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Teaching Genres in Band
Authored by David
Conrad
Simply defined, the word genre means "a category
used for classifying art". We can talk about genres in painting,
sculpture, folk art, music, dance, and drama, among others.
Genres are important for comparing artists' works, cataloging
works, as well for studying innovations and stylistic changes
over time. For this outline, genre classes are based on the form
of the work, the performance forces involved, and the
utilitarian purpose for which the music was composed.
This list is not inclusive, but should be useful in several
educational settings. Bands and orchestras could experience an
integrated performance unit on the study and performance of
music from various genres. The final concert would include music
from each genre studied, or a concert could focus on one genre
(such as instrumental dances).
Heavy coverage is devoted to marches, a favorite genre of
wind bands. Of special interest is the research on Sergei
Prokofiev. During his youth, he was heavily influenced by the
Russian military bands, having composed several marches for
them.
Table of Contents
- Program Symphony: a multi-movement work
which contains a descriptive title or program. A program is
meant to be read by the audience before the performance.xxx
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony #6 "Pastorale"
- Beethoven intended to paint an image of rural life in
a rustic, country village. In the music, he quotes
peasant songs and other folk tunes which were well-known
to his audiences.
- Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique - At
the premier, Berlioz distributed a written program which
described the images and messages he portrayed in the
music.
- Concert Overture: a single-movement
work composed for performance at independent concerts. They
often contain a program dealing with history or literature.
Concert overtures are typically in A-B-A' form.
- Felix Mendelssohn: Overture for Winds, Opus 24
and The Hebrides ("Fingal's Cave")
- Hector Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
- James Swearingen: Brookpark Overture for Band
- Malcolm Arnold: Peterloo Overture;
Beckus the Dandipratt; Commonwealth Christmas
Overture; The Smoke; A Sussex Overture;
A Grand, Grand Overture
- Edward Elgar, William Walton, Charles Carter
- Dramatic Overture: similar to the
concert overture, but these works were intended to introduce
an opera, staged musical, and other dramatic works. Many
dramatic overtures are later performed independently by
instrumental ensembles.
- Hector Berlioz: Overture to "Beatrice and
Benedict"
- Leonard Bernstein: Overture to "Candide"
- W.A. Mozart: Overture to "The Marriage of
Figaro"
- Symphonic Poem: usually a
single-movement, multi-section work which includes a program
which is meant to be read by the audience before the
performance.
- Single Movement Symphonic Poems
- Franz Liszt: Les Preludes; Tasso
- Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
- Paul Dukas: The Sourcer's Apprentice
- Tone Poem: similar to the symphonic poem.
- Jean Sibelius: Finlandia; En Saga; The
Oceanides
- Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathrusta;
Don Juan; Ein Heidenlaben
- Multi-Movement Symphonic Poems
- Claude Debussy: La Mer
- Gustav Holst: The Planets
- Incidental Music: a multi-movement work
which is written to accompany a play. Each movement
maintains a highly independent character. Incidental music
has evolved from a Greek tradition in which music was played
before and during acts of a play either to support or
digress the action. Film music may be considered an offshoot
of incidental music. Today, incidental music also exists as
independent genre (composed with a programmatic intention,
but not to accompany a dramatic work).
- Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer's Night Dream
- Norman Dello Joio: Satiric Dances
- Edward Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite
- Theme and Variations
- William Schuman: Chester Overture;
Chester from New England Triptych
- Arnold Schoenberg: Theme and Variations Opus 43a
- John Barnes Chance: Variations on a Korean Folk
Song
- Norman Dello Joio: Variants on a Medieval Tune;
Colonial Ballads; Variations, Chaconne, and
Finale; Fantasies on a Theme by Haydn
- Benjamin Britten: A Young Person's Guide to the
Orchestra
- Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Haydn
- Music for Films and Theater: Music has
many functions in drama, both stage and screen.
- Background Music: reflects and
supports the mood or action of a scene. The first music
to accompany silent films served as background music.
