Their is a crisp atmosphere in the repertoire for wind instruments between the Eighteenth and Nineteenth century, connected to the rituals of military life and to summer evenings in gardens. Clean cut themes and march-like rhythms are numerous in pages whose harmonic structures are elementary, as in Beethoven’s March “Zapfenstreich”. It is Robust, noisy and festive as all music written for military bands (Zapfenstreich means retreat, curfew). Composed in the years 1805-06, the same as his Third symphony, it belongs to the rich series of occasional works by Beethoven, who is considered a severe man but who has instead dedicated himself constantly to occasional music.
The organic of “Zapfenstreich” is typical of the Viennese military music of the time: piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, two bassoons, two counterbassoons, two trumpets, bass drum, side drum, triangle, cymbals and Turkish half moon (a sort of stick with various rattles). This last instrument, typical of janissary bands, is testimonies the attraction that European felt for the picturesque Turkish-ottoman world. Mozart was totally charmed and composed an entire opera Turkish atmosphere (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), without forgetting the Turkish March of the Sonata for piano in A major K 331. And what can we say about Italiana in Algeri and about Turco in Italia by Rossini, or about the contagious spirit – even though not explicitly Turkish – of the ouverture of Barbiere di Siviglia?
The instrumental ensemble commonly called «Harmonie» (two oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns) gives life, with few variations, to the rich harvest of «turqueries» by Austrian and German composers, as the Türkischer Musik (1795) by Johann Michael Haydn, small brother of the more popular Franz Joseph, and the minuscule Concertino for oboe and harmonie by Carl Maria von Weber, page on which indeed there are many doubts both on its date of composition (between 1805 and 1813) and even on its attribution to Weber.
The transcription of the Introduction to the 7 last words of Christ on the Cross by Franz Joseph Haydn brings us back to an atmosphere of religious meditation that characterizes a score destined to be played on Good Friday in the Cathedral of Cadiz. Franz Vincenz Krommer (1759-1831) is instead an expert in band music, as revealed by the freshness of Partita op. 45 no. 1, belonging to a group of thirteen Partitas published between 1803 and 1810. It is a brilliant and creative score, with a verve similar to Rossini’s in the first movement, gentle and flowing spirit in the Andante, a very graceful Menuetto and a light and quick last movement. Beneath all this lightness this Partita does not hide its true ambitions, appearing to be a true symphony for wind instruments, with its first movement in sonata form and a fugue in the development.
Ambitious is also the Nocturne op. 24 for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, two bassoons, double bass and trumpet (as a matter-of-fact, once more, the organic of «Harmonie Musik») composed in 1824 by a very young Felix Mendelssohn. Better known as Overture for winds, it is made up of an Andante con moto marked by fantastic shivers and of an assertive Allegro vivace, brilliant and sonorous, undoubtedly in band style. Mendelssohn demonstrates great sapience, for being a fifteen-year-old composer; in a small amount of time indeed he will be able to write the Octet for Strings and the ouverture for the Midsummer night’s dream! During the whole Andante we will feel the nocturne tormented Romanticism of the Dream’s Ouverture and of Weber’s Hunter, with the spotlight on clarinets and horns, among mysterious descending scales: over the brilliance, of Viennese provenience, of music for wind instruments, surfaces the new spirit of German Romanticism.