CDs and DVDs

The title of the CD Transitions is not only based on the work of the same name by Henk Badings, but also applies in many ways to the entire Landesblasorchester (LBO). The Latin term Transition can probably best be described as Translate transition .

Due to its structure, the LBO is used to changes in instrumentation and changing concert venues. The year 2013, in which the recording was made, also brought about another drastic change. After more than 10 years of extremely successful work, the long-standing artistic director Isabelle Ruf-Weber handed over the baton to her successor Björn Bus and said goodbye with a final concert on November 9, 2013.

The LBO would like to thank both conductors for ensuring that this transition went very smoothly and, above all, with the good of the orchestra and the music in mind.

The recordings were made as live recordings of the concerts on 20.04.2013 in Rottweil and on 09.11.2013 in Stetten am kalten Markt. Special thanks go to the town of Rottweil and its town band as well as to the municipality of Stetten am kalten Markt and the local fire department band, who created the logistical conditions for the CD recording.

Rienzi Overture (1842)

Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883), Arr.: Douglas McLain

With the overture to Rienzi, the Landesblasorchester Baden-Württemberg would like to honor the great opera composer Richard Wagner. The opera Rienzi was Richard Wagner’s third completed opera and his musical breakthrough. As in his subsequent operas, Wagner anticipates the leitmotifs of the characters in the overture.

In five acts, it allows the audience to participate in the tragic fate of the statesman and tribune Cola di Rienzi, who resolutely opposes the terror of two hostile noble families in 14th century Rome. A popular uprising led by him seems successful at first, but an intrigue turns the people against him. In a tumult, Rienzi dies in the sea of flames of the Capitol set alight by the insurgents.

Transitions (1972)

Henk Badings (1907-1987)

The work Transitions was written by Henk Badings, born in 1907, who established his fame as one of the best-known contemporary Dutch composers through the large number, enormous range and innovation of his works.

The theme of the work is the exciting changes and transitions created by the contrasting use of different musical parameters, for example high-low, loud-quiet, fast-slow. This creates conflicts between the low registers, with their almost fierce character, and the high instruments with their bright, sparkling sound. This creates dramatic tension between the two contrasting sound worlds. Ultimately, this leads to a milder mood, which gradually loses its aggressiveness and finally ends in a radiant, pleasant-sounding manner.

Vasa (1999)

José Suñer Oriola (*1964)

The Spanish composer José Suñer Oriola, born in 1964, dedicated his work Vasa to his daughter Iris. It describes impressions of a visit to the famous Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The legendary warship of Gustav Adolf II’s royal fleet, the Vasa, is on display in this museum. Due to a faulty design, the ship tragically sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, taking many people with it to their deaths.

After it was salvaged in 1961, it was extensively conserved and in 1990 moved into the specially built Vasa Museum, now the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The great fascination that captivates museum visitors is due to the special atmosphere of the subdued light and the direct proximity to the miraculously almost completely preserved ship.

Terra Australis (2008)

Thorsten Wollmann (*1966)

The contemporary composer Thorsten Wollmann, who lives in Asia, composed Terra Australis as a commission from the Landesblasorchester on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary in 2008.

Wollmann dedicates three sentences to the uniqueness of the Australian continent. In Rainforest, the composer depicts the ominous atmosphere and the tension of walking through the lush vegetation of the Tasmanian rainforest while the rain falls through the large tree ferns.

The second sentence Outback describes the large desert of the same name in the interior of the country. In this shimmering heat and the red earth piled up into dunes, the Aborigines meet to perform their cult rituals. These Australian aborigines use the didgeridoo, one of the oldest instruments in the world.

The third movement sets the Great Barrier Reef, the largest and most impressive coral reef on earth, to music. The tropical paradise of a colorful, lively and fascinating underwater world emerges before the listener’s mind’s eye.

FRANK HEINKEL, didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind rhythm instrument and is deeply rooted in the millennia-old culture of the Aborigines in the north of Australia.
Frank Heinkel uses his own feelings when playing and sees the didgeridoo as a means of expression. Frank learned to play the didgeridoo self-taught, has released four CDs in his almost twenty-year career and performs internationally on various stages.

Further information can be found at www.openroads.de.

Cap Kennedy (1970)

Serge Lancen (1922-2005)

The French composer Serge Lancen, born in 1922, was inspired by his work Cap Kennedy inspired by the Apollo project in the USA. It is named after the American space station in Florida, which was renamed Cape Canaveral in 1973.

