Just a typical day in band...

As part of a yearlong unit on 20th century music, we discussed minimalism today in Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble. Both groups are playing a post-minimalist piece at the moment; SB is doing Brian Balmages' Reverberations, and WE is preparing Michael Torke's Saxophone Concerto, which we will play with soloist Susan Fancher on March 22. So, to give some context, we listened to a lot of classic minimalism today. Here is the playlist for today and Monday's sessions:

• Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ, Steve Reich
• The Four Sections, Steve Reich
• Come Out, Steve Reich
• In C, Terry Riley
• A Short Ride in a Fast Machine, John Adams

Here's a Spotify playlist of the pieces.

In Wind Ensemble, we extended our learning by trying to perform In C, which is a series of 53 short melodic fragments that are repeated over and over and over. Each musician decides when to move on to the next. It was interesting how many students loved it and how many hated it--quite the polarizing experience!

I also received the juniors' ethnomusicology papers in which they present their research about the music of their heritage. I'll be reading about Russia, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Korea, Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, France, and Jewish klezmer music. Always a fun time!

Minimalism

If your curiosity has been piqued by our class discussions about minimalism in music, you might enjoy Alex Ross' website "The Rest is Noise." He wrote a wonderful book about 20th century music, and his site has a number of audio examples that go along with it. If you go to this page and scroll down to "Minimalism," you can hear examples by Steve Reich and many of his colleagues.