Arranging, Composing, Music Literature, and the Future of the Wind Band

An Interview with Dr. John Boyd, Director of Bands – Indiana State University

By Glen A. Tuomaala

B&O: HOW HAS THE ART OF ARRANGING EVOLVED?

BOYD: Wind band arranging has evolved since the 1800’s and those changes have influenced the orchestration and arrangement of ensembles, instruments, and techniques.

For example, we have seen fewer cornet parts here in America over the years, but at the same time we see more flugelhorn and even piccolo trumpet in modern wind band editions. We have opened up the color spectrum in the brass.

We are also working to re-establish the SATB saxophone section which Sousa used; even the bass saxophone. Now that’s coming back, how we got out of that I don’t know, but having two alto saxophone parts in a concert band is often a wasted voice, color and range. Especially compared to the addition of soprano and bass saxophone. But because arrangers are doing it people play what they have. Of course the standard French quartet has always been SATB. When more arrangements call for an expanded saxophone section more wind bands will start providing them. It’s almost a “supply and demand” problem.

At the same time we’ve incorporated many new advancements in the percussion section as well. Certainly it is going to continue to evolve, how far it will go with the addition of electronic instruments no one knows.

The other important facet that has affected our perception of wind band arranging is our sound model since World War II. Our concept of the wind band sound is based on wind performance from the orchestral model and that is directly carried over into the band. It is very different to what the Sousa band sounded like, but it is what is being taught in the conservatories of music and high school bands. The development of an orchestral model also grew in conjunction with the sound of the Eastman Wind Ensemble which highlighted that sound.

Up thru the 1950’s we were still in the large symphonic band mode of having multiple players on the same part. Not that we don’t still have that today in some situations, but still, the sound concept is very different.

B&O: WHAT QUALITIES MAKE A GOOD WIND BAND ARRANGEMENT?

BOYD:

1. Color. There is a vast array of color in the contemporary wind band. Sometimes it is used very effectively and other times it is just the constant doubling and over-doubling of sound. Arrangers often create that over-doubling of sound color - I call it gray. Vaughan Williams said that the most important thing he learned from Ravel is how to orchestrate color.

2. Another factor is the effective use of the saxophone parts. I believe it is the most underutilized section in the wind band. The saxophone is a woodwind instrument. It is not a substitute for trumpets and french horns although most arrangers write for the section in that manner.

Most saxophone players have much better technical and musical skills than other woodwind instruments and yet they also continue to merely double the trumpets and french horns and are void of their own melodic voice.

3. Effective use of the double reeds: oboe, English horn, and bassoon and how those parts relate to the musical emphasis of the work

4. Imaginative use of percussion. Many times that means underscoring as opposed to over-scoring. Combinations of those things are the basics of what I look for in a quality arrangement.

B&O: IN TEACHING ARRANGING AT INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES OF YOUNG ARRANGERS?

BOYD: The biggest problem with many students today is that with the synthesizer and computer they have the ability to write things and assign an instrumental color that has nothing to do with the capability of the instrument or the player. You can write anything on a keyboard and assign it to the flute and it will come out sounding close to a flute. Now whether it is an idiomatic flute part or not is another matter; that’s the problem.

Just because you can realize it on a keyboard does not mean that when you put that part in front of a flute player will it be performed effectively. You have to know how to write for the flute and not for the synthesizer imitating a flute sound. Too many of our students today have a great capability of working on a synthesizer, using music notation programs on a computer, using computer generated sounds, but don’t have enough background and knowledge of the instruments and the details.

That goes back to the basics of instrumental timbres of each instrument, color changes, ranges, what is easy, what is hard, what is practical, and things that you have to learn by listening, watching, and playing. The other hard thing to convince students of today is that there is no short cut. You still have to study scores; you still have to listen effectively and evaluate what is working and what isn’t working. This is the same way it has always been learned.

The ear is still the guide. There’s no substitute for going to rehearsals, watching players, looking at what players write in their parts and saying, “wow that’s a neat sound, I wonder why it sounds like that” and then going to study the score and discover why.

