ABSTRACT

When we consider the latent possibilities of a modern concert wind band it seems almost incomprehensible that the leading composers of our era do not write as extensively for it as they do for the symphony orchestra. No doubt there are many phases of musical emotion that the wind band is not so fitted to portray as is the symphony orchestra, but on the other hand it is quite evident that in certain realms of musical expressiveness the wind band (not of course the usual band of small dimensions as we most often encounter it, but an ideal band of some fifty or more pieces) has no rival. It is not so much the wind band as it already is, in the various countries, that should engage the creative attentions of contemporaneous composers of genius, as the band as it should be and will be; for it is still in a pliable state as regards its make-up as compared with the more settled form of the sound-ingredients of the symphony orchestra. Those who are interested in exploring the full latent possibilities of the modern concert wind band should consult Arthur A. Clappé’s The Wind Band and its Instruments, 6 an epoch-making work which is to the band of today what Berlioz’s Treatise on Instrumentation was to the orchestra of his time — a standard work that no composer, musician, bandmaster or bandsman should fail to know and absorb.