- Aaron Copland: much of Copland's career between
1935 and 1950 centered around composing for movies,
ballet, and radio. Among his credits are Of Mice
and Men, The Red Pony, Our Town
(Thornton Wilder), and The Heiress (Oscar
for best film score).
- Malcolm Arnold: Bridge Over the River Kwai:
Oscar for best film score. He was also commissioned
for several BBC projects, including Commonwealth
Christmas Overture (written in 1957 for a
program commemorating the first Christmas broadcast
by a British monarch, King George V). Also wrote
music for the movie A Canterbury Tale.
- John Williams: Star Wars; Indiana
Jones; E.T.; Jurassic Park
- Title Tracks and Instrumental Theme Songs:
melodious and memorable.
- Opening Music and Themes of the James Bond
movies
- "Tara's Theme" from Gone With the Wind
(1939)
- Themes from A Summer Place (1958) and
Chariots of Fire (1982)
- Musical Movies: showcase the
performing abilities of the actors and actresses.
- Imitations of Broadway Revues: 42'nd Street;
The Jazz Singer
- Bing Crosby (singer) & Irving Berlin (composer):
Holiday Inn; White Christmas
- Saturday Night Fever
- Elvis Presley's films
- A Hard Day's Night
- Movies About Music: anthologies of
music and musicians, past and present.
- Amadeus: the life of Mozart
- Immortal Beloved: the life of Beethoven
- Instrumental Dances Many instrumental
dances are arrangements of dance music from operas,
musicals, or ballet. Others are transcriptions or
arrangements from collected folk material.
- Arrangements of Folk Music (or Folk-Like Music)
- Brahms: Hungarian Dances (first for
piano, later orchestrated)
- Percy Grainger: Mock Morris; Spoon
River; Shepherd's Hey; Country
Gardens; Molly By The Shore
- Malcolm Arnold: English Dances;
Four Cornish Dances; Four Scottish Dances;
Four Irish Dances
- Although Arnold's dance melodies sound
like folk material, they are actually original
tunes, composed by Arnold to recreate the
familiar songs and dances of the British Isle.
These dances were written for orchestra. Each
has also been transcribed for concert and brass
bands.
- Arnold on his use of "folk-like" music in
his ethnic dances: The Cornish people have a
highly developed sense of humour. Many are
seafaring folk, and it is a land of male voice
choirs, brass bands, methodism, May Days and
Moody and Sankey Hyrnns. The Cornish, despite,
or even because of, their great sense of
independence have been ruthlessly exploited. The
deserted engine-house of the tin and copper
mines bear silent witness to this, and these
ruins radiate a strange and sad beauty. I
hope some of these things are present in this
music, which is Cornish through the eyes of a "furrener".
- Arrangements of Dances from Operas, Musicals, or
Ballet
- Leonard Bernstein: Four Dance Episodes from
"West Side Story"; Three Dance Episodes
from "On The Town"
- Aaron Copland: Suite from "Appalachian
Spring"; The Heiress Suite
- Morton Gould: Fall River Legend
- Marches (1850-present): originally
intended for outdoor performances by marching military
bands. They have simultaneously evolved into a concert
(indoor) performance genre.
- Traditional March Form and Style
- Introduction: Usually 4 or 8 measures long,
prepares listeners for the First Strain
- First Strain: the primary theme is introduced.
- Second Strain
- Trio/Third Strain: key change to a related key
(dominant, relative major). Usually employs a vocal,
sonorous style.
- Battle Strain/Fourth Strain: fanfares, turmoil,
and transition. Brass section tutti, or brass choir
vs. woodwind choir scoring.
- Final Strain/Fifth Strain: a concluding cadence.
The percussion and thematic material is at its
fullest development.
- British Performance Style: the march step is
higher and longer, due to bending at the knee. As a
result, traditional British march tempos are slower and
more grandiose (quarter note = 100 beats per minute).
- American Performance Style: the contemporary
march step is close to the ground, with the focus on a
smooth, gliding motion. The knees bend slightly to
provide comfort and flexibility. As a result,
traditional American march tempos are somewhat faster
than their British counterparts (quarter note = 120
beats per minute).
