Wind Repertoire For Orchestral Conductors

Revised November 2008

Very often coaches and conductors are seeking wind ensemble music either to play while the strings are tackling the Tchaikovsky, Dvorak or Elgar Serenades, or to use in rehearsal time which is being spent by string coaches on bowings and fingerings. There is now a vast range of repertoire for the large scale wind ensemble to add to the perennial favourites by Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Strauss and Stravinsky. A list of over 600 works from septets to works such as the Stravinsky Symphony of Wind Instruments and the Strauss Symphonies, compiled by the conductor/composer Leroy Osman, is available on my website in the Chamber Music Repertoire List

Bibliography

Some Useful Publications:

Composer Publication Publisher Year
Croft WASBE Journal Buchloe 1999
Good British Music Montana State U 2000
Gillaspie Wind Ensemble Catalogue Greenwood Press 1998
Hauswirth 1000 Selected Works Emil Ruh 1998
Kinder Best Music for Chorus and Wind Manhattan Beach 2005
Renshaw AWS Commissioning Project Greenwood Press 1991
RNCM British Music 4 decades RNCM 1991
Reynolds Wind Ensemble repertoire U of Wisconsin 1975
Stoneham Wind Ensemble Sourcebook Greenwood Press 1997
Wallace Wind Ensemble repertoire U of N Colorado 1984
Whitwell The Longy Club W.I.N.D.S 1988
Winther Annotated Guide to Wind Chamber Music Warner 2005

Two books to be recommended very highly to your library for purchase are:
An Annotated Guide to Wind Chamber Music by Rodney Winther, published Warner
Best Music for Chorus & Wind by Keith Kinder, published Manhattan Beach Music

See also the magnificent annotated bibliography of works for double wind quintet by Catherine Gerhart.

Some Works For Mixed Chorus And Wind

Composer Work Publisher Instrumental Scoring
Ball Pageant Novello 0302:0230
Bruckner Mass in E minor Universal 0222:4230
Gregson Missa Brevis Pacem Novello SB soloists, SSA choir
Hedges Manchester Mass Wedstfield Music Band
Honneger Le Roi David Boosey Narrator, SAT soloists 2121:1210 cel pf harm db timps perc
Stravinsky Mass Boosey 0302:0203
Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms Boosey 4404:4441:2P harp timps perc vcl kb

Recommended Large-Scale Chamber Works

Composer Work Publisher Instrumental Scoring
Arnold Water Music Novello 2222:4331:T
Bennett Reflections on a 16th century tune Novello 2222:2
Bozza Children's Overture Peters 3333:4431:T 3P Hp P
Francaix Les Malheurs de Sophie
Sept Danses		 Schott 2222:2
Francaix Nine characteristic dances Schott 2222:2
Fricker, Peter Racine Sinfonia in Memoriam Britten Maecenas 3232:4220
Gorb, Adam Symphony no 1 in C Maecenas 2222:4 db
Gregson Metamorphoses Novello 4332:4441:T5P pf db electronics
Gregson Celebration Maecenas 2222:4331:T P Hp
Gregson Piano Concerto Homages Maecenas solo pno+3(2picc)2+ca sop sax 3(bcl)2+cbsn/4431/timps (tubells)2db
Horovitz Fantasia on a theme of Couperin Novello 1222:2
Jacob Old Wine in new Bottles OUP 2223:2(2)
Maconchy Music for Wind & Brass Chester 2222:4331:T
McPhee Concerto for Wind O Peters 4333:4331:T 3P Hp P Db
Mendelssohn Notturno/ Overture in C Baerenreiter 1223:21
Otterloo Sinfonietta Donemus 3333:4
Schmidt Homage to Stravinsky Ms 2222:4331:T 2P
Strauss Suite in Bb Leuckart 2223:4
Strauss Serenade in Eb UE 2223:4
Stravinsky Symphony of Wind Instruments Boosey 3333:4331
Tippett Mosaic Schott 2222:3221: T 2P pft Hrp

For The Library

For your library, there is an excellent new publication from the Donald Hunsberger Wind Library, published by Warner Bros called An Annotated Guide To Wind Chamber Music For Six to Eighteen Players by Rodney Winther. Hundreds of works are included, from the little J C BachSymphonies of 1778 for wind sextet, right through to Xenakis, Fricker and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. For each work, we are given date of composition, duration, performance difficulty, discography and a general biography and programme note, often leading on towards other discoveries. This is an incredible resource, and will repay the initial investment in opening up a huge new repertoire. Another standard reference book for Wind Ensemble must be The Wind Ensemble Catalog compiled by Jon Gillaspie, Marshall Stoneham and David Clark, published by Greenwood Press, and a mine of information.

List For Future Programming

I have included a few works for double quintet, including perennial favourite Old Wine in New Bottles by Gordon Jacob, with optional contrabassoon and pair of trumpets, and two examples of the excellent pieces by Jean Franüaix. These include great miniature concerti for various instruments including trumpet, double bass and viola. I have added two examples of the 300 American Wind Symphony commissions by Robert Boudreau, published by Peters, by Eugene Bozza and Colin McPhee for orchestral wind brass and percussion , and three towering masterpieces of the 20th century by Fricker, Maconchy and Stravinsky. There are three very useful works for orchestral wind and brass by Edward Gregson; Metamorphoses is an excellent introduction to contemporary techniques for players and audience. Finally I think that the van Otterloo Sinfonietta is a wonderful piece for training a wind section, and to go with the two smaller works of Richard Strauss, you can now add Adam Gorb's tricky Symphony No 1 in C, written in hilarious homage to Beethoven's own first.