Different Traditions
I have written a number of articles about "band sound." Recently, I have written that the most common tone quality for top-level wind bands, especially for the best university and military ensembles, is much more orchestral in nature than what it was in the past. However many middle and high school bands adhere to the more homogenized sound; this is especially true for those groups who compete at concert festivals and contests. This has been a more traditional approach and produces a more flattering sound especially for those groups whose individual players might not be uniformly and consistently strong. Some of the best models for this kind of approach were the bands from the Big Ten schools of the 1950s-1980s. Famous conductors such as William D. Revelli, Harry Begian, John Paynter, Donald McGinnis, and Leonard Falcone come to mind. The symphonic bands conducted by these masters were like gigantic pipe organs with rich bass and controlled treble sounds.

The notion of band tone quality began to change in the 1950s with the founding of the Eastman Wind Ensemble. The concept was started by Frederick Fennell and was carried forth by a number of important collegiate conductors, most notably Frank Battisti, Donald Hunsberger, and H. Robert Reynolds. This newly constituted group imitated the wind and percussion sections of the orchestra to a certain degree. Individual players were encouraged to play out like they might in an orchestra. In addition, these ensembles were significantly smaller than the large symphonic bands of the Midwest. Obviously, the wind ensemble had a far different sound than a symphonic band, and is probably the most dominant approach in the best collegiate wind groups.

A New Approach?
Recently, I have begun to wonder if a new approach to band sound is evolving, especially in school bands. I recently attended a high school band festival in northern Michigan. I heard four bands; each was quite well prepared and presented a good performance. However, of the four groups there was a total of 3 French horns—all in one of the bands; three groups did not have any. I only saw a few double reeds.

Earlier in the year, I conducted an honor band in a state outside of New Jersey. The students in the band were very good and highly motivated to play well. While there were some horns, trombones, and tubas, the saxophones dominated those middle and lower ranges. There were a large number of altos along with 5 tenors and even more dominate, 5 baritone saxophones!

My two experiences are not isolated, and I have become gradually more aware of this phenomenon for at least 20 years. Because of the huge number of very practical problems facing music educators today, instrumentation has become an enormous challenge.

One issue is that popular culture has moved to a different place from what existed in the professional concert bands of the early 20th century and the big band era of the middle 20th century. Much of today's popular music does not feature instruments aside from drums, keyboards, guitars, and basses. Therefore it is only logical that many of the instruments of the band and orchestra might not be as popular as in the past. Many young students might not want to invest the time and energy to learn the skills required to play many of the traditional instruments.

In addition, a wider range of repertoire is covered in many elementary and secondary schools, including world music, popular, and entertainment music. Instrumentation may be far less important when playing these forms of music rather than literature from the Western European canon.

The instrumentation crisis is also fueled in part by the emphasis on competitive marching bands. Understandably, brass and percussion players are most valuable for marching bands. These bands have a decidedly different concept of balance and blend. Horns, bassoons, oboes, and euphoniums are not normally featured.

Who's at Fault?
Many people simply criticize bands that do not have a traditional instrumentation. This might be partially fair; most band music is conceived to be played by a certain combination of instruments, in other words, a traditional instrumentation. Works by composers such as Vincent Persichetti, William Schuman, Howard Hanson, and Morton Gould certainly fall into this category.

A decidedly different point of view is that bands might not be the same as they once were. More so than the orchestra, the nature of bands has been shaped by the surrounding culture; the instrumentation of bands has changed many times before. Wind bands in Europe during the Classical era were often quite small—often eight players or fewer. Bands dramatically increased in size during the French Revolution. American bands of the Civil War were almost always brass bands, sometimes with one or two woodwinds. The Gilmore Band of the late 19th century included more woodwinds. John Philip Sousa with his band followed this model. The instrumentation of his first professional band in 1892 was comprised of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 E-flat clarinets, 14 B-flat clarinets, 1 alto clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 3 saxophones, 4 cornets, 2 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, 2 euphoniums, 4 basses, and 3 percussionists. Except for the clarinets and the basses, the instrumentation is quite similar to the modern notion of a wind ensemble.

A decidedly different approach was taken at the turn of the 20th century as the professional concert band began its decline. A. A. Harding, the famous director of bands at the University of Illinois, expanded the size of the band and experimented by including such instruments as the basset horn, saxonet, families of sarrusophones and antoniophones, A-flat flute, mussette, ophicleide, and others. It was Harding's ideas that helped to shape the large symphonic band made so famous at the great Midwestern universities.

As stated above, Frederick Fennell began the return to the smaller band. His Eastman Wind Ensemble was widely emulated by high school and collegiate conductors alike. Most collegiate ensembles now follow the ideas that were championed by Fennell although with more flexibility.

A New Era?
Band instrumentation seems to be changing again and the leading publishers seem to be accounting for it. For example much of the band music written for school bands now, especially the works composed by composers associated with the large publishers, is conceived in a SATB fashion. The result is that horns might not be required at all; alto saxophones can play the alto line. Any combination of tenor saxophones, trombones, and euphoniums can cover the tenor line. Multiple baritone saxophones can handle the bass part. There might be multiple parts for soprano instruments since flutes, clarinets, and trumpets still seem to be attractive to some young students; they are many times less expensive than others.

It is a generic approach to scoring, choral-like in a way. Each line can be covered by a group of whatever instruments are available. The band will have an attractive sound somewhat regardless of instrumentation. One caution is that this newer notion of the band might not be able to authentically play much of the music that was composed in the past. Most of the artistically vibrant works composed for the medium assumed that there was a relatively fixed instrumentation. These works would not be able to be accurately reproduced by the SATB band. Another significant loss would be that of the variety of instrumental color because many of the primary color instruments would not be available.

Coda
As written earlier, this changing view of instrumentation has been happening for quite some time, and many "band authorities" have been expressing concern about it. On the other hand, it does seem clear that a great many bandleaders, festival and contest judges, and other band aficionados accept non-traditional instrumentations realizing that instrumental shortcomings are expected and that bands are playing their music in the best way possible. That was certainly the case at the band festival held in northern Michigan; all of the groups received high ratings. I have observed this at many other festivals as well.

What has dawned on me recently is that band of the later half of the 20th century might be slowly heading to an end. Wind ensembles at the great music schools like Eastman, New England Conservatory, and the University of Michigan to name just a few will maintain traditionally instrumented bands for many years to come; oboists, bassoonists, and horn players will continue to study at those kinds of institutions. However the mission of many college and university music departments is to train future music educators. It is those kinds of schools that will be most affected by the instrumentation that is found in high schools. Gradually these bands will reflect the new notion of band instrumentation; many already have.

The "new" band might well not be a bad thing. As implied above, music education is facing many challenges and will need to adapt. Perhaps it is no longer possible or practical to offer the 20th century-band in secondary schools. While my crystal ball may be foggy, I see that school bands are entering a new era, at least in terms of instrumentation.