Grenadilla Music

Machaut, Gabrieli, Mozart, Berlioz, Stravinsky and Grainger didn’t disdain to compose for winds. They should certainly be good enough examples for today’s composers. Writing for woodwinds, brass and percussion is as exciting as composing for orchestra, chamber music, piano or other solo instruments. Bands can have power, gentleness, and brilliant colors. They need original music of today, music that does not worry about public school grading. Conductors such as Koussevitsky never asked Stravinsky, Hindemith, Copland or Bartók not to write difficult music. Their works challenged the orchestra players’ abilities, along with their musicianship, as well as the listeners’ minds. Today, however Bartók’s Concerto or Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms are routinely performed by university ensembles and accepted enthusiastically by everyone, including the audiences. Some forty years ago, a conductor of the Ithaca High School Band commissioned works from Persichetti and Bassett, among others, and they wrote challenging works; yet the band played them – and very well, I may add. The music was challenging, but Frank Battisti persuaded the young players that they could play it, and they did.

So much depends on conductors and their attitude towards new works. They can encourage, inspire, and challenge the musicality and techniques of the players with new sounds, rhythms, forms and ideas. The players can learn a lot and grow individually as well as collectively.

From the Strauss family and Sousa we have band classics. There are also some outstanding transcriptions, and so much has been accomplished during the last fifty years as far as fast-growing repertory. This book will attest to the impressive achievements of wind ensembles and thereby hopefully inspire performers, composers and audiences to meet future generations and to recognize the importance of bands in the world of music.