Concert and Marching Band Music
Discussion
The origins of the concert band stems from military bands in the mid-1800s, organized particularly for brass and woodwind instruments and percussion. Their popularity rose in Britain and in the United States. With no string orchestra present, composers and arrangers are faced with how to account for the lack of strings. In classical orchestral music, the string section carry the large majority of compositions because of the wide versatility of the string orchestra, as I showed earlier with numerous examples. The light expressiveness of the violins and violas shift to the upper woodwinds. The faster cello parts are taken over by bassoons and saxophones. And the tuba, bass trombone, and the contrabassoon replace the contrabass. Some of the melodic lines would go to the horns and trumpets, but their ranges are very limited compared to the violins. That's where the upper woodwinds take over.
Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure
Hector Berlioz: Grande Symphonie funèbre et triomphale - one of the first concert band pieces comes from Hector Berlioz, who loved the grand bombastic nature of concert bands. This is from 1840. This recording does have a string section, but they are relegated to the sidelines.
Antonin Dvorak: Serenade for wind instruments, cello and double bass in D minor - one of the early ones for wind, but also has some strings.
Gioachino Rossini: Scherzo for Band - from 1863.
Percy Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry - an example of a concert band piece, and not marching band from the early 20th century.
Gustav Holst: Second Suite in F, op. 28b - great concert piece from Holst.
Paul Hindemith: Symphony in Bb for Band - an instructive piece to compare the sounds of a concert band lacking the strings section in performing symphonic works.
Ralph Vaughn Williams: English Folk Song Suite - composed for concert band in the 1960s.
Jaime Texidor: Amparito Roca - a nice example mixing in Spanish style, in particular the paso doble.
Robert Russell Bennett: Suite of Old American Dances - another concert standard.
Robert Russell Bennett: Symphonic Songs for Band - another concert standard from Bennett.
John Barnes Chance: Variations on a Korean Folk Song - the Korean song is called Arirang.
Ron Nelson: Rocky Point Holiday - composed in the 1960s.
Vincent Perschetti: Symphony No. 6 "Symphony for Band" - one of the greats.
Discussion
As you can see from the examples below, concert band music of today gets rich in storytelling and complex harmonic forms, similar to orchestral music, just subtracting the string section. It is more percussive, and also not necessarily as atonal as you find in modern orchestral works, which we'll discuss later. The focus of these compositions is on providing fresh music for middle school and high school concert bands. Composing and arranging for band music requires a composer/arranger to understand the ranges and capabilities of their players. A lot of these compositions come with information about the grading system for how hard certain music is composed. Band World provides a handy chart that shows the limitations of each grade level of performance from a student. A composer/arranger has to compose/arrange the music they are creating to fit into those categories.
Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure
Frank Ticheli: Vesuvius - composed in 1999.
Frank Ticheli: Shenandoah - also composed in 1999.
Frank Ticheli: An American Elegy - composed after the horror of Columbine in honor of those who lost their lives.
John Mackey: Wine-Dark Sea - taking more chances with thicker harmonies.
Grace Baugher: Remembering the Remarkables - composed and premiered in 2020.
Shelly Hanson: Albanian Dance - composed in the 2010s.
Catherine Likhuta: Home Away From Home - composed in 2019.
Tania Leon: Alegre - composed in 2017.
Carol Barnett: Cyprian Suite - composed in the 2010s.
Yukiko Nishimura: Winter Milky Way - composed recently.
Satoshi Yagisawa: Machu Picchu - interesting recent composition for concert band.
Dmitri Shostakovich: Festive Overture - arranged for wind band by Donald Hunsberger.
Johan de Meij: Symphony No. 1 "The Lord of the Rings" - composed in 1988 for concert band, not related to Howard Shore's film score.
Alex Shapiro: Paper Cut - 21st century composition.
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story - transcribed nicely for concert band.
Discussion
Marching bands also originate from the military traditions, particularly in Britain and the United States. The earliest marching bands were actually from the Ottoman Empire and, later, Turkey. The pieces were composed with a tempo fitting for marching. Pieces also did not alter the tempo much, if at all. The melodic and harmonic form fit neatly into 8 measure or 16 measure lengths with either a ternary or rondo form for its overall shape. Many would have a 4 or 8 measure introduction and a short coda at the end. John Philip Sousa created a standardized military march form, I-AA-BB-CCDCDC. The I is the introduction. A is the main theme and it is played twice. B is the secondary theme, usually softer, played twice. Then the remainder are variations that complete the piece. Composers would also try to ensure each grouping of instruments had something to do for at least the majority of the piece. You can't have a good march if half your instruments are not playing, after all. This provides a good short history of marches from the early days in the 1700s on down.
Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure
Claudio Grafulla: Washington Grays - late 1800s
John Phillip Sousa: The Washington Post - one of Sousa's most popular marches.
John Phillip Sousa: Semper Fidelis - the US Marines march.
John Phillip Sousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever - probably his most well known. IMSLP18027-Sousa_Stars_Manuscript.pdf - This is one of the original scores for the piece. And the following is a good example of a well written full score with a good section on information about the piece IMSLP474541-PMLP03235-53_StarsAndStripesForever.pdf
Kenneth Alford: Colonel Bogey March - as soon as you hear it...
Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstances - I really don't know where to add these, because they are truly unique. They ARE military marches, and yet they are orchestral, and they are influential in marching music. So here they are. This is all six of Elgar's marches, including the first one. You WILL know the secondary theme of the first march.
William Walton: Coronation March - from 1930s Britain.
Henry Fillmore: The Circus Bee - early, super fast march.
Charles Zimmermann: Anchors Away - it has become the Song of the Navy.
Edwin Eugene Bagley : National Emblem March - another popular march.
Meredith Wilson: Seventy Six Trombones - this one is unique on this list because it was composed for a musical first. It's too bad the filmmakers didn't take the march seriously because you can see just how out of step the performers are. Obviously they're all actors and not real marching musicians. No good marching musician would ever be that off!
Johann Strauss, Jr.: Radetzky March - an extremely popular march from Strauss, again as with Elgar, tough to put it in the right category, but it is a military march, and orchestral.
Julius Fucik: Entry of the Gladiators - once you hear it...
Frank White Meacham: American Patrol - another classic march.
Frank Huffer: Black Jack March - another classic march.
Robert MacArthur Crawford: The U.S. Air Force Song - the official march for the US Air Force.
Johann Gottfried Piefke: Königgrätzer Marsch - Prussian march from the late 1800s.
Discussion
Today's marching bands differ from those of the early and mid-20th century. The earlier bands generally patriotic and military bands that celebrated important military and state events, such as the end of wars. Because society has shifted to big cities with very different priorities, most marching bands these days are relegated to high school or college or to professional drum corps groups that compete for awards. Militaries still have their own marching bands for military performances, but a far wider selection of marching music is now demilitarized.
Composing and arranging for today's marching bands depends on how specific of an instrumentation you want. The drum corps, such as DCI groups, have no woodwinds at all because their sound output could never match the full brass and percussion. Non-DCI field shows still use woodwinds, but since woodwind sounds do not carry well out in the open, they're not as often used; mostly in high school field shows. Arrangement for field shows have to keep in mind the length of time available for your show, how the music can be choreographed for both the performers and for the twirlers. Also ensuring the percussion units all get good parts, and the whole show has a cohesion to it. Below I highlight one of my favorite field shows, from Phantom Regiment in 1989. It's not a great recording. I didn't watch it live, but I saw a really good recording when I was in high school, and the brass, at the end, when they all turn to face the crowd blasting was phenomenal. For composing/arranging, you have to consider also the amount of quadruple fortes you give your brass players, so that by the end, they don't lose their lips on the grass!
Highly Worthy Examples for Your Listening and Research Enjoyment
Phantom Regiment 1989 - From The New World - one of the best field show arrangements, and a fantastic use of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9.
Santa Clara Vanguard: Phantom of the Opera - this isn't the best recording, but the Santa Clara Vanguard in 1989 won with this field show.
Ohio State University Marching Band: Hollywood Blockbusters - OSU's famous half time show.
Ohio State University Marching Band: Michael Jackson Tribute - OSU's famous tribute to Michael Jackson. An instructive example for how to arrange pop songs for marching band.
Alabama State University: Half Time Show 2019 - great half time show.
Auburn University Marching Band: Half Time Show 2019 - great half time show.
University of Alabama Marching Band: Alabama's Million Dollar Band - from this September.
Huntingdon College Marching Band - field show from 2016.
Huntingdon College Marching Band - field show from 2017.
Huntingdon College Marching Band - from 2019.