B&O: THE ROLE OF THE COMPOSER, PUBLISHER, AND CONSUMER CONTINUES TO CHANGE. WHAT ARE YOUR BELIEFS REGARDING THIS RELATIONSHIP AND THE QUALITY OF NEW CONCERT BAND LITERATURE?

BOYD: When we look at the amount of new publications each year it is staggering. In the field today we probably have exponentially more music than we will certainly ever need, but at the same time we don’t have enough right music of what we need; whatever “right” might be for one person that is.

The question that keeps coming up is “who is buying all of this?” And in some cases I think very few people are. Many times publishers put out “x” amount of pieces with the hope that one or two will sell well to make up for the others, but often don’t know which two will do well.

We also have the capability now, something more composers have availed themselves of, to self-publish our own music both scores and parts. And maybe in some ways that’s the way to go. The finished product may not always be at the printed level of a professional publisher, but people might be willing to buy it at a little less money to have it sooner.

Even with all of this new music being published more and more conductors don’t know the good pieces of each repertoire period. They only know the most recent works or the most recent works of the last two years. Of course there is an establish repertoire that extends over many, many years that we cannot afford to lose sight of.

We really wouldn’t suffer over the next few years if no band music was published. All band conductors must decide what won’t be played more than what will be played. The lists are always much longer than what we have the time and ability to achieve. All of a sudden five years have gone by and we look at all of the pieces that we have not gotten to in the standard basic repertoire. That’s unfortunate.

In working with young conductors, especially at the graduate level, their biggest deficiency is their lack of knowledge of basic literature. They know the music they have performed, but that is very small part and by and large they really don’t know the literature. The pieces that every wind band conductor should know. Just like every orchestral conductor should know that there are 9 Beethoven and 4 Brahms symphonies. For orchestral conductors whether they have conducted them or not is immaterial; they are expected to know this. The same cannot be said for all wind band conductors.

B&O: WOULD AN UNERSTANDING OF THE STANDARD WIND BAND REPERTIORE SERVE AS A BENEFIT FOR NEW COMPOSERS?

BOYD: Yes. For some composers it is positive factor because they know the core repertoire, they have studied the literature and it affects and influences them.

There are also other composers who are now interested in writing for the wind band, but have no experience and don’t know the core repertoire. Others won’t write for the wind band just because of that. It’s not that they don’t want to write for the wind band, but they know they don’t know how and don’t want to do something that isn’t their very best effort. Or, they have so many other things on their plate and don’t desire to take the time. We are the ones that end up being the poorer because we don’t have music from composers that we actually need.

Certainly when it comes to convincing some of our very best composers to write for the wind band the lack of viable professional ensembles is a stumbling block. No matter how difficult or great the piece is a school ensemble is still performing it and it’s not being premiered by a professional group across the country with the potential for repeat performances. The distribution is also limited with recordings.

This is where the Japanese and European countries are more advanced by developing professional wind bands. There are groups in Hiroshima and Nagoya which have professional wind groups because they seemingly have not had to break down the orchestral stereotype and biases and there because there has been more municipal money available. They have a wonderful orchestral base, but there has also been financial support for new professional wind bands such as in Europe and some of the Scandinavian countries. One of the things that has helped this are the thousands of people who have already played in bands. This has created an audience over a long period of time.

B&O: YOU ARE RECOGNIZED AS A CONDUCTOR, ARRANGER, AND TEACHER. ARE YOU ALSO MOTIVATED TO EXPLORE THE MUSICAL WORLD AS A COMPOSER?

BOYD: Well, I haven’t moved “towards” composition, I’ve actually moved away from it.

I entered Northwestern University as a composition major, and although I came to the conclusion that I might be able to compose at the same level as other people it was obvious that some of those people had an original and imaginative way of viewing music. There are a lot of composers that need come to that realization. But then again, I did discover that I had a gift in understanding tone color and orchestration which I think is something that more conductors need to have.

