Music for Winds

Program Note

I came to appreciate Renaissance music much later in life than some of my colleagues. Although I paid the requisite attention in Music History class as an undergraduate, my head was swimming in music by Barber, Copland, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. To be completely honest, the trials and tribulations of troubadors and trouvères and the intrigues of courtly dances did not interest me much.

That all changed when I ran across a wind band setting of Renaissance dance music by Bob Margolis, aptly titled Terpsichore (in Greek mythology, Terpsichore was the Muse of Dance). Terpsichore is also the name of a collection of dance music assembled by German composer Michael Praetorius, which was published in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, in 1612. Margolis’ suite drew from several dances found in the Terpsichore. I highly recommend it for advanced ensembles looking for a challenge.

Around this time, I also discovered a wonderful work for strings entitled Capriol Suite by Peter Warlock (a pen name for Philip Heseltine). This work drew inspiration from another collection of Renaissance dance music, Thoinot Arbeau’s Orchesography. Not long after discovering the Arbeau tome, Patrick Dunnigan, Director of Bands at Florida State University, published his own Selections from the Danserye, based on yet another collection of Renaissance-era music, Tielman Susato’s Het derde musyck boexken, better known as The Danserye. 

My introduction to these three works (and by extension, the three collections of dance music upon which they are based) all took place within a year of each other, and the music – simple, charming, elegant – continues to fascinate and delight me. In putting together Tänze aus Terpsichore (literally, “dances out of the Terpsichore”), I had a clear goal in mind: To write something that would not be terribly difficult in the hopes of making the suite accessible to most university and high school wind bands (and perhaps even some daring middle school bands). Accordingly, many of the original meters are transformed into time signatures that will give fewer problems (e.g., 6/4 becomes 6/8, etc.). Important parts are cued liberally throughout.

Not wanting to copy what Mr. Margolis had already accomplished in his excellent work, I took pains not to use the specific dances he orchestrated in his setting. Although this is a suite of music derived from the Terpsichore, I also couldn’t help including nods to Warlock’s and Dunnigan’s settings, as both influenced me greatly. It is my hope that this suite will help introduce the wonderful music of the Renaissance to a wider audience. The order of the movements is completely at the discretion of the conductor; the sequence in which they appear here is merely a suggestion that seems to flow well.