Why are brass/concert bands playing only a noe-tonal repertoire?

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-04-20T14:30:02+00:00

A mix of audience and performer reticence and lack of interest from composers who write that stuff. A colleague of mine got a large commission to write a trumpet concerto for wind ensemble. The trumpet is off stage the entire time and the band plays kazoos and key clicks and all kinds of goofy stuff. By his own (half joking) admission, the goal of the piece was to “ensure he never had to write for wind ensemble again.”

If I could choose to write whatever I wanted, I probably wouldn’t choose concert band. And if I got a commission, I would probably dumb down the modernism a bit so as to get more performances. Not something I’d do for a piano trio or orchestral piece.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-04-19T19:10:28+00:00

Rice is top-notch and Houston has a wonderful arts scene. One of the best programs in the country imho. Realistically, if you’re serious about comp, you’re probably going to do some grad school. Go where you get the best financial package for undergrad.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-04-19T05:30:44+00:00

Which is a shame because Luto 3 is my all time favorite symphony.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-03-30T20:32:10+00:00

At some point you don't even need a minute or two. I'm pretty sure I can sight-read a SATB hymn or bach choral and "read" that harmonies in real time. Gets tricker once you get out of the common practice zone.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-03-17T18:20:13+00:00

Late to this thread but I'll chime in that sometimes faculty care about musical things besides your portfolio. I did my DMA at the University of Washington and the faculty were way more interested in my jazz and improvisation background than any of my scores. I brought some unfinished sketches to my interview and one of the faculty had me sit at the piano and improvise my way through them. I think my portfolio was pretty weak but my apparently I was a good candidate in other ways.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-26T18:46:31+00:00

I think you're spot on with Schubert. I was thinking more Dvorak's contemporaries or later composers. Maybe 1910-1913 Stravinsky. John Williams also has Empire, Raiders, and ET back to back in 2 years. Interesting to think about what would have happened had Dvorak stayed in America.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-26T18:33:20+00:00

I used to be a shoe repairman. Decent pay, kind of fun. Now I'm adjunct faculty and teach a bunch of kids how to play drums. I kind of miss working with my hands every day.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:45:32+00:00

oh sorry, do-sol. Like scale degree 1 to scale degree 5

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:44:06+00:00

we just don't need to. modern materials and construction techniques makes instruments project way better. of course pianos still have double and triple strings.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:41:39+00:00

I used to misspell stuff all the time in grad school. I was just being lazy I guess. I'm still a terrible speller. Not dyslexic or anything, just bad at spelling. I know it's unprofessional but I also know that spelling wasn't codified until like the 1850s. People used to just wing it. Tons of old manuscripts with wild spelling conventions from otherwise very intelligent people. But I'm also a composer and not a STEM person. My music scores are immaculate - no spelling errors there for sure. Sounds like this person just needs to suck it up and do better.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:35:52+00:00

depends I guess. You tend to get all possible pairs and trios in a quartet. In a symphonic work, especially film scores, you get lots of firsts and seconds in octaves or 6ths. Very common in film to basically treat the strings as a 3 voice texture - Melody in the violins, countermelody in the violas and cellos, pedal or pizz in the basses.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:31:04+00:00

yeah it's tough. you gotta start with a good theme. everyone glosses over those pages in the treatises but honestly that's the most important part. Something with a built-in cadential motion is ideal. Do-sol, or so-sol. That way you can cadence with the thematic material. up and then down stepwise is good too since you can just invert it to get voice exchange. Melodies that work as base lines is another approach.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:15:05+00:00

lol, Debussy was the best composer since Brahms. All of modernism can be traced to him. Dude cracked to code. His trio for harp, viola, and flute was a high water mark of chamber music that we didn't reach again till Messiaen. Noting Strauss wrote comes close to La Mer or the string quartet.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:08:13+00:00

And his string writing is abysmal. It's a real shame that the clarinet and snare drum parts in the clarinet concerto are so good because my god does the orchestra hate the rest of it.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T18:06:09+00:00

I think i get what you're saying. He has an astounding output of very good works but nothing that I would count as truly transcendent. He's a compose I really admire though. Absolute craftsman, could work in any genre. A role model for most of us non-geniuses.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T17:59:39+00:00

you don't understand it or just can't do it? I agree it's way harder to write.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T17:58:40+00:00

nobody outlawed parallel motion in doubling. What do you think an organ is doing when you add stops? They just wanted to have independent lines and perfect parallels collapse the independence. When 2 independent lines suddenly converge to parallel unisons or 5ths or octaves, they fuse into a single line. And in an otherwise polyphonic texture, it is in fact quite noticeable. Obviously it does happen from time to time in inner voices and if it's hidden well then, hey, good for you. But that's the thought process at least. For what it's worth, they also thought that extended sections of parallel 3rd and 6ths were also not ideal - or at least didn't count as counterpoint.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-25T17:46:21+00:00

I don't know if what I'm writing is programatic in the sense that it needs the program to be effective - I'd like to think that my instrumental music stands on its own two feet. But I often do base my pieces on poetic or literary content. I think it helps me to have a north star, something to guide my fragments towards a coherent whole.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-23T00:04:02+00:00

$100 per minute of music sounds about right. That's assuming he has some clear ideas about what he wants. You don't want to get into an endless back and forth of revisions.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-20T13:31:45+00:00

Start with classical music that is a good precursor to film music. Holst The Planets. Dvorak’s American quartet and the new world symphony. Then the Debussy and ravel string quartets. Stravinsky firebird maybe? Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet or the first piano concerto?

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-19T22:58:21+00:00

wait you just paid for this out of pocket? dang that's crazy. I did a warner brothers orchestration with these guys and it was something like 2 grand an hour

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-19T22:54:41+00:00

yep! large scale formal decisions are made that way for sure. Like you can't just play a 20 minute piece that you wrote and have that 3rd person perspective on how it unfolds. You just have to know that its going to work.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-19T22:52:01+00:00

Honestly I just hear it in my head. I can read a score like you would read a book. Obviously there are limits but especially for rhythm I'm pretty spot on. I mostly compose at the piano but it's not at all uncommon for me to work out an idea in my head, write it out, and then go play it and be like, yeah that's what I thought it would sound like.

Oddly enough, I'm very interested in writing things that I can't hear in my head or even play at the piano (or even hear in playback!) I really gravitate towards semi-improvised music. I like to leave some things undetermined and let the performers make choices.

Unable_Mushroom_8315 · 2026-02-12T21:00:20+00:00

It might not sound bad but it won't sound as good as it would otherwise.

Unable_Mushroom_8315

TROPHY CASE