The History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble: Classical Period Wind Band and Wind Ensemble Repertoire

Classical Period Wind Band and Wind Ensemble Repertoire is the eighth volume in Dr. David Whitwell’s ground breaking thirteen-volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and Wind Ensemble series. This volume is a companion to the fourth volume in this series, The Wind Band and Wind Ensemble of the Classical Period. Beginning in October 1969, with his series of articles on ‘The Incredible Vienna Octet School,’ David Whitwell became the first scholar to introduce to readers everywhere the long forgotten repertoire called Harmoniemusik. This repertoire was associated with the highest levels of society and, together with the amazing musical abilities it documents, this body of music has forever ended the old prejudice about the wind players being merely Tafel musicians. While previously no scholar in the world was aware of more than a handful of wind octets, today these works number in the thousands, as this catalog, together with Volume 9 of this series, documents. Also in this volume the reader will find a large number of collections of regular band repertoire of the Classical Period, including the music of the French Revolution. Whitwell’s meticulous scholarship reveals the continuous history of the wind ensemble, from its earliest roots to the nineteenth century — an unbroken tradition of wind music that music scholars have never been fully able to appreciate until now.