The lack of priority attributed to music education in recent years has meant that planning for advanced wind ensembles has been a sadly rare event in schools and counties. However, alongside amateur adult ensembles, high-level youth groups do still exist and continue to provide a powerful resource for creative music-making and community enrichment. Following on from my MT article on ‘concert bands’ (September 2023), here is an exploration of how to rehearse and maintain good wind ensembles, but this time with more advanced players. Roughly speaking, this refers to instrumentalists of Grade 6 standard or above.
Choosing repertoire
Although exciting, choosing repertoire for this medium can also be intimidating: being aware of the calibre of players, coupled with a reasonable expectation of what is manageable, is a constant and ongoing challenge. In this 150th year of Gustav Holst’s birth, his two suites in E flat and F for military band are a tasteful and stimulating place to start. Holst recognised the potential in wind bands and began to write seriously for these at the start of the 20th century, drawing on folk music from these islands as his inspiration. Other early 20th-century ‘serious’ composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacobs have written for symphonic bands and absorbed and created a noticeably ‘British’ musical language for wind ensembles. Later composers have also accepted the challenge of writing for this distinctive soundworld and, alongside international composers, a huge breadth of home-grown composers has emerged. Edward Gregson, Philip Sparke, Adam Gorb, Martin Ellerby, Guy Woolfenden and Kenneth Hesketh have produced outstanding works, and delving into their pieces yields a satisfying mix of challenging modern hurdles and technique in what is ultimately tonal music that embraces the harmonic and rhythmic potential of this musical dimension. Where repertoire really works for wind ensembles is where composers have understood what wind orchestras do really well and have written inventively and originally; where it falls short is when they have tried to make it sound like a (not very convincing) symphony orchestra. In other words, balance and ingenuity have worked when writing for the instruments rather than despite them.
The sonorities in wind orchestras differ from a symphony orchestra in that the literal requirements of the families of instruments are different: there are more notes to play, the language can be more percussive and rhythmical, and the physical and stamina demands can often be greater. It is these opportunities that musical directors need to be both stimulated by and mindful of when creating programmes and rehearsals, giving particular thought to the following points.
Woodwind
It is inevitable that woodwind players in wind ensembles – as opposed to symphony orchestras – are going to have a greater and more physically demanding technical work-out. They often cover the equivalent role of violinists, and stamina is a problem that cannot be underestimated. The best composers for wind bands are aware of this and write accordingly, but sensitivity to this still matters. Having more players doesn’t usually mean better sound or less exhaustion; most of the top ensembles are careful with the number of woodwind players making up the band. Ideally there should be no more than four flutes and, apart from clarinets, single players for all other parts. Some composers feature the rarer instruments, such as bass saxophone in Darius Milhaud’s Suite française or contrabassoon in Adam Gorb’s exuberant Yiddish Dances. With all of these, understanding the stamina required is important. Managing the pace of rehearsals and being aware of the idiosyncrasies of the instruments – most notably exemplified in intonation and tone – is essential. Bassoons, for example, often tend to be sharp by default, as are over-enthusiastically played flutes. Saxophones can make a beautiful sound but can also demonstrate poor tone-quality to the point of offensiveness. Expectation, use of language and a clear idea of the overall sound and mood aspired to in these moments need to be expressed accurately.
Brass
While it is important to let all players play (as opposed to being lectured to), describing the origins of the piece, or a little about the composer and their intentions, can be interesting and informative. Children and adults respond well to small amounts of metaphor and verbal instruction, though ultimately musical meaning needs to be conveyed through the stick. Clear conducting technique is so important for more complex wind orchestra repertoire, and brass players need this perhaps even more than woodwind players – partly because they are sitting further away from the conductor, but also there is less guarantee of a really clean note resonating without sufficient preparation and musical direction from the front. A classic pitfall for this group of players (in reality, all blowers) is the issue of ‘lip’ failure – which is essentially the set of muscles used to form an embouchure suddenly giving out – usually through fatigue. Another way of describing it is ‘face ache’, and it is a very real danger if the conductor is making continual and unreasonable demands over a long and difficult rehearsal. The higher instruments (French horns, trumpets, cornets) tend to tire sooner than the lower instruments, but eventually all players suffer from fatigue. A good way for a conductor to respond to this is to consider ‘warm up’ pieces (less volume and range required) and to alternate repertoire during rehearsals, meaning high intensity is not permanently required.
Percussion
Much of what applies to beginner and intermediate bands remains true with advanced ensembles. There are often multiple technically-challenging parts written for symphonic groups, and percussionists may only have some of the required skill-set. It would not be unusual, for example, for an excellent Grade 7-standard drummer to have never played timpani before. At this level the skills are quickly transferable, in relative terms, but they still present specific challenges that the player may not have come across before (such as tuning intervals). Ideally, an expert should be in the room to guide players with this, as few will have equal skills across all instruments. Orchestration at this level is generally very accomplished, which means every note counts. Editing decisions, however, remain important. While composers mostly make perfectly reasonable demands, editing may still be necessary (‘Is that vibraphone actually going to be heard? Does the percussionist have time to get to the cymbals? Do we really need to hire tubular bells for three notes that are almost inaudible?’)
Musical director
Reasonable demands from a conductor can only be made with an appropriate amount of knowledge. That said, the best directors always remain open to new ideas and interpretation. Indeed, it is often a sign of confidence when a conductor is pleasantly surprised by a musical idea or interpretation offered by a player and runs with it; it is one way to remain fresh and interested. Freshness, energy and enthusiasm are ideally part of the make-up of a conductor, though perhaps honesty is even more appealing. Most musicians can easily tell when the person at the front is out of their depth, bad-tempered as a result, or falsely cheerful. This can be avoided with sufficient preparation. General qualities aside, however, there are specific skills and aptitudes a conductor requires. Wind orchestra music is technically challenging to conduct (consider Sparke’s Jubilee Overture), with many changes of time signature and meter, complex voicing, timbres and dynamics. Ability to manage all of this with sufficient fluidity and, crucially, a quick ear is so fundamental that accepting this responsibility must be taken with humility and commitment.
These days, conducting an advanced ensemble is a rare privilege, one ideally embraced with seriousness and professionalism. The magic of music is the unspoken, vibrating energy that players and listeners can engage with – from babies to the very old – and the wind ensemble can be a thrilling demonstration of some of the most inventive sonorities. Seizing this opportunity means that today’s musicians are pioneers of this relatively young ‘serious’ art form – an awesome responsibility.
