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Brass bands have been a social and cultural facet of our communities throughout history. On the 130th anniversary of the creation of the Bilbao Municipal Band (1895-2025), the Basque group presents a program in which brass band music embraces different aesthetic profiles of musical creation based on primitive elements. Understanding where we come from is the basis for effective planning for the future.
In the history of brass band literature since the late 19th century, we find many scores based on folklore, but clothed in a modern style with elements that seek to transcend tradition. An example of this repertoire is, without a doubt, the Suite Alicantina (1972) by the Galician composer Ricardo Dorado Xaneiro (La Coruña, 1907 – Madrid, 1988). Maestro Dorado, a student of Falla and Turina and a teacher at the Madrid Conservatory for several years, won the Alicante Provincial Council's Institute of Alicante Studies' Band Composition Competition with this work. The competition rules required composers to write scores based on Alicante folklore. Dorado's writing, compositional technique, and eclectic aesthetic created a highly original score that showcases his outstanding creative craftsmanship.
Following these boundaries between folklore and its stylistic recreation, we delve into another score that exemplifies this: the "Agur Jaunak" Variations by maestro J. Vicent Egea Insa (Cocentaina, 1971). Trained in San Sebastián, London, and New York, Egea is currently a professor at the Pamplona Conservatory and director of the La Pamplonesa Band. In 2007, he received a commission from the Haize Berriak Sakanako Musika Elkartea (Basque Band) to write a work in memory of his colleague Esther Irisarri. To do so, the composer used the well-known Basque folk song "AGUR JAUNAK," a musical symbol in Basque-speaking tributes, varying, transforming, and setting it in different harmonic and timbral textures. Furthermore, in these variations, the central theme is heard fused with Basque folk rhythms such as the zortziko, the arin arin, the ezpata dantza, and the fandango.
From Galicia comes the work of a young composer, but one of great personality and talent. León Durán (A Coruña, 2002) graduated in Composition from the Conservatorio Superior de Murcia and has won numerous composition awards. Despite his youth, his works demonstrate an effective balance between compositional technique and creative imagination. His piece "Ao xeito de foliada" (As a Foliada) won First Prize in the 16th Composition Competition of the Galician Federation of Music Bands in the Galician Popular Music category. In it, Durán draws on the traditional Galician foliada "My Love, My Love" to create a symphonic work that, while maintaining its folk flavor, showcases the composer's creative craftsmanship. As the composer himself writes: "Without folk dances, it couldn't be written, but it's neither a dance nor popular. It's a tribute to the folk and danceable, written from a symphonic and concerto perspective. It is, ultimately, the union of two musical realities that are as individual as they are complementary, as unique as they are ductile, as complex as they are extraordinary."
Shelley Hanson (Washington, 1951) is one of the most important North American composers, conductors, and clarinetists of her generation. Her music is commissioned and performed by the most prestigious orchestras and bands in the United States. The Tomb of Alejandro García Caturla (2001) is part of the series Islands and Mountains, a collection of four works for orchestra (transcribed for band by the composer herself) based on distinct Latin American musical genres. In this case, Hanson pays tribute to the prestigious Cuban composer Alejandro García Caturla (1906-1960), whose 85th anniversary is commemorated this year. García Caturla studied in Paris with the renowned maestro Nadia Boulanger. Fascinated by Afro-Cuban music, Caturla employed complex folk rhythms, polytonality, and dissonant chords in his scores, attempting to emulate Santería rites. Following the tradition of the French tombeau, Shelley Hanson paraphrases Caturla, incorporating many elements of his style and using a conga base, a rhythm also known as tumba. Philip Wilby (Pontefract, Yorkshire, England, 1949) is a renowned English composer who began his training with the violin and organ at Leeds Grammar School and continued his composition studies with Herbert Howells at Keble College, Oxford. In 1991, commissioned by the BBC's Band of the Year event, he composed his work Paganini Variations, originally conceived for Brass Band. The score revolves around fourteen variations on the famous Capriccio 24 by the Italian composer Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840). This composition has given rise to numerous scores that evoke its notes and structures by composers such as Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Lutoslawsky, and James Barnes. Wilby himself defines his work as follows: "The intention was to compose a piece that used something more than Paganini's traditional melody; I also wanted to try to recreate, in modern terms, something of the wild and romantic spirit of his time." The wind and percussion orchestra brings us evocative profiles of traditional music and composers such as Paganini and García Caturla. Ultimately, bands have always been exponents of art, generous and versatile disseminators of the most diverse cultures.
José R. Pascual-Vilaplana