Klarinet Archive - Posting 000985.txt from 1998/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] The Wind Ensemble
Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 16:19:15 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.24
> Subj: Re: [kl] The Wind Ensemble

> On Sat, 16 May 1998, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
>
> > I remember playing with Fred Fennell almost immediately after
> > he formed (and invented) the first wind ensemble at the Eastman
> > School of Music. He came from Rochester to the University of
> > Massachussetts in 1951 where he conducted the all new England
> > band and he spoke about the new ensemble that had just recorded
> > the first Mercury disk.
>
> Gee....I thought the first wind ensembles were those that were all
> winds......like octets, sextets, quintets, quartets......some of the
> Mozart Divertimenti sure are wonderful works for.....um....wind
> ensembles.....that is, ensembles formed entirely of winds!

Please! You are playing a silly word game with me. The wind ensemble,
wind band, wind orchestra, wind section, etc. are terms that have been
used for a long time in a very general sense. Just like the
word "Harmonie" or "Harmony musick" [sic]. But in the sense of
modern military bands being redesigned by Fennell to perform music
one person per part, and being described as a "Wind Ensemble," that
is a contemporary event that does not date from before 1951.

So using sarcasm in the way you did above serves you ill.

>
> > At that time, the large universities had very large bands. Michigan
> > had one with 60 clarinets, and having 10 on a part was not uncommon.
> > The intent was to have volume along with precision. Revelli was
> > top dog in that department.
>
> Michigan never had a band with 60 clarinets........Revelli carried 22-28
> clarinets in his section......an exact doubling of a violin section. Even
> the Marching Band, 350 strong in 1983, only had 52 clarinets. Revelli was
> not only top dog in that School of Music, he had delveloped it from a one
> person department (himself) to one of the biggest and most prolific
> Schools of Music in the nation.....with a reputation for having the finest
> bands ever.
>
Don't say never Roger. He used 60 clarinets in the year 1953 as an
experiment. Prior to that and following that he used fewer, but 1953
was an experiment in which 60 were used.

Indeed Revelli was top dog in that school, he was a one person department, and
did have a reputation for having important bands of enormous size.
Whether they were good or not is arguable, not that I suggest that they
were not good. But having a reputation for the finest bands is subjective.
Have a reputation for the biggest bands is objective. That is what
he went for: size.

> Roger Garrett
> IWU
>
>
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>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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