Fading Points is a piece of music for large wind ensemble. The work is concerned with time perception and is designed to convey to the listener a long temporal progression from slow music to fast music. To this end, the work is written using musical gestures specifically designed for their portrayal of musical time. The work consists of four sections, each of which is described in detail in the analytical part of the thesis. The analysis also describes the rhythmic language, which is created around short rhythmic cells. These cells are based on ratios and are used in all levels of the piece from the surface rhythm to the large formal divisions. The harmonic language is also described. The vertical harmony is derived from a dense chord presented at the beginning of the piece. The horizontal pitch material is created from small pitch cells, also taken from the opening chord. These cells are used in isolation but are also combined to create modes, which are the focus of the latter parts of the piece.

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Since the 18th century, composers have utilized the symphony to communicate thoughts and ideas through the vehicle of a large ensemble composed of a variety of instrumental colors. Though the structure of the symphony has understandably been subject to the varied interpretations of composers over the past 300 years, several characteristics of the traditional symphony do seem to have stood the test of time. In this document, the recent developments of the American symphony for wind band is discussed, focusing on the ways in which recent works both adhere to and divert from the traditional understanding of the classical symphonic form and highlighting the resurgence of the form by wind band composers. For the purposes of this study, David Dzubay's Symphony No. 2: Through a Glass Darkly, James Stephenson's Symphony No. 2: Voices, Donald Grantham's Symphony No. 2: After Hafiz, and Kevin Walczyk's Symphony No. 4: Unforsaken are used to demonstrate how each composer writes in their own unique style using contemporary techniques, while still appearing to maintain traditional aspects of the symphonic form, whether consciously or subconsciously. For each of the four works, a structural analysis is conducted using a rubric of standard symphonic norms. Additionally, interviews were conducted with each composer, providing insight on their compositional process, the commissioning process, and their thoughts on the symphonic form for wind band. The responses each composer gave during their interviews is incorporated into the analysis of each work, allowing the composer's own voice to supplement the findings.

Polymetric writing is an integral technique in contemporary compositional practice. Dan Welcher and Yo Goto are principal employers of this practice in the wind band medium. Their methods endure even the results of modern scholarship showing limited human perception of polyrhythmic events. This dissertation provides a comprehensive metric analysis of excerpts from the music of Welcher and Goto. Five examples are explored from major band works of each of the two composers. The analytical process in the study utilizes the metrical concept set forth by Maury Yeston, so that a comparison can be made between the rhythmic components of the competing meters. The results of the study show that both Welcher and Goto, in all ten excerpts, create polymetric sections containing elements that surpass the aural limits proposed by modern scholarship. Additionally, through identification of the misaligned metric layers causing each polymeter, pedagogical considerations are offered to aid performance of each identified excerpt.

The United States Military Academy Band, also known as the West Point Band is the oldest active band in the United States Army and the oldest unit at the United States Military Academy, and is considered to be one of the finest military musical organizations in the world. The band has also been instrumental in facilitating the creation of new works for wind band.As the commissioning of new music has been essential to the expansion of the wind band's repertoire, several major commissioning projects were undertaken in the mid-twentieth century by various organizations, including the West Point Band, the Goldman Band in conjunction with the League of Composers and later the American Bandmasters Association, Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma, the American Wind Symphony, and the College Band Directors National Association. These commissioning projects and many others have contributed hosts of new quality works to the repertoire of the wind band. The West Point Band's 1952 commissioning project celebrating the Sesquicentennial of the United States Military Academy was among the first of these mid-twentieth century commissioning projects to seek out prominent composers of the day and have them write works for wind band. The project contributed several seminal pieces to the wind band's repertoire, including Morton Gould's Symphony for Band: West Point. In 1996, as tribute to both the Academy and to the earlier commissioning project, the West Point Band sought to celebrate the Academy's 2002 bicentennial in a similar fashion by commissioning well-known composers to contribute substantial wind works. These pieces would be premiered and recorded by the West Point Band over a number of years, including a gala Bicentennial Celebration concert at Carnegie Hall in March 2002. The purpose of this study is to create a consolidated written record of the wind music composed for the West Point Band as part of the band's Bicentennial Wind Commissioning Project, and to describe the process and circumstances by which this music was created and premiered. The continuing development of a quality original repertoire is important to the wind band community as a whole, and commissioning composers to write wind band music is the primary means by which new music is acquired. By any account, the twenty-six works produced through the West Point Band's Bicentennial Commissioning Project constitute a significant contribution to this repertoire. As this project and many of these pieces are not well known, it is the author's intent to bring increased attention to this commissioning project and to this music.

James Robert Gillette (1886-1963) was an early advocate for original wind band music at a time when marches and band transcriptions of orchestral music contributed heavily to the wind band repertoire. Primarily known as an influential, in-demand organist and composer, Gillette became the director of the Carleton College band program in Northfield, Minnesota in 1924. Taking an innovative approach to building, organizing, and programming, Gillette transformed that group into the Carleton Symphony Band and led a wider push for the symphonic band movement. In promoting his ideals of the symphonic band, he composed and arranged music specifically for the Carleton Symphony Band. One of his original works, Vistas, was widely performed and well-received in the decade just prior to and after its publication in 1934. Despite the popularity of the piece at that time, it has since gone out of print and is a rarely performed piece from Gillette's repertoire. This dissertation focuses on Vistas, Gillette's second published tone poem. This study starts with the examination of the history of Vistas from its origins as a movement in Gillette's transcription of Paul Robert Fauchet's Symphony in B-flat to its subsequent transformation and publication as an original work for band. Next, the performance history and reception of Vistas in the United States is traced and described from the year of publication to the present day. Finally, discrepancies present in the 1934 publication of Vistas are addressed through the creation of a performance edition. This performance edition also provides modifications to make the piece more widely accessible to wind bands today and the full score is presented at the end of the study.