The Concert Band

Banstand of Torrelavega, Spain

An orchestra of harmony (or concert band) is a musical set consisting of woodwind, the brass family and the family of percussion (not to be confused with the band formed entirely of brass and percussion). His repertoire includes many arrangements, but some composers have written and developed this formation.

Historical

In 1764, the French-guards are the first wind formation (1 flute, 6 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 1 trumpet, 2 horns, 1 snake, cymbals and bass drum). From the French Revolution and throughout the XIX^th century, the instrumental bill and the development of wind instruments enhances the development of wind bands. After the consecration of the clarinet in the second half of the XVIII^th century technological revolutions like those of Theobald Boehm and the advent of new instruments such as those of Adolphe Sax enrich the wind music born in the revolution of 1789 and disseminated in the whole of Europe to the New World. If certain courses are specialized in military music, ambulatory or street party with bands sometimes joining or battery-bands, others have preferred to develop the concert music kiosks or indoors. In the late XIX^th century and early XX^th century many wind bands have been created by groups of workers (factories, coal-mines, etc. ...). These bands were later developed their music in schools to educate future musicians able to join them and contributed to a first grid education in France.

Repertoire

If the original directory of wind bands consisted primarily of works of military music, over time, he amassed arrangements of music classical (opera overtures, concertos, masses) of light music (operetta. ..), but also many original compositions highlighting the qualities of these wind ensembles. For several years now, many arrangements of film music and jazz have appeared in the repertoire of wind bands.

Typical composition

Even today, the enrolment of an orchestra to another can be very variable in number and variety of musical instruments. Generally, it found :

- small timber :

Flutes, one of which can play the Piccolo
Oboe, including one that can play the English Horn
Bassoons which one can play the contrabassoon (rare)

- single-reed instruments :

Small Clarinet in E $flat.png$ (optional), Clarinet in B $flat.png$ , in 2 or 3 voices, console the most numerous, Alto Clarinet in E $flat.png$ (optional), Bass-Clarinet(s) and sometimes a Contrabass Clarinet (rare)
Soprano Saxophone (rare), Alto Saxophone, in two voices, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone(s) and Bass Saxophone (rare)

- brass :

Trumpets, Cornets, Flugelhorns in 2 or 3 voices
Horns, Altos Saxhorns, in 2 ou 4 voices
Trombones slide (more rarely piston), in 3 voices, one that can play the Bass Trombone
Euphonium, Baritone Saxhorns
Tubas, Bass and Contrabass Saxhorns

- percussion :

Timpani
Battery
Bass Drum, Cymbals
Accessories
Xylophone, Vibraphone, Glockenspiel

- optional :

Sting Bass
Harp
Electric Bass
Synthetizer

(Source: wikipedia.org - copyright authors - article under GFDL)

Creation date : 30/03/2009 14:46

Category : Files - Orchestres / Formations-Definitions

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Glossary

Antoine-Joseph Sax

Anthony-Joseph Sax , better known by the name of Adolphe Sax (November 6, 1814 in Dinant, Belgium - February 4, 1894 in Paris) is a Belgian mailman of musical instrument, best known for inventing the saxophone. His father, Charles Joseph Sax, who was already himself a mailman of musical instrument, has made several changes to hunting horn. Adolphe Sax began making his own instruments very young, with two flutes and a clarinet into a competition at the age of 15 years. He then studied those two instruments at the Royal School of Singing in Brussels. It becomes a master of the clarinet to the point that competition is forbidden in his country.

The arrangement

In music, the arrangement is ancillary to the musical composition, as only informs a given topic by using a more extensive instrumentation - orchestration - or upgrading an original piece in a elsewhere.

An arranger is the name of the person that specializes in creating arrangements. In most cases, a composer "classic" is also his own arranger. Nowadays, composers create varieties of melody, but rarely have the technical skills demanded by arrangement. However, with the development of home studio, they can sketch out some ideas using synthesizers and color guide to giving a piece. But the final arrangement, very technical, will be entrusted to the arranger.

Classical period

The Music "Classic" includes music written by agreement between the death of Johann Sebastian Bach is 1750 and the beginning of the Romantic period or the 1820s. By extension, called "classical music" all european art music, music from the Renaissance to contemporary music. It is therefore necessary to separate the classical music, composers whose headlights are Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Christoph Willibald Gluck, and classical music opposed to popular music in the West or elsewhere (referred to "Indian classical music," for example).

The harmony

In its broadest sense, the word harmony means traditionally one of the four elements of music - the others being the rhythm, the melody and timbre.
Harmony is the deliberate use of frequencies simultaneously, with a view to provide relief and depth to the song or instrumental performance : she represents the aspect vertical music, while the melody is the aspect horizontal.

The jazz

The jazz is a music type born in the United States at the beginning of the XX^th century. Existent of the crossroads of the blues, the ragtime and European music, the jazz is considered to be the first specific musical form to have developed in the United States.

Theobald Boehm

Theobald Boehm (April 9, 1794 to November 25, 1881) is a musician - flute to the Court of Bavaria - composer, instrument maker of music, acoustics and inventor of Bavaria.
The son of a goldsmith, he is best known for having developed the flute as we know it today.
He developed the first flute in 1832 "Boehm system" (as opposed to previous systems, so-called "simple systems"), which is adopted by famous flautists of the time, but also meets strong opposition, including that of John Louis Tulou the Paris Conservatoire.
In 1847, he built his first metal flute, whose body was cylindrical bore and conical head. It is this instrument that will give birth to the modern flute.
The Boehm system was applied with varying degrees of success to other wind instruments of the woodwind family, especially the clarinet.