- John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
- Sousa has been considered an American
phenomenon, arriving upon the American music scene
at precisely the right moment in history. In his own
inimitable way, he heralded America's entry into the
world of culture. There can be little doubt about
his influence on our nation's musical tastes. It is
a matter of record that he did more to promote music
in this country than any other person of his time.
- He served as conductor of the U.S. Marine band
for several years before organizing his own
professional band. The Sousa Band became a household
word as it travelled the world for four decades.
Technically, the Sousa Band was the equal of the
world's finest symphony orchestras. By paying higher
salaries than the orchestras could offer, Sousa
could employ the better musicians of the day.
- When the Sousa Band played in small towns and
large cities it rivaled Barnum and Bailey in
popularity. School's and businesses closed for the
matinee performance; people from miles around came
to see the man known as the "March King".
Although Sousa composed music of many forms
(including opera and songs), he is best remembered
for his 200+ marches.
- Sousa's Philosophy: "My theory was, by
insensible degrees, first to reach every heart by
simple, stirring music; secondly, to lift the
unmusical mind to a still higher form of musical
art. This was my mission."
- Stars and Stripes Forever,
Washington Post, High School Cadets, El
Capitan, Semper Fidelis, Jack Tar,
King Cotton, Liberty Bell
- Source: National Concert Band (6/12/92), James
G. Saied, Conductor.
- Sousa's Band Instrumentation (1924)
- Woodwinds: 6 flutes (piccolo), 2 oboes, 1
english horn, 2 bassoons, 26 clarinets, 1 alto
clarinet, 2 bass clarinets, 4 alto saxes, 2
tenor saxes, 1 baritone sax, 1 bass sax
- Brasses and Percussion: 6 cornets, 2
trumpets, 4 french horns, 4 trombones, 2
euphoniums, 6 sousaphones, 3 percussionists
- Source: Time and the Winds,
Frederick Fennell, 1956.
- Henry Fillmore
- Famous trombonist, arranger, publisher
- Wrote under various pen names
- Lassus Trombone, Shoutin' Liza,
Circus Bee, His Honor
- Founded and conducted the Goldman Band, a
professional concert band performing in New York and
throughout the world. Also noted as a march
composer.
- On The Mall, Chimes of Liberty,
Illinois March
- Richard Franko Goldman
- Son of Edwin Goldman and author of Time and
the Winds, a history American wind bands,
focusing on 1930-1960. Also noted as a march
composer and band music arranger/transcriber, and
conductor of his father's band ensemble.
- Right On, Seaside Park,
March For All Seasons
- Karl King (1891-1971)
- Directed the Fort Dodge (Iowa) Municipal Band
but began his career as a circus bandmaster touring
with the Barnum and Bailey, among others.
- Barnum and Bailey's Favorite
- Other American March Composers: Morton Gould (Fourth
of July, American Youth), Charles Ives (Circus
Band, "Country Band" March), E.E. Bagley (National
Emblem), Russell Alexander (Olympia Hippodrome),
Samuel Barber (Commando March)
- British composer, noted for the Enigma
Variations
- Pomp and Circumstance Marches No 1-6
- Twentieth-century British composer. Frequently
commissioned for films and public ceremonies.
- Also noted for his numerous symphonies, choral
works, overtures, and large-form works such as
Façade: An Entertainment.
- Prelude and Fugue ("The Spitfire"): a
two-movement suite based upon music composed for a
WW II film about the British air fleet. The prelude
section contains one of Walton's most lyrical and
stately marches.
- Ceremonial Marches: Ceremonial Procession,
Orb and Sceptre, Crown Imperial
- Other British March Composers: Kenneth J. Alford (Colonel
Bogey), Malcolm Arnold (HMS The Duke of
Pinafore, The Padstowe Lifeboat), Zo
Elliot (British Eighth)
- Sergei Sergeyvich Prokofiev was born on April
23, 1891. Prokofiev died on March 17, 1953, the same
week as that of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. News
of his death was repressed until the official
mourning period for Stalin had passed.
