News and Premiers

#49 – June 29, 2020 DAVID DEL TREDICI IN WARTIME For Wind Ensemble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A993_D2AyWY David del Tredici’s In Wartime is our Composition of the Week. This is Del Tredici’s first composition for Wind Ensemble. In Wartime was finished at the beginning of 2003 after four months of gestation. With a duration of 18’ minutes, the work is divided in two uninterrupted sections: Hymn and Battlemarch. Both sections are inspired by the war the USA and Syria begun in 2003. The former reflecting hope and optimism, as opposed to the latter, getting us into the darkness and drama of war, confronting musical [...]

#48 – June 22, 2020 HUBERT HOCHE HOPE For Wind Band https://soundcloud.com/user-642642570-907922214/hope-hubert-hoche Hope by German composer Hubert Hoche is our Composition of the Week. The work’s premiere took place on June 1, 2019 during the German Music Festival in the city of Osnabrück and was performed by the Bayern Police Orchestra under Johann Mösenbichler. This first performance took place during the final round of an International Conductor’s Competition for which Hope was the compulsory piece for the conducting candidates. Hope was commissioned by the German National Association of Music Federations with the support of the GEMA-Foundation. It has a duration of [...]

#47 – June 15, 2020 RUBÉN DARIO GÓMEZ PRADA EL SOLITARIO Tone Poem for Wind Ensemble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHI-4iM_REM El Solitario, by Colombian composer Rubén Dario Gómez Prada is our Composition of the Week. Written in 2019 and premiered on March 21, 2020, at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, El Solitario is the latest work for winds by Gomez Prada. It has a duration of 15 minutes and uses a standard wind ensemble instrumentation as well as piano and a large percussion section. “El Solitario, is inspired in the life of José María Acevedo y Gómez, also known as “El Solitario”, who was [...]

#46 – June 08, 2020 OMAR THOMAS COME SUNDAY “To all the black musicians in wind ensemble who were given opportunity after opportunity to celebrate everyone else’s music but our own - I see you and I am you. This one’s for the culture!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDB8OhQP4Y Come Sunday by Omar Thomas is our Composition of the Week. Thomas’s 11-minute, grade 6 work, received its premiere on November 15, 2018 by the Illinois State University Wind Symphony with Anthony Marinello conducting, who led a consortium that commissioned the piece. Come Sunday is written for wind ensemble including Soprano Sax, Piano and Drum Set. [...]

#45 – June 01, 2020 SALVADOR BROTONS SYMPHONY No 6, Op. 122 “CONCISE” Symphony N.6 “Concise” by Spanish composer Salvador Brotons is our Composition of the Week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPaZM0BOqig (music starts at 1 minute, 11 sec.) The Symphony N. 6 is considerably short and does not follow an established external program. It is characterized as pure music. It has five direct movements, without much development or thematic manipulation, hence the subtitle of "Concise". The movements are the following: Frontal Courtship (Procession) Scherzo Passacaglia Finale Frontal With a duration of about 25 minutes, the work is orchestrated for a typical Spanish band setting, [...]

#44 - May 25, 2020 IM MEMORIAM JOHN PAUL ZDECHLIK (May 2, 1937 - May 21, 2020) CELEBRATIONS For Concert Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAlcHdZUiMg Celebrations by John P. Zdechlik is our Composition of the Week. We respectfully dedicate this obituary to his memory. John Zdechlik was an American composer, teacher and conductor. He has been elected to the American Bandmasters Association (ABA) in 1989. Many of his compositions have become standard concert band repertoire, including Psalm 46, Chorale and Shaker Dance and Celebrations. John Zdechlik began his tenure in 1970 at Lakewood Community College (now Century College) in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where [...]

#43 - May 18, 2020 JEAN-FRANÇOIS MICHEL GUERNICA For Concert Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcVejhbe_Qc Guernica by Swiss composer Jean-François Michel is our Composition of the Week. Written in 2015, Guernica was the compulsory piece in the 2016 Swiss National Music Festival for the highest Concert Band’s category. It uses a standard instrumentation and has a duration of about 16 minutes. “For his new work, Jean-François Michel has reevoked the name of Guernica as a recurring and disturbing reminder of an unending nightmare in perpetual motion. He describes it in following terms: A short introduction in “chamber music” style illustrates the peaceful daily life [...]

#42 - May 11, 2020 CARLOS CAIRES PIANISSIMO For Wind Band, Piano and Electronics https://soundcloud.com/user-642642570-907922214/sets/wasbe-composition-of-the-week “Pianissimo” for Wind Band, Piano and Electronics by Portuguese composer Carlos Caires is our Composition of the Week. Pianissimo was written in 2017 and has a duration of about 12’. The electronic part consists of two sound files that should be triggered at two specific moments of the piece, using the Max/MSP patch provided. This patch is very simple to operate. It has to be triggered in sync with the conductor, who is equipped with an “in-ear device” to follow a click track. You can take [...]

#41 – May 04, 2020 AULIS SALLINEN THE PALACE RHAPSODY OP. 72 (PALATSIRAPSODIA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmE_hFkiu80 “The Palace Rhapsody, Op.72” by finish composer Aulis Sallinen is our Composition of the Week. The music from the rhapsody derives from Palatsi (The Palace), which is Sallinen’s fifth opera, composed in the early 1990s, with libretto by Irene Dische and Hans Magnus Enzensberger, with Sallinen himself providing the Finnish version of the text. The Palace was commissioned by the Savonlinna Opera Festival and was first performed on July 26, 1995. The opera main subject is a satire on the collapse of a corrupt regime. A couple [...]

#40 – April 27, 2020 JOEL PUCKETT SOUTHERN COMFORTS Violin Concerto https://soundcloud.com/user-642642570-907922214/sets/wasbe-composition-of-the-1 Joel Puckett’s Southern Comforts is our Composition of the Week. Southern Comforts is a violin concerto with orchestral winds and percussion. The concerto has a length of about 16 minutes and it was completed in October 2008 for a consortium of collegiate American wind ensembles organized by Robert Ambrose of Georgia State University. Puckett calls for an ensemble of 15 players: 2222/1110.Doublebass.Piano.Percussion (2) Southern Comforts is cast in four movements: Faulkner Ritual: Football and The Lord Lamentation Mint Julep They are an evocation of the composer’s nostalgy for his [...]