While the stories of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, led by Robert Austin Boudreau, have been told in cinema pieces, newspapers, and other written collections before, (see also Point Counterpoint II) The Messengers and the Music devotes every inch of its pages to the largest commissioning program for Wind Orchestra. Written together by Robert and Kathleen Boudreau, the text outlines some historical context to the organization as a whole, all the while taking the reader through the culture and continents of each composer.
If you are looking for exciting works, or for titles and scores previously unheard in the repertoire of the wind orchestra, this book is a nucleus of thought that has the possibility of injecting into our programing original works commissioned solely for our genre. The possibilities of Henry Brant’s An American Requiem following Beethoven in the orchestral program, or Enrique Santos’ Concierto por Harpsichord following Marquez’s Danzon No. 2 pose endless combinations of new life to our musical stages. Each page is a joy to turn with the inclusion of original images of letters from composers, pictures of performances and collaborations, and a combination of text and newspaper clippings that deliver a compelling story of the chicken farmer from Massachusetts, and the authors’ contribution to musical landscapes along our American and European waterways.
Robert Boudreau is looking forward to the possibility of visiting with you and exchanging ideas with your musicians during a two-or three-day symposium that discusses the book and explores some of this fine music.
The text is available directly from the AWSO website for $35 and would be an asset to any wind literature or conducting course. https://americanwindsymphonyorchestra.org/american-wind-symphony-orchestra-the-messengers-and-the-music-book/
Trae Blanco, DMA
Director of University Bands
Murray State University
cblanco1@murraystate.edu