The success of space travel, in particular the first moon landing, inspired him to compose a musical depiction of this journey to the moon.

The listener experiences the launch of the rocket, the entry into weightlessness, the view of the majestic panorama of space, the euphoria on reaching the destination and the boundless joy at the successful landing.

On the Town (1944) – Times Square

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Born in 1918, conductor Leonard Bernstein also achieved world fame as a composer with works such as West Side Story and Candide. His first musical On the Town, which he wrote at the age of 26, enjoyed great success on Broadway with 436 performances.

Based on his ballet music for Fancy Free, it depicts the shore leave of three sailors who want to use their 24-hour stay in New York to amuse themselves against the backdrop of the Second World War. Times Square offers the perfect starting point for this.

Of the three dance episodes from On the Town, the LBO only recorded the 3rd movement Times Square on the CD.

Yellow stands for energy, dynamism, transformation, optimism and joy. Characteristics that the musicians of the LBO embody time and again. The works on this CD were recorded with exactly the same enthusiasm.

Machu Picchu – City in the Sky (2005)

The mystery of the hidden sun temple

Satoshi Yagisawa

Born in 1975, the Japanese composer studied trumpet and composition and has already published numerous works for various instrumentations in which he often describes nature or antiquities.

This colorful work “Machu Picchu” gives the listener a glimpse of the glorious empire of the Incas and its violent decline in the 16th century.

The shimmering, golden city of Cuzco, the cultural center of the Incas in the South American Andes, gives the listener an impression of the splendor of this high culture. The senseless violence of the Spanish conquerors under Francisco Pizzaro, who destroyed the city and its highest sanctuary, the Temple of the Sun, is all the more shocking. The entire Inca empire lies in ruins, with only the city of Machu Picchu, hidden in the mountains, remaining hidden from the conquerors. Depopulated and abandoned, it fell into oblivion for several centuries.

The emotion of the explorers, who are presented with a view of the magnificent ruined city, can be felt through the sublime sounds. Like a resurrection, the Inca city emerges from the clearing clouds at dawn.

Concerto Fantastique for alto saxophone and wind orchestra (1983)

Yasuhide Ito

Yasuhide Ito was born in Japan in 1960. He graduated in composition from the National Academy of Arts in Tokyo. He is a sought-after pianist and a versatile composer with an extensive oeuvre.
The Concerto Fantastique was commissioned by the concertmaster of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, Nobuya Sugawa, and premiered in 1983 by Sugawa and the Kita High School Band under the direction of the composer.
The introductory percussion passage leads directly into a saxophone cadenza in which the soloist shines with her technical skills. As the cadenza rises to a climax, the orchestra makes its first dynamic entry. In contrast to the rhythmic ensemble accompaniment and the clearly marked sounds of the saxophone, the introduction reaches its first climax.
The following, quieter section is characterized by the woodwinds playing together with the soloist. A second cadenza, accompanied by muted trumpets, is brought to a close by a powerful use of percussion instruments.

A short reprise of the calm woodwind section is followed by a contrasting sequence characterized by rhythmic elements, in which the solo saxophone can partly live out improvisational freedom. The subsequent final section, which contains jazz elements, leads into a cadenza by the soloist, accompanied by percussion instruments improvising in the style of Japanese music.

Soloist: Tanja Heinkel

The Landesblasorchester Baden-Württemberg is delighted to be able to record the Concerto Fantastique with Tanja Heinkel. The long-time member of the Landesblasorchester comes from Dettingen/Erms. Tanja Heinkel received her teaching diploma for saxophone at the Musikhochschule Freiburg i.Br. and moved to Prof. Daniel Gauthier’s class at the Dortmund University of Music for her artistic training. She deepened her studies by attending numerous master classes.
She has participated in various CD and television recordings and has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Marinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival
Chamber music is another focus of Tanja Heinkel’s musical work. She is a member of the Ardey Saxophone Quartet and regularly performs with piano and other chamber music ensembles.

In addition to her work as a freelance musician, Tanja Heinkel teaches at the music school in Kirchheim unter Teck and is invited to teach at various courses organized by the Baden-Württemberg Wind Music Association.