Conductors don’t know how to read a score and understand what is on the page and how it relates to the sound that will be created. Just having to grapple with the compositional process gives you insight as a conductor into someone else’s work in every way; form, melody, harmony.

I think the compositional process is very rewarding for every conductor. You should be able to write effectively for any ensemble you conduct either as an arranger or composer. I found it very interesting when Loren Maazel was auditioning for Assistant Conductors that one of the assignments was to take a melody and compose a variety of short new works in multiple classical styles. That part of the audition proved which conductors really knew what they were doing.

Looking great is wonderful, but it’s like picking up a telephone and having nothing to communicate because you don’t know the language. What’s on a page is minimal information. The music of Bach uses the same basic notational tools as the music of Strauss, but they are still a world apart. It’s what you know about what’s on that page that comes alive. They all use the same basic notes, but a “g” in Bach is vastly different than a “g in Boulez. That’s where learning more about composition and orchestration gives some conductors an advantage.

B&O: DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE FUTURE OF THE WIND BAND INCLUDES PROFESSIONAL ENSEMBLES SUCH AS THE DALLAS WINDS AND THE PHILHARMONIA A VENT?

BOYD: One wonders about that anymore because we continue to read stories about major orchestral ensembles that may not be short of money, but are sold out with only 70% occupancy at each concert. People buy subscription tickets and then don’t come to the concerts; this is a great concern for them. For example, the New York Philharmonic is now scheduling 5pm concerts to catch people before they hit the subway so they don’t leave the city and not come back for a later concert. This is a part of American society.

We know that the general population for serious music continues to age. It’s just not something that seems to appeals for younger people. In many cases they don’t know how to deal with this. All of this will be interesting to look 50 years into the future to see how it plays out.

At the same time, there are more and more bands every year all around the world; 13,000 in Japan. There are more and more people involved in some type of band activity and we haven’t even thought about or know what is happening in Russia and China with their vast populations. The band in Asia, that’s Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, continues to grow as well.

It is very important to a lot of people and again it’s because they don’t have the ingrained biases of Western Music.

B&O: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR YEARS OF OBSERVING REHEARSALS OF THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA?

BOYD: The first thing that hits you is that the things the Chicago Symphony Orchestra works on are the same things that any grade school band works on. It’s on a different time scale, but the elements are all the same: do you start the note together? Do you end the note together? Do you play in tune? Everything is surprisingly similar. They may accomplish it in three minutes instead of three months, but they are basically the same things. It’s just different degrees and a different time scale.

Professional ensembles still have the same problems that they don’t have enough rehearsal time. Time is time and time is money. Every once in a while a conductor will pull out a work that “everyone knows” and takes it apart piece by piece to clean off the cobwebs. It’s very interesting to see all of the dust that has accumulated in that piece. In any standard orchestral piece all the musicians typically want to know about are the transitions. That’s where the differences in conductors takes place. How much ritard will you take compared to another conductor? What happens after the double bar?

It’s also been very interesting to me to watch pieces of great length in rehearsal. Most music educators are used to rehearsing works that are 6 to 8 minutes in length and you can rehearse that in a number of ways, but you can’t take the same approach when the piece is 40 minutes. You have to decide what needs to be rehearsed and what the musicians need to take care of in the performance. I’ve also watched the Chicago Symphony Orchestra rehearse a brand new piece and it’s revealing to hear the difference in that they have all of the same problems.

To his credit, I believe that programming is something that Daniel Barenboem has done well. He programs new pieces like that more than once in a season. It’s only in that way can you develop the continued experience to learn more about the piece, you can listen to somebody else in the ensemble and have the familiarity and continuity in successive performances where it get better and better. That’s the reason the standard repertoire sounds so good.

That’s what is happening with so much of new music; everybody wants to play the first performance and nobody wants to play the second performance. And so there isn’t a second performance with a great deal of new music. Then again, if a piece really has value then it’s what happens after the first performance that matters.