Klarinet Archive - Posting 000596.txt from 1995/10

From: k_barr@-----.CA
Subj: Re: Wind Ens
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 23:59:12 -0400

On Sun, 15 Oct 1995, Michiya Nishino wrote:

> On Sat, 14 Oct 1995, Lou Polcari wrote:
>
> > I can not believe what is being played by the so called wind
ensemble
> > today... I am having some trouble adjusting to playing clarinet in this
> > "ensemble" The music for the "ensemble" is in IMHO of poor quality... ie in
> > this band we are playing a work be someone called Maslanko (or something
that
> > sounds like that anyway) The title of this is called "Tears" it comes with
a
> > five page Essay from the "composer" to explain to the band what the music is
a
> ll
> > about....? Am I the only guy who thinks this is bad 20th century music? I
li
> ke
> > the work of Ned Roram and Coligiliano ect. but this? ugh. I know that
there
> is
> >
> > Lou Polcari
>
> Lou,
>
> I would tend to disagree with your generalization that music for the Wind
> Ensemble is of poor quality. I know you didn't explicitly say that ALL
> music for wind ens. is poor, but as an avid listener/player of music
> written for Wind Ensemble, allow me to make a few comments. I'm not
> familiar with the David Maslanka composition (_Tears_) that you
> mentioned, but in my experience, much of the music composed for winds in
> this century is absolutely superb.
>
> Both my band directors in high school and at the university are great
> advocates of music written originally for winds (as opposed to
> transcriptions of orchestral works), so I have developed an appreciation
> for many of 20th-century wind works--I'll list a few of the pieces that I
> have especially enjoyed, to give you an idea of what IS good out there:
>
> _Sinfonietta for Concert Band_---Ingolf Dahl
> _and the mountains rising nowhere_---Joseph Schwantner
> _Symphony in Bb for Concert Band_---Paul Hindemith
> _Symphony for Band_---Vincent Persichetti
> _Emblems_---Aaron Copland
> _Gazebo Dances_---John Corigliano
> _Konzertmusik, Op. 41_---Paul Hindemith
> _Music for Prague 1968_---Karel Husa
> _Theme and Variations, Op. 43a_---Arnold Schonberg
> _A Child's Garden of Dreams_---David Maslanka
>
> . . . off the top of my head. You might want to check the library to see
> if you can listen to some of these works.
>
> Regards,
> Michiya Nishino
>
I'm going to add my two bits here.... for the past two years it has been
my pleasure to play with the Honour Wind Ensemble at UBC. I have really
strong tastes about good music, but all of the pieces that I have played
so far have been gorgeously written for wind ensembles. I won't deny
there are some kinda...well.... but for the most part, I believe that
music written for wind ensembles is pretty good. Some good ones: and I
can't name composers, its been a while....
- Sea, Sky, and Golden Hill
- Sunflower Saga
- A Collection of Sea Songs
- some other good pieces, not wriiten exclusively for wind ensembles, but
great to accent the wind section, are Parade of the Tall Ships and Empire
Overture. These pieces (all of them) are not too challenging, but they
are deceptivelly simple and if you've got a good wind ensemble, they are
just beautiful.

:-) K.Barr