03/18/07
There exists great music for concert band. And some of it doesn't even sound like band music!
It's the Sousa Sound
that is what I think of as the classic sound of the band, and it is limiting. Oh, sure, Vaughan Williams and Holst wrote great music for it, such as their suites. But those suites still sound like band music, resembling nothing less than the close cousins to Sousa's marches.
And I'm not saying I don't like Sousa. But still, the Sousa Sound is not something I often seek when I seek good music.
Well, there are works for the ensemble that don't sound like what we've come to expect. Holst's Hammersmith, for example.
But I've just heard Vincent Persichetti's Masquerade. And what a great work it is. And how little like band music
it sounds! I didn't even notice that it wasn't orchestral for the first few minutes of listening.
So, I add it to Hindemith's Symphony in B-Flat, Hovhaness's Symphony No. 4, and a handful of other works that stretch the medium, that don't echo everything else you've heard from the band.
I just listened to it on my favorite Live365 station, which is now playing (as I type) Poulence's great and glorious Gloria.
(You may notice I put in a lot of Amazon links. I do this in the course of spellchecking the works I cite; it comes second nature, now. I don't really do it for the money, which hasn't kept me overflowing in CDs or books. But hey: if you really want to throw a few pennies my way, just click to buy on Amazon. Or go to wirkman.com (the once and future home of my never-ending e-garage sale) and use the search button there.)
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