Il Cantico (2005)

Oliver Waespi

Oliver Waespi, who was born in Zurich in 1971, studied at the Zurich University of Music. In addition to his main subject of composition, he was also interested in orchestral conducting. He attended master classes with Alfred Reed and Klaus Huber for composition and Sylvia Caduff for conducting. Various of his works have been awarded composition prizes, and Oliver Waespi is also a regular expert at music competitions.

The work “Il Cantico” was commissioned by the Stadtharmonie Zürich Oerlikon-Seebach for the WASBE World Conference 2005 in Singapore.

“Il Cantico” was inspired by the Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi, the “Cantico di Frate Sole”. In this famous mystical poem, the poet thanks the deity for the creation of nature, the sun, the earth and living beings.
The work “Il Cantico” concentrates on individual passages from the Canticle of the Sun. A slow, dreamlike song in the flute gradually leads to the appearance of the sun, whose luminous energy is expressed by bright, powerful music in the brass. In another section, the moon, sora luna, and the stars at night, le stelle, are sung about as a mirror of the sun. Here the music becomes more reflective and introspective, later leading to a luminous sound field in the woodwinds and finally culminating in a horn solo. Scraps of chords flash into the slow music, heralding the rapid final section.
The focus of this section is initially on the frate focu, the fire that lights up the night, as an earthly representative of the sun, as it were. At the end of the work, the sun music from the first part is combined with the fire music.

In addition to these images, “Il Cantico” is also based on a purely musical narrative. Almost all of the music develops from a nucleus of four notes, which are heard in the horns and flute right at the beginning. In this respect, the work is monothematic for long stretches and structured as a kind of symphonic metamorphosis. The germ cell is transformed in many different ways in the course of the work and forms the basis for both melodic and harmonic developments. The basic structural material is later supplemented by a new chord sequence that can be assigned to “fire”. In the end, both approaches are combined.

The Canticle of the Sun

German translation

Thou most high, mighty, good Lord, to Thee are dedicated the songs of praise, glory and honor and all thanksgiving; to Thee alone are they due, Most High, and none of mankind is worthy to call Thee alone. Praise be to you, Lord, with all beings that you have created, to the noble Lady above all, brother sun, who brings us up the day and gives us light with her rays, the beautiful one; even splendid in mighty splendor: she is your likeness, exalted one. Praise be to you, Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars. Through you they sparkle in the arc of the sky and shine deliciously and beautifully. Praise be to You, Lord, through brother wind and air and cloud and weather, which gently or severely, according to Your will, guide the beings who are through You. Praise be to you, Lord, through Sister Quelle: How useful she is in her humility, how delicious and chaste! Praise be to you, Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you shine for us at night. It is beautiful and friendly by the cozy hearth, powerful as a blazing fire. Praise be to you, Lord, through our sister, Mother Earth, who carries us kindly and strongly and offers us many kinds of fruit with colorful flowers and mats. Praise be to You, Lord, through those who patiently bear pain and tribulation for the sake of Your love. Blessed are those who overcome in peace: You, Most High, will reward them. Praise be to you, Lord, through our brother, bodily death; no living person can escape it. Woe to those who die in grave sins! Blessed are those whom he finds in Your most holy will! Because you will not be maimed by the second death. Praise and glorify the Lord! Give thanks and serve Him in great humility!

Old Italian text

CANTICUM FRATRIS SOLIS VEL LAUDES CREATURARUM Incipunt laudes creaturarum quas fecit beatus Franciscus ad laudem et honorem Dei cum esset infirmus apud sanctum Damianum Altissimu onnipontente bon signore, tue so le laude la gloria e l’honore onne benedictione. Ad te solo, altissimo, se konfano, et nullu homo ene dignu te mentovare.

Laudato si, mi signore, cun tuncte le tue creature, spetialmente messor lo frate sole, lo qual’è iorno, et allumini noi per loi. Et ellu è bellu e radiante cun grande splendore, de te, altissimo, porta significatione.

Laudato si, mi signore, per sora luna e le stelle, in celu l’àI formate clarite et pretiose et belle.

Laudato si, mi signore, per frate vento, et per aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo, per lo quale a le tue creature dai sustentamento.

Laudato si, mi signore, per sor aqua, la quale è multo utile et humile et pretiosa et casta.

Laudato si, mi signore, per frate focu, per lo quale enn’allumini la nocte, ed ello è bello et iocundo et robustoso et forte.

Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra matre terra, la quale ne sustenta et governa, et produce diversi fructi con coloriti flori et herba.

Laudato si, mi signore, per quelli ke persondano per lo tuo amore, et sostengo infirmitate et tribulatione. Beati quelli ke ‘l sosterrano in pace, ka da te, altissimo, sirano incoronati.

Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra morte corporale, da la quale nullu homo vivente pò skappare.

Guai acquelli, ke morrano ne le peccata mortali: beati quelli ke trovarà ne le tue sanctissime voluntati, ka la morte secunda nol farrà male. Laudate et benedicete mi signore, et rengraiate et serviateli cun grande humilitate.

The original name of this song was: The Canticle of the Creatures – Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

“Laudato si mi signore per sora nostra morte corporale. da la quale nulla homo uiuente po skappare. guai a cquelli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali beati quelli ke trouara ne le tue sanctissime uoluntati ka la morte secunda nol farra male.”

Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All praise is Yours, all glory, honor and blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong;
no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
We praise You, Lord, for all Your creatures,
especially for Brother Sun,
who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor,
of You Most High, he bears your likeness.
We praise You, Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars,
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
We praise You, Lord, for Brothers Wind and Air,
fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.
We praise You, Lord, for Sister Water,
so useful, humble, precious and pure.
We praise You, Lord, for Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night.
He is beautiful, playful, robust, and strong.
We praise You, Lord, for Sister Earth,
who sustains us
with her fruits, colored flowers, and herbs.
We praise You, Lord, for those who pardon,
for love of You bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those who endure in peace,
by You Most High, they will be crowned.
We praise You, Lord, for Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in their sins!
Blessed are those that She finds doing Your Will.
No second death can do them harm.
We praise and bless You, Lord, and give You thanks,
and serve You in all humility.

Clarinova – Concerto for clarinet quintet and wind orchestra (1999)

Franz Cibulka

The Austrian composer Franz Cibulka, born in 1946, was a professor of clarinet, chamber music and music theory at the conservatory in Graz and has worked as a freelance composer since 2002. Many of his publications, comprising more than 300 works for various instrumentations, were created at the request of and in collaboration with various musicians and ensembles. The piece Clarinova was created at the suggestion of the well-known ensemble Vienna Clarinet Connection, which premiered it at Mid Europe in 1999.
The Landesblasorchester considers itself fortunate to be able to record this rarely performed work with the Ensemble Claríssono, which consists largely of active or former musicians of the Landesblasorchester.

In the first movement, the orchestra and the soloists are introduced in an Allegro vivace. After the tense opening of the orchestra, the soloists come into their own in all their virtuosity. The intoxicating pulsation increases continuously and finally leads to an urgent orchestral tutti.
In the Andante of the second movement, the omnipresent mood of optimism is expressed in a lyrical melody that is sometimes simple, sometimes dazzling.
The rondo-like Presto of the third movement is livened up by changing rhythms and frequent changes of meter in a catchy melody.

Claríssono

The musicians make a clear statement with their name “Ensemble Claríssono”: they stand for “clear sound”, which is expressed on the one hand in the special way the instruments are made and on the other in their sense of style. The clarinet is better suited than any other instrument to express the feelings and moods of the soul and to stimulate these in the listener.
The need to make emotions evoked by music the content of the program, so to speak, also suggests that abstract or “constructed” music should be dispensed with altogether and that the focus should be more on sonorous, harmonious and rhythmically clearly structured works. The room in which a concert takes place is also of particular importance in this regard. Acoustics and atmosphere become an integral part of the musician’s life.
Further information on the ensemble can be found at www.ensemble-clarissono.de.

Jürgen Klotz
studied clarinet with Prof. Waldemar Wandel and rhythmics with Prof. Sabine Vliex and Prof. Elisabeth Gutjahr at the State University of Music Trossingen. He teaches both subjects at the youth music schools in Pforzheim and Ditzingen. Jürgen Klotz has been a permanent member of the Landesblasorchester since 1993 and was concertmaster from 2003 to 2005. Further information can be found at www.juergenklotz.de.

