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COMPOSERS' CORNER

VOL. XIV

July, 2017


An Extended Interview with Tim Reynish
 
Brett Abigaña Tim Reynish
Tim Reynish, in short, doesn’t really need an introduction. He is one of the founders of WASBE, a brilliant wind, orchestral, and operatic conductor, a regular commissioner of new works from a variety of composers, and an internationally renowned educator. Having just returned from a concert tour in Japan, I had the opportunity to ask him for his thoughts on composers, audiences, and music.

BA - Do you find there to be a significant difference in new music audiences around the world? For example, if a piece was premiered in Tokyo vs. New York, do you think there is a difference in the way an audience approaches the music or prepares themselves to hear it?

TR - This is a good question, which I really cannot answer from experience. I suspect that our Japanese colleagues have more information on line, in the media and in magazines about forthcoming music. My colleague and former student Sachio Fujioka has a weekly television programme about his orchestra in Osaka, its programmes, soloists and orchestral members, and he and his fan club make great use of Facebook and other accounts. My concert at Senzuko Gakuen introduced quite accessible music by Gorb, Hesketh and Alarcon, written more in a wind ensemble approach with a wide range of emotion, many solos for the players, and a need for careful balance, ensemble and phrasing; the orchestra had been superbly trained by their conductor, Yasuhide Ito, the players reacted splendidly, and the quite big audience was enthusiastic.

BA - What do you wish more composers knew about conductors? What do you wish more conductors knew about composers?

TR - Can I answer with a quotation from the WASBE Journal of 1998, written by Warren Benson.

 
…I wish I could hear more wind conductors and instrumental teachers using better and larger vocabularies that relate to beauty, aesthetics, to charm, to gentleness, strength and power without rancour or anger, to useful tonal vibrancy, live sound, to grace of movement, to stillness, to fervour, to the depth of great age, the exultation of great happiness, the feel of millennia, the sweetness and purity of lullabies, the precision of fine watches, the reach into time-space of great love and respect, the care of phrasing, the delicacy of balance, the ease of warmth, the resonance of history, the susurrus of wind in the pines and whisperings in churches, the intimacy of the solo instrument, the kind weight of togetherness and the rising spirit of creating something, bringing something to life from cold print, living music, moving music.

This should I feel be a sort of mantra for WASBE and its conferences. Too many of us I think take the easy way out, brilliant noisy scores with pools of sentimental lyricism as contrast. Technically, I feel that a “band” approach, with thick scoring, much doubling, few solo passages, makes the ensemble less flexible and malleable. It will always sound effective, but it is more difficult to teach musical concepts than in the “wind ensemble”.

BA - What do you think the wind band world needs from composers? Are we providing it?

TR - Whenever I criticised wind band composers, my old mate and best man Guy Woolfenden used to challenge me to do better, knowing full well from Cambridge days that I can’t. However I suspect that it is relatively easy to make a wind band sound good, writing in an exciting post-Copland/post-Bernstein language, or writing sweeping film scores in the style of John Williams, with beautifully constructed orchestrations, simple phrase structures, simple harmonies, using a lingua franca which would have seemed old fashioned one hundred years ago.

Johann de Meij in that same issue of the WASBE Journal, discussed the problem of the wind band concert:
I think there are several reasons why most audiences remain unmoved by the average band concert.
  • First, the programming consists of too many short works in different styles, including entertainment works, marches etc., while substantial works of high artistic quality are often missing.
  • Second, conductors pay too much attention to technical aspects and spectacular effects.
  • Third, I have seen too many mechanical, non-emotional conductors, with whom technique and precision prevail over emotion and musical depth.
  • Fourth, I do not enjoy concerts if there is a lack of quality in non-professional players, or a lack of passion with professional players.

I think that we need to look back over the last thirty six years of WASBE performances, and many more years of commissions and conferences from CBDNA, JBA, ABODA, CBA, Taiwan Band Association, BASBWE and the rest, and try to discover what works have a lasting value, while still looking at the current crop of works in case they strike gold. We need also to ensure that performances are true to the composer, and that bands play what is written in the way of dynamics, articulation, phrasing.

Going back to the question, I wonder whether composers could be more helpful with dynamics; many will write the same dynamics for flutes, trombones, side drum and percussion leaving us to make sure that the right line and intensity is achieved.


BA - Since you just returned from Japan, can you tell me a bit about conducting and teaching in the east versus the west? If there is a significant difference, how we can benefit by it on both sides?

TR - I was very impressed by the efficiency of music-making in Japan, in particular by the dedication of the students. On one day we rehearsed from 2:40 until after 8:00pm, with two breaks of ten minutes, throughout which the students played and practised - five and a half hours of playing. I worked with two of the top groups in Tokyo, listened to a third working with Ray Cramer, and found that technically they are quite superb. However, the repertoire tends towards Americana, and Johann’s “substantial works of high artistic quality” are not often found in their programmes. Japanese students are drilled, many of the schools play concerts without music, and I suspect that they spend even more time than their American colleagues in perfecting their performances and being drilled to the last 32nd note.

It was Philip Sparke in an interview with the Instrumentalist who said:

 
When guest conducting, I have noticed that band directors underestimate the ability level of the ensemble; a bit of pushing never goes amiss.

BA - What is your favorite piece/composer/genre right now, and why?

TR - Sorry Brett, impossible to answer – I would have to say the three European pieces which I introduced in Tokyo last month, Yiddish Dances by Adam Gorb, Danceries Set 1 by Kenneth Hesketh and Duende by Luis Serrano Alarcon, plus of course the magnificent Marching Song of Democracy by Grainger and Holst’s First Suite in a new edition by Ito. These composers have written a number of works which meet my criteria consistently. A great deal of their repertoire can be found on Youtube and on CDs.

When I programme, I look for works which will fulfill four criteria, summed up by the mnemonic EMIT – emotional – musical – intellectual – technical. Works which have an emotional impact and are not merely showy vehicles for the band – works which can be interpreted and in which we can work on phrasing and balance – works which are not too straightforward and which have little challenges in metre, in phrasing and in harmony, - works which will stretch the band’s playing and the audience’s reactions and perceptions a little.

After ten wonderful days in Tokyo, I must now add at least two works by Yasuhide Ito, That Which He Taught Us, and As Time is Passing On, both of which have for me an epic operatic grandeur. I was very impressed with what I have heard of his works; Yasuhide Ito burst on the scene in 1990 with the symphonic poem Gloriosa, and rather than look towards America for models and inspiration, his musical culture stems from Europe, with echoes of Brahms, Wagner, Strauss and Mahler, into which he weaves traditional Japanese scales and inflections.
 
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