In my series of posts about different musical instruments, I have, over time, managed to cover most of the most common instruments that feature in Western music – those instruments that your children are most likely to be learning to play, or to come across in some way during their time in education at least. So rather than either go back over those instruments I have already written about, or write about less common instruments (which is something I may well do in future years), I thought I would now use my Facts About… series of posts to talk about the most common ensembles that your children will listen to, see perform, or maybe play or sing in. Again, my focus is on ensembles that feature in Western traditions, and it may well be that in the future I look at musical instruments and ensembles from other musical traditions, but for now I will stick with what I know. You can read my other blog posts in this series on ensembles by clicking on the links below:
Facts About The String Quartet
What is a wind band, and who performs in it?
- I am writing in this post about “wind bands” because that is what this ensemble was called when I played in one – I am a flute player, so I played in a wind band rather than an orchestra when I was at University.
- A wind band can have a number of different names for the same ensemble. It can be called a wind orchestra, symphonic wind band or concert band, amongst other names.
- A wind orchestra can be of different sizes, from a small chamber ensemble, to a very large group of musicians.
- The wind band is made up from musicians from the following families of musical instruments:
- The woodwind family
- The brass family
- The percussion family
- Sometimes musicians from other families might join the wind band, for example harpists, double bassists or even bass guitarists.
- Similar to an orchestra, the musicians in a wind band will sit in a semi-circle facing their conductor. The woodwind instruments will sit in front of the brass players with percussionists behind the brass.
History of wind bands
- If you are thinking of music history as a whole, then wind bands are a relatively new grouping of musicians. Indeed when composers started writing music for instrumentalists only, without singers, it took a long time for woodwind instruments to be regularly incorporated into the orchestra. So it is not surprising that it took a while for composers to start writing for a group of just woodwind and brass instruments.
- If you read this blog and my Facts about…. series on different musical instruments you will know that the flute is probably the oldest instrument dating back possibly 50,000 years, but the flute has been adapted and improved over many, many years, with the flute as we know it today being an instrument from the mid- to late-19th Century. And there is a similar story for the other woodwind and brass instruments.
- It was in the 1830s that composer Wilhelm Wieprecht put together a brass cavalry ensemble to show off what new, valved brass instruments were capable of doing.
- And as woodwind and brass instruments continued to develop, composers started writing more and more music for various different groupings of these new and improved musical instruments.
- In the Romantic Period of music history composers started to write pieces of music and entire works just for groups of woodwind instruments, and so the wind band developed into an ensemble in its own right.
- The military band, formed of musicians who play whilst marching – something that looks to me (an uncoordinated flautist) nigh on impossible to do – and these ensembles influenced each other, and also composers to compose more music for them.
- Gustav Holst piece, First Suite in E flat for military band, is one of the first pieces written for these ensembles and remains a staple of the wind band repertoire.
- Today, there is a huge variety of music written and arranged for wind band, concert band or symphonic wind orchestra – whichever ensemble you may be playing in – from music written specifically for the wind band to arrangements of orchestral works, jazz music or pop songs.
Wind Band World Records
- I could not find any Guinness World Records involving wind bands. So, if you are a wind player, or run a wind band, maybe this is something you might want to work on in the future…!
Sources, especially for historical information
- http://www.bournemouthanddistrictconcertband.co.uk
- windbandlit.wordpress.com
- https://www.makingmusic.org.uk/resource/introduction-wind-bands
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