Rie Clement-Miyauchi

was born in Japan and began clarinet lessons at an early age. In 1997 she came to Germany to study at the State University of Music in Karlsruhe. She studied orchestral music with clarinet as her main subject with Prof. Wolfgang Meyer, Otto Kronthaler, Dirk Altmann (solo clarinettist in the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra) and Wolfgang Weth (solo clarinettist at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe). She also took part in master classes with Prof. Sabine Meyer in Lübeck and played at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. She has played in various renowned orchestras and won first prize with a chamber music trio at the International Music Competition in Savona (Italy). Today she works as a clarinet teacher at the Böblingen Music School.

Frank Beutelschieß

began playing the clarinet with Thomas Epple. For a long time he played in the Kirchheim/Teck town band under Harry D. Bath. In the field of symphonic wind music, he was a member of the Baden-Württemberg State Wind Orchestra. During his time in the Bundeswehr Music Corps, he was taught by Thomas Reimann (solo clarinettist of the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra) and took part in a master class with Prof. François Benda (Berlin). He is currently studying at the State University of Music in Trossingen. He is a clarinet teacher and conducts the Löffingen youth band.

Martin Schöttle

studied clarinet with Prof. Jost Michaels and Prof. Hans-Dieter Klaus, piano and conducting at the Detmold University of Music. He taught at the music school in Calw for many years until he set up his own business. In addition to several students (clarinet or piano), work as a substitute at the theaters in Stuttgart and Pforzheim, the focus of his work today is on running his clarinet workshop Claríssono. His new discoveries in the field of resonance technology ensure the ensemble’s “clear” sound. Further information can be found at www.clarissono.de.

Beate Müller

studied school music and music education with Prof. Frits Hauser and Prof. Hans Dietrich Klaus at the Detmold University of Music after training with Martin Schöttle. In 2005, she graduated with a “very good” in orchestral music. In 2003 she was a trainee with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie and in the 2004/2005 season she was a trainee with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been a clarinet and saxophone teacher at the Senne Music School for many years and has performed in various orchestras and chamber music ensembles in Germany and abroad. Their first duo CD “duo con abbandono” was released in 2005. She helped out with Ensemble Claríssono in 2008.

“The Gum-Suckers” March (arr. 1942)

Percy Aldridge Grainger

The Australian composer Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882 – 1961) was one of the most extraordinary musical personalities of his time. Grainger, who initially began his career as a concert pianist after studying in Germany, emigrated to America at the beginning of the First World War. There he joined a military band in which he played both saxophone and oboe and thus got to know the special features of the wind orchestra.
During his touring and traveling years, the musician constantly collected new musical impressions of the most diverse cultures and developed a special interest in folk songs from the most diverse countries, which he recorded on his bicycle with a wax cylinder (phonograph). He arranged many of these more than 500 folk songs, first in piano versions and then for wind orchestra.
In his compositions, he translates the musical simplicity of folk songs, travel impressions and experiences of nature into a musical listening experience. An example of this is the “Gum-Suckers March”, which takes the listener to his home state of Victoria, Australia. The inhabitants of Victoria were nicknamed “gum-suckers” because they sucked on the leaves of the eucalyptus trees for refreshment during the dry summer months.
Percy Grainger uses the lyrical “Australia Up-Country-Song” to emphasize the character of the Australian landscape, which at the same time forms a compositional contrast to the “Gum-Suckers” March.
The “Gum-Suckers” march was originally part of the suite “In A Nutshell” for symphonic orchestra. It was arranged for wind orchestra by Grainger in 1942 and was thus the only movement of the suite to be arranged for wind orchestra by the composer himself.

Conductor Harry D. Bath, who comes from Portsmouth, England, conducted the National Wind Orchestra from 1986 to 1997 and helped it to achieve a high reputation at numerous concerts, competitions and tours at home and abroad. The CD “Cartoon” offers an entertaining cross-section of the repertoire of the Landesblasorchester and a selection of small, endearing pieces that are rarely found on concert programs.

Donaueschingen 1926: Gebrauchsmusik for wind orchestra by Wolfgang Suppan

In 1921, during a period of economic depression and political hopelessness, the Fürstlich-Fürstenbergisches Haus in Donaueschingen offered a young generation of composers in Central Europe the opportunity to present new music. Paul Hindemith, who had been a member of the working committee of the “Donaueschingen Chamber Music Days” since 1922, wanted to fulfill the mission in two ways: Firstly, as a search for new forms of tonal expression that would lead beyond Schönberg and Hauer’s “Viennese School”, and secondly, in opening up new, previously marginalized social classes to new music. Hindemith’s “discovery” of rural and small-town singing and amateur brass music falls into the second area.

