Retired Chinese Workers, Musical Education, and Participant-Observation in The Beijing Sunshine Wind Band Art Troupe

The Beijing Sunshine Wind Band performs in community concerts in Beijing year round. The band began in 2007, founded by Lin Yi and her husband Zhao Yinglin. Lin Yi underwent cancer surgery in 1995 and recovered to form the band of around 100 retirees. Members begin musical training in retirement, and as adult learners practice hours gaining musical profi ciency. The music is Chinese and in jianpu numerical notation, but all of their instruments are Western woodwinds, brass, and percussion. The band performs at national events, museums and libraries, and toured Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Macau. Concert bands are civilian versions of military bands. Their marches include “The People’s Liberation Army March,” and lyrical songs such as “My Country” from a 1956 fi lm. Their performances draw revolutionary sentiments in suites such as The Red Detachment of Women, and the band performs songs from post-Mao decades, such as “Dare to Ask the Way,” from the television series Journey to the West. Trevor Herbert stated that concert bands serve communities as “rational recreation.” The goal of this article is show how a Chinese national concert band reached and created healthy lifestyles for retired workers recovering from cancer and other disabilities.

Effects of Experience on Tempo Preference for Selected Wind Band Masterworks

We conducted two studies to complement extant tempo preference work. In Study 1, we explored preferred tempos for excerpts from selected wind band masterworks of band directors and undergraduate instrumental music majors. Participants used a sort-and-rank procedure to indicate tempo preferences of six excerpts. Preferences for four of the pieces were substantially the same: There was no difference between original tempos and the 6% increase in tempo. These results comport with research showing increased preference for faster tempos. For the other two excerpts, listeners preferred original and decreased tempos. These results parallel earlier research showing that pieces heard as already fast were preferred with slightly slower tempi. However, in one example, music majors preferred the faster tempi, demonstrating that when examples are unfamiliar, faster tempi are preferred. In Study 2, collegiate and secondary school band directors tapped preferred tempi of four works used in Study 1. Results agree with extant literature: Regression to moderate tempi was demonstrated by participants. Conductors tapped slow examples faster and fast examples slower relative to expert baselines. Tapping performance preferences were consistent with the listening preference task. Awareness of these inclinations may inform musical decisions made by students and band directors when rehearsing and conducting.

Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber for Orchestra: A Historical and Analytical Perspective

A now standard component of orchestral and wind band repertoire, Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber was originally intended to be ballet music. This study examines the history and background surrounding Paul Hindemith's orchestral piece and demonstrates how Hindemith crafted each movement based off Weber's original piano duets and incidental orchestral music. The study was undertaken as limited information exists about the piece in its entirety, and much of what has been written primarily concerns itself with grammatical and contextual aspects of Hindemith's title. Existing analyses either only focus on a singular movement, or are limited; presumably, due to a prevailing notion that Hindemith simply orchestrated the piano pieces. Potentially exacerbating the issue may be the fact that it was not known for nearly twenty years after Symphonic Metamorphosis was premiered which Weber duets Hindemith reworked. This analysis, coupled with the background information provided, shows that Hindemith's settings transcend mere orchestrations and, in some cases, exhibit qualities of original composition. The analysis thoroughly delineates Weber's Turandot overture and three piano duets, part by part and hand by hand, to show exactly where and how Hindemith altered the original writings. The differences in overall form, measure numbers, tempi, meter, and harmony are listed. In addition, it is revealed which thematic additions, alterations, and omissions Hindemith includes.

Hi-Fi, Middle Brow? Frederick Fennell, Mercury Records, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble From 1952 to 1962

Frederick Fennell, founder of the internationally acclaimed Eastman Wind Ensemble (EWE), is considered by many to be the catalyst for the modern wind-band movement, often credited with revolutionizing thought and practice within the discipline. While this perception remains valid, evidence suggests that Fennell was much less serious (or “high-brow”) than many believe. Derived from original research in the Fennell Archive at the Eastman School of Music, this article seeks to highlight tensions between Fennell’s desire to record serious wind-band music and the demands of Mercury Records (EWE record label, 1952–1964) to record populist repertoire. Fennell’s archival material suggests that his philosophy was directly influenced by Mercury’s bottom line with the objective of selling records to the masses. Surprisingly, this synthesized a dynamic approach to programming for Fennell and the EWE—one that remains a tradition to this day. The influence of recorded media’s populist objective fused an approach for Fennell that is much more “middle-brow” than many may have believed.

An Analysis of Haydn Wood’s Mannin Veen as It Relates to Manx Folk Songs and Legends From the Isle of Man

Haydn Wood (1882–1959) was an English composer raised on the Isle of Man. His compositional strengths lay in melodic writing and scoring, and he is best remembered as a composer of British light music. Haydn Wood has also been credited with composing works for wind band, most notably, Mannin Veen: A Manx Tone Poem. Given the lack of research on Haydn Wood, his compositions and his homeland, this article focuses on the transcribed wind work Mannin Veen as it relates to Manx folksongs and legends from the Isle of Man. In this article, comprehensive research on Haydn Wood, The Isle of Man, and Mannin Veen is provided. For the analysis, original source materials are provided that can be used by conductors to better prepare and perform these works.

Pursuing diversity from the podium: Insights from Australia for wind band conductors and educators on achieving gender parity for women composers

Gender in music has been explored over recent decades with growing recognition of the challenges that are faced by women in the field. There has been substantial work exploring the Western music canon but little that addresses the music of Australian women, and more specifically, repertoire written for the wind band genre. With thousands of Australian children every year starting their musical journey in their school band, this is an area that has potential for significant impact in addressing the continued gender disparity for composers. In addition, the substantial influence of the conductor in repertoire selection and promotion of the music of women cannot be denied. This article draws its insights from an action research project that explores the journeys and experiences of Australian women composers through interviews along with artistic collaborations between myself and these composers. Furthermore, Australian conductors of wind bands were surveyed to ascertain their understanding of the role that they may play in facilitating change in this area. This article addresses the barriers that composers and conductors experience, the benefits of networks, the generation of additional repertoire, and the subsequent implications for educational contexts.

Front–orography interactions during landfall of the 1992 New Year's Day Storm

Although following a common synoptic evolution for this region, the 1992 New Year's Day Storm was associated with some of the strongest winds observed along the Norwegian west coast. The narrow wind band along its bent-back front became famous as the “poisonous tail” and paved the way towards today's sting jet terminology. This article re-examines the storm's landfall with a particular focus on the interaction with the orography. Sensitivity analyses based on WRF simulations demonstrate that the formation and the evolution of the warm-air seclusion and its poisonous tail are largely independent of orography. In contrast, the warm sector of the storm undergoes considerable orographically induced modifications. While moving over the orography, both warm and cold fronts are eroded rapidly. This development fits neither the cold-air-damming paradigm nor the passive-advection paradigm describing front–orography interactions. The warm sector is lifted over the orography, thereby accelerating the occlusion process. The insensitivity of the warm-air seclusion to the orographic modifications of the warm sector raises the question of to which extent these entities are still interacting after the onset of the occlusion process.

Labels, Inequity, and Advocacy: The “Woman Composer” in the Wind Band World

Is it time to retire the “female composer” label? While music educators would perhaps like to think society is beyond the need for such labels, gender inequity exists in programming, publisher’s offerings, and college programs. This article considers some of the arguments advanced to explain these inequities and the social/systemic biases that consideration of this topic necessarily involves. Finally, the author suggests paths and some resources for those interested in seeking out and advocating for excellent music that happens to be composed by women.