A Global Perspective
by Ralph Hultgren

“It doesn't sound American!”
     Thus began a most interesting discussion with a band director at the Midwest Clinic a few years ago. He had picked up a CD of Australian band music and he had come back to give me his evaluation.
     “It doesn’t sound American!” I was pleased. The last thing a composer wants is to be stereotyped and to be culturally stereotyped could be even worse on our growing global environment.
     “Thank you,” I said with a satisfied smile.
     “I said,” he replied more gruffly. “It doesn't sound American!”
     It was obvious Mr. Band Director was not pleased with the results of his investigation of Australian repertoire and had decided to let me know of its short-comings. As always I am interested to know how to improve my work. I asked him to tell me what he meant. How had the works fallen short of, what I thought was, his artistic benchmark.
     “It just doesn't sound American. It doesn't sound like an American band should sound”.
     Ahh. I had it! The band on the CD didn't sound American! That was good too. It was my university group doing one of those “read it and weep” publisher recording sessions.
     Sadly, I was wrong. After a few more minutes I ascertained that Mr. Band Director was really annoyed that I could expect him to play music that didn't sound like he expected it to sound. That's interesting! I have often heard my band play music that didn't sound like I expected it to sound! He obviously had in his mind what band music would sound like and that was what he had become used to in school, college, and now as a teacher.
     Are we all in that situation? Do we all have the opportunity to look into “that” mirror of our own professional development and ask ourselves what we expect of ourselves as conductors/teachers before we consider what the score should sound like?
     Maybe I am approaching the Mr. Band Directors the wrong way? Maybe I should try to write American music? Maybe I should ensure the level of my understanding of the medium is at least that of an American band director before I attempt to have my work accepted in the USA?
     Maybe, but what is most important is that we must acquaint ourselves with the background to composers’ works before we attempt to ‘hear’ them and rehearse them. Battisti and Garofalo, in A Guide to Score Study for the Wind Band Conductor, suggest that there are four principal areas of score study that must be undertaken to be effective on the podium, in rehearsal. They are:

Orientation — An overview of the physical score and its background.

Reading — A general perusal of the score.

Analysis — What we have all done in our tertiary study!

Interpretation — The nexus of the other three areas where we have the decisions on how we will bring the score back to life.

     I would like to present some subjective ideas to those four areas over the next few editions of this newsletter, but here I would like to consider the first component, Interpretation.
     As we have seen above, we can have quite a subjective idea of what the best works are for our group and we can be constrained in that by not having a more informed perspective. In considering a global perspective I am not suggesting that this article covers how to select repertoire from around the world but that, when we have chosen the works that engage us, how to become more intimate with them before we put them in front of those in our charge. What we give them to play becomes their benchmark and it is beholden on us to ensure that we place the selection and utilization of that performance material at the top of our priority list.
     So, global perspective. What can that mean in respect to a band score. Well, to follow the model of orientation mentioned above, it would seem that a general understanding of the score structure, the composer, the intent of the work (a program, etc.) may well inform us in respect of its interpretation. I would boldly suggest that that is only the beginning!

Let's revisit Mr. Band Director and see if he can help us.

      It doesn’t sound American is telling us that he has a sound in his inner ear that is his benchmark. So, we expect that the composer does too! He might, for example, listen to a march and find something in it, like the trio of my march, Majestic Matilda, that sounds ‘English’. He hears sounds that resemble something familiar and says to his ensemble that they must play it this way or that. If he interprets a Sousa march he would approach things differently. What is important though is that these distinctions are also obvious at easier levels of music. If the composer has in their ear the sound of the bands they work with or write for, then the sound they write will be influenced by that.
     Generally Australians, because of their brass band background, have strong lower brass in our younger bands. I hear separate trombone and baritone lines in my elementary scores. When I write for an Australian publisher I write what I know can be done 8 times out of 10. When I write for an American publication, I have to shift my aural image. It’s not only the aural image of orchestration but also the sounds of color and balance and inflection. For example, when I write “> >” I mean an accent that is strong and focused but on a note that isn’t separated from those around it. When I write “^” I want a note that is not short! We think it is because it’s used that way in jazz and rock scores that most directors play it short but Bruckner wrote it over whole notes! It is martellato to me: ‘to hammer’.
     I also haven’t developed as a composer with a ‘constructed’ understanding of what students can ‘do’ at certain levels of development and so, some of what I ask them to play in my elementary and young band compositions must sound ‘different’ in the American context because of that lack of ‘constructed’ knowledge. The sounds I write are also different because the influences are different. I have had colleagues from the USA and Britain say how they can hear Copland and Holst in my work, different opinions of the influence on the same work! When I suggested that there was Shostakovich and Vaughn-Williams evident as well, they concurred. Therefore, what we (composers) ‘hear’ in our mind’s ear is what the conductor has to work with. It is imperative that the conductor then spends time at the desk and asks themselves what the composer’s intent was before they begin work on the podium!
     Our ability to analyze and find the ‘answers’ often detracts from the demand on us to find the ‘music’. I believe the compositional process for me is autobiographical and therefore my works are a snapshot of me, or my situation, at a specific time. If that is a valid premise, then the conductor has to become biographer and therefore has to investigate beyond the obvious in the score.
     I can understand that the conductor of the 5th grade band has given up on this article already because it’s talking about ‘major’ works. Well, they are correct but the major work is the one you have selected whether it’s for 5th grade or the top college band around. My Symphony for Wind Orchestra is no more important to me in communicating my message than a Level 1 work like Grand March, The Australian Land. They just speak to different audiences. They are as equally well crafted and as equally full of my melodic, harmonic and rhythmic language. The counterpoint that riddles works, like the “Moto Perpetuo” from the Symphony, is also evident in the less demanding repertoire, such as Beyond the Frontier.
     Given the above, what I am trying to say through my works needs to be understood by the ‘biographer’ at whatever level they are working. We could well ask ourselves questions like:

Does this melody portray something?

Is this counterpoint a dialogue or an argument?

Does this harmonic clash come from harmonic construction of the consequence of contrapuntal activity? How do I then balance and interpret it?

Is this rhythmic fragment more than just an ostinato? Is it part of the musical narrative?

Do the harmonies represent something other than our understanding allows us to ‘know’?

Why doesn’t it sound American?

     There are more questions than we could possibly answer here. I am hoping we could go on to other parts of the preparation of the score next time. Maybe there are more areas to be considered here. I do know that what we are considering here are global perspectives in score study in theoretical, musical, and geographical ways. We must approach what we prepare for the youngest players with the same commitment to understanding our behalf as we do at the highest levels we work at.

Ralph Hultgren is Director of the Wind Symphony at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and lectures there in Conducting, Arranging and Instrumental Music Curriculum.

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