- Prokofiev's music is marked by strong, obvious
rhythms which complement lyric, singing melodies. He
often utilizes symmetrical, four-bar phrases. He
wrote many marches and dance-inspired compositions.
- Revolution of 1917 -- Lenin and
Communism
- Prokofiev left Russia just before the
violent Revolution of 1917. During the next 14
years, he travelled throughout the west as a
pianist-composer. Between 1923 and 1932, he
resided in the cultural center of Paris. He
composed the opera The Love of Three Oranges
for the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1921 and several
ballets for Diaghilev in Paris. In 1932, he
returned to the Soviet Union, where he would
remain except for two American tours.
- Under communism, the Central Committee
maintained a strict reign over Soviet culture.
Although Prokofiev opposed their censorship, he
cooperated with the government's philosophies
towards music and the arts. He completed
numerous propaganda works at the behest of the
Soviet government.
- Why Did Prokofiev Compose Marches?
- On this question, biographer Harlow Robinson
wrote that "Prokofiev remained all his life
intrigued by the possibilities of this seemingly
most hackneyed of genres" (27). In fact,
Prokofiev wrote many marches for piano, opera,
orchestra, and military band.
- In addition to marches, Prokofiev composed
symphonies, film music, oratorios, ballets, and
works in other genres. In his youth, Prokofiev
demonstrated signs of his rebellion against the
traditional school of Russian composition.
- In August 1905, he wrote to his father:
In addition to the marches, I suddenly hit a
streak of free composition. I was bored by all
that harmony, counterpoint, accompaniment, and
little songs with symmetrical repetition of
bars, and wanted to compose something big with
nobody holding onto my coattails. I began to
improvise and compose, also sketching out the
orchestration (Prokofiev, 79).
- Later, Prokofiev composed many marches for
the Soviet military bands. These marches were
often performed during official parades.
- Age 13: Composing for Colonel Tikhonov
- In December 1903, Prokofiev and his mother
visited the Tikhonov family. Colonel Tikhonov,
an officer in the Russian military, encouraged
Prokofiev to compose a march for band. Colonel
Tikhonov proposed that it would be played by a
military band under the baton of the young
Prokofiev. A few days later, Colonel Tikhonov
brought a list of the band's instrumentation
(Prokofiev, 82).
- In January 1904, Prokofiev began work on his
military band march. The original score has been
lost, but Prokofiev later recalled that:
...I'm sure it wasn't very good, since I was not
familiar with bands. I merely had a superficial
notion of the instruments, and knew their range
(Prokofiev, 85).
- Between January and May of 1904, Prokofiev
composed a total of four marches. He included
these in his portfolio for entrance to the St.
Petersburg Conservatory, where he was
interviewed by a committee of prominent
composers; among them were Nicolai
Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov
(Prokofiev, 102-104). Prokofiev later wrote that
Rimsky-Korsakov was interested in seeing the
marches because he was unfamiliar with bands.
- One year later in January 1905, Prokofiev
wrote to his father that Tikhonov had "very
much liked the March No. 1, scored for military
band, and said that it could be performed"
(Prokofiev, 123). In August 1905, however,
Prokofiev told his father: "...during our
stay in Petersburg I composed a new march, since
I had been told the first one was too much of a
concert piece. The second one was less of a
concert piece and less successful. Meantime, the
prospects of having the first one played had
grown dimmer, since we were moving to
Petersburg" (Prokofiev, 91).
- Four Marches for Military Band Op.
69 (1935-1937)
- Collection of four marches for a brass band
instrumentation. The first march was titled
March for the Spartakiad.
- The first march was published by State Music
Publishers in 1937. Later, in 1963, MCA
Publications printed an edition by Richard
Goldman. It contained the first march and was
titled Athletic Festival March. The
second march, titled Lyric March, has
been transcribed by Rodney Bashford and is
printed by R.Smith of England. All four marches
are also available from Kalmus Music, now owned
by Meredith Publications of Florida, USA.
