Brass, Reeds, and Percussion on WLRH Public Radio

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Airs at 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Brass, Reeds, and Percussion (BRP)—as the name suggests—is a program about music for the wind band (as opposed to the orchestra). The program features music composed for the instruments of the typical American high school band or the typical American military band. Music With Few Strings Attached The program is not restricted by style of music (popular vs. art) or period of music (classical vs. 20th century). Essentially, there is only one “restriction” to the music heard: It won’t feature strings (violins, violas, cellos, and most keyboard instruments). Instead, the program is a showcase for such brass instruments as trumpets, cornets, horns, trombones, euphoniums, and tubas; such woodwind instruments as piccolos, flutes, clarinets, oboes, saxophones, and bassoons; and such percussion instruments as snare drums, bass drums, cymbals, gongs, glockenspiels, xylophones, marimbas, and timpani. Occasionally, even this restriction is lifted because of the history of wind bands and the ultimate instrumentation typically found in certain styles of music. Types of Instruments and Types of Ensembles The program may feature music played on Renaissance wind instruments. In many cases, these instruments are the predecessors of current wind-band instruments: Shawm (predecessor of the modern oboe). Sackbut (predecessor of the modern trombone). Chalumeau (predecessor of the clarinet). Dulcian (predecessor of the bassoon). BRP may also feature music composed for the modern wind symphony. In this case, the name “wind symphony” implies that a wider variety of instruments than the usual band may include, including a wide variety of exotic percussion instruments and such rarer wind instruments as the English horn, contrabassoon, or Wagner tuba. Other groups of instruments featured on the show include brass quintets, brass bands, woodwind quintets, jazz bands, and Dixieland bands. For example, “big band” music is wind-band music. Musical Styles From the approximate period 1775 to 1825, the military band had a typical instrumentation of two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns. This is known as a harmonie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonie). Fortunately, much music from this period has now been recorded so that there is a huge repertoire of recorded wind-band music from the classical period. BRP is especially excited to be able to expose its loyal audience to this genre of wind-band music. Of course, the golden age of the American wind band was from approximately 1860 to 1920, the period during which John Philip Sousa composed the “Washington Post.” Although most frequently associated with the wind band, the march is not the only form of wind-band music. Nevertheless, nearly everyone loves a stirring march; so the program features at least one or two marches in almost every edition. A peculiar aspect of band music is the transcription, which is an arrangement of an orchestral work for the wind band. During the golden age of wind bands, string instruments were more expensive and string teachers weren’t common. So in this period with no radio, television, movies, phonographs, or Internet, it was far easier and cheaper for a group of local citizens to form a wind band to entertain their fellow citizens than to form an orchestra. These wind bands often played the popular melodies of the day, which often came from orchestral compositions (especially operas). Indeed, the wind-band literature is a museum for obscure late 19th century opera composers. And wind bands have often—and still do— provide school children (and perhaps the public at large) with their greatest and sometimes only exposure to major “orchestral” works. For example, before roughly 1910, four-hand piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s and Mozart’s symphonies were the way in which most of the American population heard these major orchestra works. Likewise, during this same period, most people first heard opera overtures in the form of wind-band transcriptions. As we begin the 21st century, the wind band has been discovered as a more accessible ensemble for modern composers. Modern composers of so-called art music will often write music for the wind band because there are still more bands than orchestras. Their musical compositions for wind band are therefore more likely to actually be performed and heard by the public. More information about the history of the wind band: http://www.lipscomb.edu/windbandhistory/