings and live performances by other groups. I was in band class for only one year after moving to an area where the local school had neither orchestra nor choir. I loved oboe - I have always loved woodwinds - but I do not have fond memories of band class. Actually, that class is the reason I didn't go into music after high school, which is what I had orginally planned to do. If the orchestra teachers can find decent music for their beginning classes, I don't see why the band teachers can't do the same. Maybe at least they could play some of the better music for their classes even if the students aren't ready to play it themselves - then at least they would know what a good band can be, instead of thinking it's just the boring stuff they are learning in class. I have done a lot of listening over the past few years, and have discovered that there is a lot of amazing wind music out there - it was a big mistake to let that dreadful high school band put me off, and I will be forever grateful to one of my university teachers who was responsible for introducing me to some the better wind music out there, both in examples that he played for us in the conducting and musicianship class, and by the interesting programs he chose for the Wind Symphony concerts.

Lora