Essays The Maxime Principle: Thoughts on the origin of dynamic markings Tenuto and Fermata: Rebels Against the Tyranny of Notation On the Significance of the Title The Conductor and his Audience On the Wagner Trauermusik (expanded version) On the Brahms…
We speak often about “tradition” in music, particularly in the world of the military and wind band. We invoke it to justify repertoire choices, organisational structures, even aesthetic priorities. Yet we rarely pause to ask a more uncomfortable question: who…
Frederick Fennell/Eastman Wind Ensemble Hindemith – Schoenberg – Stravinsky Recorded 24 March 1957 Mercury Living Presence Mono Catalog No.: MG50143 Stereo Catalog No.: SR90143 Paul Hindemith: Symphony in B Flat (1951) Arnold Schoenberg: Theme and Variations, op. 43a (1943) Igor…
The Milan Lectures, part 3 David Whitwell On the origins of Symbols for Dynamics Here we discuss the symbols for dynamics used in the notation of music—the lower case p of the Italian word piano and the lower case f…
The Milan Lectures, part 2 David Whitwell Where does Music Exist? In the first lecture in this series I mentioned that Aristotle invented a new branch of philosophy called Aesthetics. He also was the first to point out that if…
The Milan Lectures, part 1 David Whitwell What is the Purpose of Performance? This is a very important decision for which every conductor must make a choice in preparing a performance: Am I going to give an aesthetic performance or…
Thoughts on The Early Documentation of Emotion in Music The earliest documentation we have of conductors is the images we see of them in the tomb paintings of ancient Egypt. They are seen standing, usually in front of a small…
Music is a special language for communicating feeling. Your job as the conductor is to work out what the composer felt, not what they wrote. There is no music in a score. Only grammar. Felix Weingartner says that the conductor…
Music is a special language to communicate feeling. All aspects of music performance—composing, repertoire selection, programming, rehearsal technique, conducting and baton technique, recording—should stem from this fundamental truth. Unfortunately, when conducting our ensembles we rarely get to the point where…
The Nancy Affair The History Since the storming of the Bastille, on the 14 July 1789, unrest had been spreading among the regiments of the French Army. Although the officers of the army were still predominantly royalist, the rank and…
The Iron Garden In 2017 American composer Jerome Sorsek made two trips to the national parks of southern Utah. He was so fascinated with what he saw there that in the six months between his visits he composed this five-movement,…
A whole world of the deepest thoughts Known simply as the Chaconne, this work is the last movement of Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin (BWV 1004). Each movement of the Partita is based on a…
As a first foray into composition in 1987, acclaimed conductor David Whitwell created a two-movement, 11 minute-long symphony for band depicting the "dark side of the Viennese Waltz."
On the 14 July 1790, at the Festival of the Federation in Paris, François-Joseph Gossec performed his Te Deum in front of an audience of 400,000 and forever changed the instrumentation of the concert band.
Ponchielli's arrangement of The Carnival of Venice, composed for band in 1868, is a tour de force for the whole ensemble, not just one soloist.
In 1845, in an effort to gain a contract to supply instruments to the French military, the bands of Adolphe Sax and Michele Carafa competed against each other in front of an audience of 20,000 people.
Did Beethoven compose any music for band? Find out about Beethoven's works for band we've forgotten, and hear the real story behind his work Wellington's Victory.
The wind band could perform a great public service in bringing aesthetic repertoire to an audience which has little access to it.
Considerations for the future of wind bands, part 3 First we must redefine the word “Music.” Music is something which happens live before a listener. A recording of music is not music. A recording is again only a symbol of…
Music is a special language for communicating feeling or emotions to the listener. We all understand this, but we do not teach this.
The great genetic role of the right hemisphere of the brain is what creates meaning in music and is what we mean by "musicality" in performance.
Danish composer Andreas Hallager presented a gift to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, for his 47th birthday: an almost 900-page score of a programmatic composition for band.
Audiences are disappearing not because of the repertoire but because they haven't been educated to consider music as something other than background atmosphere.
The music of Richard Wagner has always been a favourite amongst band conductors. At times Wagner himself recommended some of his music as an appropriate addition to the band repertoire.
The Longy Club was a large chamber wind ensemble made up entirely of members of the Boston Symphony and founded by the principal oboist, Georges Longy.