At 8:29 AM -0400 10/8/06, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
At 08:04 AM 10/8/06 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Maybe I should be a little more specific - our wind ensemble
uses pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns, i.e.
apart from the flutes, the "classical" wind band (although we
do play lots of modern music). If a particular piece calls for
extra players (one piece had a solo trumpet part I remember)
then we invite players in, but 99% of the time we are just a
wind octet/decet.
This has been an interesting discussion. Definitions are either very
flexible or have changed.
Both, I think. Certainly the terminology is flexible, and there is
also a prestige factor involved. And things do change over time.
I'm still thinking back to Fennell's ensemble at Eastman, and I
believe the full name was "Symphonic Wind Ensemble," implying a
considerably larger ensemble than an octet but still with one on a
part--and ensemble of soloists, if you like, but with an
instrumentation similar to that of a concert band. I'm still hoping
someone on the list knew that ensemble as Fennell created it and can
comment on the accuracy of my memory.
Our present Director of Bands started a new ensemble a couple of
years ago, calling it "Chamber Winds," which is definitely a chamber
group, definitely one on a part, and definitely NOT a band by any
definition. Where he finds literature for it I don't know, and of
course that's the problem with any non-standard ensemble.
I always assumed a wind ensemble was still what I played in in the 1960s at
Rutgers -- essentially the band, but with the marching instruments replaced
and extended by concert instruments. Tubas instead of sousaphones, French
horns instead of whatever they played (I forget), plus alto and bass
clarinets (I played second bass clarinet), oboes and English horns, etc.,
and concert percussion (including timpani). There were 100 members in the
maching band. I remember the wind ensemble as smaller (maybe 60).
That would be the equivalent of our Symphony Band, which only exists
spring semester and which is definitely a band.
Anyone who studies music history becomes aware that taxonomy (the
naming of names) is a major variable and can get you in trouble if
you're too arbitrary about it.
The pieces I have written for wind ensemble assume a large complement of
diverse instruments.
Most of what I have written has been for our Community Band, and i
write for what instrumentation we have at the time. (Which has
included, from time to time, bass sax, contrabass clarinet, 3 alto
clarinets, either not enough or too many percussionists, usually no
string bass, and never more than one oboe or bassoon.) I often
include additional parts "on spec," in case the time comes when we
have them. Right now our clarinet section is small, but good, and
I'm happy to write for the altos as a 4th clarinet part and not a
throwaway.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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