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Frederick Fennell's The Eastman Wind Ensemble

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Frederick Fennell founded the Eastman wind ensemble in 1952 and was an American concert band. The wind ensemble focused on new music written specifically for the correct instrumentation, which was one player per part, rather than orchestral transcriptions. To this day the Eastman wind ensemble represents as the start of the concert band movement. Frederick Fennell did this by premiering numerous pieces and touring in different venues. One of the reasons the wind ensemble became successful was because of the first mercury recordings. Frederick Fennell sought out to standardize wind ensemble music, for it to become a genre of music that can be held at the same rank. Fennell did so by breaking the musical barrier, becoming higher musical art. …show more content…

Roller was part of the ensemble for only two years but in those two years he was able to record with the Mercury label, Alan Hovhaness’ Symphony No. 3. The recording was praised as one of the top ten recordings of the year. Donald Hunsberger is Eastman’s third conductor and one of the four conductors that projected the name of Eastman Wind Ensemble internationally. Hunsberger was born in southern Pennsylvania on August 2, 1932. Hunsberger was able to internationally tour with the ensemble and premiere hundreds of compositions. He was also important in stabilizing the instrumentation of the wind ensemble. Donald Hunsberger was also a great arranger of orchestral music transcriptions. He is well-known for his orchestral transcriptions of Shostakovich's Festive Overture; Kabalevsky's Colas Breugnon Overture, Grafulla's Echoes of the 1860's, Khachaturian's Ballet Suite from Spartacus, and John Williams' Star Wars Trilogy. Hunsberger is the editor of the Remington warmups, and he also the co author of the Art of Conducting. Mark Scatterday is fourth and the current conductor of Eastman Wind Ensemble. Mark Scatterday is the professor of conducting and the chair of the conducting and the ensembles department. Dr. Scatterday received his Doctoral in Musical Arts in Conducting from the Rochester University, Eastman School of Music. Dr. Scatterday has studied conducting with Donald Hunsberger, David Effron, Sidney …show more content…

For the Brass it was 3 cornets in Bb or five trumpets in Bb, two trumpets in Bb, four horns, three trombones, two euphoniums, one Bb tuba, one BBb tuba or two BBb tubas if desired. Other instruments include the percussion, harp, celesta, piano, organ, harpsichord, solo string instruments, and choral force as desired. Frederick Fennell was very good at orchestrating his concert programs, and he did so to feature every section of his ensemble. One third of the music featured the woodwinds, one third featured the brass and one third featured the combination of the woodwinds, brass and percussion. The Eastman’s Wind Ensemble first concert was program that way and included the pieces, Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 in Bb, K.361; Riegger’s Nonet for Brass, and Hindemith’s Symphony in Bb. Fennell’s excellent programing works allowed for future influence of band directors, and soon most of the repertoire performed by Eastman Wind Ensemble was performed by other ensembles. After listening to the excellent mercury recordings of the Eastman Wind ensemble allowed for the popularity of the works by Hindemith, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Holst and Persichetti. Due to the new popularity of these conductors and their music

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