The history of "Wind Orchestra"

Wind Orchestra was born in the era of ancient Egypt.In those days, bugles and drums were mainly used, and played accompaniments to march. In the era of ancient Rome, the formation got bigger and made the basis of the military music of the middle ages.

In the middle ages, three important things occurred. First, clarinets and piccolos were added to wind orchestra. Second, brass instruments developed more. Third, percussion section started playing an important role.

In 17th century, wind orchestra got active in Germany and France and so on, and got influence on art music. During 18th century, instruments used by wind orchestra got more and more different among countries, but the scale became almost same as what it is.

With the development of instruments, it got possible for wind orchestra to play many kinds of music. Before that time,wind orchestra usually played out of doors. However, by making concert hall bigger, wind orchestra got able to play similar effect to orchestra, then wind orchestra got regarded as one genre.

The differences between wind orchestra and orchestra

As you can see, orchestra consists of "string instruments," "wind instruments" and "percussions." However, true to the name of "wind" orchestra, wind orchestra consists of "wind instruments" and "percussion."

Euphonium

It is also the characteristics for wind orchestra to include "Saxophones," and "Euphoniums." These two instruments are not usually used in orchestra.

The repertoire played by wind orchestra are mainly arrangements of other music style. There are a lot of arrengement of ochestra pieces, and of jazz music. However, there are a lot of pieces composed for wind orchestra. Like these, wind orchestra is able to play wide-ranging music.

One of my favorite composers-Masamicz Amano

This will be the last post. In this post, I'm going to write about a composer "Masamicz Amano," who composed my favorite music piece.

He graduated Kunitachi music college(Tokyo, Japan) and since he was college student, he started from classical music and contemporary music to jazz, rock, ethnic music and pops.
His manner varies from traditional style to avant-garde style, or he absorbs Japanese traditional musics or pop musics.


My favorite his piece is "¿Estilo de España por qué?". This is a Spanish title, meaning "Why is it Spanish style?". He named this piece like this because, as he said, his former teacher made him compose Spanish-style piece.
Some parts of this piece are sweet, other parts are very passionate. In Japan, some wind orchestra played this piece in Japan Band Competition. We can play this piece not only in competition but also concert, I think.
 It is hard for me to explain atmosphere of this piece, so please listen to it first!
¿Estilo de España por qué?:http://nicosound.anyap.info/sound/nm8480948

I think many of you become fond very much!

One of my favorite composers-Masanori Taruya

In this post, I would like to write about one of my favorite composer, Masanori Taruya.

He graduated Musashino music college in Japan, and after he graduated, he composed a lot of pieces for wind orchestra. His pieces are often played by from school bands to amateur bands.
His pieces are usually derived from historical events. For example, "Magellan's voyage to Unknown Continent," "Raising of Lazarus," "Noah's Ark," and so on.
Magellan's voyage to Unknown Continent:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKbIYWOTFfg
Raising of Lazarus:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkLVL9EhJj0&feature=BFa&list=PL69761D07E068A361&lf=results_main
Noah's Ark:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlZi_4By0cM&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL67B286077DDF8238

Among his a lot of pieces, my favorite piece is "The last letter from Mardock."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egdU5BMr048
Mardock was the chief officer of the titanic. He had been rescuing passengers until the titanic submerged. The composer integrated his imagination of Mardock's letter into this music.


The number of his music is too many to say at once, so please listen to one of his pieces first!

Famous music pieces of wind orchestra(Japanese composers)

Today I'd like to talk about pieces composed by Japanese composers.

1.Fantasy on Osaka Folk Tunes


Hiroshi Ohguri



 The composer of this piece is Hiroshi Ohguri. This piece is originally composed for Berlin Philharmonic. Later he arranged this for wind orchestra, then a lot of bands play this not only concert but also band competition.

 He expressed the atmosphere of Osaka by using the theme of nursery rhymes, shomyo, gidayuu, festival songs, all of which are very amiable for the local people. By his style, he was called "Eastern Bartók."

Fantasy on Osaka Folk Tunes:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tirgqn6AI9o



Hiroshi Hoshina



2.Fu-mon

 The composer is Hiroshi Hoshina. Although this was orginally a required piece for Japan band competition in 1987, many bands play this piece today. At that time, people said that "Playing this piece is easy, but it seems to continue with no end in sight to master." One version aimed to play as a required piece is shortened to match the limit time of the competiton, the other version, composed in 1999, is the primary version he thought at first.

 It starts calmly, and both melody and motif of this piece are brought up.

Famous music pieces of wind orchestra(foreign composers)

As I tell you before, there are a lot of music pieces which was composed for wind orchestra. I'm going to tell you some of these pieces which I like very much.

1. First Suite for Millitary Band, Second Suite for Millitary Band


Gustav Holst



 These two pieces are composed by Gustav Holst(English composer, 1874-1934), and these are his early works. First Suite consists of "Chaconne," "Intermezzo," and "March." The all theme come from Chaconne. Second Suite is based on English folk songs and dance musics, so we can guess that he was very interested in these musics.

First Suite:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngTnToAs4uU

Second Suite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nz7tvRdL94

2. Armenian Dances



Alfred Reed(1921-2005)

 Armenian Dances were composed by "Alfreed Reed," an American composer in 20th century. Armenian dances include "Armenian Dance part 1," and "Armenian Dance part 2."

Part 1 consists of five sections: "Tzirani Tzar(The Apricot Tree), " "Gakavi Yerk (The Partridge's Song)," "Hoy, Nazan Eem (Hoy, My Nazan)," "Alagyaz," "Gna, Gna (Go,Go)." The first play is on January 10, 1973, by University of Illinois Symphonic Band.

Part 2 consists of three sections,"Hov Arek," "Khoomar," "Lorva Horovel." The first play is on April 4, 1976 , by the University of Illinois Symphonic Band, too.

 As you can see, these two pieces are based on Armenian folk songs, gathered by Komitas Vardapet. In Japan, they have been famous for over thirty years since they were composed, and especially part 1 is often played from amateur band to professional band.

Percussion section

Percussion section plays a very important role in wind orchestra. There are countless kinds of instruments, so I will introduce limited kinds of percussion.

1. Timpani
　We regard four Timpani　as one set. It is usually made of copper. In the past, it was tuned by the tension of membranae.　In these days, it is tuned by the pedal, so it becomes easy to tune.





2. Marimba
 The keyboards are made of wood, and are broad and thick, so the sound is very deep. The pitch extent was originally four octaves, then stretched to four and a half by the improvement by YAMAHA(Japanese instrument maker), at last, extended to five octaves by "Marimba one."




3. Drums

Drums are used in many types of popular music, and needless to say, it is fundamental instruments when we play popular music by wind orchestra. The play style is very different among people, but the normal formation is "bass drum," "floor tom," "snare drum," "toms," "hi-hat cymbal," "cymbal."