If Knightwind Ensemble doesn’t ring a bell amongst Milwaukee-area concertgoers, it is not for good reason, for this 60-member band has been performing live music in our neck of the woods for some 60 years. Now under their fifth music director—Erik Janners, who is likewise Marquette University’s director of music—this fine, professional ensemble deserves to be better known. To this end, let’s take a look at their upcoming spring concert, “Suites.”
The most famous composer on the program is Gustav Holst (1874-1934) of The Planets fame. Knightwind performs his Suite No. 1 for Military Band in E-Flat Major (1909), long-regarded as a cornerstone of modern band literature. This stirring piece owes much of its subsequent reputation to the fact that its composer was a trombonist and band musician. Holst found high-quality music for brass bands distressingly scarce and sought to remedy the situation. His Suite No. 1 not only added considerable gravitas to the repertoire for its compositional excellence but cleverly (and quite deliberately) displayed all the aural colors capable with band instruments.
The remainder of Knightwind’s program consists of such more recent works as Whirr, Whirr, Whirr!!! by Australian trumpet player-composer Ralph Hultgren (b. 1953). There’s also Gloriosa by Japan’s Yasuhide Ito (b. 1960), whose first musical composition was for band: On the March. While he’s composed many works in different genres, his portfolio remains stuffed with band music. Gloriosa remains one of his most popular pieces.
Dalí (2003), a band piece in five contrasting movements inspired by works of artist Salvador Dalí, was composed by Aldo Forte, who had a 26-year career as a composer and arranger in the U.S. Air Force. British composer Kit Turnbull (b. 1969) is another composer with a military background, having served in the Royal Marines Band as a bassoonist. His five-movement Scenes from Childhood was a 2008 commission from Minnesota’s St. Thomas University Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
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Knightwind’s “Suites” concert takes place at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, 901 15th Ave. at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 10. For tickets, call 414-766-5049 or visit knightwind.org.