In the course of the preparations for the 1926 festival, the idea arose to invite composers to send in “Gebrauchsmusik für Blasorchester; because what new military music is available is an arrangement, a surrogate” (Hindemith).

Hindemith himself wrote the “Concert Music”, op. 41, for this. Ernst Pepping, who “gratefully” took up Hindemith’s “excellent suggestion”, sent in the “Little Serenade”. Ernst Krenek, who found the work “a lot of fun”, composed “Drei lustige Märsche”, op. 44, Ernst Toch’s “Spiel für Militärorchester” and Hans Gál’s “Promenadenmusik”. In addition, Paul Dessau and Felix Petyrek had announced pieces whose whereabouts are unknown; only Alexander Tscherepnin canceled. On July 24, 1926, the world premieres of works by Krenek, Pepping, Toch and Hindemith took place under the direction of Hermann Scherchen and Heinrich Burkard. The military music of the training battalion of the Infantry Regiment 14 from Ansbach/Donaueschingen played. Gál’s “Promenade Music” was also premiered as part of an unofficial repeat of the concert two days later.

As disappointing as it must have been for both initiators and composers that the addressees of this music, the wind musicians of southwest Germany, stayed away from the Donaueschingen festival and thus the desired effect of a “cooperation between the producing musicians and the consuming music amateurs” (Hindemith) did not materialize, the 1926 impetus is considered to be just as significant today. In fact, all the Donaueschingen pieces were “far too difficult, measured against the average capabilities of such orchestras”, as August Richard noted in the journal “Das Orchester” (Vol. 3, 1926, No. 17, p. 196). On the other hand, those emigrants from Donaueschingen who came to the USA in the 1930s found a highly developed school wind music system there that was happy to make use of such compositions. For Hindemith, Krenek and Toch, the 1926 works for wind orchestra proved to be a real introduction to the US music scene, and all three created further commissioned works for American wind orchestras in the following years.

The works by Hindemith, Krenek and Toch, first performed in 1926 and forgotten in Europe, thus returned to their country of origin as repertoire pieces in the newly flourishing wind music scene in Central Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. And this is where the – successful – search for the lost pieces by Gál and Pepping began.

If one wanted to briefly characterize the youth movement’s impetus for the wind music “Gebrauchsmusik” campaign and the works created in this context in 1926, it seems plausible to point to the English group around Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Percy A. Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams. There is no direct evidence of this, but Hindemith certainly knew these names and their relevant compositions. Just like Holst and Grainger, the “Donaueschinger” also took up the easily comprehensible pre-romantic suite and variation forms again, they oriented themselves on traditional, well-known folk song melodies – and they used the wind instruments as melody-leading instruments (thus distancing themselves from the tutti-supporting triad motifs that had generally been characteristic of the brass instruments in the symphony orchestra until then).

Hindemith’s “Concert Music” shows this particularly clearly, with the festive baroque introduction and the subsequent Prince Eugene Variations. Toch’s “Spiel” is described by Hermann Ensslin (Neue Musik-Zeitung 47, 1926, August 2, p. 481 – 483) as a “splendid” piece: He “had the idea of writing a rococo-like, completely transparent garden music with such skill that one succumbed to its taste and sound magic before one had time to take a closer look at the actual musical substance”. Willy Eickenmeyer comments on Toch: “A delightful, contrast-rich and inventive piece of light music” (Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung 53, 1926, no. 32/33, p. 627f.). The famous Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein wrote in the Zeitschrift für Musik (Zeitschrift für Musik, vol. 93, 1926, issue 9, p. 495 – 497) that Krenek’s marches were “almost overwhelming in their parody, not cheap, but highly ingenious in their parody of Austrian military music”. Gál, who had withdrawn his composition for the main concert, revives the sound of the Stadtgarten, the Platzkonzert, the Promenadenmusik. Pepping’s piece alone is truly avant-garde (for the time) – and therefore the furthest removed from the brass band cliché (and also from the Holst group); all reviewers agree on this.

What was understood as “utility music” in 1926 nowadays stands up to artificial demands in brass music circles in America, Europe and Japan. This also shows how progressive, how far ahead of his time Hindemith was. And although those responsible for brass music in the 1920s stood on the sidelines, it can still be considered a turning point that heralded the social revaluation of brass music in Central Europe.