Brass, Reeds, and Percussion

Born in Bohemia in 1800, Andreas Leonhardt became a member of an Austro-Hungarian empire Army band age 18. He eventually became a Army bandmaster, but left the military for a while. But at age 50, he was put in charge of all of all the empire’s army bands. Along the way, he wrote a number of great marches. One march was written to honor Czar Alexander when he visited Berlin. The “Alexander March” was so well liked that it became an official German army march.

A contemporary of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, the Czech composer Franz Krommer is today famous for his woodwind compositions. He was born in Moravia in 1859. He studied violin and piano and eventually also worked as an church organist. In 1813, he became the last director of chamber music and court composer to the Austro-Hungarian emperors. He remained in this post until his death in Vienna on January 8, 1831. He composed more than 300 works, including symphonies, concertos, and string quintets.

Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin was first performed in 1850. It’s the story of Elsa, who is wrongly accused of murder in the political shenanigans of Brabant. She is rescued by the knight Lohengrin, whom she marries.

John Philip Sousa called him the father of band music in America. His major contribution to the American march was the use of counter melodies. His name is David Wallis Reeves or Wally Reeves. He was born in Oswego, New York, in 1838. He began his musical career playing the alto horn, but ultimately switched to the cornet. By the time of his death in 1900, he had written over 100 compositions.

Josef Suk is a Czech composer and violinist who had an interesting relationship with Antonin Dvorak. He was Dvorak’s favorite pupil and married Dvorak’s daughter. Before Suk became Dvorak's student, Suk's father taught him how to play the violin, piano, and organ. Suk is considered a modernist Czech composer, although his early works clearly show the influence of Dovrak. Dvorak and Suk’s wife died within 14 months of each other, a tragic event that inspired Suk to compose his Ashreal Symphony. Ashreal is the angel of death in the Bible.

Ira Hearshen was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1948. He was a trumpet player who began making arrangements for wind band. In fact, one of his first arrangements was "Along Comes Mary" for the Wayne State University Marching Band. After "gigging" in the Detroit area, he moved to Los Angeles in 1972, where he also did "gig" work. In 1983, he finally got an opportunity to do some arranging for Hollywood, and he has steadily worked as an arranger and orchestrator since.

Catalonia is located in the northeastern corner of Spain and there are musical instruments that are unique to the area; namely, the shawm and the flabiol. The shawm, of course, is the predecessor of the oboe. While the rest of Europe transitioned from the shawm to the oboe, it remained popular in Catalonia. But the shawm was improved by adding the Boehm finguring mechanism that was added to the oboe. The sound of modern Catalan shawm sounds like a cross between an oboe and a kazoo.

Gunter Koch was born in 1956 in Tiroler, Austria. He began playing the tenor horn in the town band at age 13. He also learned to play the trombone and bass. He started comosing at age 17 and now has over 40 compositions to his credit. In addition to composing for wind band, he also composes church music. One of his most popular compositions is the march “Europe United.” We're going to open today's edition of Brass, Reeds, and Percussion with Koch's march as performed by the Austrian Army Band Karnten.

Fifty years ago today, “Fly Me to the Moon” became the first music heard on the moon when astronaut Buzz Aldrin played a recording of the song with a portable cassette tape recorder. So to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, Brass, Reeds, and Percussion will air the version of the song played by Aldrin. In addition, we will air other songs written about the moon, as well as two longer wind-band works inspired by the space program.

Tchaivkovky’s wedding to Antonina Miliukova didn’t work out. To recover, he went to Italy on vacation. He lodged at the Hotel Constanzi in Rome, next door to the barracks of the Royal Italian Cuirasseurs (KWIR uh suhrs), an elite Italian cavalry unit. Each day he heard an their bugle call, which he eventually incorporated into his “Capriccio Italien.” Unrelated to the Tchaikovsky composition, Nino Rosso—an Italian trumpet plyer—incorporated the same bugle call into a popular tune that became a big hit in 1965, especially in Europe.