- Israel V. Nestyev, a Soviet music critic and
musicologist, wrote extensively about Op. 69
in his book titled Prokofiev:
- During (1935), Prokofiev also
composed the March for the Spartakiad, his
first work for brass band. As we know, he
had been interested in sports since the days
when he attended the gymnastic drills at the
Sokol society. In 1910, St. Petersburg
critics had talked interminably about the
"athletic" character of the First Piano
Concerto. Now Prokofiev envisaged millions
of Soviet athletes for whom he could compose
a spirited, festive march. He was completely
successful. The march was truly "youthful"
-- buoyant, gay, and lively. The basic march
melody -- triumphant and exhilarating --
contrasts well with tuneful alternate
melodies in the Russian national vein. Save
for some harsh chords in the cadences, the
harmonies are bright and firm throughout.
The march is in a complicated and original
three-part form, with each section built
upon the principle of a rondo.
- The Soviet musicologist V.
Zuckermann warmly praised this work. "The
march belongs to that category of
Prokofiev's works", he wrote, "in which,
while using a popular idiom, he does not
sacrifice those elements of his individual
style which are so dear to him, particularly
his characteristic pungency" (Essays on
Soviet Musical Works, Moscow 1947, page
286). Moreover, this critic took note of
the march's clear-cut form, with its exact
reprise. "In this", he added, "one also
senses something typically Prokofievan (if
you violate principles, violate them
completely; if you follow them, follow them
exactly)". It is regrettable that this
excellent work is seldom played on the radio
and is not utilized at our sports festivals
(259-260).
- March for band, in B-flat major Op.
99 (1943-1944)
- This is Prokofiev's most performed band
work. It has been recorded by numerous ensembles
including the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the
University of Illinois Symphonic Band, and the
Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
- Conflicting reports of the work's premier
have been published, though it was probably
premiered on April 30, 1944 during a Moscow
radio address commemorating May Day. According
to Israel V. Nestyev:
- The musical season 1943-44 was an
extremely busy one for Prokofiev. With many
other Moscow composers he participated in a
contest for a national anthem. The versions
of his anthem were added to the list of his
compositions as Op. 98, in which four
versions of an anthem for the R.S.F.S.R.
were later included. On January 8, 1944, the
government expressed its gratitude to
Prokofiev and the other poets who had taken
part in creating the new anthem.
- During this period Prokofiev also
wrote the "March" for military band, Op. 99,
a very spirited work with a gay main theme
and a broad flowing baritone solo in the
Russian style. This "March", which contained
novel modulatory effects and a number of
difficult bravura passages, was intended
more for concert performance than for the
parade field (Nestyev, 348).
- According to Harlow Robinson (427),
March Op. 99 was a political composition
written in honor of May Day. Also known as
International Workers' Day, May 1 is perhaps the
most important political holiday in the Soviet
Calender, second only to the October Revolution.
The march was broadcast over government radio as
a part of the 1944 May Day celebration.
- The Love for Three Oranges
(1919)
- Commissioned by the Chicago Lyric Opera
Company, the work was premiered in Chicago on
December 30, 1921.
- According to Nestyev: The enchanting
blend of fantasy and irony, of lively humor and
tender lyricism, relates "Cinderella" to "The
Love for Three Oranges". Evidence of a certain
stylistic resemblance between these two fairy
tales appears in the rather unexpected
introduction of the famous March from "The Love
for Three Oranges" at the point in Act II where
the Prince's guests are served oranges. It is as
if one thread of living music here stretches
between Prokofiev's two theatrical tales,
spanning the twenty-five years that separate
them (382).
- Additional Marches
- Symphonic march in B-flat major for
orchestra Op. 88 (1941)
- March in A-Flat Major for Military Band
Op. 89b: based on the second song from the
cycle "Seven Mass Songs for Voice and Piano"
- Prokofiev by Prokofiev, Sergei
Prokofiev, edited by David Appel (Doubleday,
1977).
- Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography,
Harlow Robinson (Viking, 1987).
- Prokofiev, Israel V. Nestyev
(Stanford University Press, 1971).
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