# Highschool Concert Band (wind ensemble) Music



## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

So, I'm here to vent and see if anyone has any similar experiences. Being in band in High school is kind of obligatory if you are a musician, especially a 'classical' musician (composer in my case). It surrounds you with music-minded people and gives various opportunities and some of the music we play is kind of fun. Marching band, first semester, is hell for me. The repetition and mindless show music that we have played year after year sounds like the same rehashed BS which is then given a numbered score at the hot as hell competitions. The only reason I have done it for the past three years is social ties. Second semester, things mellow out with concert band and jazz band (my favorite).

Main pieces in concert band so far:
Ignition-Todd Stalter:





Critical Mass-Todd Stalter(get a new job todd...):





Into the Raging River- Steven "not Reich" Reineke:





_Anyway _, in concert band, this year in particular, we have started things off with a pretty intolerable set. The three pieces I have linked to seem to be the main ones. Two of which are basically the same thing, really. "Epikmusic" as I like to call it. I just don't understand why our director would pick it and I don't get why this music is even written. Wind ensemble music all seems to be awful to me. It could very well just be me. I feel like I am in a disney movie sound track in the raging river one's first two aprts, and then in the third section we have more epikmusic. WHY IS ALL FAST WIND ENSEMBLE MUSIC IN 7/8? I SWEAR WE HAVE PLAYED SO MUCH SUSPENSEFUL MINOR SCALE BIG TIMPANI BOOM BOOM OH MY DISCORDANT PIECES IN 7/8 IT IS RIDICULOUS.

Ahem. Sorry. It is just really awful having to spend sometime hours a day in a rehearsal with nearly decent musicians playing stuff that makes me want to vomit.

Yeah, I know, this has probably gotten a bit "elitist" but what I want isn't all that crazy. Just music that doesn't come in bite sized artificial-sounding packages. Can we try like a Symphony or something arranged for a wind ensemble? I'm sure those exist. I just wanna branch out.

oh and don't even get me started on those EIGHT NOTE HITS WHERE THE WHOLE ENSEMBLE PLAYS LIKE DAH!---DAH!---DAHDAHDAH!-----DAH!---DAH!-DAHDAHDAH! DA- oh. there i went again.

Anyway guys tell me if I am just being a negative nancy or if any of you have any similar sentiments. Any other highschoolers who play this kind of stuff? I don't think many of my peers feel the same way about the music we play so I probably couldn't muster a force big enough to sway the director.

Thanks for reading.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

I was in high school band back in the early 1970s. I'm a old fogey LOL. My experience was much the same as yours. Marching band in the fall, concerts in winter and spring. I would've stayed home & hid from the world if it wasn't for my music studies. I was learning music theory, counterpoint and orchestration with the intent of majoring in music in college. I eventually did. My favorite piece in high school was _Overture in B flat_, by Ceasar Giovanini. (We played it every year and everybody loved it.) [When I started composing, I wrote a piece that sounded vaguely similar. ] W. Francis MacBeth's _Masque_ was another favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=overture+in+b+flat+caesar+giovannini





I just googled "Symphony for Band" and found 2: one by Vincent Persichetti; the other by Morton Gould. I'm sure there are others.

I once had a college professor tell me that concert band conductors (and adjudicators) look at form and orchestration, not so much anything else.

Relax and enjoy this time in high school. This time now and the time in college will be the best times of your life.

Good luck.


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## dzc4627 (Apr 23, 2015)

Hey thanks. Yeah I am not as up tight as this post makes me out to be. This particular issue really gets me riled up, though! I will take a listen to the pieces you recommended.


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## Masonm (Nov 25, 2015)

Some more pieces you should listen to:
Mendelssohn- Overture In C (arguably one of the first band pieces ever written) 




Reed- La Fiesta Mexicana 




Debussy- The Engulfed Cathedral (band transcription of a piano piece) 





I once had a director who told us that the concert band is the worlds best pipe organ, since each voice has their own individual air supply. Which is why I've found my favorite band works to be the slower, chorale-esque ones (see the second movement of La Fiesta Mexicana).


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm sorry, but not surprised, I guess, to hear that things haven't changed since I was in high school fifty years ago. Yes, marching band was hell. Football games were hell. The only decent things I remember playing were a suite by Holst and a band arrangement by Lucien Caillet of Elsa's procession to the cathedral from _Lohengrin_. I'm sure there were other things but I've left the memories behind with my trombone. How did I let Mr. Hartmann talk me into playing that thing? Lucky for me that Bob on first trombone was so good. I just cowered behind him.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

band symphonies - Hindemith, Gould, Giannini, Erickson, Persichetti, Gossec. Holst Suites 1 & 2, Vaughn-Williams Folk Song 
Suite. Jacobs: William Byrd Suite LoPresti: Elegy for a Young American... So much great band stuff. Your director may not be familiar with them. They are free of the clichés that bother you. Ask if the band can sight read some of those selections.


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## ddavewes (Dec 7, 2014)

Some more recent additions to the wind repertoire:

John Corigliano - Symphony #3 "Circus Maximus" - it ends with a bang





David Maslanka - Symphony #4 - performed by a talented All-State HS band


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