Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
An Unnecessary Barrier: A Critical History of Efforts to Define a Core Repertoire for the Wind Band
Abstract
The wind band saw significant development in its literature, instrumentation, and programming practices throughout the twentieth century. Midway through the twentieth century the identification of a “core” repertoire began to make its way into the forefront of the wind band profession’s priorities, resulting in three significant studies by Acton Eric Ostling Jr. (1978), Jay Warren Gilbert (1993), and Clifford N. Towner (2011). Along with these studies many smaller studies and surveys were being published with this same goal of identifying either a “performance core” or an “intellectual core.” However, with new works of serious artistic merit constantly being written and included in these studies, it calls into question the purpose behind the efforts of identifying a “core.”A defining feature of the wind band is the exponential growth of its literature through efforts by bandmasters such as A.A. Harding, E.F. Goldman, William D. Revelli, Frederick Fennell and others in starting in the twentieth century. These efforts inspired other bandmasters and school band conductors to commission composers who were beginning to experiment with writing for wind instruments whereas before bands would predominately use orchestral transcriptions.As the number of new compositions being written grew at an exponential rate, programming practices began to shift from transcriptions to original wind band works. Major music distributors and conferences such as J.W. Pepper, Midwest Sheet Music, and the Midwest Clinic noticed these trends and fueled commissioning efforts and influenced the programming habits through their marketing strategies creating an ouroboros effect.With the continuous exponential growth of the wind band literature through commissioning efforts and influencers affecting the programming practices of band directors the continuous need to define a “core” repertoire serves as an unnecessary barrier to what could be the next defining era of the wind band. This era would be defined as the pursuit of diversity and inclusion dedicated to experimentation, exploration, novelty, and growth.
Subject Area
Music|Performing Arts|Musical performances|Music history
Recommended Citation
Frost, Trevor, "An Unnecessary Barrier: A Critical History of Efforts to Define a Core Repertoire for the Wind Band" (2024). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI31293227.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI31293227